The Vanishing at Loxby Manor by Abigail Wilson (grave mercy .TXT) 📕

She stiffened and tipped her nose in the air. “He has a nephew, that’s what.”

I listened as Mrs. Cavanagh recounted Seline’s indiscretions, from her kiss to her desperate nighttime flight from the house,but it wasn’t until she mentioned the letter Seline left behind in her room that I gave voice to the questions that had beenbrewing in my mind. “Mrs. Cavanagh?”

She jerked her head up. “Yes, dear? I nearly forgot you were there.” She patted my leg. “Miss Halliwell was the last to speakwith Seline before she left. Have you anything to add?”

Now was my chance. “I have been doing a great deal of thinking over the night, and I cannot help but ask, are you completelycertain Seline wrote that note? You see, when she fled my room, the last thing she said to me was that she wouldn’t be outlong. I fully expected her to return straightaway.”

Piers leaned forward, curiosity bending his brow. “What are you getting at? Do you think Seline’s flight some sort of ploy?”

I tethered my lip between my teeth. “I don’t know exactly. I mean, it is indeed possible that Seline changed her mind. Yetwhen she left my room, she made it perfectly clear that she had no intention of departing the estate.” Of course Seline didsay she had a plan. But to elope, and with Miles Lacy? Certainly not.

Mrs. Cavanagh’s fingers came to life, wiggling in the air. “Then where else can she be?”

All eyes shot to me.

“Who could say, but taking flight for Gretna Green in the middle of the night? That doesn’t sound anything like her, not unlessit included a gentleman with a title.”

Piers rubbed his chin, his eyes steady on me. “Miss Halliwell does have a point, Mother. Seline is impulsive and foolish, but why on earth wouldn’t she wait to flee until morning?” He lifted his eyebrows. “I would like to take a look at this note.”

I nodded quickly as it was just what I’d been hoping to do all night. The letter had to reveal something.

Mrs. Cavanagh’s lady’s maid was sent at once to fetch the letter from Mrs. Cavanagh’s bedchamber, and the three of us wereforced to wait patiently for her return—Piers with his stern brow and troubled gaze, Mrs. Cavanagh full of strained quivers,and me, taunted not only by my acute fear for my dear friend but by the added presence of her brother. Why did he have tocome home at such a time?

The clock ticked away the seconds achingly slow until the maid rushed back through the door, the note thrust out in frontof her. Mrs. Cavanagh accepted the letter as if it were a dead animal and unfolded it before us. We all stared at the crispwhite paper, but Piers was the first to take the note into his hands and scan carefully over Seline’s scrolled words. “Itdoes appear to be her handwriting.”

Mrs. Cavanagh scoffed, “Well of course it’s her handwriting.”

He passed it to me.

My dearest Mama,

Miles and I are off for Gretna Green this very hour.

Seline

Awfully short at such a moment. I narrowed my eyes. “Do you think she might have written it under some sort of duress? Seehow the ink blurs here.”

Mrs. Cavanagh grasped the letter, smashing it closed. “Well, I daresay she was under duress. The poor dear must have thought she was out of options. People can do all sorts of things when they are desperate.”

“But to make such a rash decision before—”

“My dear Miss Halliwell, I can certainly understand your wish to find meaning in such a haphazard trip to Scotland, but thisletter proves Seline took off with little regard for her family, particularly her mama.”

Mrs. Cavanagh pressed her handkerchief to her nose. “I only hope Avery may find her in time, or we shall be forced to welcomethe new Mrs. Lacy back to the house in a few weeks. I do hope she enjoys living out her days in one of the small cottageson the estate. I fear that is all her father will do for her now.” She stumbled to her feet and made her way to the door beforepausing to rest her hand against the doorframe. “I do apologize, but my nerves are far too raw to continue on in this way.I need to lie down. You must excuse me.”

Caught up in the drama of her departure, I watched her sweep from the room before I turned back to face Piers. My fingersgripped the armrest of their own accord. He was studying me with that look of his that seemed to know and question everything.Yet at the same time he couldn’t keep still, swinging his boot across his opposing leg then back to the floor.

A curious mix of emotions snuck over me as I watched his awkward dance—the delicious hint of exhilaration I’d felt the lasttime I’d seen him, accompanied by the inescapable veil of abandonment that swathed every last memory of our time together.I glanced up. Was Piers as affected by my unexpected presence at Loxby as I was by his?

He rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. “I suppose we’ve little recourse but to wait for word from Avery. Odds are my mother’s right, and Seline did just as she wrote in that note.”

I nodded in agreement, ushering in the wretched weight of silence once again.

I took a deep breath. Regardless of how things had ended between Piers and me, there was no reason to be uncivil, not anymore.Besides, my parents had trained me better than that, and he would be gone from Loxby soon enough.

“Piers.” My voice faltered. “It is good to see you again.”

I wasn’t prepared for the look he gave me. Part hope, part dread, and his response, terribly slow. “I cannot guess what youmust think of me.”

I didn’t move as the years melted away. Time would never dull my need for some kind of closure.

He kept his voice emotionless, yet he had difficulty meeting my eyes. “I never should have insinuated anything regarding ourfuture before you left. It turned