Sapphire

She put her hands on her hips. “I don’t have feathers—now tell me what has become of my goddaughter.”

He hesitated, then took a deep breath and reached for her hand. “It’s as I guessed. She’s gone to America with Lord Wessex.”

Tears sprang to Lucia’s eyes and she turned away. Her darling had gone. She’d always known it would happen someday, but so soon? She hadn’t expected it to be so soon. “I don’t believe you. She would never leave me without saying goodbye, without telling me where she was going.”

“But you see, she did leave word. Lord Wessex sent me a note. It was only because they sailed on a Sunday that we didn’t know sooner.” He patted her hand. “The message was delivered to my office, rather than my home, by mistake.”

She turned back to him. “Sapphire sent a message?”

“Lord Wessex did.”

Lucia wasn’t sure what to make of this and found herself immediately suspicious of the note. “And he said…”

“The note was rather brief, mostly instructions for me concerning the business of his inheritance.”

Lucia’s eyes narrowed. “What about Lord Thomas? What does he have to do with all this?”

“Well, I’m not entirely certain, but I have a feeling that Lord Wessex rescued your Sapphire from Lord Thomas and in a moment of impulsiveness—you know how impetuous these young people in love can be, dear—she agreed to run away with him.”

A smile crept across Lucia’s face. “I see, an adventure,” she murmured. “They fell madly in love and, after having a row with Charles, she impulsively boarded the ship with Lord Wessex, unable to go another moment with him.”

“Something like that, I think,” Jessup agreed, smiling. “Very romantic, isn’t it?”

“Mostly foolish,” she said, looking at him. “But it sounds like my Sapphire. I knew that when she truly fell in love, she would fall hard.” She frowned. “But what of this business of her needing to be rescued from Lord Thomas?”

“That was not information I gained from Lord Wessex’s note, but from a far more reliable source.”

“And that source being?”

He offered a sly grin. “One of my servants. Apparently my housekeeper’s daughter’s husband’s brother is one of Lord Thomas’s coachmen, and he was a firsthand witness to Sapphire’s—” he paused “—flight.”

“Good God, Jessup, you’re making no sense,” Lucia said. “What flight?”

“It seems that Lord Thomas did not leave her on the street so much as she left him.”

Lucia arched a brow.

“From what the driver could gather—” he cleared his throat “—there was a bit of a tussle inside the coach and Sapphire simply…got out.”

Lucia chuckled. “Tussle, was there? Sounds like my girl, my Sophie’s girl. Sapphire has always been one to make her own decisions. But she wasn’t harmed? Tell me that she wasn’t harmed.”

“No one was harmed except Lord Thomas, who gained a broken jaw from Lord Wessex somewhere in the process.”

“Serves him right.” Lucia sighed with relief. “I’m just thankful she’s safe. And this Lord Wessex, he will take good care of her, won’t he?”

“I must tell you again, my dear,” he said, “a finer gentleman I do not believe I have ever met. Oh, a little arrogant perhaps, a little too full of his own accomplishments and capa

bilities—but what successful man isn’t, at his age?”

She smiled. “Thank you,” she said, lifting his age-spotted hand to kiss it. “Thank you so much. You told me you would get to the bottom of this and you have.”

He patted her hand. “So, I suppose there’s no need for me to go any further with my research concerning Sapphire’s father.”

Lucia pulled her hand away from him. “Whatever do you mean?”

He looked at her in obvious confusion. “It’s…it’s just that if she has gone with Lord Wessex, who her father is or is not is of little consequence, don’t you think?”

Lucia rose to her feet. “I think nothing of the sort, Mr. Stowe.”