Page 80 of His Sinful Touch

“I can’t help but notice that below Winchester is Southampton.”

Sabrina’s eyes widened. “You think he was going to take me onto a ship?”

“It makes sense—in a very slimy sort of way. We’ve already posited that he took you away from home so that no one who knew you would see what happened. But where are they to go after that? If they come home, you’ll eventually emerge from your fog and tell everyone what happened. If they travel to some other place in England, there’s the chance that you’ll wake up and call for help—or escape, as you did. But on a ship, he can keep you locked up and drugged and excuse it with sea sickness. Even if you awakened, you’d be on a ship in the middle of the Channel or crossing the ocean—there’d be no escape.”

“Until we docked—where I would be alone in a foreign country, among strangers, disoriented, not knowing the language. It would put me at a great disadvantage.”

“Exactly.”

“But we couldn’t have stayed away forever. We’d have to come home sometime. People would wonder where I was.”

“True. But Mr. Dearborn could go home, say you two had a whirlwind marriage and sailed off to Europe on your honeymoon. You could be gone several weeks, a month, with no one thinking anything of it. By the time you come back...” Alex had managed to keep his tone even and logical so far, but now he could not hold back the raw fury in him. “By then, you couldn’t deny his story without ruining your reputation beyond repair. You would have to reveal that for a month you had been living with a man. You could even...” He cleared his throat. “You could have even been carrying his child.”

Sabrina blanched. “You think he would have forced me?”

Alex reached out, resting a hand on her arm. “Given all the rest he did, I don’t know why he would have stopped at that. But even if he had enough decency not to, everyone would assume otherwise. If you left him, if you told people, you would have suffered terribly from the scandal. I imagine they hoped that once you saw how your circumstances were, you would give in. Accept it. After all, you had ’til then been compliant with them. You and Peter had affection of some sort for each other.”

“Not at that point,” Sabrina said flatly. “But yes, I can see that they would believe I was too spineless to kick up a fuss. But if they meant to take me to Southampton, or even just to Winchester, why wouldn’t they drive straight there? It would have been much closer.”

“Exactly. Andover is so far out of the way that I can only think they went there because they knew a clergyman whom they could rely on to do it. One who could be paid or blackmailed.”

Sabrina sat back. “That makes sense. Unfortunately, I don’t know who they knew in Andover.”

“A vicar of questionable morals would probably not be someone they would have introduced to a young lady.”

“I don’t think we can be positive it took place in Andover,” Sabrina mused. “They would have probably taken that road to get to any town between Andover and here. That’s a main thoroughfare.”

“Yes. You’re right. We can’t just head for Andover. We really must stop at each and every one.”

They spent the morning in pursuit of their elusive clergyman but met with little success. It was early in the afternoon when they stopped at their third church. The pastor there was a jolly sort and willing to help, and if he found their questions odd, he evinced none of the surprise or suspicion that the first two clergymen had shown.

“Let me see, let me see,” he mused, bouncing a little on his toes. “Three weeks ago. Was that the weekend of the fete? No, that was the week before. Ah, I remember! I took a few days after the fete—they can be quite exhausting, you know. We went to the theater in Andover one day that week. I cannot remember if it was the exact date you mentioned. Wonderful performance—a farce, which I prefer to a drama, don’t you?”

“But did anyone—” Alex began, but the man had turned and was puttering around at his desk.

“I believe I have a program from the theater. Perhaps it has the date. There we are.” With an air of triumph, he pulled out a booklet from a pile and came back around to show them. “Hmm, no, it doesn’t seem to have a date.” He leafed through the pages and sighed. “That’s too bad.”

“Wait!” Sabrina snatched the program from the startled man’s hands and flipped back a couple of pages.

“Sabrina? What is it?” Alex went to her, alarmed by the sudden pallor of her face.

She pointed to a page containing pen-and-ink drawings of the cast. “This man. That’s him. He’s the priest.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“OH, NO, DEAR,” the vicar told her kindly. “That man is an actor, not a clergyman. He was in the play we saw—though I don’t believe he was the vicar. That was a shorter man.”

“An actor!” Alex exclaimed, grabbing the pamphlet from Sabrina’s trembling hands and peering at the drawing. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” He let out a low curse.

“Sir!” the vicar said in an appalled voice. “Think where you are. And there’s a lady present.”

“Oh. Yes. Sorry.”

“Terribly sorry,” Sabrina told the cleric, giving him a shaky smile. Her stomach was like ice, and her heart pounding. “We are, um... What I meant was, I’ve seen this man. In a play.”

“Then you know the company?” The vicar beamed.

“No, I... It was somewhere else.”