Chapter 18

Miss Morgan must be a better friend to Lady Mercy than Nicholas had previously thought. For when he met Lady Mercy and her family at the Zoological Garden two days after his house visit, Miss Morgan and Lady Yolten were once again in her family's company. The three young ladies stood together in a group, eyes shining as they watched the llamas eat the hay that was laid out before them. Nicholas should join them, but he kept his distance for the moment, but he couldn't focus on the long hair and beady eyes of the llamas in front of him. His eyes kept drifting to Miss Morgan. Why was she here with Lady Mercy and her parents? Again?

And she was acting so strange. Just as she had been at the Driarwood home, she hadn't tried to speak with him, nor had she tried to manipulate or control the conversation around Patience.

Lady Yolten caught Nicholas's eye and strode toward him. "It is interesting, isn't it?" Lady Yolten had a fast and comfortable way of speaking. "The different animals that can be found around the world. Some are so foreign, it is hard to imagine them existing at all, and yet, here they are, in the Zoological Garden. It's as if they were waiting for us to discover them and admit that perhaps, here in England, we do not know everything that is to be known in the world."

Nicholas chuckled. "Don't let Lord John Russell hear you speaking such blasphemies."

Lady Yolten's eyes glanced skyward. "If I were to meet him, that is the last thing I would tell him. First I would let him know that he needs to clean up the Thames."

"Shall I convey that message to him the next time I see him?"

Lady Yolten blinked in a blatant attempt at innocence. "You would do that for me?"

"Most likely not," Nicholas answered honestly. "But I have spoken with him about it several times for myself."

Lady Yolten gave him a strange look. "You have?"

Nicholas frowned. Was that so hard for Lady Yolten to believe? "Of course. It isn't healthy for anyone."

Lady Yolten's eyes searched his face for a moment, then forced a garbled laugh from her throat, as if she were trying to change the subject. "Mercy is much too enthralled with these llamas. I have heard enough of her stories. Lord and Lady Driarwood have already left us to see the giraffes, and I think we should join them. Who knows when Lady Mercy will finish her descriptions of their stomachs and chewing habits with poor Miss Morgan?"

Nicholas glanced at Lady Mercy. Her hands were in the air, her face alight, as she explained something to Miss Morgan that obviously fascinated her. The corners of his mouth raised, and he wished for nothing more than to join the two women and hear what Lady Mercy found so exciting about the animals' stomachs. But that would also mean standing with Miss Morgan, and Patience hadn't yet had the chance to speak to Lady Mercy about her courtship with Ottersby. He would much rather not have that conversation started by Miss Morgan.

Nicholas turned to Lady Yolten and nodded. Lord and Lady Driarwood were already at least twenty feet down the path toward the giraffes. He extended his arm, and Lady Yolten took it.

They walked together in comfortable silence for several minutes before Lady Yolten spoke. "So you want to help the Irish and clean up the Thames. Any chance you would like to tell me something nefarious about yourself to make me feel better about my lack of aspiration?"

Nicholas scoffed. "I'm hardly a saint. Trust me."

Lady Yolten sighed deeply. "I'm afraid I am going to have to trust you on that. As much as I would really rather have proof."

"You want proof of my nefariousness? When I am courting your purported best friend?"

"As Yolty likes to tell me, I don't always make a lot of sense."

"Yes, well, Lord Yolten doesn't seem to mind. He is disgustingly happy with you."

Lady Yolten winked at him. "Being disgustingly happy is our specialty. You should try it sometime."

Nicholas's mouth quirked. Disgustingly happy was exactly what he was planning to be.

Lady Yolten stopped them a few moments later so they could investigate some dark-green shrubbery. "That would be perfect in my garden. Do you know what it is?"

"I'm afraid all my plant knowledge revolves around crops. I haven't the faintest idea."

She spent a few minutes explaining what made that particular plant unique from every other shrub they'd passed before Nicholas finally plucked a stem from it. "We will ask one of the caretakers. They are certain to know the name of this miraculous foliage."

Lady Yolten smiled. "Brilliant." Before long, they rounded a tree-lined corner, and the giraffe house came into view. And so did a running Miss Morgan.

And she was alone.

Nicholas's feet froze to the ground, a sickening tightness darkened the world. He hadn't felt this much foreboding since the day Patience came tear-streaked into his study, unable to put a voice to the devastating news of their father's passing.

His eyes frantically searched the path behind Miss Morgan, but Lady Mercy was nowhere to be seen. Her parents weren't visible either; they must have already entered the viewing area of the giraffe house.

