Chapter Twenty-two
Like she had the last time she ran for her life, Maeve headed for the docks, hoping to book passage to somewhere far from Newport. Being on an island made it difficult to go anywhere other than the port. If she’d been on the mainland, she could’ve hopped aboard a train and headed west.
Here, she had but one option, and at this hour, the harbor was largely deserted, much to her dismay. What would she do if she couldn’t find a boat leaving tonight?
“What’s a fancy piece like yerself doing in these parts alone at night?” The raspy voice had her spinning to find the owner, a man hunched against a large brick building.
“I’m looking for a boat leaving tonight. Do you know of any?”
“Anyone going is already long gone.”
Filled with despair, Maeve studied her surroundings, looking for an answer amid the brick buildings mired in fog rolling in off the harbor. A chill ran through her as a cramp seized her midsection.
“Help ya with somethin’, sis?” The raspy voice came from her right, and when she turned to look at the man, she immediately wished she hadn’t.
The man wore rags and leered at her with yellowy eyes, and when she caught a whiff of his foul breath, she nearly fainted. Stepping backward, she stumbled over a rock. Another man appeared out of the fog and stopped her from falling with a hand on her arm.
“Get out of here, Leon,” the second man said in a growl that sent goose bumps down her arms. “Can’t you see she’s quality?”
“She’s Irish,” the man named Leon said, sneering.
“She’s someone’s wife, and he’ll gut you if you so much as look at her.”
“And you’re so much better?”
“Get out of here, or I’ll gut you myself.”
Maeve wasn’t sure if the second man was an improvement over the first, but at least he didn’t smell like death warmed over.
“Are you all right, miss?” he asked after Leon slunk off into the mist.
“I . . . I don’t know.” The pain in her midsection required almost all of her attention as it intensified, coming and going in waves that left her feeling sweaty and nauseated.
“What’re you doing down here by yourself?”
“I was hoping to book passage to Boston or New York.” She could always go to the captain’s wife who’d been so kind to her when she first arrived in America.
“There’s nothing leaving tonight. You should go home before something terrible happens.”
“I can’t go home.” She thought of Aubrey, wondered if he was worried about her, and blinked back the tears that filled her eyes.
“You can’t stay here. You won’t survive the night.” He released a deep sigh. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“Away from here. I live with my sister. We can put you up for the night. You will be safe with us. I promise.”
Since she had no alternative, and the pain in her abdomen was worsening with every passing minute, she decided to trust this man who had protected her and offered her shelter. If she was wrong about him, she would find a way to escape. She’d done it before, and she’d probably have to do it again.
She yearned for Aubrey, who had made her feel so safe.
Knowing she would never see him again broke her heart, but it was for the best. His mother would never back down, and Maeve loved him too much to deny him the opportunity to run his family’s business.
He’d be a brilliant, innovative, forward-looking leader.
Theirs had been a short but beautiful time together that she would carry with her for the rest of her life.
She would never forget him, and she would always love him.
A sob escaped from her tightly clenched jaw.
An intense pain, sharper than the others, bent her in half, and a rush of wetness between her legs brought her to her knees.
“Miss! Whatever is the matter?”
Maeve heard the man’s voice but couldn’t form words or even breathe over the brutal pain that ripped her apart. Darkness swirled around her, dragging her under. Her last conscious thought was of Aubrey’s handsome face and kind eyes.
Where could she possibly be? Aubrey had personally searched the neighborhood on horseback while the staff had searched every inch of the house. Back at the house, Aubrey paced from one end of the foyer to the other, feeling impotent as he waited for news.
“I need to go back out to look for her myself,” he said to Derek and Simon, who were keeping him company.
“You have people fanned out all over town,” Derek said. “They will find her.”
Aubrey wished he could be so certain.
“I hate to ask . . .”
Aubrey glanced at Simon, who seemed exquisitely uncomfortable. “Ask what?”
“What if she doesn’t want to be found?”
“Why wouldn’t she?”
“Perhaps something happened that sent her into hiding?”
Before Aubrey could respond, his mother, sisters and brothers-in-law returned from the ball, stopping short when they found Aubrey, Derek and Simon in the foyer, still dressed in their formal attire.
“How could you leave so early?” Eliza’s eyes flashed with rage. “Dora Russell was mortified that the duke and duchess left before dinner! She was in tears, the poor dear.”
