Page 50 of The Hidden Heart

Jessica took in the faces of those on the stairs. Gaby was there, looking both scared and excited, as well as Mrs. Woods, her thick black hair tumbling loose down over her shoulders, and Miss Pargety, one hand to her throat and a horrified expression on her face. For a long moment everyone stood, staring at one another. There was the sound of heavy feet on the staircase from the third floor, and a moment later Mr. Cobb joined the others on the staircase.

“What’s going on here?” he asked gruffly. “What was all that noise?” He looked down at Richard and Jessica. “Are you hurt, sir?”

“Yes, he is,” Jessica said. “I will need bandages and something to clean the wound with.”

“It’s all right,” Richard said shortly, dropping his arm away and straightening. “I shall tend to it later. Right now I have more important things to do.” He turned to the gaping footmen, saying, “Go knock on all the doors and look in the bedrooms. See if any man is wearing clothes that are wet from being out in the snow or if discarded clothes are lying around anywhere.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” one of the footman replied, looking somewhat doubtful.

“There’s them as won’t like it, sir,” the other servant cautioned.

“I know. Apologize profusely, but tell them it cannot be helped. Tell them there has been an intruder in the house, and I have ordered you to check all the rooms to see if he is hiding anywhere.”

On the stairs, the spinster let out a little shriek. “There is someone inside the house!” She cast a frightened look around her, as if some terror might pop out at her at any moment.

“I do not know, Miss Pargety. The odds are that he is some distance away from here already. But we must make sure.”

“What happened?” Gaby asked breathlessly. “Was it the same man?”

“You need to go back to bed, Gabriela,” Jessica said firmly.

Since the duke now seemed able to stand on his own, she left him and crossed over to the stairs, intent on keeping the women from succumbing to hysteria. She went up the stairs, hooking one arm through Gaby’s and the other through the spinster’s thin, trembling arm.

“Come, I will take both of you back to your rooms,” she told them, giving Miss Pargety what she hoped was a reassuring look. Mrs. Woods’ pretty face, she noticed, was pale but calm. It would take more than an intruder, Jessica thought, to shake her. Nor did Mr. Cobb look startled or upset; she had the feeling that bleeding head wounds were not an unfamiliar sight to him. Or perhaps his lack of surprise came from the fact that he had been the one fighting with Cleybourne outside. She wondered if he had had time to enter the house through another door and go up to his room. She glanced down at his trousers and noted that they were dry all the way down; he would have had to change, because Cleybourne’s opponent would have been as wet from the snow as he. Could he have done all that and appeared on the stairs as soon as he did?

Jessica glanced up and saw that he was watching her. She turned away, propelling Gaby and Miss Pargety up the stairs with her. Both of them were full of questions, Gaby about all the details of what had happened and Miss Pargety about whether there was someone in the house waiting to harm her. Jessica did her best to reassure Miss Pargety, going into her room with her and looking all around, even in the wardrobe and under the bed, to prove that there was no one hiding there.

“Just lock your door now, and you will be fine,” she told her.

She left and heard the click of the key in the lock after her. Gaby was somewhat harder to satisfy, but Jessica managed to answer enough questions to hold her for the moment.

“I have to get back downstairs to talk to the duke. I will know much more after that,” Jessica pointed out.

“All right,” Gaby agreed somewhat reluctantly. “But you have to promise to tell me tomorrow.”

“I will. Now lock your door again. Promise.”

Gaby nodded and Jessica left, waiting in the hallway until she heard the key turn in the door. Then she hurried across the hall to her own bedroom, closing the door and whipping off her dressing gown and nightclothes. They were soaked from the snow and clung chillingly to her legs. She dressed with haste, throwing on stockings, a petticoat and a warm woolen dress, afraid that Cleybourne might go to bed before she had a chance to talk to him. She did not bother to put up her hair. She knew that she probably looked like a wild woman with it down around her shoulders and curling everywhere, but she didn’t care. She wanted to find out exactly what had happened earlier.

After lighting a candle from the embers of her fire, she stepped into the hall and glanced toward the duke’s room. No light showed beneath his door. She hoped that meant he was still downstairs. She hurried down the stairs toward his study. Several of the sconces were lit in the hallway leading to the study, and there was ample light in that room.

When she reached the doorway, she found Cleybourne standing in the center of the room, looking about him. She noticed that he, too, had apparently changed into dry clothes. He turned at the sound of her approach and looked unsurprised to see her.

“I thought you’d be back,” he said simply, then returned to his survey.

A small table had been overturned, the things that had been on it now lying beside it on the floor, and a few papers had fallen from his desk. Several pictures were askew, and the doors of a low cabinet stood open, revealing the face of a safe.

“There is where I found him,” Cleybourne said, gesturing at the low cabinet. “We struggled, and I think that is when the table got overturned and the things fell off my desk. Nothing else seems disturbed.” He waved a hand toward one of the pictures. “Looking for the safe, I think.”

“That would make sense.” Jessica eyed the cabinet. “What do you think he was looking for?”

Cleybourne shrugged. “I have no idea. Something in the safe, or something he thought would be in the safe.”

“A common thief, do you think?”

“Perhaps. But not, I think, a thief from outside the house.”

“It would seem unlikely,” Jessica agreed. She had thought the same thing herself. “It would be much easier to break in if one did not have to struggle through deep snow. It must have been someone in the house. But who?”