Alec grinned reluctantly. "My confidence in you is greatly restored. Bonne chance, cousin."
Both men got out of the carriage, and Alec waited until Carr procured a hackney of disreputable appearance, its floor covered with straw that did little to camouflage the vermin it was intended to conceal. Sighing, Alec walked to the nearby bakery and peered through the diamond-shaped panes of the window before going in.
A fine mist of flour hung in the air, coating the windows, the floors, the tables and walls. The scents of yeast and butter rose thickly to Alec's nostrils, causing him to sniff appreciatively. The shop was well-lit, comfortable, and bustling with several towheaded children of varying sizes, all clearly members of the same family.
"Sir?" A round-faced, buxom woman approached him with a smile. Her appearance was warm and motherly; she had soft cheeks and twinkly brown eyes, and such a gentle manner that no one could help but be charmed by her. Alec mentally contrasted her to the sharp, iron-willed Juliana and smiled slightly.
"Are you Mrs. Holburn?"
"Falkner," she said with a start, her hands going up to her throat, her eyes gleaming with fear. "I thought you were dead… I heard that you had been found in… Oh, dear God…"
"Mrs. Holburn, I'm not Holt," Alec said swiftly, taking the liberty of holding her elbow as he saw how violently she was shaking. "I am his cousin, Lord Falkner. I did not mean to shock you. Would you like to sit—?"
"Mother?" a young voice interrupted. A flaxen-haired girl with round, pretty features ran up to them and brushed Alec's hand away. She slid an arm around Mrs. Holburn's waist and threw Alec a guarded look. Her skin lost its healthy pink color as she looked at him. "What's happened to Leila?" she asked sharply.
"It's not him," Mrs. Holburn said, staring at Alec with a mixture of fear and grief. Twisting her hands in her apron, she made an effort to calm herself. "I knew Holt Falkner was dead… but for a second I hoped that I had been wrong… and then I thought you were his ghost."
"No. He is gone. And I'm certainly not a ghost." Alec made an attempt to smile reassuringly, but his effort was met with little success. "I have come here in the hope that you would help me with the answers to a few questions. Would it distress you unduly to talk about him?"She did not answer him directly, biting her lip at first, then asking a question with such hesitance that it seemed she was afraid of the answer.
"Lord Falkner… have you also come here to discuss my daughter? Do you know anything about Leila? Have you found out where she is? Do you know who might have… ?"
Alec shook his head, his expression gentling with pity. "I don't know anything about her. I'm sorry."
"There is a table in the back," Mrs. Holburn said, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. "My husband is away, but I will talk to you." A large part of the family crowded around the table, leaving Alec a respectful distance of two feet on either side. The oldest girls attended to the customers that wandered into the front part of the shop, and took a few minutes here and there to run back and listen to the conversation.
Half an hour later Alec began to understand why Holt had kept this part of his life secret. It had been his private haven, untainted by the slick and sophisticated manners of the people he had usually associated with. Most of their friends would have jeered at the revelation that Holt had been in love with a baker's daughter and had spent so many hours in the kitchen of a solidly middle-class family. Yet this family, this shop, this home, were filled with warmth and irresistible simplicity that were foreign to the Falkners. Alec could easily imagine Holt sitting here dandling a child on his knee and smiling crookedly at the girl who had caught his affections.
"I warned Leila about him every day," Mrs. Holburn said, a smile flitting across her features. "I said he intended to play the devil with her—Mr. Holburn agreed, but there was nothing we could do to stop her from seeing him. And then he began to charm Mr. Holburn and me as much as he had the rest of the family, and we started to understand that he did carefor Leila. I did not see what good would come of it, though. Leila was a good girl, and I knew that she would probably refuse if he offered to… to keep her. I never expected that he'd ask her to marry him, but he stood here in this exact spot and asked Mr. Holburn for her hand."
"I never knew that." Alec cast his mind back for some clue, some sign that Holt might have given about his feelings for Leila… yes, there had been a few weeks of utter contentment and peace… but during the last two months of his life Holt had been wilder than ever before, drinking and capering, immersed in a mood that encompassed extreme highs and lows.