Just Deserts (29 page)

A shout from behind him
cut him off.

‘
My lord! My lord!’

He let go of Persephone’s shoulders and turned to see
Tidmarsh running headlong towards them. ‘What in
Hades—?’

Persephone moved past him. ‘Something is amiss!’

‘
My lord!’ Tidmarsh called, as he neared. ‘It is Indigo. He
has disappeared!’

‘
I
knew
we had something
still to fear,’ Persephone exclaimed, her cheeks
blanching.

‘
Nonsense, he cannot have gone,’ Chiddingly rapped out. ‘You
have looked everywhere?’

‘
The grooms are searching the grounds now, my lord,’
Tidmarsh told him. ‘Siegfried, too. But I fear they will not find
him.’

‘
Do you tell me he has vanished? With I don’t know how many
persons about my estates, we are to think a horse—and a distinctive
one at that—may so easily slip away unseen?’

‘
It is more sinister than that, my lord,’ Tidmarsh said
heavily. ‘The stable boy assigned to make Indigo his particular
concern is nowhere to be found.’

‘
Ooloo!
’
Persephone muttered, horror in her eyes.

Chiddingly paled. ‘My God!’

Then he was running, Tidmarsh hard on his heels, back
towards the stables. Persephone picked up both her hat and her
skirts and chased them, but she was soon left behind, and by the
time she came panting into the yard Chiddingly was striding about,
barking instructions at his assembled minions.

‘
Search every stall. I care not if you have already done so,
do it again. At once. Some of you to the common—look for tracks.
You and you, to the training ground. Check every tree. And find me
Clatterbridge.’

‘
He is out with the grooms, my lord,’ Tidmarsh
said.

But at that moment the head groom came running into the
yard, out of breath. ‘My lord! Ned has been to the western gates.
He reports a vehicle has stood in the lane. There are tracks, and
the marks of several horses.’

Chiddingly grasped his arm. ‘Did he note which way they
led? Answer, fool!’

‘
Y-yes, my lord. Away to the north, past the
forest.’

‘
They have not entered the forest, then? They kept to the
lane?’

Clatterbridge gaped. ‘I—I dunno, my lord. I think he did
not look.’

‘
Then we had better do so. Have them fig out Thunder.
Quick!’

The head groom flew to obey as Persephone appeared at
Chiddingly’s elbow. ‘I want to go with you.’

He glanced at her with impatience. ‘No, wait here. I shall
not be long.’

Her eyes held his. In an under-voice, she grated, ‘I am
coming!’

‘
Oh, very well, I have no time to argue. Clatterbridge!
Forget Thunder. Let me have the gig.’

But Thunder was already being saddled, and as he was led
out, Chiddingly took the bridle and swung himself into the
saddle.

‘
Bring the gig yourself, Persephone,’ he called.
‘Clatterbridge will show you the way.’

He rode out of the stable yard, followed by Tidmarsh on a
horse he had already ordered to be saddled before running to warn
his lordship of this fresh disaster.

Awaiting the gig with one impatient foot tapping away,
Persephone seethed at being left behind, though she cared nothing
for the cavalier treatment she had received from her betrothed. In
her view, he was right to put his attention where it was most
needed.

With Clatterbridge up beside her, she drove the gig as
speedily as the horse could go in the direction he indicated,
plying him all the while with questions.

‘
How was it discovered that Indigo was missing? Who saw him
last? And, God help us, at what hour?’

‘
We dunno who saw him last, miss. Could be any one o’ we,
for the stable boy took him for his exercise as usual, and could’ve
gone anywhere. I seen him myself this morning, but it were only
when the lad took in his feed that he seen the horse were missing.
Should’ve been back from exercise nigh an hour afore
that.’

‘
Did it not strike anyone as odd that they had not seen him
return?’

‘
Miss, we got ever so many horses here. You don’t look for
no horse particular. You see them all every day, like.’

