Page 13 of A Match Made On Duchess Square

“So what? I could not sit like a coward on my estate and let others fight on my behalf.”

Gwendolyn shook her head. “You had a wife…and children.”

“That I made certain would always be provided for should I fail to return. Lots of men were in a similar situation, leaving their families behind with much direr consequences. I had all in place for my family. Good counselors, good trustees for Jordan who would guide him until he came of age. But we are off the point. What about you, Gwen? What happened once you learned the war was over?”

“I was elated. Hopeful. Every time I heard a knock at the door, I would run downstairs expecting to see Andrew. But he never returned when the war ended.”

Milbury furrowed his brow. “Oh my… I’m so sorry for your loss.”

She shook her head. “No, he wasn’t dead.”

He now regarded her with confusion. “Was he kept back? Assigned to the Continent?”

“I have no idea. As the months went by without word from him, I began to make inquiries again. This time, the War Office’s response was different. The clerk was not the same one I had called upon several times over the years, but I had been there often enough that most employed in that office would have recognized me.”

“What did this new clerk tell you?”

“He claimed there was no one by the name of Andrew Clement in the officer lists, nor had there even been. Can you believe it? I knew there had to be a mistake, and called upon that clerk’s supervisor, an officious, condescending corporal who proved to be no better than his insolent underling. He assured me I was in the wrong, and then gave me such a cold stare when I demanded to see his superior.”

“And?”

“They made me wait an hour before a captain came forward, looked me straight in the eye, and said I was mistaken. He insisted there had never been a Colonel Andrew Clement or any officer of any rank by that name. How could all record of his service in the army have vanished from the War Office files?”

“More to the point, how does one lose the son of an earl? Wouldn’t his family have something to say about this?”

“This was exactly my thought. In disbelief, I hunted down the clerk who had been so helpful to me during the war years. I know he remembered me. I know it. But he gave me that same blank stare as everyone else in the War Office had done. He apologized profusely but repeated those same lies, that there had never been an officer by the name of Andrew Clement serving in the army.”

Milbury’s mouth was agape. Obviously, this was not what he’d expected to hear.

“What did you do next?” he asked.

“I called upon his family.”

“That was sensible,” he muttered, giving a nod of approval.

“They put me off, too. In fact, they avoided me like the plague. It felt as though no one in his family cared that Andrew had gone missing. Finally, his father agreed to see me. It was like meeting a stranger. He rebuffed me coldly. I begged him to just tell me what had happened to Andrew, and assured him that if Andrew wished to call off our betrothal, I would give no objection.”

“So, it was broken off?”

“No,” she said with a vehement shake of her head. “His family never got in touch with me again. They denied my requests to call upon them. All I wanted was a word from Andrew.”

Milbury rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “And you never got it?”

“Nothing, in all these years. The mystery of his disappearance has never been resolved. My search did not stop at the War Office or with his family. I looked everywhere. He was not listed among the dead, for which I was greatly relieved. Nor was he listed among the injured returning to England from the Continent. So I checked the manifests of all the able-bodied soldiers shipped back home. He was not listed among them, either.”

As she took a deep breath, she realized Milbury had taken hold of her hands to offer comfort.

He was good like that. She had noticed his protective instincts toward his sons and was glad they extended to her, too. Retelling this nightmare was taking a toll on her.

Over the course of the years, she had managed to continue with life on her own terms. But there were moments like these, when the world seemed to collapse around her, that she appreciated a pair of strong arms around her.

His were quite nice. His were the first that had ever held her since Andrew.

“Months and months went by. I continued checking the manifests. I stopped by the War Office repeatedly, even spoke to his regimental commanders. Oh, some had vague recollections. But they offered nothing helpful. Then one day, no one remembered and no one had any records on him at all. He was lost. Completely stricken from all lists. Vanished into thin air.”

“How is this possible?”

“I don’t know. I was left with a betrothed who was not dead, nor returned to England. Not in any hospital. But he is alive,” she said with certainty. “I would have felt something, a ripple in my heart, had he been killed.”