Once a Duchess(76)
Marshall exhaled slowly. Then he walked to the window and braced his hands on either side of it. Isabelle longed to wrap her arms around him. She thought of poor Naomi in the hands of that monster and clamped an arm across her middle at a sudden wave of nausea.
“All right.” Marshall turned from the window. He shoved his hands into his pockets. “He has Naomi and two horses. It’s clear this was a planned attack. He gained admission to the stable under false pretenses to get close to her. The question is: Where is he going? What does he plan to do with Naomi?”
“Ransom, perhaps,” Alex ventured. “Unless he means to do her ill.”
Isabelle’s head swam at the implications. She cast a tortured expression to Marshall. He stood stock still, staring at Alexander. Only the twitching muscle at his jaw betrayed the slightest hint of his unease, but Isabelle knew he was as horrified, if not more so, as she.
Marshall’s eyes narrowed a fraction. “We cannot wait for a ransom note that may never come.” His voice was cold and hard as steel. “The search begins immediately. If a ransom demand comes, so be it. In the meantime, I’ll not allow my sister to be mistreated. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her, and I hadn’t done anything to prevent it.” He opened the study door and called for the butler. The servant materialized so quickly, Isabelle wondered if he hadn’t been standing near the door, eavesdropping.
In less than fifteen minutes, sixteen men had left their various posts around the house and grounds and assembled in the entry hall. Marshall divided them into three groups of six.
Marshall’s group would ride back toward London. Naomi would not be cooperative, Marshall reasoned, and so Gerald would be forced to take a slower route off the main roads so as not to draw attention. They would have the advantage and cut him off before he reached town, if he meant to take her to a hideout in one of the capital’s criminal sanctuaries.
The second group would take the road in the other direction, alerting the neighboring farms and estates and searching abandoned structures. Meanwhile, the third group would delve into Bensbury’s hundreds of wooded acres, in case Thomas Gerald had not yet removed Naomi from the property. A man from each group would return to the house every hour to see if the other groups had made any progress.
As the groups readied to leave, Isabelle grabbed Marshall’s sleeve. “I want to come with you. I can’t sit by and do nothing.”
Marshall touched her face with a warm, firm hand. “I’ll bring Naomi home safe and sound, I swear to you. But you will stay here.”
Isabelle started to protest.
Marshall raised a hand. “You have your brother to look after. My mother and Grant will be here soon, too, and you must see to them.”
The thought of keeping company with the two people in Marshall’s family who despised Isabelle more than anything was not the plum assignment she’d hoped for.
“Isabelle,” Marshall said in a warning tone. “I see that look in your eye. Please. If you care anything for me at all, do as I ask and stay put. It will be a comfort to me to know you’re safe.”
Isabelle sighed. When he put it like that, what choice did she have?
He pressed a brief kiss to her lips, and then he was gone. A few minutes later, the thundering of hooves filled the air as Bensbury’s stable was emptied to carry the search parties on their missions.
An hour after they left, the first three men from the search parties returned. They gathered in the study to exchange information. There was none. Their reports represented just the first few minutes of the search, Isabelle knew. Something would come up soon.
In the next intervening hour, Mr. Turner arrived from town, then rushed to join the search after Isabelle brought him up to speed. His departure was followed almost at once by Caro and Grant’s appearance.
Caro looked a fright. Lines creased her forehead and the corners of her eyes, and she had obviously dressed quickly and without care. Several buttons on the back of her dress were misaligned with the buttonholes, as though she hadn’t been able to wait for the maid to do them properly. She gave Isabelle an anguished look.
Grant stoically asked for the latest news. Isabelle passed along the meager report. Caro pressed a handkerchief to her lips, visibly fighting to restrain tears. Unexpected pity for the woman who had tormented her for so long washed over Isabelle. She couldn’t imagine how helpless a mother must feel in such a situation. She laid a hand on her arm before Grant gently led her to a sitting room.