He needed a search party.
He needed to find her—before it was too late.
CHAPTER37
Eammon
The atmosphere in Hayward’s parlor was heavy as Eammon paced the room, his hands clenching repeatedly. It was Markham, he was certain. He turned to face his uncles and cousins, each bearing grave expressions.
“Tell me again, what has happened?” his uncle Evan, the Duke of Wells, asked. He and Eammon’s aunt Emma had arrived back in town the night before, summoned urgently from his house in London.
“That wretched Book of Confidence has happened,” Harry, the Duke of Ashburn, replied. “Markham desires it and has even let Eammon believe he already possesses it. To obtain it, he kidnapped Charity.”
“Charity?” Evan echoed, “that would be Eammon’s wife, who seemed to materialize from nowhere?”
“Evan,” Emma said quietly, placing a hand on Eammon’s arm. “We shall gather all the details in due course. Right now, we must devise a plan. We cannot allow this to stand. We must find her.”
“Quite right,” Arabella added, turning to look at her uncle. Though the youngest of his aunts, she had always been the most fiery and assertive, sitting beside her husband, Harry, who wore a face like thunder.
Eammon surveyed the room and was taken aback by the support of his family. He had immediately alerted Thomas upon realizing what had happened to Charity. Thomas, in turn, had notified the rest of those who knew Eammon's secrets—along with Millie, who had been filled in out of neccessity. Before him sat his aunts and uncles—Arabella and Harry, Hannah and Edwin, Evan and Emma, his mother Lydia, and his aunt Louisa with her husband, the Earl of Arlington. Millie, Charity’s cousin, sat alone in the corner.
Thomas was, of course, present. It was a small but formidable group of everyone who understood his true secret. They had gathered in response to his call, committed to ensuring his wife’s return.
“Edwin,” Hannah said, “we must act. We cannot allow that poor girl to remain trapped wherever Markham has taken her any longer than necessary.”
“Of course, we must find her at once,” Edwin replied solemnly.
“What if Markham seeks a ransom?” Hannah suggested. “Wouldn’t he want that wretched book?”
“I imagine so,” Edwin conceded.
“Well then, you must give it to him,” Arabella insisted. “Nothing is as important as protecting our own.”
“But surrendering the book will ruin our family,” Hannah interjected. “I want Charity back as much as anyone—more so, as I am one of the few who has met and conversed with her. She is a darling. But the book will destroy us.”
“It will not destroy you,” Eammon stated. “I shall bear the brunt. You can claim ignorance as you should.”
“It would be the pragmatic thing to do,” Edwin remarked. “I would hate to see one of us ruined in public opinion—or even in the proper courts. Still, we must stay realistic. We cannot allow the entire family to fall.”
“You suggest that we allow my son to take the fall?” Lydia challenged. Edwin met her gaze.
“It was not I who concocted this story to begin with, dear sister-in-law. It was you and…”
“Oh, now you blame me!”
“Lydia,” Emma cleared her throat, “this is not a matter of assigning blame. The truth is, this predicament arose because of the decisions you and our brother made. What matters now is finding a solution that saves both Charity and the book.”
“And then we ought to burn it!” Arabella declared.
“Quite right,” Millie agreed. “No one should possess such a book. Now, where is it? Eammon, you have it I presume?”
Eammon sat down abruptly, dropping his head into his hands. “I do not know where it is. Charity brought it with her from Pembroke, but we quarreled. By the time we spoke again in more measured tones, I told her the book was hers to do with as she pleased, and then I left her for the night.”
Silence descended upon the room. Millie’s voice broke the stillness, trembling, “So you do not know where the book is? So Charity might be lost because we do not have what Markham wants, if he is indeed the one who took her?”
Thomas stood and stepped beside her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder while Eammon felt an overwhelming despair.
“It must be here in the house,” Lydia reasoned. “If she brought it here last night this morning, surely she would have kept it hidden somewhere.”
