Emeline clutched her mother’s hand. “They are both babies. Avice could be anywhere. Lost in the hills. Attacked by animals. Abducted.”
The baroness shook her daughter off. “Emma, don’t frighten me. I’m already at my wit’s end. Where is Nicholas? He has to ride out and find her immediately.”
“I shall ride out and find them both,” declared Adrian, standing quickly and throwing down his napkin. “I’ll order my horse saddled this instant.”
“And where will you go?” demanded Emeline.
Adrian paused, then waved a hand in the direction of the stables. “Why, out there – out beyond. I shall search the whole country.”
“Send us a message when you get to Scotland,” sniffed the baroness. “But I’m sure we can be a little more focused than that. I followed the road from Wrotham to Westminster, and I took several side roads and asked at every hostelry. No sign of course. So if they did not head for London, where on earth might they have gone? To search for James’ killer. But who could they suspect?”
Adrian heaved back down into his chair and waved the other hand vaguely in a sweeping motion. “A madman. Some thief, perhaps? A jealous husband in Gloucester? Or some trader who held a grudge.”
“The girls are definitely not still in Gloucester,” insisted the baroness. “I not only sent half my household scouring every street, but I also informed the sheriff who sent out his constables. The girls had not been seen.”
“Then back to Leicestershire,” said Emeline at once. “To where Peter was killed, and clues might be traced. Perhaps a madman killed Papa and Peter both, but is madness so consistent? Yet if Avice and Sissy never took the road from Wrotham to here, then they must have gone in the opposite direction.”
“Where will they stay?” wailed the baroness, reaching for her new embroidered kerchief.
“At my house in Nottingham,” Adrian decided at once. “Sissy would have the good sense to take your daughter there, my lady, and that might have been her intention all along. To keep the proprieties, of course, in face of your daughter’s impulsive whims.”
The baroness looked up sharply and lowered her kerchief. “My daughter’s irresponsible impulses, sir? Does your sister have none?”
“None, my lady. I have brought her up myself since she was quite young. Aunt Elizabeth being, let us say, a less reliable chaperone.”
“Then a fourteen years child being passionately in love with her worthless cousin does not count as a whim, sir?”
A sudden voice behind the baroness said softly, “Which worthless cousin did you have in mind, my lady, since there are a number of us?”
“Oh, Nicholas,” squeaked Emeline. “Thank goodness you’re back. Look who has arrived. And there is the most dreadful news.”
“That Avice and Sissy have scampered off into the wilds, and are now lost to us forever,” smiled Nicholas, coming behind his wife and placing his hands somewhat protectively on her shoulders. “I was alerted to your mother’s arrival by my squire, and came to discover the reason. I then questioned the woman Martha, who is my wife’s childhood nurse I believe. She tells me your daughter left a note claiming she intended coming after me, and expected to catch me up quite soon. So she’d hardly be heading towards Nottingham, unless she lied purposefully to avoid capture.”
“Oh,” breathed Emeline in relief, “she wouldn’t lie. At least, she would, but not over something like that. They must have got lost on the way, since old Bill wouldn’t recognise a road from a puddle. And I’m so pleased you’ve brought Martha with you, Maman. So Avice can’t be far off.”
“When exactly did they leave?” demanded Nicholas.
The baroness thought a moment. “It has been so long – such a trying journey, I cannot be sure. Five days, perhaps? Six? A week?”
“Martha’ll know to the hour,” interrupted Emeline. “I’ll go and talk to her at once.” She hurriedly left the table, dropped her napkin, grabbed at her skirts and headed for the staircase. Her husband watched her departure with amusement.
He again turned to his mother-in-law. “Forgive me, my lady, you’re naturally most welcome and I’ll order the steward to arrange your quarters. I’ll also organise two separate search parties and my squire David will head immediately for London. and alert the sheriff of the necessity for a more extensive alarm. I myself have been summoned to – and by – being a matter I cannot easily ignore. However, on my return I shall, depending on whatever has been discovered in the meantime, set out myself to find my cousin and my sister-in-law.” He looked quickly to Adrian. “You’ll want to ride at once, coz,” he said, “but take some of my men if you’ve a mind to send out additional search parties.”
But when he left the house shortly afterwards, only Emeline knew where he was going.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
His highness the king regarded the young man kneeling before him, and smiled. “Get up, Nicholas. I have business to discuss, and little time for discussion. Kendall will finalise the necessary details of course, and afterwards you’ll see Tyrell. He will answer any remaining questions.”
His grace sat at ease at the other side of the great table. Quill, ink, wax seals, papers and parchment scrolls were lined neatly at his right elbow. A cup of wine stood untouched by his left hand and a single beeswax candle was lit, the flame rising unchallenged and vertical, etching one side of the king’s face in gold. His secretary, John Kendall, sat quietly at the table’s far end, his hands clasped before him, remaining respectfully silent until otherwise requested. Nicholas said, “Sire, my apologies for arriving some moments late. I had family problems. I am, as always, at your disposal, your grace. Is this the continuing business of his lordship, the Marquess of Dorset?”
“Your delay is of no consequence,” said his grace, “since my time is limited and I could not have seen you earlier. However, this matter is of some importance and must now be concluded, even with urgency. Now, as always, there is more than one single thread to follow. Henry Tudor himself is of little interest to me, and I would be tempted to overlook his impudence were it not for his mother, a lady not to be underestimated. Now I have news of escalation, and conspiracies. France is always dangerous. While Tudor remained in Brittany, he was kept under some semblance of control. But now that France is involved, control shifts.”
“Will you have me travel to France, your grace?” Nicholas spoke quietly, disguising his reluctance.
The king looked up, smiling gently. “No man willingly travels into French territory and into danger,” he replied. “But it may be necessary, in the end. There is also the usual business in Burgundy, which you are aware of. Tyrell sails to Burgundy soon, and I may ask you to accompany him. You understand the situation there with my nephews, and afterwards can more easily enter France through her mainland borders. But first there are matters I want you to discover here.”
“Tudor’s last claim from France was treated here with utter ridicule, sire.” Nicholas stood at ease before his king, hands behind his back. “Does your grace suspect anyone of having acted on such absurdities?”
King Richard nodded. “The French instigated and invented that claim, a nonsense even Tudor must have been embarrassed to sign. Calling himself a son of the late Henry VI, and so the direct Lancastrian heir? Our people laughed, of course. In this country we have full knowledge of our ancestors, their rightful children and their less rightful children. But the French kings keep their people in ignorance, with a country still beggared, peasants and serfs bare able to read and ready to accept whatever they are told. We English are not such fools to accept wild and impossible claims. As usual, knowing only their own standards, the French misunderstand us.”