He gave her a curt nod of the head and then pointed at his carriage. “Very well. I shall wait for you in my carriage. If you do not return within an hour, I shall come and knock. Is this an acceptable arrangement for you?”
She could not help but smile—his great concern for her touched her. And if nothing else, it was good to know she was not indefinitely trapped in her aunt and uncle’s home.
Her aunt was a notorious gabster, and if the shifting curtain upstairs was any indication, she was home. While Victoria did not mind spending time with their aunt and listening to everything currentlyon-dit; Winnifred despised it. She was not one to engage in fiddle-faddle, and knowing that Seth was outside and able to interrupt should she end up cornered by her aunt was some comfort.
“Very well, Seth. One hour.”
She watched as he returned to his carriage, and only when the door displaying his coat of arms closed behind him did she wrap her hand around the door knocker once more and announced herself.
Her stomach clenched as the door opened and her uncle’s haggard face appeared in the door. It only took one glance to know that all was not well in Ezekiel Keating’s world.
A sudden sense of dread enveloped Winnifred as she glanced over her shoulder at the carriage. Yes, Seth was right. It was safer to conduct this investigation entirely together from now on. She swallowed down the knot that had just formed in her throat and then stepped into the darkness of her uncle’s home.
Chapter 11
“Winnie… I was not expecting you. What brings you here?”
Her uncle said it so hurriedly she was immediately suspicious. He looked at her, his eyelids fluttering while his eyes darted around the hall.
“I had something I wanted to talk to you about. But Uncle Ezekiel, are you unwell? You appear rather flustered.”
“Ha… No… Everything is… Have you heard from Leo?”
Winnie frowned at this. She had not told her uncle her brother was missing.
“What do you know about Leo being missing?”
Her uncle indicated for her to step into the drawing room to the right of the hallway. She sat on the chaise lounge, where she placed one of the red velvet cushions on her lap and pressed it against her chest.
“Winnie, I wish you had come to us right away. I know that he is missing. Vicky called on us a few days ago and told us. She was at sixes and sevens.”
Victoria… I should have known that she could not do as I asked her. I told her, please do not interfere. Allow Mr. Markham to do his work. I explicitly told her not to tell aunt and uncle about Leo’s disappearance. But of course, she never listens to me. She never has and never will.
“Do not be cross with her. She was worried.”
Winnie glanced out of the window to where Seth’s carriage waited on the opposite side of the street. Something was comforting about seeing it there and knowing he was just seconds away.
“Well, I had come to call on you because of this matter. I know that he never came to speak to you when he was supposed to. But I wondered… Why did you ask him to call on you that day?”
Her uncle shifted in his seat and placed his hands underneath his buttocks, wiggling back and forth as though he were a child. He chewed on his bottom lip excessively and with such ferocity that Winnifred almost expected his lip to bleed.
“I had requested a loan. He declined, so I invited him to talk to me as I had a proposition for him… That was all.”
She wanted to groan, for, of course, it was about money. With her uncle, it almost always was.
“I see. And when he did not show, you were not concerned?”
He blinked and fixed his bright blue eyes on her face. “Winnifred, please do not think me a fool. I know very well what the family thinks of me. That I’m a gambler and a drunkard and a no-good waste of time. When your brother did not come to call on me, I assumed that he had decided he was done with me.”
Winnifred couldn’t help but pity him. It was true; she did not care for him because of his spindrift ways and generally reckless behavior. Yet he was not an evil person. He cared about her and Victoria, as well as Leopold. And outside of her siblings, he and his aunt were the only family she had left.
“Uncle Ezekiel, I assure you that is not the case. He fully intended to call on you—he told me.”
His lips curled into a gentle smile. “I suppose that is comforting to hear. Although it does not help us now.”
He pressed lips together, and for a moment, his eyes darted around the room. When he settled on her again, she could tell how much strain weighed upon him. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he sat with his shoulders slumped forward.
“Winnie, I am glad you have come to call, for I was going to send a messenger to you today to see if you would be available to meet with me. There is something we must discuss. Related to Leo.”
