‘That’s what beats me,’ confessed Rupert. ‘Not but what I never thought to find her here. But if she’s not, why is Vidal? That’s what I don’t understand. Now, I’ve been talking to the grooms. All I can find is that Vidal left Paris by the Port Royal to-day. Naturally, I don’t like to ask ’em point-blank if he’d a wench with him, and none of ’em –’
‘Why not?’ interrupted the Duchess.
‘Burn it, you can’t ask lackeys questions like that, Léonie!’
‘I do not see why not. I want to know, and if I do not ask who will tell me?’
‘They’ll never tell you, anyway, my dear,’ his lordship informed her.
Dinner was over when Fletcher at last put in an appearance, and Rupert and Léonie had repaired to the library. Fletcher came in, sedate as ever, and begged her grace’s pardon for having been out when she arrived. Léonie brushed that aside, and once more demanded to know her son’s whereabouts.
‘I think, your grace,’ he answered guardedly, ‘that his lordship has gone to Dijon.’
Lord Rupert stared at him. ‘What in the fiend’s name does he want in Dijon?’ he asked.
‘His lordship did not tell me, my lord.’
Léonie smote her hands together. ‘Voyons, I find it insupportable that no one can tell me anything about my son! Speak, you! Was that girl with M. le Marquis? – No, I will not be quiet, Rupert! Was she with him, Fletcher?’
‘I beg your grace’s pardon?’ Mr Fletcher was all polite bewilderment.
‘Do not beg my pardon again, or I shall become enraged!’ Léonie said dangerously. ‘It is no use to tell me you do not know of any girl, for me I am well aware that M. le Marquis had one with him when he left England. That is not a thing extraordinary. It is true, is it not?’
Mr Fletcher cast an appealing glance at Lord Rupert, who said testily: ‘Don’t stare at me, man! We know the girl was with his lordship.’
Mr Fletcher bowed. ‘As your lordship says.’
‘Well, has she gone to Dijon?’
‘I could not say, my lord.’
Léonie eyed him with hostility. ‘Did she leave this house with M. le Marquis?’
‘No, your grace. She was not with his lordship when he set forward on his journey.’
‘There you go, my dear!’ said Rupert. ‘Vidal’s got rid of her, and we may as well go home again before Avon gets wind of the affair.’
Léonie told Mr Fletcher he might go, and when the door had closed behind him, she turned to Rupert with an expression of great anxiety on her face. ‘Rupert, it becomes more and more serious!’
‘Devil a bit!’ said his lordship cheerfully. ‘You can’t get away from it, the girl’s not with Vidal now, so I don’t see we’ve aught to worry over!’
‘But Rupert, you do not understand at all! I have a very big fear that Dominique may have cast her off – in a rage, tu sais.’
Lord Rupert disposed his limbs more comfortably in his chair. ‘I shouldn’t wonder if he had,’ he agreed. ‘It don’t concern us, thank the Lord!’
Léonie got up, and began to move about the room. ‘If he has done that it is a crime one does not forgive. I must find her.’
Lord Rupert blinked. ‘If she ain’t with that precious son of yours what do you want with her now?’ he inquired.
‘Do you think I will permit my son to abandon a girl in Paris?’ Léonie said fiercely. ‘That is noble, yes! I tell you, I have been alone in a great city and there is nothing I do not know of what may happen to a girl who has no protector.’
‘But you said this wench was a –’
‘I may have said it, but that was because I was angry. I do not know what she is, and I will find her immediately. If Dominique has done her a wrong he shall marry her.’
Lord Rupert clasped his head in his hands. ‘Hang me, if I know what you’re about, Léonie!’ he said. ‘Here’s me dragged out of England to help you save the Cub from an adventuress, as I thought, and now you say the boy’s to marry her!’
Léonie paid not the slightest heed to this. She went on pacing the room until suddenly an idea came to her, and she stopped short. ‘Rupert, Juliana is in Paris!’