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Your father said you could outpace them, but what if you didn’t?

He wished he had forbidden Sophia from going alone, even if she had protested.

And if not highwaymen, perhaps your own family.

Thomas got up from his desk, casting a shadow into the room. “You are perfectly right, just like your namesake.” He bowed his head to Penny. “Inform the stablehands. I am going to need our fastest horse.”

CHAPTER 30

Thomas rode through the countryside like a man possessed, a single thought in his mind. His speed was hampered by the simple fact that night had already fallen, and he had no lantern to light his way, only pale moonlight that kept dipping behind the clouds. One could only ride so fast when they could barely see ahead of them.

Unbeknownst to him, somewhere within the next half an hour, he would pass through the exact spot where Frederick had pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Sophia, abducting her most cruelly. The only clue left behind was the irregular patterns of horseshoes on the ground, which showed a pair of horses meeting up and eventually moving in opposite directions.

The night was more than enough to hide that crime today.

At the first inkling of dawn, Thomas reached the Kendalls’ house and stopped right outside the main entrance, both he and his horse utterly exhausted.

“Your Grace?” He was immediately greeted by James, who was just stepping down from a carriage as if he had spent the night indulging. “Your Grace, is that you?”

“James.” Thomas dismounted and looked directly at him, pausing to choose his words carefully. “You are an honest man, aren’t you?”

James frowned, sweeping a hand through mussed hair. “I try to be.”

“Can you please tell me if Sophia doesn’t want to see me again? I know she came here, and I promise—you say the word and I will leave. I will not be a bother. I just want to know she’s safe.”

James’s obvious confusion didn’t do much to alleviate his fears. “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Your Grace.”

“Is Sophia not in your house?” Thomas asked, his throat dry.

“I… we wouldn’t know. Mother and I visited a carpenter in Maltbury and just returned. We were supposed to return last night, but our carriage lost a wheel, so we were delayed longer than we had planned.”

As James finished the sentence, Lydia stepped down from the other side of the carriage and looked at Thomas’s distressed expression.

“What is the problem, Your Grace?” she asked, her voice croaky with sleep.

“From what I understand, Sophia left Heathcote Manor late the night before last,” Thomas began as the order of things came to him. “She was meant to take the carriage, but then she decided to take her horse. Earlier, she told me she had some important business she wanted to discuss with her family and promised she would return yesterday. When she did not arrive by nightfall, I thought she might have fled and lied to me about returning, but… she didn’t take any of her belongings with her.”

“He speaks the truth,” said Charles as he walked out the front door, having heard the commotion. “Sophia was indeed here, and we did discuss important business.”

“But… she’s not here anymore?” Thomas could feel his voice cracking, but he couldn’t care about his personal image right now.

“Your Grace, she left this morning.” Charles’s voice wavered. “She… is she not at your residence?”

Thomas took a long pause and covered his mouth, trying to steady himself. He shook his head. “No. No, she’s not.”

“Where else could she be?” Thomas paced back and forth across the parquet, a tremor in every step. “Is there a place where you know she could go? Somewhere to hide away or something…”

They had all moved inside to the library, every face full of gloom. Samuel had also joined them when he heard the disturbance and was now perched uncomfortably on the window seat like a statue.

Charles noticed his wife, who sat on a reading chair and looked on the verge of tears, and he immediately went to her.

“My dear…”

“Charles, what has happened to my daughter? Our little girl? What has happened to her?” Lydia pleaded, tugging on her husband’s lapels.

“My dear, I’m sure she’s all right and it’s just a big misunderstanding.”

“Lord Alderley,” Thomas called, pausing his nervous pacing. “Do you have three horses at your disposal?”