Page 108 of A Misguided Devotion

The man was shameless, twisting the truth to suit his own purposes. William clasped his hands together in front of him. He must not lose his temper. “My intentions toward Miss Lacey are honourable.”

“If that’s the case, then I’m truly sorry.”

The false sympathy grated on him. He tried another tack. “Where is Cousin Silas? I thought he lived down here.”

“Gone.”

“Oh, come, come, Mr Barrington. There is no need to play games with me. We both know you never kept an insane relative down here.”

The older man heaved a sigh. “Alas, you have me there. When Laura concocted such a story, I felt honour-bound to support her. If you had learned of her indiscretion in meeting Mr Jenkin at night, it would have given you due cause to walk away from the match. I did not realise my daughter was so lost to what was in her best interests that she would marry him. An oversight on my part.”

A clever answer, but it didn’t fit with the signs of recent occupation that William had noticed. Nor with their suspicions that escaped French prisoners of war had been living here.

“Why was Miss Lacey in this room?”

Mr Barrington’s eyes grew large. He would have made an excellent actor. “In here? Are you sure?”

William fished around in his pocket and pulled out the scrap of lace. “This matches the edging on her black dress.”

A flash of annoyance passed across the other man’s face, but it was gone so fast he would have missed it if he hadn’t been watching for a reaction.

“Dear me. That is worrying news. I had no notion she had been down here. How very unfortunate.”

He waited to discover what story Mr Barrington would concoct.

“I confess I’ve not been honest with you.” That went without saying, but it didn’t mean he was going to speak the truth now. “I’ve made a terrible mistake trusting Blake.”

Was it a good sign that he was ready to point the finger at his manservant? William doubted it.

“Don’t think too harshly of me, but I didn’t pay enough attention to what was happening under my nose.” The older man swept a hand around the room. “This has always been Blake’s domain. Officially, he was my butler, but he rarely played that role. He used to be a prize-fighter, and I took him on as my personal guard soon after moving here because I feared being attacked by smugglers. But all the while, he has been colluding with them.”

William was losing patience. “What has this got to do with Miss Lacey?”

“Just this morning, I came in search of Blake when he didn’t answer my summons, and I found this room as you see it. Empty. He’s gone, Lord Droxford.” He lowered his tone. “I suspect he has been helping French officers escape the country. If Catherine interrupted them…”

What was the man up to, telling him all this? Was he trying to gain his trust? “Have you sent word to the Transport Board or called in the local militia to go after him?”

Mr Barrington had an answer for everything. “I admit I was hoping to keep it quiet. It does not reflect well on me. But if Miss Lacey’s life is in danger, it is a different matter. Blake must have realised the game was up and fled with the escaped prisoner of war he was assisting. We should summon the preventive force and pursue them.”

The same men who had attacked Mr Jenkin.

“There is no time to waste. The tide will turn soon, leaving us little chance of catching them. Catherine may yet be alive, but not for long. I expect they will toss her overboard once they are at sea. A sad case of drowning is so much easier to explain…”

The truth underlying his words left William cold. Was this how Mr Barrington planned to get rid of Kitty? If he went with him, would he meet a similar fate? He suspected a trap, but he dared not raise the alarm. Besides, what was the point of escaping if he lost the woman he loved?

He came to a snap decision. “We should leave at once.”

Mr Barrington gave a sharp nod and hurried up the stairs and out of the house. William followed him through the garden, onto the cliff path, and down the steep slope to the cove.

He prayed he would find Kitty—and that Anthony would come with help in time to rescue them both.

Kitty gritted her teeth to stop them from chattering. The dampness of the sea cavern seeped into her bones. Water splashed over her feet as she stumbled in the gloom.

It was a miracle she was still alive. When Monsieur Loutrel had held a pistol to her head, she had thought her life was over. Trust Hugh to use it as an excuse to press his suit on her again. As if her love could be bought with threats.

But maybe a bullet would have been preferable to this—being left to die alone. Because as the minutes ticked by, the water rose over the bottom of the cave in which Blake had abandoned her, and at high tide, there would be no escape.

The only way out was the way she’d come in—by sea. Even if she could swim, the rocks were so intimidating that she doubted she would survive. No matter what she did, she would drown, giving Hugh the unfortunate accident he required to explain away her death.