“This isn’t funny,” Charlotte said, offering up a warming bowl of water. She offered the bowl to Allan, and he placed his hand in it. It was warm and soothing against the bruises on his skin. “You could have been in serious trouble.”
“Never mind that.” Allan took the bowl from her with a grateful smile. “All I want to know is where Frederica could be now if he doesn’t have her.”
“All of this still doesn’t make sense to me.” Charlotte sighed as Gerard and Stephen served them all drinks.
It was now late in the night, and they’d all taken refuge at Stephen’s and Dorothy’s house, now that the kids had gone to bed.
“Which part?” Dorothy asked. “Makes perfect sense to me. Frederica was afraid for our safety when Lord Wetherington threatened us all, so to keep Allan safe, she told him she didn’t want to be with him anymore and left.”
“Hmm.” Charlotte sighed, looking more discomforted than ever as she fidgeted in her seat.
“What is it?” Allan asked.
“Just that I didn’t think she would leave you for any reason,” Charlotte whispered. “I thought she was rather in love with you.”
“That’s exactly why she has left if you ask me,” Dorothy said with a jerk of her hand. “Because she loves him, she can’t stand the fact that she may be the cause of him getting hurt.”
Allan froze. The bowl of water which had felt warm and soothing a minute ago was suddenly ice cold with what Charlotte had said.
She thinks Frederica loves me? Could it be possible?
“I think she just married me because I offered,” he said slowly. “That was all.”
“And she ran away once to avoid marrying such a man who offered to marry her, didn’t she?” Dorothy said with a roll of her eyes. “Yet she said yes to you. Curious, isn’t it?”
Allan didn’t even dare blink as he thought of what had happened. Was it possible that, even back then, Frederica had felt some softness toward him? Had she liked him enough to accept his proposal when she would have run away from other men?
“Whether she loves you or not, none of this explains where she might have gone now,” Stephen said, stepping in and handing Allan what looked like a rather strong whisky. Allan gratefully took it and began to gulp.
Out of the corner of his eye, Allan caught Charlotte’s expression. She pressed her lips together and looked down into her lap.
For a second, he thought she knew where Frederica might have gone, but she volunteered nothing, so he presumed he had been wrong about the subject. He had made the same mistake with Frederica’s lady’s maid, thinking she had an idea of where Frederica had gone, but when he had asked her, she had denied knowing anything. Clearly, his judgement at this present time was not to be trusted, probably impaired by fear.
“When did she leave?” Gerard asked.
“In the early hours of the morning. She took one of our coaches. I haven’t seen the footman or the driver since who took her.” Allan felt this was an ominous sign indeed, but it only made Charlotte squirm all the more.
Once more, Allan glanced at her curiously.
Is it possible that she knows something?
“Anything to say, Charlotte?” Allan asked cautiously. What was interesting was plainly he was not the only one who had noticed her behavior. Gerard was now resting a hand on the back of Charlotte’s chair.
“Ye’re deep in thought,” he remarked softly to her.
Allan noticed that Gerard seemed to use a softer tone of voice when he was speaking with Charlotte, much softer than the gruff tones he used for the rest of them. Charlotte leaned toward him an inch, recognizing that gentle tone too.
Frustrated once more to be looking at other couples’ happy faces, Allan looked away.
“I don’t know anything; I just have a suspicion.”
“What suspicion?” Dorothy asked eagerly. “Charlotte, do you think you know where she has gone?”
“It’s only a guess.” Charlotte shrugged. “I was just thinking of the last time she ran away and where she went then. It would make sense for her to go there again, would it not? And if you haven’t seen the coach since, Allan, then it would surely mean they were still on the road, travelling, which would make sense if they were coming back from being so far away.”
“Oh.” Allan sat forward, realization dawning on him. He nearly dropped the bowl in surprise, but it was caught safely by Dorothy.
He felt a fool for not seeing it at once. It made sense. Who was the person whom Frederica trusted most in this world? Where had she run to when she needed to escape London before and all the fears here? She had placed herself far away, deep in the depths of Cornwall.
