The Bachelor's Bride (The Thompsons of Locust Street #1) - Holly Bush Page 0,66

evening than he’d thought. Maybe someone had clubbed her over the head and stolen her away.

“Elspeth,” he said to James. “Elspeth is gone?”

“Yes! She’s gone!”

“Where are your other siblings?”

James pointed into the ballroom, and Alexander hurried through the crowd. Kirsty was crying on her aunt’s shoulder, and Muireall was beside her, grim-faced. Payden was next to Muireall, and MacAvoy had an arm around him, his gun drawn. The young man was red in the face and straining to be free from the arms around him.

“What have you done?” he shouted. “My sister is gone! What have you done?”

James held up a staying hand. “We are not going to assign blame at this time. We are going to find Elspeth.”

“And then what, James?” Kirsty said, tears running down her face.

“And then there’ll be punishment on those who dare touch a MacTavish,” James growled.

“Pendergast!”

Alexander turned to Graham’s panicked voice and ran, James on his heel, shouting orders to his siblings and MacAvoy. They followed Graham down the hallway of the private part of his parents’ house and saw men standing outside the door to a small sitting room that they’d used as a family in the evenings, especially when he and Annabelle were young. He heard his father and Uncle Nathan ahead of him.

Alexander shoved past the security men and saw the focus of every eye in the room. Uncle Nathan dropped to his knees. “Isadora?”

His father picked up her hand and glanced up. “She’s got a strong pulse, Nathan.”

Papers flew off a desk in the corner of the room and landed on the carpet. Alexander hurried around the sofa behind where his aunt was laying and pushed aside the floor-length drapes in front of the windowed doors that led to a path to the carriage house. He looked at the doors, standing open, and swallowed. James came up beside him and looked out. The windows were intact, and it didn’t look as if the lock had been broken.

“Where does this go?”

“To the carriage house and the alley behind the house.”

Alexander turned around when he heard moans.

“Isadora?” Uncle Nathan said.

“Nathan?” she whispered and touched her head. “Nathan?”

“I’m here, darling. What happened?”

She struggled up onto her elbows and grimaced. His father and Nathan helped her to sit up and lean back against the sofa. A doctor who’d been a guest knelt beside her and tilted her head to see behind her ear.

Isadora’s eyes opened wide. “Elspeth! Where is she?”

Alexander dropped to his knees in front of her. “Aunt Isadora. Can you tell us what happened?”

“Alexander? Oh, Alexander,” she said as tears ran down her cheeks. “I was talking to her near the retiring room, and a guest yelled, ‘She is not breathing,’ or something like that. We both hurried down the hall and into this room. They took her.” Isadora looked up at him, her lip trembling. “I grabbed for her, but they took her through those doors and then, and then . . . someone must have hit me.”

The doctor looked up. “I’ve got to stitch this closed. She’s still bleeding.”

Alexander stood up as his uncle lifted his wife in his arms and followed his brother out the door. Graham turned to his men. “Get lanterns. I want that pathway combed for clues. Get Benson to start talking to neighbors. Maybe someone saw a coach or horses. Someone talk to the detectives on duty at the Harrison Street station; maybe one of the foot patrol saw something. Hurry, men! We’ve not a minute to lose. And where’s Filson? He was assigned that door!”

Chapter 17

Elspeth took a slow breath through her nose. She was awake but had not opened her eyes. She concentrated on not fluttering her lashes or licking her lips or anything she would have like to do. She was on the floor of a carriage—of that she was certain. There was a set of filthy boots within inches of her face, and she did not flinch as she felt them move closer to her. She’d known the minute the chloroform-soaked rag had come over her nose and mouth that it had happened. She knew. She was to be bartered for Payden, and yet Muireall would never release him. Her hands were bound, and she was lying awkwardly on her shoulder. She was on her own.

“I’ve a hankering for some victuals.”

“We’ll eat when Murray says and not before.”

“Wonder what this is all about.”

Elspeth heard the intake of breath on the seat opposite. “Hush. It’s not ours to know. We’ll get paid