side of the room.
He looked up to see the two footman who had been serving them had been joined by a passing maid and were furiously whispering to one another, and he was suddenly intrigued by just what had so caught their interest that they would risk the discussion in front of them at breakfast. In his experience, it was the servants who knew more of the goings -on of the entire household than the owners themselves.
Elijah lifted his plate, which was currently nearly full as he had been too preoccupied to eat much, and wandered over to the side table, attempting to listen in to the conversation. He wasn’t exactly stealthy, however, and they must have seen him for the whispers stopped altogether.
As the footmen began to return to the kitchen, he caught the eye of the maid — he couldn’t remember her name for the life of him — and crooked a finger at her before she could run away. She came slowly, her eyes wide in apparent nervousness. When was the last time he had caused anyone to feel nervous?
“Yes, my lord?” she asked, the pitcher of tea in her hands.
“What were the three of you talking about?” he asked, looking intently at her so that she couldn’t flit her gaze away.
“My lord?” she squeaked out. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Is there something happening that I should know about?”
“I…I’m not entirely sure,” she managed, looking from one side to the other as though hoping someone would come and extricate her from this situation, but Elijah was not that generous.
“Tell me,” he repeated, more firmly this time, and she dipped her head as she gave in.
“It’s Thatcher, the footman,” she whispered. “He didn’t appear for work this morning. When the butler checked his bed, it was made up but he was gone.”
“Gone?” Elijah stared at her, as though by encouraging her to continue he could change the facts of what she said.
“Yes, my lord,” she said. “Disappeared.”
She bit her lip and looked to the side once more, and Elijah sighed impatiently.
“What else?”
“Well, it is only—”
“Yes?”
“We always knew he had a fondness for Lady Caroline, seeing as he was never interested in any of the rest of us who tried to catch his eye. He’s a good-looking one, oh yes he is, and—”
Elijah cleared his throat and gave her a pointed look.
“Right,” she said with a nod. “Well, Lady Caroline’s maid, Mary, is still downstairs waiting to be summoned by Lady Caroline. She doesn’t know if it’s her place to say anything, or to go see if she’s there, but—”
Elijah took a breath, nodding at the maid as he threw his plate on the side table with a clatter and pushed past her out of the room, knowing that the rest of the table was likely staring after him. He hadn’t gotten far when Alex caught up with him.
“Eli, what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” he said, not knowing why but not wanting his brother to be part of this.
“Elijah.”
“It’s nothing, Alex,” he insisted. “I just have to make sure Caro’s all right.”
“Caro?” Alex said. “What would be wrong with her?”
“Her maid hasn’t been summoned yet,” Elijah said as he climbed the stairs, Alex following him.
“So?”
He didn’t answer his brother as he continued down the hall, pushing open the door to Caroline’s room without knocking.
“Elijah, what—”
His brother was silenced as they stepped in, finding the room empty, the bedsheets rumpled.
“Elijah, where did she go?” Alex asked finally, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I don’t know,” Elijah said truthfully, “but I have a feeling she left with the footman.”
“Hmm,” Alex mused, not looking overly concerned, which bothered Elijah more than the act itself. “Never thought she was actually that serious about the servant.”
“Well, it seems she was,” Elijah said, rubbing his temples as his head began to ache. “We should have seen this coming.”
“What do we do?” Alex asked. “Do we tell Mother and Father? Baxter?”
“What would that do?” Elijah asked. “It would just send them into hysterics and for what? If I’m wrong, it would get Thatcher dismissed before he has the chance to defend himself, and if word got out, it could ruin Caroline.”
“That’s true,” Alex said, and then his eyes lit up and he raised a finger. “I have an idea.”
“What’s that?”
“It would really throw Baxter over,” he said, his lips starting to widen into a grin. “Let’s see how long we can make him think that Caroline is still in the house. See how long he can go