Page 76 of The Duke's Only Desire

Miss Danvies gave a curt nod. “I bought her a coach ticket to London and gave her enough money to tide her over until she could become settled. She thought she could find work and create a new life for herself there, most likely under a new name, which is another reason why it will be next to impossible for you to find her.” She grimaced, thoughtfully. “It might be easier to find the baby, though. Cora said she planned to put Ruby into the Foundling Hospital until she could find a way to care for her.”

“That’s all you know?” Sophie pressed.

“I wish I could give you more information, but she disappeared when she caught the coach, and I never heard from her again. I have no reason to believe she contacted anyone else in the area, either, especially not her family.”

Sophie gave Shay a deflated glance over her shoulder, her blue eyes dark. That wasn’t at all the information Shay knew she had wanted to hear, and her little shoulders sagged beneath her fur-lined cloak.

Mrs. Danvies held out one of the paper packets of herbs toward Sophie. “For your headaches, Your Grace. It also makes a lovely tea.”

“Thank you,” Sophie said quietly, taking the little gift. “For everything.”

“Of course.” Miss Danvies came out from behind the counter to see them to the door. She squeezed Sophie’s arm and leaned close. “Is all well…with your garden plans?”

Sophie’s face flushed beet red as she darted a surreptitious glance at Shay. She slipped her arm around Miss Danvies and answered in a mumble he was certain he wasn’t meant to overhear, “Everything is wonderful.”

A happy smile burst across Miss Danvies’s face, and the woman hugged her briefly before reaching to push open the door. A rush of winter wind blew inside and stirred the paper packets on the counter.

Sophie quickly slipped from the shop and headed toward the waiting sleigh. Shay followed behind, puzzled at the odd interaction between the two women.

He took Sophie’s arm and helped her into the sleigh. “What was that about?” he asked as he tucked the lap rugs around her to keep her warm for the drive home.

“Nothing important.” She slipped her hands into her fur muff, nestled down into the rugs, and added, almost in afterthought with a loving smile for him, “Not anymore.”

With a puzzled frown, he circled behind the sleigh to take his seat beside her. She was lying, he knew. But whatever secret the two women shared, he was willing to let them have it, simply glad that Sophie was making friends in the village. Besides, he had far more important worries to preoccupy him now.

He tossed a coin to the boy holding the horse, who caught it in mid-air and dashed aside with a deferential tug to the brim of his tweed cap. Shay flipped the ribbons, and the sleigh started forward with a toss of the horse’s head and the smooth murmur of snow beneath its runners.

Soon, they had glided through the village and onto the road winding its way along the river. A comfortable silence stretched between them, disturbed only by the soft plodding of the horse’s hooves and the rush of the snow and ice under the small sleigh. The countryside was quiet beneath the pale sunlight, despite not being warm enough to burn off the layer of thin fog that gathered in the low spots and hovered above the river.

When Sophie nestled against his side, he turned the sleigh across the field to take the long way home. He wanted to share this peaceful moment together and create another special memory before Malcolm turned their world upside-down.

He stopped the horse. To their right lay the rolling fields and pastures that sloped down gently toward Ravenscroft Manor in the distance, and to the left stretched the woods, lying hushed beneath a blanket of snow still clinging to the bare boughs and evergreens. The stiff branches cracked and snapped in the small breeze that had grown in strength even in the short time they’d left Ravenscroft about an hour earlier. A portend of a storm to come.

As if sensing the dark turn his thoughts had taken, Sophie straightened away from his side. “I want to leave immediately for London,” she said quietly, as if not wanting to disturb the winter stillness around them. “I don’t see the point in waiting for Malcolm to level his charges before we act. We can also start looking for Cora White right away, hire Bow Street investigators to search for her, ask your friends for help—Shay, we need to strike before Malcolm can.”

He looked away and squinted into the sun. He couldn’t disagree. Except… “And the baby?” Another innocent life had been swept up into their predicament. “What do we do when we find her?”

“We make certain she and her mother are cared for, that they have plenty of food and a warm, safe place to live.” She slipped her hand out of the muff and rested it on his arm. “We take care of them.”

“Even if Cora White refuses to help us?”

“Even then.”

The determined glint in her eye made him smile. Truly, he’d expected no other answer from her, knowing her as well as he did.

“And that’s why you’re so very special, Sophie,” he murmured. Even now, he couldn’t say it.And that’s why…I love you.“That you would want to help a woman and child you’ve never met, who are no obligation to us. Yet you care about such people.”

“I do.” She added meaningfully, “And so do you.”

He lowered his head and placed a soft kiss to her warm lips. “But the girl will be almost four by now. If she’s been under the care of the Foundling Hospital all this time, placed out with a wet nurse or other caretaker, God only knows what kind of condition she’ll be in.” He didn’t mean only physically. He’d heard horror stories about the way children were treatedby some of their nurses, how they were abused, beaten, even starved. Her scars wouldn’t be on the surface. “She might be beyond our help.”

“No child is beyond help.”

He nuzzled his mouth against her temple, hoping to God she was right.

There were many reasons he was reluctant to charge off to London. He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to dredge up the past, and certainly not just as they were finally putting it behind them.

But he also knew they had to walk through this fire in order to emerge from hell.