Stolen Away: A Regency Novella Read Online Free Page A

looked during the next fortnight, for everyone would be looking at Chloe, as they usually did. She would be mercifully busy, for there were still flowers to choose, wines to order, decorations to arrange for the wedding breakfast afterwards, and a dozen other things to keep one too occupied to feel anything other than exhaustion.
    She heard her mother’s cane thumping—fast and unsteady—and she put down her paper. What was wrong?
    Panic tightened her chest. She started for the door. Her mother stepped in, still in her nightcap and billowing dressing gown, her cane tight in one hand, and waving a note in the other hand. “She’s gone—Chloe’s gone. I think she’s been abducted!”

CHAPTER THREE
     
    Audrey almost laughed, this news sounded so absurd. However, her mother’s expression did not look the least teasing—not with her cheeks flushed and worry glazing her eyes.
    Taking the crumpled sheet from her mother’s trembling fingers, she scanned the black, strong hand scrawled across the vellum as her mother’s words tumbled out. “It’s that Irishman. It must be. He’s the only Fitzjoy we know! Oh, I ought to have warned Chloe against him!”
    “You did, Mother. So did I. As well as warning him off as best possible,” Audrey said, rubbing the knot between her eyebrows. She could box Chloe’s ears for having proven such easy prey—running off to meet him at a midnight masquerade. Of all the silly things! A sick knot tightened in her stomach. She looked up from Fitzjoy’s note and glanced at the gilt-edged clock set on the carved mantle. Gone seven hours already. The girl would be ruined if word of this became known—her reputation would be fixed as a fast girl who had spent the night with a rogue.
    Glancing at her mother, Audrey asked, “How did Fitzjoy get this note to Chloe? Was it through Meg?”
    “Oh, but you cannot blame poor Meg if she is a touch foolish.”
    “I can and I will dismiss her for her folly if this destroys Chloe’s life! I specifically told Meg about Fitzjoy the first time I intercepting one of his missives. The man’s a blackguard! For all we know, Chloe is already...already...”
    “Please do not say it! We must hope that fence has not yet been jumped. But if it has, what are we to tell Arncliffe?”
    Taking her mother’s hand, Audrey led her to the round, cherry-wood breakfast table, seated her, and poured her coffee. “Drink this, love, and do not distress yourself further. Fitzjoy must have marriage in mind, which may be her salvation, for it means a long carriage ride to Scotland. And you know how she is in a closed carriage.”
    A faint smile lifted Mrs. Colbert’s mouth. “Oh, yes. Yes, I had not thought of that. That will slow them—but what are we to do? I supposed we ought to send for Uncle Ivor and—”
    “Uncle Ivor? I cannot see him stirring his bulk from his club, not even for this disaster. And if we are to avoid scandal, there must be as little said about this as possible.”
    “Does that me we must accept Fitzjoy as Chloe’s husband? How very uncomfortable a relation that shall be.”
    Audrey threw Fitzjoy’s note onto the table. She saw her duty clear, and seeing it made her want to throttle her cousin. Of all the—
    She caught the recriminations before they could fully form. Fuming wasted time. Starting for the door, she called back, “Tell everyone—even that simpleton Meg—that Chloe and I had to leave town of a sudden. Better still, I shall impress upon Meg the story I want her to know.”
    Mrs. Colbert plucked the note from the table. “But what of this?”
    “Oh, just say that Chloe departed with me after returning from that foolish masquerade.”
    “Buy why would she—or you—gallop off in such a fashion?”
    Pausing at the door, one hand on the cold, brass knob, Audrey waved her other hand, desperation tightening around her chest. “Darling, can you not make up some elderly, invalid relative, and some dreadful immediate