Persephone could appreciate this, but it still seemed
careless. ‘But the stallion is special, Clatterbridge. And after
his sickness at Newmarket—’

‘
Aye, miss, I know. But you gets used to them quick here.
Even the real good ’uns.’

When they reached the western gate, a little-used exit from
the estate mostly given over to tenants taking a short cut across
to the shores of the Swale, they found Tidmarsh and Chiddingly
minutely inspecting the marks in the lane. Persephone was careful
to stop before she could eradicate the evidence with the hoofs of
the horse pulling the gig.

‘
What have you found?’ she called out, climbing down from
the gig once Clatterbridge had gone to the horse’s head.

‘
It seems certain they kept to the lane,’ Chiddingly said,
coming towards her. ‘I must follow as soon as may be.’

‘
But are you certain these marks mean what you imagine? They
could be any horse—a cart, perhaps.’

‘
No, not only does one set of prints join up here from my
gates, but Tidmarsh recognises Indigo’s pattern.’

‘
He was reshod at my lord Buckfastleigh’s place,’ Tidmarsh
put in, seeing her cast him a questioning glance. ‘Preparatory to
the race, as we expected him to run. His lordship’s smithy uses a
particular shoe. It is quite distinctive.’

Persephone bit her lip, her eyes clouding. ‘Then he has
been kidnapped!’

‘
Yes, ma’am. One must suppose the stable boy to have been
party to the plot.’

‘
A fine thing when my own boys are not to be trusted,’
Chiddingly said savagely, with an ill look at
Clatterbridge.

‘
Aye, but young Sawleigh was new, my lord,’ the man said in
a self-exculpatory tone. ‘Seemed to know his work, like. A good
lad. Joined us at Newmarket.’

Persephone was on him like a flash. ‘You hired a boy at
Newmarket? After what occurred there?’

‘
It weren’t my blame, miss. I weren’t even there,’ protested
Clatterbridge, aggrieved.

‘
Nevertheless, it is a foolhardy thing to have done,’
Chiddingly told him. ‘I suppose my own groom took him on. I shall
have something to say to Fenwick.’

‘
My lord, Fenwick was not to know,’ Tidmarsh intervened. ‘He
took the lad on well before Indigo took ill.’

‘
But surely to God,’ Persephone burst out angrily,
‘after such an occurrence,
anyone
new to your
retinue must have fallen under suspicion. Did not anyone enquire
into the boy’s history?’

‘
O’ course we did,’ Clatterbridge said, affronted.
‘Leastways another groom, a friend of Fenwick’s, offered him the
lad, saying as how he had no need of a boy and had undertaken to
find him a post.’

‘
What groom was this?’ Persephone demanded, quick suspicion
kindling in her breast.

‘
Sir John Lade’s, miss.’

‘
Oh,’ she said, dashed. The scarred man was definitely not
from Letty’s stables, or Letty would have recognised him. But she
was far from satisfied.

‘
But Sir John Lade was not his former master. So who
was?’

Clatterbridge’s leathery countenance writhed in
embarrassment. ‘Can’t rightly say, miss. But he come with as good a
character as you’re like to see, my lord,’ he offered, turning to
his master as if he feared an attack from that quarter.

But Chiddingly brushed it aside. ‘Good God, Persephone, one
does not enquire into all the previous employers of a mere stable
boy.’

‘
Well, with a valuable stud, you ought to.’ Persephone
retorted.

Tidmarsh spoke up. ‘I believe Siegfried can help us there.
He told me the boy had mentioned Lord Goole.’

‘
Goole?’ Chiddingly repeated, his tone sharp.

‘
Yes, my lord. It seems that since his lordship has been
putting down most of his stable, on account of not being permitted
to race, the boy had to go.’

‘
Then that is our answer!’

So saying, Chiddingly seized Persephone by the arm and
pulled her towards the gig, throwing an order at his head
groom.

‘
Take Thunder, Clatterbridge. I will drive Miss Winsford
back. And go directly to the stables and have both my phaeton and
my travelling coach made ready.’

