Normality was shattered, however, when an angry Amazon burst into the library. "I don't care how busy Lord Wolverton is," she barked as she stalked in. "He will see me now!"
Floundering behind her came a redfaced footman. "I'm sorry, your lordship, Lady Ross insisted on seeing you," he said apologetically. "She's here about Lord Robert."
Giles looked up quickly. Robin had vanished three days earlier. Though he had said not to worry if he wandered off someday it was proving difficult not, to feel concern.
He blinked at the newcomer. Lady Ross was sweeping toward him like a ship in full sail, her full cloak and bonnet billowing around her and a parasol gripped like a weapon in one hand. Tall and Junoesque, she might have been handsome in a happier mood, but her present fury was not a sight for the faint of heart.
Wondering what on earth she had to do with Robin, Giles rose politely. "I am Wolverton. You have news of my brother?"
Lady Ross scowled. "So you don't know where he is, either."
"He has been away for several days. I am unsure when he will be returning," Giles said, trying to remember what he had heard about Lady Ross. Though her name was familiar, he couldn't recall the context "What business do you have with him?"
"The question is not my business with him, but what he has done with my niece." Her ladyship glowered at the marquess. "The evidence suggests that your brother has abducted her."
"The devil you say!" Giles's jaw hardened. "Who is spreading such preposterous slander?"
The tip of her parasol quivered like the tail of an angry cat. "Some of your tenants saw Lord Robert forcing a young person to come away with him. From the description, it was my niece, Maxima Collins, an American girl."
The marquess fixed his visitor with a steely gaze. "How and when did the girl come to be abducted? I cannot believe that my brother kidnapped an innocent young girl away from her family."
Lady Ross's eyes shifted uneasily. "I'm not sure exactly what happened. Maxima has been living with my brother, Lord Collingwood. Her father died soon after they arrived in England, and the girl was distraught. About a week ago she impulsively left Collingwood's house, leaving a note that she was on her way to me in London. In fact, I was coming to visit her in Durham. I have been looking for her since we realized that she had disappeared." Her gray eyes narrowed. "It was three days ago that the villagers saw Lord Robert with his unwilling companion."
Giles kept his expression blank, but inwardly he groaned. Robin would not abduct an innocent, but might he have taken off on a lark with a young and willing runaway? That would depend on how young and how willing she was. "How old is your niece?"
Lady Ross hesitated before admitting, "Twentyfive."
"Twentyfive! The way you were carrying on, I assumed she was fifteen or sixteen. Your niece is hardly a green girl-at her age, most females are wives and mothers. If she went with my brother, it must have been voluntarily."
"Maxima has only been in England for four months, and she was orphaned almost immediately," Lady Ross said with a glower. "She is an innocent, alone in a foreign country. A man who would take advantage of that is beneath contempt."
Giles took a firm grip on his temper. "We have not established what, if anything, has happened."
"If Lord Robert hasn't run off with her, then where is he?" she demanded. "From what you said when I arrived, you don't know where he is. According to the villagers, he has the reputation of a rake-exactly the sort of man to kidnap a young girl."
"That's utter nonsense," Giles retorted. "Robin has been out of England for years. In the six months since his return, he has been living here quietly, not cutting a swath through English womanhood."
"Your tenants didn't seem to think so."
"People enjoy spinning lurid tales about the local gentry. I don't provide them with much fodder for gossip, but Lord Robert is an attractive and romantic figure. If he so much as smiles at a local girl, I'm sure the tenants fancy him an incurable womanizer." Giles considered a moment. "Even if my brother had a female companion, are you sure she was your niece? As a runaway, she could be almost anywhere."
"I am sure that Maxima must be in this area, and the description the villagers gave sounded exactly like her," Lady Ross said, refusing to give way. "I fear the worst."
The marquess took a deep breath. "You have provided no proof that Robin has behaved badly, or even that he and your niece are acquainted. While I will make allowances for your concern, I advise you not to make baseless charges against my brother. Good day, Lady Ross. My footman will show you out." He sat down again and made a show of studying his correspondence.
His visitor should have accepted her dismissal and left. Instead, the footman yelped with dismay and the marquess caught a glimpse of swift movement from the corner of has eye. He raised his head just in time to see Lady Ross's parasol slicing through the air. Before he could move, it smashed down on the desk in front of him, missing his face by inches and scattering papers across the carpet.
As he gaped in stunned disbelief, she snapped, "Don't think you can dismiss me like one of your servants, Wolverton. I know your reputation. Instead of attending Parliament, you sit out here in Yorkshire like a toad, ignoring your responsibilities. With you as an example, it's hardly surprising that your brother became a wastrel." Her full lips curled into a sneer. "Though perhaps it's just as well that you don't take advantage of your seat in the House of Lords. No doubt your views would make Attila the Hun look compassionate."
Giles had never been rude to a female in his life, but a few minutes with Lady Ross had changed that. He leaped to his feet and leaned toward her, bracing his fists on the desk. "I attend the Lords whenever a vital issue is being debated, but most of my responsibilities are here. There is no better fertilizer for the land than the weight of the owner's foot, and managing my property is a better use of my time than playing faro and assassinating reputations in London."
Realizing belatedly how immature his behavior was, he said in a more moderate tone, "Not that it's any of your business."
The parasol jerked, and for an instant he thought she was going to swing it like a cricket bat.
Instead, she said through gritted teeth, "I'm sorry. Your properties are known as models of progressive land management. I should not have spoken so." Looking as if the apology had half killed her, she went on, "No doubt your brother developed his beastly vices without any help from you."
Unmollified, Giles said, "I suggest that you leave before your unfounded charges make me forget that I am a gentleman. I'm sorry your niece is missing, but I can do nothing to help you."
"I was a fool to expect any cooperation," Lady Ross said with disgust. "Men of our order will ruin a girl as casually as they will discard a cravat. I came here hoping that Lord Robert had found my niece in need of protection and behaved as a gentleman by restoring her to her family. Instead he has taken her away against her will, and you are covering for his crime. However, Maxima is not without family, and I swear that if Lord Robert has injured her or her reputation, he will pay for it."
Appalled realization dawned on the marquess. "So that is what this is about! Your niece set out to seduce Lord Robert. Then you came here crying that she is an injured innocent and justice must be done, hoping that I will force my brother to marry her. Well, it won't work, madam, not on my brother and not on me. If he went off with her, it was because she was willing."
He leaned forward, his broad shoulders taut with anger. "Mark me well, Lady Ross. I personally guarantee that my brother will never marry a roundheeled wench who is trying to entrap him."