“No, sadly,” she said with a sigh. “I hear he’s a handsome devil.”
“He is,” Phoebe agreed, seeing the surprise in the woman’s eyes. “And he’s here, in Abbeville. We travelled down together.”
“Oh.” Phoebe watched the woman’s hand move to her throat. “So soon? I… I believed he was farther behind me than that. You travelled with him?” she added, her gaze considering as she looked Phoebe over.
Phoebe knew where her thoughts would take her. It was one thing for her to be dressed so dashingly when travelling with her husband, the Earl of Ellisborough, but for an unmarried young woman in company with a man….
“I was also with my fiancé,” Phoebe said in a rush. “Lord Ellisborough.”
Nina tilted her head to one side, the thick pink ribbon that fell from her lavish bonnet resting lightly upon her cheek for a moment. “I thought you said you would not marry him. You are not suited, I believe.”
“N-No,” Phoebe said, a rush of misery filling her as she remembered. “We are not suited, but… I have not told him so yet.”
“Ah,” Nina said, her eyes softening as though she understood perfectly, and perhaps she did. “You know, I am tired and dirty and hungry, and Richard is a pain in the… well, you know as well as I. I had no faith in him being here, so I took the precaution of booking rooms across the street. Come with me and we shall rest and decide what ought to be done next.”
“The painting ought to be returned to its rightful owner,” Phoebe said, not willing to be persuaded on this point, despite the fact she rather liked Mrs Abercrombie.
“Perhaps,” the lady said with a wide and dazzling smile. “But let us discuss it over cakes and champagne. Nothing can seem so terribly terrible when one has cake and champagne.”
Despite everything, Phoebe laughed and nodded. “Very well then. Cake and champagne, it is.”
***
Max stared up at the sky in despair. It would soon be dark, and Phoebe had been missing for hours. He couldn’t breathe, terrified as he considered just what trouble a beautiful young woman could get into all alone. Abbeville was not Paris, but it was a large place with plenty of wicked and desperate people, far too many who would not think twice before taking advantage. She was no fool, he assured himself. Phoebe had shown him she was both resourceful and brave, and clever too.
Once again, he remembered the look in her eyes when he’d told her she would play no part in retrieving the painting from Baron Alvanly. It was like someone had snuffed out a candle, all the light and the excitement that had shone there extinguished with a few words. She had not needed to say anything for him to realise how disappointed she’d been. It had not been until it was too late, until he had returned from the booking office for the diligence, that he had realised she had been disappointed in him. He had let her down. He had wanted so badly to keep her safe he had done the one thing he had always known would be fatal with Phoebe: he’d tried to hold her back, tried to rein in her fierce spirit.
Now, she had somehow discovered Kline’s fraud of a wife, and she did not want him to stop her from what she had planned. Goodness only knew what trouble that discovery would lead her into alone, when he might have gone with her, and might have been at her side.
He had gone back to the hotel they had booked for the night, hoping she might have returned there by now, but there was no sign of her, and no word left for him.
His heart thudded dully as he looked down the street and recognised the carriage emblazoned with Montagu’s crest. Jack and Fred had caught up with them, the repairs done in good time, and now… now he had to explain to Flash Jack that his little princess had run away, and was all alone in this place, with the night closing in. He’d be lucky if Jack didn’t throttle him on the spot. It wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t realise how thoroughly he deserved it.
Jack pulled the carriage to a halt and eyed Max with uncertainty.
“What you lookin’ so Friday-faced about, my lord? Is there aught amiss?”
“Yes, Jack, there’s something amiss all right. I’m a blithering idiot and I’d