He handed Persephone up into the gig and took the reins
into his hand.

‘
Aye, sir,’ Clatterbridge said, leaving the horse’s head and
taking Thunder’s reins from Tidmarsh’s hand.

Then the two were off, leaving their master to follow in
the gig.

‘
What will you do, Chid?’ Persephone asked.

‘
I will follow the tracks as far as I can. If I find
nothing, I shall go to London to seek out Goole.’

Persephone sat frowning in silence for a moment. At length
she said, ‘You hold by your belief that it is he, then?’

‘
What in Hades else am I to think? You are not going to try
and tell me you believe Billy to be responsible?’

She did not reply to this, but her frown deepened and she
struck her gloved hands together. ‘We are both palpably to blame.
Had we not wasted precious time in petty arguments—’

‘
It is of no use to repine over that now,’ he cut
in.

‘
But I have not given the matter a moment’s thought. And
neither, I am very sure, have you.’

A tinge of red crept into his cheek. ‘I have had other
things to think of.’

‘
Yes, our idiotic betrothal.’

‘
Oh, Seph, be quiet. What is that to the purpose
now?’

She bit her lip. ‘You are very right. Regret will not mend
matters. If we hurry, do you think we may catch them?’

‘
We
?’ he
said, turning his head. ‘You, my girl, are going back to Hanover
Square.’

‘
I most certainly am not.’

‘
Persephone, don’t start to argue with me, for I have no
patience to deal with you at present.’

‘
Do you think I don’t care as greatly as you about what has
occurred?’

‘
Doubtless. But I am not carrying you with me on this fetch.
It is of no use to dispute with me, for my mind is made
up.’

Persephone’s breast rose and fell in speechless
indignation.

Glancing at her flushed cheeks, Chiddingly felt a stir of
remorse. He reached out his whip hand and briefly touched the
clenched fists in her lap.

‘
Seph, have a little sense,’ he said more gently. ‘We have
this infernal betrothal party tomorrow, for one thing. For another,
we truly cannot afford any further scandal.’

They were coming within sight of the stables. Persephone
did not look at him and her voice was gruff.

‘
Will you send me word?’

‘
To be sure.’

The grey eyes turned to him, still smouldering, but a
trifle less hostile. ‘Do you promise?’

Chiddingly sighed, smiling a little. ‘Very well, I promise
you shall hear from me as soon as I have anything to
report.’

Persephone softened. ‘Thank you. For I shall not know a
moment’s peace until I know that Indigo is safe.’

She made the relatively short journey to London in
Chiddingly’s coach, accompanied very correctly by an abigail,
together with a footman who rode with the coachman on the box, and
a groom on the perch up behind.

As she thought over all that had occurred, she found she
could not believe Goole responsible. Who, after all, had so far
shown himself to be the ruthless author of every other vile scheme?
Yet how to proceed with an investigation into the matter she did
not know. Chid would have her wait for the outcome of his own hunt
for Goole. But what if he was wrong? What might not happen to
Indigo in the meantime? He could be carried so far away that he
might never be found.

The journey was slower by coach than by Chiddingly’s
phaeton, and she chafed at the delay. It was late afternoon when
she was at length set down in Hanover Square, and she ran straight
into her mother who, finding her unaccompanied, demanded at once to
know what Baron Chiddingly was about sending her back
alone.

‘
I am like to give that man a piece of my mind,’ said
Clarissa, marching into the small parlour and rousing her husband
from his perusal of a document that seemed to be taking up a good
deal of his attention.

‘
What the deuce is it now?’ he asked testily, looking
up.

But when he learned the cause of Persephone’s return
without her prospective spouse, he nipped his wife’s intentions in
the bud.

‘
Deuce take it, Clarissa, what do you expect from the man,
eh? Eh? Damme, he had a deal more important affairs on his mind.
And so too have I, I might add. Women! Ha!’