She entered the library, hand outstretched. “My lord … it has been weeks since we have seen you.”
He smiled broadly. “I have been in the country, but I have come here every morning this past week and have been turned away.” He put up a finger. “Now, see her I will, infection be damned!”
“Yes, but we have a problem …” Lady Elton said as she sank onto her yellow damask ladies’ chair.
“Problem?”
Lady Elton waved him to sit opposite her. “A very horrible problem, and I am at a loss as to how to deal with it.”
He sat, leaned forward, and said with complete sincerity, “Only tell me how I may help you, and rest assured, it will be done.”
“Cherry! She is not ill … but … but gone … she is gone …”
“Gone you say? What do you mean, gone?”
“Word of honor … this stays between us?”
“Of course—need you ask?”
“Cherry has run away,” Lady Elton said in a hushed voice.
“She what?” It was nearly a shout of laughter. “Upon my soul! The little devil. Whatever possessed her to do that?”
“I am afraid, it is all my fault. You see … she got herself into a dreadful scrape—oh, James darling, you can’t imagine …”
“Oh yes, I can. Besides, the Jersey told me all about it. Said if she didn’t curb herself and her wayward ways, she would be refused vouchers to Almack’s.”
“Well, the Jersey told me Princess Esterhazy had decided to refuse her vouchers.” She waved this off. “Never mind that now. As it happened, Lord Westbrooke offered for her, you see …”
“Lord Westbrooke?” James exclaimed i
n wonder. “Upon my soul!”
“Just so.” Her ladyship was pleased to find James’s ready understanding. “What was I to do? Let such a catch slip away? I agreed, of course.”
“Without Cherry’s consent?” James nearly whooped with amusement. “Never say so. She wouldn’t have him, my lady … because I am fairly certain she wouldn’t have the foggiest notion who he even is.”
“As you say, she would not have him. Said a great deal about not marrying unless it was for love and thought me a … a … terrible person for trying to force her.” Lady Elton looked away. “She called me a ‘stepmother’.”
“Well, you are her stepmother,” James said reasonably.
“Yes, but she meant that I was no better than … a terrible stepmother,” Lady Elton returned, still smarting from the accusation.
“No, well, she was out there. Nothing terrible about you, and I know for a fact she holds you in high esteem. Right then—she balked. Don’t signify. She doesn’t want him—doesn’t have to have him. Why run away?”
“I told her that she had no choice. I told her I would force her to marry him.”
“You never did that! You couldn’t have said that?” James was amazed. “Knowing Cherry … you said that?”
“I did, I actually did. I was so frustrated with her wildness … At any rate, she believed I meant it, though in truth, James, you know that I only meant it at that moment. She took off in the middle of the night—over a week ago—and I can’t find her.”
“She went to Polly. Loves Polly. She would go there.”
“Polly writes that Cherry isn’t with her.”
“Does she? Never mind that. Polly wouldn’t rat on Cherry. But that’s where she is. Has to be. I’ll go fetch her.”
“Will you?” Lady Elton breathed a sigh of relief.