‘I guessed,’ said Cassie, twinkling up at him. ‘As soon as Grandmama wrote to tell me she was coming to Arrandale I knew something was afoot. We set off as soon as Raoul had made arrangements for leave from his duties.’
‘Then you can make yourself useful by helping to search the house for the Sawston necklace,’ snapped Lady Sophia.
Wolf glanced at the dowager marchioness. Despite her sharp tone he could see she was delighted to have her granddaughter with her and she even greeted Raoul with more warmth than Wolf expected her to show to a mere surgeon.
‘The diamonds?’ said Cassie, going to sit on a sofa beside her husband. ‘You think they are here?’
The dowager nodded. ‘Wolfgang thinks so, although so far we have found nothing.’
Wolf exhaled fiercely. ‘Perhaps I am wrong, but Meesden was adamant the diamonds had not been stolen. Grace and I both remember her saying so.’
‘Grace?’ Lady Hune pounced on the name. ‘Your brother mentioned a young woman was helping you.’
‘Miss Duncombe is the daughter of the local vicar here in Arrandale,’ he said carefully. ‘She was visiting her aunt in London.’
‘Indeed?’ Wolf found himself subjected to another of the dowager’s piercing stares. ‘I should like to meet her.’
‘I think not,’ he said quickly. ‘She has had too much contact already with the Arrandale family. And she is about to marry the local magistrate.’ Wolf stared moodily into the fire. The thought of Grace married to another man tore into him. It was made even more painful by the obvious affection that existed between Cassie and her husband. If only Grace could love him in that way, but her heart was buried in the Arrandale churchyard, along with her first love.
He rubbed a hand over his eyes, the long ride was catching up with him.
‘I need to sleep,’ he said, rising. ‘Then I will help you search the house. The diamonds are here, I know it, and I am determined to find them.’
* * *
Grace slipped into the vicarage, thankful that there was no one on the stairs to see her in her boy’s clothes. In her room she found the maid, humming tunelessly as she ran a cloth along the mantelshelf. On hearing the door open, Betty turned and immediately dropped the Dresden figurine she had been dusting.
‘Ooh, Miss Grace, you did give me a scare!’ She looked in dismay at the shattered porcelain pieces lying in the hearth. ‘And what the master will say when he knows what I have done I don’t know.’
Grace quickly closed the door.
‘Leave that for now, Betty. I will make it all right with Papa, but first you must help me to change. I cannot go down to him dressed like this.’
‘No, indeed.’ The smashed figurine was forgotten as the maid put her hands on her hips and regarded her mistress. ‘I thought I’d have time to clean your room before you got home and you turn up, bold as brass and dressed like a, well, like I don’t know what.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘And if you don’t mind my saying, Miss Grace, you looks like you’ve been pulled through a hedge backwards.’
Grace stooped to look at her reflection in the mirror on her dressing table.
She gave a rueful smile. ‘Perhaps it would be as well if you fetched me up some hot water.’
Betty hurried away and the smile faded. Although the pain of the past few hours was lessened a little by being home, she felt so tired and unhappy that she wanted nothing more than to curl up on her bed, but that would have to wait. Papa would want to know why she had arrived in such a precipitous manner and she was not quite sure how much she could tell him.
* * *
‘Papa?’
Grace peeped into the study. Her father was sitting at his desk, staring out of the window, deep in thought. At the sound of her voice he looked up and smiled.
‘My love.’ He rose and held out his arms. ‘We did not expect you until dinnertime!’
‘I rode on ahead,’ she said, walking into his embrace and surreptitiously scrubbing away a rogue tear on his shoulder. ‘I have such a lot to tell you...’
* * *
An hour later her tale was done. She was sitting on a footstool next to her father’s chair. He had kept his hand on her shoulder throughout and shown no signs of censure or approval as she told him everything that had occurred since she had left Arrandale.
Well, not quite everything, she thought now, as she rested her head against his knee. She had not mentioned the way Wolf had held her, kissed her.
‘So you helped Wolfgang Arrandale to escape, then rode through the night with him.’