Miss Morgan slowed when she got within earshot. "Did Lady Mercy come this way?" she asked, out of breath.

Nicholas's vision tunneled to the space surrounding Miss Morgan. He should have known. He should have said something immediately when he learned that Miss Morgan would be joining them. If she was near, there would always be trouble. His only mistake had been assuming the trouble would be with him. "She isn't with you?" Each word out of Nicholas's mouth sounded like they had been chiseled from stone. There was no warmth in his voice, only sharpness and unyielding command. "We left the two of you together."

"I know." Miss Morgan looked as though she were about to cry, but he'd seen her summon stronger emotions with less preparation. "But she was going on and on about the llamas, and yes, they are fascinating, but also, I knew you were going to the giraffe house, and I did so want to see the giraffes."

"So, you left her there? Alone?" He was already darting back toward the llama house.

Miss Morgan's face turned to a pout. "I didn't leave her there. I started meandering this way in hopes that she would understand my meaning, but when I turned around, she was gone. I thought, perhaps, she had taken the other, longer path to the giraffe house, but it looks as though she isn't here. Unless... Is she with her parents? Could she have beaten you there and joined them?"

"No, we would have seen her if she'd come our way, and we can see you ran the other way around and would have overtaken her unless she'd also run," Lady Yolten said. "And she would have no reason to."

Blast. It didn't matter how it had happened, only that Lady Mercy was alone, without a chaperone or any protection. Inside the Zoological Garden, she should be safe, but if she made her way back out to Regent's Park, anyone could cross her path.

He turned around. He started with a brisk walk, then, with a curse under his breath, he ran. It was only a few minutes before the path turned and the llama house came into view, but just as Miss Morgan had said, Lady Mercy was nowhere to be seen.

"Lady Mercy!" he called out, but only the sounds of the park around him answered back. He dashed to the doorway and looked inside. Three llamas turned their heads and looked curiously back at him, but she wasn't there either. He looked down the path that Miss Morgan had taken and strode toward it. The curve of the trees outlining the walkway made it nearly impossible to see more than ten feet in front of him. He started running again, pulling at his cravat. Sometimes he hated that deuced thing. Who invented such a torture device?

After a few moments of jogging, a woman came into view.

But it was not Lady Mercy.

It was Miss Morgan.

Again. She had made the loop from the giraffe house in the opposite direction.

He pulled at his cravat again. "Did you find her?"

Miss Morgan shook her head. "No, but I wanted to help. I thought, perhaps, if I retraced my steps, we would know at least where she wasn't."

"And there was no sign of her?" It was a stupid question—if there had been, she would have already told him.

"No," Miss Morgan said slower this time, as if she wanted to make certain he understood. "You checked the llama house?"

"Yes. She isn't there." Nicholas closed his eyes. He had lost Lady Mercy, and now he was alone with Miss Morgan. This day could not get any worse. He opened his eyes. Miss Morgan had somehow managed to silently creep forward and was now no more than two feet away from him.

Nicholas started and took a quick step back. "Why are you here?"

Miss Morgan blinked her wide eyes in innocence. "I'm looking for Lady Mercy."

"I mean here, today. Why are you at the gardens?"

"Lady Yolten invited me."

That was only half an answer, and they both knew it. "Because the two of you are such great friends?"

"We are."

Since when? Ottersby would know. He had done anything and everything to try to wed Miss Morgan before Patience came into his life. Getting to know her close friends would have been high on his list of tasks. Did Miss Morgan know secrets about Lady Yolten she was trying to leverage into damaging Lady Mercy?

Miss Morgan's lips made a perfect pout. "Don't you want me here? You don't think I would tell the Driarwoods about Patience, do you?"

Nicholas gritted his teeth. "She is Lady Ottersby."

Miss Morgan laughed, and the sound echoed through the zoo. If Lady Mercy was nearby, she would find them laughing and talking instead of looking for her. He strode down the path in the same direction he'd been going. Perhaps there was a turnoff Miss Morgan had missed.

Miss Morgan quickly caught up to him. "I've always thought that Ottersby is a silly name. I have a hard time using it. Especially with someone I thought was a maid."

Nicholas had nearly grown used to it. It was one thing for him to think it silly, but a completely different matter for Miss Morgan to say so. He didn't slow his pace but turned his head toward her. "It's not really silly."

Another laugh escaped her lips and this one sounded false, as if she were performing in a home production of one of Shakespeare's comedies. "It is almost as if you were upset with the man when you helped him get the title."

