The Captain's Kidnapped Beauty. Mary Nichols

whole house needed painting, ill-fitting doors needed replacing, rattling windows must be refitted and re-glazed and new carpets, curtains, furniture and kitchen utensils purchased. Apart from one or two good quality items of furniture and some pictures and ornaments, the rest would have to go. When all was done, he must decide how many servants he needed, but that could wait until the work was finished and Mrs Wharton would see to the hiring of them.

      ‘Lord Leinster has been making preliminary enquiries,’ he answered his mother. ‘but I have done this kind of thing before and James thinks I am the best person to undertake the task’

      ‘Do they know who has her?’

      ‘No, that is for me to discover. Mama, do you wish me to leave you here, or shall you go home? I can take you if you do, but you must be ready to leave in an hour.’

      ‘I shall be ready. I do not want to stay here without you. This is your home, not mine, and I miss my little cat, and the church. But can you leave the refurbishment here unattended?’

      ‘It is not urgent. Mr Boniface and Mr and Mrs Wharton will carry the work forward in my absence. I will return as soon as I have Miss Gilpin safely back with her father.’

      Mrs Carstairs hurried to tell her maid to pack as quickly as possible and stayed to help her, while Alex sent a man ahead on horseback to bespeak post horses. He had come to Foxlees at a leisurely pace, using the same horses throughout, but he was in too much haste to return the same way. The greys would be sent back to the Manor from their first stop and the new groom would look after them until he returned. After that he went round the house with Mr Wharton, pointing out things that needed to be done in his absence. Within the hour they were on their way.

      Alex sat back in the coach, glad that he had purchased a well-built vehicle because Davy was driving at a spanking pace and they were being thrown from side to side over the bumpy roads.

      ‘Mama, is the jolting too much for you?’ he asked. ‘Shall I have Davy slow down?’

      ‘No, I know you are in a hurry. Do not mind me.’

      ‘Betty?’ he queried, addressing the maid.

      Betty was looking very white, but she managed a wan smile. ‘I wish only for the journey to be over, my lord, so by all means make haste.’

      Alex sank back into his seat, contemplating the task ahead of him. The letter had said nothing about how Miss Gilpin had been kidnapped, nor if there had been a ransom letter. It was usually the ransom letter that furnished the first clue about where a kidnapped victim was being held. Without one the case would be doubly difficult.

      He found himself wondering how Miss Gilpin had come to be taken. Had she gone out alone after his warning about the dangers? How he wished he had defied her wishes and told Henry Gilpin what had happened in Hyde Park. He felt a surge of guilt that he had not done so, for if he had, her father would have made sure she was always escorted and she might not now be in the hands of abductors.

      He found himself imagining all manner of horrors: Miss Gilpin manhandled, struck perhaps, even molested. He shuddered at the thought of that beautiful, proud, self-assured woman being subjected to that. His heart went out to her and he felt the anger bubble inside him, not only anger for her abductors, but anger at Henry Gilpin. The man had more or less abandoned her at Lady Milgrove’s concert, which both he and Jonathan had thought was strange. She would have come to no harm there, but was it an example of the off-hand way he had of dealing with his daughter? Did he think she could be treated like a son? Alex smiled inwardly at that; Miss Gilpin herself would undoubtedly accept that as her due, even been glad of it. He would wager she was not feeling glad now. She would be frightened, unless, of course she had manufactured the abduction herself, perhaps to meet a lover who did not meet her father’s strict provisos.

      Could they have taken themselves off to Gretna Green, where the law requiring three weeks’ notice of a marriage at the churches of both bride and groom did not apply? It would not be the first time he had chased after a kidnap victim to discover she had not been kidnapped, but had run away. Somehow he did not think that would apply to Miss Gilpin. He thought she would always face up to her problems. What did apply? His brain went round and round all the possibilities and he wished the coach could take to the air and fly.

      ‘You are very worried about her, are you not?’ his mother interrupted his thoughts.

      ‘Yes. I cannot help feeling guilty. I foresaw what might happen and I did nothing to prevent it.’

      ‘How could you have prevented it? You were not even there.’

      Alex explained what had happened in Hyde Park. ‘I felt sure they would try again and I begged Miss Gilpin not to go out alone any more.’

      ‘If she did not heed your advice, that is surely not your fault. She is a veritable hoyden by the sound of it.’

      ‘She is opinionated and independent, that is true, but she is still a young woman and deserving of protection.’