Chapter 18
What do you mean he’s missing?”
The Earl of Melton’s words rolled out of him like thunder, his expression dark with fear and anger. Not surprised by the Rockwoods patriarch’s reaction, Jamie’s gut twisted with guilt.
It was the same guilt he’d been experiencing since yesterday morning when he’d gone to Melton Imports to speak with Theo, only to discover no one had seen him. Jamie glanced at Vincent, before he answered his Uncle Sebastian’s question.
“Two nights ago, Theo and I were following Simpson and another man we haven’t identified yet.
I followed Simpson, and Theo stayed behind to determine if someone else might be tracking Simpson’s movements,” Jamie explained in a quiet voice.
“When I arrived at The Black Horse pub, I went in to have a drink at the bar and monitor Simpson. A short time later, I glimpsed Theo standing outside the pub in the shadows. It was the last time I saw him.”
At Jamie’s explanation, Sebastian Rockwood collapsed into his desk chair with an anguished look of helplessness.
He stared at Jamie for a long moment, his expression that of someone in shock.
He closed his eyes, his features taut with grim despair.
The knot in Jamie’s gut tightened further, and his uncle’s expression intensified the guilt he was experiencing, as well as his own fear for Theo’s safety. Beside him, Vincent cleared his throat.
“Everyone is looking for him, Uncle Sebastian, and we’ve instructed all our informants to report back if they learn anything as to his whereabouts,” Vincent said quietly.
“The question is, will you find him alive.” The Earl of Melton said harshly, as he signed his vicious response to Vincent with sharp, pointed movements of his hands. The caustic comment made Jamie and Vincent flinch, before Jamie straightened his shoulders.
“We’ll find him alive, Uncle Sebastian,” Jamie said with a confidence he didn’t feel. He was certain he’d failed in his effort to sound optimistic based on the way Sebastian Rockwood stared back at him with a look that said his uncle didn’t believe him.
“Does Genevieve know?” Uncle Sebastian looked at Vincent signing the question with fast, violent movements, and Vincent shook his head.
“No. She was already upset that Theo chose to go after Simpson, we didn’t want to worry her.”
Sebastian Rockwood stared at his two nephews, slack-jawed in disbelief, before he gave an angry shake of his head and pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. Then with more sharp movements, he signed a reply to Vincent while speaking out loud to them both.
“Good God, you two are as bad as my eldest. It was bad enough you didn’t let some of the senior members of the family know about your work for the Crown.
But the two of you should know better when it comes to keeping secrets from the women in this family,” Sebastian Rockwood snapped fiercely.
“Unless you wish to be roasted in the fires of hell, I suggest you tell Genevieve what’s happened.
She’ll never forgive you, if you don’t, even if you—”
Sebastian Rockwood rubbed his hand over his face as he didn’t finish his statement.
The depth of his uncle’s fear and anxiety made Jamie’s muscles tighten.
He’d always viewed his Uncle Sebastian as someone who was calm in a crisis, able to respond to any danger with clear, concise thinking, someone who possessed the ability to quickly develop a strategic plan that would solve any problem he or a family member was facing.
Uncle Sebastian always brought order to chaos.
That man was nowhere to be seen today. In his place was a man devastated by the strong possibility his son and heir was dead. It was as if he’d aged several years in the space of less than ten minutes. His uncle jerked upright in his chair.
“Bloody hell, what do I tell Helen?” he rasped. “It was hard enough telling her what Theo’s been doing since Peter’s death.”
A knock on the study door made the Rockwoods patriarch spring to his feet as he ordered the visitor to enter.
The moment his wife entered the study, the color drained from the earl’s face.
Lady Melton didn’t see her husband as her nephews blocked her view.
With a warm smile, she gave each of them a kiss on their cheek before she turned toward the earl.
The smile curving Helen Rockwood’s lips died the instant she saw the anguish her husband’s face.
“Sebastian? Something’s happened. Theo?” Alarm echoed in his Aunt Helen’s voice, and Jamie’s gut twisted again.
Lord Melton didn’t answer his wife as he nodded at his nephews, and bobbed his head toward the door in a silent command they were to leave. Jamie and Vincent turned toward the door, before their uncle called out in a strained, gravelly voice.