“We can’t find Maeve.”
“Regardless, you can’t just leave the social event of the Season before dinner.”
Aubrey stared at her, flabbergasted. “Regardless? Did you actually say regardless when I told you my wife is missing?”
“Watch your tone with me, young man.” Her haughty British accent made him want to scream.
“My wife is missing, Mother. Until I find her, you’ll have to pardon me if I don’t give a shit about the social event of the Season.”
Eliza was about to snap back at him, when Alora intervened. “Aubrey is right, Mother. Maeve’s safety is the only thing that matters.”
Eliza made a face that indicated how little she cared about Maeve’s safety.
An uncomfortable suspicion took root deep within him, causing him to take a closer look at his mother. “Have you done something?” he asked, his tone low as his heart rate slowed to a crawl.
“Whatever do you mean?” Eliza asked haughtily.
“I mean—have you said or done something that caused my wife to run away?”
She scowled as her face flushed and her eyes narrowed. “I barely know the woman. What could I possibly say to her?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe something like the things you said to last year’s staff that led them to vandalize the house?”
“That again. You’ve become tedious like your father, Aubrey.”
“Watch yourself, Mother. Your snide comments about Father aren’t welcome with me.
” All at once, his father’s warning resurfaced.
He’d told Aubrey to be vigilant—and he hadn’t heeded his father’s alarming words.
“What did you do to her?” Now, he was certain she’d done something.
The only thing was—what was it and how much damage had been done as a result?
Aubrey took her by the shoulders and gave her a vicious shake. “Tell me!”
“Aubrey,” Adele said, a note of warning in the way she said his name.
“I swear to God, Mother, I’ll choke the life right out of you if you don’t start talking right now!”
Even as his sisters gasped with shock, his mother’s face went totally white with fright. Good. She ought to be afraid. If she’d done something to drive Maeve away, there wouldn’t be a safe place for her to hide from his rage.
“I merely mentioned that you will become the new chairman of Nelson Industrial when your father passes away, and it will become ever more important for you to have the right wife.”
“I have the right wife!” Aubrey’s vision went red with fury, and he had to force himself not to make good on his threat to strangle her.
His brothers-in-law pulled him off Eliza.
“Get her out of my sight. Before I actually kill her.”
“Aubrey,” Eliza cried, tearful now. “You don’t understand!”
“I understand perfectly, Mother. But you should understand this—I’ll never spend another day working for Nelson Industrial, and as soon as I locate my wife, I’ll never see you again, either.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean!”
“I have never said anything I didn’t mean, and you, Mother dearest, are dead to me.” To his sisters, he said, “Please get her out of here before I make good on the overwhelming desire to end her.”
His tearful sisters dragged Eliza, shrieking and flailing, from the room.
Only after she was gone did Aubrey realize his hands were shaking. “I have to find Maeve.”
“We’ll go with you,” Derek said as Simon nodded in agreement.
Plumber went to alert the stables that three fresh horses would be needed immediately, and the men set out ten minutes later—every one of those ten minutes feeling like a year to Aubrey.
“I’m sorry you had to witness such ugliness,” Aubrey said to his friends.
“Oh, please,” Simon said. “Have you heard the stories about my father and what he did?”
“I have.”
“We know ugly,” Derek said. “All too well, unfortunately. Please don’t think a thing of it, Aubrey. Every family has their problems.”
“I’ve always known my mother to be an exacting, difficult, hard-to-please woman who held her children to nearly impossible standards. But I never for the life of me imagined she would deliberately sabotage my marriage.”
“Didn’t you, though?” Derek asked. “Didn’t you know she’d be furious when you married Maeve, and didn’t you do it anyway?”
“Yes.” Aubrey slumped in his saddle. “I knew she’d be furious, and I did it anyway.”
“Which to me is indicative of the depth of your feelings for Maeve,” Simon said.
“I love her to the ends of the earth.” Aubrey spoke nothing less than the truth.
“That is apparent to anyone who has spent even five minutes with the two of you,” Derek said, “including your mother.”
“She knows you truly love Maeve, and that’s why she’s so threatened by her,” Simon said.
“I hate that she’s more concerned about her standing in society than she is about her own son’s happiness,” Aubrey said.
“You can’t understand that because you weren’t raised amid the British aristocracy where your standing in society is everything,” Derek said.