He had been upset with Ottersby. He had spent the better part of a few months receiving long, detailed apologies and proposals about courting Patience nearly every day. "Your point is?"

"My point is..." Miss Morgan softened her tone, and her hand went to his elbow. She tugged on it slightly, as if inviting him to slow down so she could keep up with him, but he ignored the gesture. "I would never tell them. Lady Yolten is a friend of mine. You, I hope, are still a friend of mine. I would never want to hurt you or anyone around you. I'm happy our circles of friends are joining together. Perhaps we will be able to see more of each other."

He grunted in response, and they walked another few feet in silence.

"She doesn't want to marry you, you know."

"What?"

"Lady Mercy. She doesn't want to marry you."

He was not about to discuss his relationship with Lady Mercy with Miss Morgan. "Then it is a good thing I have not proposed to her. I'd appreciate you not becoming involved in my courtship." His jaw clenched tighter, and a pain emerged behind his right ear.

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of becoming involved. I simply thought you should know. I'd had no idea Lord Ottersby no longer wanted to marry me, and the shock when he found another woman—"

"Be careful, Miss Morgan." His voice was nearly a growl. "That other woman is my sister."

Miss Morgan made a sound like a puff of air blowing out of a fireplace bellows. "I simply thought you should know. That's all."

He doubted there was anything simple about her thinking. Miss Morgan was a master manipulator. Someone whose word meant little to nothing. A walkway opened to their right. "Did you check down this path?"

"No. I assumed she would go the direction of the giraffe house. But she must be down that path. Where else could she have gone?"

Nicholas was inclined to agree with her, but the narrow track led deep into the trees, the farther the two of them went, the more isolated and secluded they would become. Was it better to split up and find Lady Mercy on his own or search with a female companion? He had half a mind to return to the giraffe house and beg Lord and Lady Driarwood to join them in the search. But if they did that, they might miss Lady Mercy.

No part of him wanted to move away from where Lady Mercy could be, so he pressed forward without suggesting they should find more people to accompany them on their search. They stomped ahead, both looking around corners and behind bushes.

"What if she climbed a tree?" Miss Morgan asked, looking up at the canopied oak trees above them.

"I highly doubt Lady Mercy would have climbed a tree."

"It was only a thought," Miss Morgan said.

Nicholas shook his head, but he wasn't going to argue with her. He continued to look for Lady Mercy in some of the animal exhibits and small alcoves that cropped up along their path.

"Oh, what is—"

Miss Morgan was looking up and pointing at something hiding in the branches of an ancient-looking pine. He narrowed his eyes but couldn't spot anything in the dark canopy of needles.

"Oh!" Miss Morgan exclaimed, and the shock in her voice made him turn. He only got a quick glance at her before she was careening forward, her feet behind her and her arms outstretched.

He put his arms out to catch her, but he was too slow, and her gloved hands raked across his face. Her fingers snagged his mouth and dragged down his chin until they reached his cravat and took hold of it.

Nicholas made a strangled sound, and Miss Morgan tumbled into him.

As soon as Miss Morgan's feet were steady, he pulled her hand off his cravat and pushed away from her. "Pardon," he said almost automatically, then dragged a hand over his lips to inspect for blood. Thankfully her gloves had protected him from her nails, and his hand came away clean. He shook his head, cursing the fact that he hadn't sent her back to get Lord and Lady Driarwood. "Perhaps you should abandon the idea of Lady Mercy being in trees and keep an eye on the path in front of your feet, Miss Morgan."

Her response was a laugh. "Your Grace, I'm dreadfully sorry," she managed to get out between giggles.

"It was an accident."

"But what an accident." She pulled on his elbow, forcing him to stop and turn toward her. "Let me fix your cravat at least. I'm afraid I've rather spoiled it." Miss Morgan reached for his neck.

Nicholas put a hand up and stopped her. "No. In fact, I think we should return to the giraffe house and continue our search from there, with Lady Mercy's parents."

"But we haven't looked down those two paths."

He glanced forward, where, certainly enough, their course opened to two other pathways besides the one heading to the giraffe house. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He hated to leave Miss Morgan alone, but even worse would be to stay with her. He wasn't entirely certain her falling and catching hold of his cravat was a mistake, and the stinging on his face wasn't helping his mood.

"I'll take the one on the right."

"No." Miss Morgan looked at both paths. "I'll take that one. It will lead back to the giraffe house sooner. Why don't you take the one on the left?"

He would take any path in order to be rid of her. He simply nodded and stalked away.