“Wait.” The moment Sebastian Rockwood spoke, Jamie caught his cousin’s arm and nodded for him to turn and face their uncle. As the earl’s gaze met Vincent’s, he moved his hands with fast, commanding motions..
“Vincent, I urge you to visit Genevieve now, before someone else tells her first.”
“Yes, my lord,” Vincent replied, and with a small bow, he left the study with Jamie close on his heels.
Seconds later, the two of them reached the front door, and the sudden sound of Helen Rockwood’s soft cry of horror and pain drifted out into the foyer.
The distress in his aunt’s voice made Jamie flinch as he closed the front door behind him.
At the foot of Melton House’s front steps, Vincent looked up and down the street searching for a nearby hack.
Jamie stopped next to his cousin and stared down at the sidewalk while Vincent waved at an approaching cab. Vincent touched Jamie’s arm.
“Are you all right?”
At the question, Jamie met his cousin’s gaze for a moment, then looked away. When Vincent touched his arm again, he nodded as he signed his reply.
“I’m fine. It was just difficult telling Uncle Sebastian about Theo,” Jamie signed with a grim lethargy.
He knew telling Genevieve would be even more soul crushing than what he’d experienced moments ago.
“Genevieve is going to have my head on a platter because I was there and didn’t prevent this from happening.
Not that I don’t deserve her anger, because I do.
I should have waited on Theo before going into the pub. ”
As the hack rolled to a stop in front of them, Jamie stepped forward to climb into the vehicle, but Vincent pulled him to a halt.
“No, you told Uncle Sebastian about Theo. Genevieve is my sister. It’s my responsibility to tell her what’s happened.”
Vincent’s soft words made Jamie stare at him in surprise before he gave a vehement shake of his head, and his hand slashed through the air in a sharp rejection of his cousin’s words.
“Absolutely not. You came with me to tell Uncle Sebastian, I’m not about to let you carry the burden of telling Genevieve all alone.”
“I won’t be alone,” Vincent replied. “Now that I know Father is aware that almost half of his brood are working for the Secret Intelligence Service, I’ll ask him to be there when I tell Genevieve.”
“It’s not right, Vincent. I should be with you when you tell her. I was there when Theo went missing. It’s my fault for not waiting on him, and she deserves to know that.”
“And that’s one of the reasons you’re not going with me. You’re not responsible for Theo being missing,” Vincent said as he clapped his hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “He knew the risks. We all do. We’ll find him, and bring him home battered for wear, but alive.”
“I pray you’re right,” Jamie signed.
“We’ll find him, Jamie,” his cousin said with a confidence that actually eased some of the knots in his stomach.
With a reassuring pat on Jamie’s back, Vincent climbed into the hack, giving the direction to Chester Square.
As Jamie watched the hack roll away, he tried to emulate his cousin’s confidence, but failed.
All he felt was the heavy weight of guilt settling on his shoulders because he’d gone into The Black Horse without waiting for Theo to arrive.
§ § §
Puzzled by her brother’s odd behavior, Genevieve watched Vincent pacing the floor of the family’s large parlor in Chester Square in bewilderment. When her brother had arrived, she’d been in the parlor doing needlepoint. If one could call staring out the window doing embroidery.
All she could do was think about Theo. Where he was, wondering if he was safe.
Whenever her brothers came to the house, they had no news of Theo, saying that the only contact they’d had with him was when someone went by Melton Imports to check on him.
On several occasions, she’d considered sneaking out in the middle of the night to visit the safe house, if only to hear he was all right.
But she knew from Vincent that Theo hadn’t been to the safe house since the night Simpson had threatened to kill him.
When Vincent had arrived several minutes ago, he’d asked Franklin, the family’s butler, to have their father come to the parlor.
Then without saying a word to her, he’d begun to wear down the carpet prowling the floor, his features unreadable.
His pacing was the only thing that revealed something was troubling him.
Vincent had always been the serious one in the family.
His stoic nature was generally calming, but today she could almost feel the tension riding beneath his unreadable expression.
In a way, he seemed almost afraid, which she found hard to believe.
Genevieve had never seen Vincent show fear, not even when threatened or punished by Ruckley.