“Freddie, I do not know. I just feel in my heart they are related. I wish I could remember, but I cannot.”
“And you do not know who this other boy was?”
She shook her head. “I think he was the son of a servant, but I believe he and his parents left the estate not long after. I simply cannot recall his face.”
“Then I expect we will never know what happened back then.” Freddie eyed her. “Even if he denied it, perhaps he had good reason to do so. And you refuse to believe that perhaps he has changed, Thea? That he is no longer the person you remember?”
Thea opened her mouth to answer but was forestalled by the dining room door opening. The two footmen Freddie ordered to accompany Robert to his chambers bowed low. “What is it?” he asked, his tone sharp.
“Forgive me, My Lord,” the one on the right said. “However, the Baron of Ampleforth became wild, out of control. He started screaming and ran out of the house. We tried to find him in the dark, but failed.”
Freddie rose from his chair, a curse on his lips. “Get some torches,” he ordered. “Meet me at the main entrance with at least ten others. Did you see in which direction he went?”
“Yes, My Lord. South, past the stables.”
“Go. Fetch torches and more servants to help search.”
The footmen bowed and departed. Freddie stared helplessly at Thea, who sipped her wine with her brow arched. “Still want me to marry him?” she asked, her tone dripping acid.
“He is just drunk.”
Freddie headed toward the doorway as Thea’s voice followed him through it. “Stop making excuses for him, Freddie.”
Outside, the rain had ceased to fall, though the night air felt damp with a slight chill to it. Stars gleamed down from the gaps in the clouds, the light breeze scenting of heather and wet grass. The footmen stood waiting for him, blazing torches held in their hands. Freddie took one and led them toward the stables.
“Any chance he took his horse and rode away?” he asked as they strode quickly to the south.
“I do not believe so, My Lord,” the footman replied. “He passed the stables by, as near as I could tell.”
“Very well. Everyone split up into a line once we get past the stable blocks. We will cover more ground that way.”
The wet grass dampened his boots and trousers as Freddie stalked across the fields, his torch held high over his head. The light cast by the flame illuminated the area, but he suspected he could easily pass Robert by if his friend had passed out cold.
“Might serve you right to sleep out here,” he grumbled under his breath as he examined the ground ahead of him.
Not being a tracker, he knew he would not be able to see the imprints left behind by Robert’s boots. Glancing to either side of him, he saw the line of flames as the footmen also searched the ground for his missing friend. He gazed ahead of him, wondering how far Robert might have run in his current, drunken state. “Probably not far,” he muttered. “Then again, he could be in the next county by now.”
Then he heard what sounded like a moan. Freddie cocked his head, listening intently. Striding quickly toward where he thought the sound came from, he lifted the torch high, peering into the gloom beyond the circle of the torchlight. “Robert?”
The sound came again. Hurrying toward it, Freddie found a large dark shape on the ground. “Robert, are you all right?”
Robert lay on his side, his face plastered with wet and mud, his cravat untied. Filth covered his coat and trousers from where he had fallen headlong into the heather and grass. His eyes were half open, staring at the leafy heather in front of his nose.
Bending, Freddie shook his shoulder. “Wake up, Robert. Time to get you back to the house.”
Robert’s eyes rolled toward him, then narrowed. His teeth bared in a dangerous grimace, he lunged upward. His fist struck Freddie across his cheekbone with a sharp crack. Already off balance, Freddie fell flat onto his back, his head slammed to the ground. He lost his grip on his torch. Dazed, he gazed upward as a shadow loomed over him.
Chapter 19
His heart beating fast with suppressed fury, Liam followed a few paces behind Thea as she left the dining room to stroll out of the house and down to the lake. How well he remembered the feel of his fists crunching the Baron’s face, felt how deep it sank into his gut, listened as the breath whooshed from the other boy’s lungs. Listening to Thea and Lord Willowdale discuss the events from so long ago brought the memory vividly to Liam’s mind.
Liam considered telling her exactly what had transpired that day, long ago and admitting the truth – that he was the one who had beaten the young heir to the Ampleforth title and estates. Yet, his gut cautioned him to remain silent for the time being. He did not wish for the trouble that confession would begin if he did tell her.
One day, my Thea, I will tell you. But the time is not right.
Instead of heading to the dock where they could now speak openly, as Lord Willowdale appointed him her bodyguard, Thea went to the small grove of trees. Once within their concealing shadows, Thea turned to him. Her fingers brushed his lightly, sending a jolt like lightning through his body.
“I want you to hold me, Liam,” she said, her voice thick. “Please. No one can see us.”
