“A handsome young man,” Anna added, once again with that silly chuckle. “He seems to speak of you in very intimate terms. We had no idea that you were so close to such a gentleman.”
“Ah,” Lydia said with a sigh. “I am not close to anyone, especially not any gentlemen. We are simply friends.” Then, Lydia realized that this would not be even nearly enough of an explanation to satiate her sisters’ curiosity regarding the Duke. She had to come up with something else, something much more plausible.
“He is helping me with a pamphlet I am writing for the Women’s Suffrage Society,” Lydia quickly resorted to the first thing that popped to mind.
She had indeed been very active for the past two years, but in the last several months, her activity has diminished, due to the fact that she was focusing more on her sisters and their prospects of upcoming marriage.
“Helping, you say?” Selina teased.
“Yes, helping,” Lydia frowned, but there was no ill will behind it. It was simply how girls were, how her sisters were. “Now, if you will excuse me, I need to make my hair look decent if I am to see any visitors.”
“He is waiting for you in the drawing room,” Selina added as the two headed to the door. Selina then lingered for one more comment. “Make yourself look very nice, Lydia. He is fetchingly handsome!”
Another bout of giggling, and Lydia was once again alone with her thoughts and her own reflection in the mirror. She quickly pulled her hair up into a simple chignon then made sure that every hair was in its place. Her dress was not the simplest of the ones she had in her wardrobe, but now, she regretted not wearing something… well, nicer.
Why on earth does it matter what you are wearing?A little voice asked because it knew exactly why. She also knew. She simply refused to admit it.
Stubbornly, she refused to change into a more fashionable gown and descended the stairs, heading straight for the drawing room. She opened the door, and immediately upon seeing her, Edwin jumped up from his seat.
“Lydia,” he smiled, walking over to her then taking her hand and planting a soft kiss upon it. It almost made her blush.Almost.It took all of her conscious effort to remind herself that his kisses mean nothing. It is was merely something done out of propriety. Nothing else.
“Your Grace,” she smiled back. Then he frowned. She knew why, so she corrected herself. “Edwin.” He smiled again at hearing his name. “To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you so early in the morning?”
“Here,” he said instead of a reply to her question. He offered her the newspapers which he was holding up until that moment in his hand. She looked at it then took it. “The front page,” he instructed.
She did as she was told then she gasped at what she read.
“Another lady disappeared?” she asked, almost unable to say the words aloud.
“Mhm,” he nodded. “We need to go and speak to her family.”
“Do you think that they will want to talk to us about this?” Lydia pondered. She could not imagine them being in any mood to share such intimate details with a stranger.
“I doubt it,” Edwin replied honestly. “Perhaps they will if we tell them the truth, that my sister is missing, and we can ask them if their daughter was courted by a secret admirer.”
Lydia sighed. “That doesn’t sound like something one would share with just anyone.”
“Their daughter and sister disappeared,” Edwin pointed out. “Just like Rachel. At first, I didn’t want to talk about her disappearance with anyone other than the constables Then, I realized that the constables were incapable of helping me. I had to help myself. I had to help Rachel. But I can’t do it alone. I’ve learned that after two years of making the same mistakes. Perhaps if I tell them all of this, they might understand and not make the same mistakes as me.”
Lydia listened to his words which possessed so much wisdom. That kind of wisdom could only come from great heartache. There was no other source for it.
“Do you want me to accompany you?” she inquired, hoping with all of her heart that he would say yes.
He smiled. “If I didn’t want that, I would not be here.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. Her mind was swarming with potential responses, then the door barged open, and her two sisters appeared. They were more serious this time, lacking that silly giggling. Lydia was grateful for that. She introduced them to the Duke and explained that they needed to head to the Women’s Suffrage Movement headquarters downtown because of that pamphlet. Edwin understood immediately and merely nodded, not adding anything. Even Selina and Anna seemed satisfied with that explanation.
Lydia sighed with relief as she closed the door to the carriage which took them to a family who might have some answers for them.
* * *
“Thank you for tea,” Edwin heard Lydia say in an effort to soften the fact that their presence in this home was utterly unwanted.
He could see that the family was unwilling to divulge much regarding the disappearance of one Miss Geraldine Livingstone. However, propriety demanded of them never to banish anyone from their home, at least not until the designated half an hour had passed. Edwin figured that was more or less how much time he and Lydia had to find out as much as they could.
The father of the family was the one who did most of the talking. There was an older sister, who was seated by the ever-silent mother, who had a handkerchief pressed to the corner of her eye at all times. The younger brother was seated by the father, occasionally adding something, but once his father gave him a look, he withdrew as well.
“The last thing we wish is to disturb you in your time of trouble,” Edwin tried to be as gentle as possible, thinking of himself and how he would have wished to be approached on such a delicate matter. “But I was hoping to find out more about Miss. Geraldine’s disappearance because the same thing happened to my sister as well.”