“Then we’d better get started.” Caro looked them over. When she reached Val, her assessing gaze arrested him. Can we trust you? her eyes seemed to ask.
When he’d arrived here this afternoon, Val wouldn’t have known his answer to that question. But for his cousin’s sake—and for the actress’s own sake—he wanted to know what had happened to Effie Warrington. And for once he didn’t give a hang about what his family might think.
* * *
Kate thought it best for them to split into groups so that they might cover more ground. Eversham would go back to the Yard and send some men searching for Effie’s carriage, while Val would take Frank to the Wrackham townhouse to be seen by a physician.
“I’m grateful you are so good at managing things, my dear,” Eversham said wryly. “Otherwise, I might not know why I was summoned here to begin with.”
“Oh hush.” The twinkle in Kate’s eye belied any real pique. “You love it when I take charge.”
Turning back to the others, Kate continued. “Caro and I will visit the Lyceum and see if we can learn something about this enmity between Julia Todd and Effie. And we’ll, of course, let them know that Effie won’t be appearing in tonight’s performance.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea for you to go to the theatre alone, Miss Hardcastle, Lady Katherine?” asked Mrs. Spencer. “I know Miss Effie wouldn’t wish you to endanger yourselves on her behalf.”
Caro had grown fond of the older woman over the months of their friendship with Effie and she was touched by her very real, if unwarranted, worry. But she felt it was clear that Effie’s abduction hadn’t been happenstance. Which meant that Caro and Kate should be relatively safe.
“I suppose I could go with them,” Val said. “That is, if Kate and Caro don’t mind.”
“We don’t mind at all—” Kate said.
“—we mind very much,” Caro said at the same moment.
She and Kate stared at one another. Kate’s steely eyes said that she should stop being so stubborn, but Caro shook her head to remind Kate that she wasn’t precisely Val’s greatest champion.
“What I meant,” Caro said, finally, “is that your presence might hinder our ability to glean helpful information, my lord.”
Val’s raised brow told her how unbelievable he found that excuse, but rather than argue, he simply nodded. “If you think so. I daresay I should wait to see what the physician says about Frank.”
“I’m not a child, Val,” muttered his cousin from where he still slouched on the settee. “I should be out looking for Effie, too.”
But it was clear from the way he then tried and failed to rise from his position that he was barely well enough to remain upright.
“Mr. Thorn,” Caro assured him, “you must know that Effie would not wish for you to do yourself an injury in your attempt to locate her. Let your cousin call the physician. Then as soon as you’re feeling better, you will be able to join the search.”
Frank grumbled but he allowed himself to be helped to his feet by Val, and soon they were all—with the exception of Mrs. Spencer, who had elected to remain in the townhouse in the event Effie returned—piling into their various vehicles.
Caro’s sigh of relief once the door to Kate’s carriage shut behind her was louder than she’d intended.
“I’d suspect you were overset by Effie’s disappearance,” Kate said wryly, “if I didn’t know that your relief has everything to do with the fact that a certain viscount did not join us.”
Caro considered protesting the unfairness of her friend’s words, but they’d always been honest with one another. “I have to admit that I did not look forward to sharing a closed carriage with Lord Wrackham.”
Kate’s eyes shone with sympathy. “I thought the two of you had moved past your mutual resentment during our investigation in the Lake District. What changed?”
“Just that he’s become the heir to his father’s dukedom and gained the requisite self-importance to go with it,” Caro said with bitterness.
“I haven’t noticed any great change in him.” Kate frowned. “He has been a bit more somber, though it’s to be expected, given that he’s lost his brother. I know they were very close. And he’s had to stop writing for The Gazette. Though I know he resents having had to do so, I doubt there would be time for it with all of his added responsibilities.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” Caro stared out the carriage window, unable to endure her friend’s gaze. She knew that Kate and Val had been close since childhood, and she didn’t wish to say anything that would endanger that relationship.
“Caro,” Kate said in a gentle voice. “I’ve never asked before because I thought you’d come to trust me enough to tell me on your own, but this enmity you have for him is more than just casual dislike. It’s almost as if—”
“As if we were once betrothed until he so disappointed me that I had no choice but to break things off?”
Caro let the words hang in the air, terrified of how Kate would respond to her confession. But she should have known better than to doubt her friend. She’d barely turned to face Kate before she found herself being hugged.
“My dear,” Kate said as she pulled away, “I was afraid it might be something like that. But you must have been very discreet indeed, because though I suspected after we met, I never heard any rumor of it before then.”
“We told no one,” Caro admitted, relieved to finally have her secret out in the open. Even if Kate was now the only one who knew besides her and Val. “As it turns out, that was for the best. Otherwise, I’d have been labeled a jilt.”
Sympathy was evident in Kate’s tone. “How long ago was this? You were critical of him when I first mentioned that he worked for the paper.”
“Four years ago,” Caro confirmed. “We met at his brother’s wedding to my school friend Cynthia.”
“Of course. I remember your mentioning the wedding when we learned of Piers’s death.” Kate’s husband at the time had forbidden her from attending or she’d have met Caro then instead of years later.
The funeral had been a private family affair, and Caro had sent her condolences to both Cynthia and Val. She knew he’d been very close to his brother, and unlike many so-called “spares,” he’d never wanted to take his place as heir to the Thornfield dukedom. But when she’d received a response from Cynthia only, she’d taken that to mean any thawing of relations between them during the events at his Lake District estate had been supplanted by his new title and responsibilities.
“After a few weeks of seeing each other clandestinely about town, we were foolish enough to think we might suit.” It had felt foolish, but in the most intoxicating way.
“We hadn’t said anything to our parents yet,” Caro continued. “I knew that my mother would not be happy at my falling in love with a younger son. She wants more than anything for me to marry a title, you see. And Val suspected his own family would have objections to my lack of aristocratic pedigree.”
Caro laughed softly. “And indeed, he seemed genuinely embarrassed at what he feared the duke and duchess’s reaction would be.”