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

gaze snapped to the bed. “I suppose Mrs. Cavanagh informed you he planned to join our party.”

“No, but I’m certain she will. Piers told me himself this morning.”

My mouth fell open, but I can’t say why. Certainly Piers would meet with his father. He was managing the estate, after all,but the very idea of them discussing matters of the heart . . . It felt so, so strange. I’d had little relationship with myown father, and here was Mr. Cavanagh well versed on each of his three children’s personal affairs.

Mr. Cavanagh held up his finger. “You must keep your promise now. Not a word to anyone about Seline. This family might comeabout after all. Do you know that Piers mentioned taking up residence once again at Loxby Manor?”

“No. Did he say why?”

“He’s still terribly resolute about remaining a bachelor, but he no longer wishes for life to simply pass him by. I lay that spark of interest firmly at your door, my dear. In one way or another, you’ve made him remember what he owes the family. I don’t know if you were aware, but Piers was very much in love with you at one time. I daresay you know as well as anybody that such feelings are not easily cast aside.”

*  *  *

A letter from my mother arrived the following morning. My initial delight at seeing her familiar handwriting faded ratherquickly into fear of what the letter might contain. I’d written her about the scandal, and I knew all too well her solutionto my awkward placement would involve my removal to America. Though I knew it prudent to make plans to leave, I wasn’t readyto depart Loxby Manor, not when Piers and I were so close to figuring out the mystery surrounding Seline.

I took the letter to my bedchamber and settled comfortably onto the window seat. Carefully I broke the wax seal and unfoldedthe paper. To my great surprise, a second letter fell from the inner pocket of the first, onto the floor. What on earth? Ihesitated before recovering the small interior note, lost as to who might have included one with my mother’s.

I turned the paper over. Arthur?

I tore into the second seal. Arthur had indeed dashed off a note to me. I recognized his stilted handwriting at once. Thoughhe’d written to me before, it had only been the one time to tell me he’d settled in America. I glanced at the window. Whatwould prompt him to do so now?

Charity,

Mama is wholly unaware of my including this note within her letter, and I would prefer she and the Cavanaghs remain in the dark. It was a decided risk, but I thought it might go unremarked hidden as it was.

I write to beg you to be careful. There is much you don’t know about the people who reside at Loxby Manor. I had no idea you were to spend the year there, or I never would have let you go. As soon as you can arrange passage to America, do so and straightaway, but tell no one of your plans. I dare not say any more in writing. Trust no one.

Your loving brother,

Arthur

Chapter 18

Arthur had been right. There was a great deal more going on at Loxby Manor than people were aware of. What he knew, I couldn’tguess, but now was not the time to book passage to America. I had to get answers first—for Seline. And Piers would protectme.

The Cavanaghs had received a letter as well from Piers’s uncle Charles, which only intensified my need to speak with Kendalalone. It seemed Uncle Charles had found nothing. Seline had truly vanished.

My only chance for answers was to attend Lord Kendal’s ball.

I donned my best evening gown that night, a round robe of gold crepe laid over a white satin slip with bows decorating eachshoulder. I gave my maid free rein with my hair, which she divided down the middle, then swept up in a beautiful coiffureatop my head, leaving a few loose curls on either side of my forehead.

I thought the resulting creation rather attractive. I’d not worn my hair in such a way before, but it did little to squelchmy concerns. Not only was I expected to lure Lord Kendal into the garden for a walk, which could only be considered presumptuousof me, but there was Arthur’s warning in the letter. And Mr. Cavanagh’s words about Piers were never far from my mind.

Had he truly loved me before I left for Ceylon? He’d never said so, not exactly. I knew he cared for me a great deal, and I him. He’d risked everything for me. But after I received his letter so long ago, my memories had shifted. It was so easy to convince myself I’d been nothing more than an enjoyable distraction. Avery and Seline had certainly echoed my thoughts by the tone of their letters.

Piers, however, was not a man to be distracted by anyone. I knew that now. Really, I knew it then. Just one more reason Iadored him. I stared at my reflection in the looking glass. Somewhere along the way the girl of five years ago had turnedinto a woman—a damaged one. I touched my pale cheek, startled by the warmth beneath my fingertips.

I swiped a bit of powder across my nose. If I was to understand the Piers of today, I had to understand everything that happenedto him the years I was away. So much of the scandal that rocked the Cavanagh family rested firmly at my feet, but so muchmore had gone on while I was away. What better person to expose what happened than Lord Kendal?

Mrs. Cavanagh had instructed me to join the family in the receiving hall at six o’clock, which is where I found Piers waitingalone, deep in thought, his arm perched on the fireplace mantel. As I took in the stoic figure he presented, I nearly stumbled,grasping the banister to avoid complete embarrassment. He turned at the sound, his brow tugging inward, the pocket watch inhis fingers