“All I remember is McCaslin beating on the door, telling us to go down the back stairs because there were stevedores awaiting their turn in the parlor.” Nicholas Northwood had apparently overslept, but he looked no more recovered than his two friends. As he brushed his hair from his haggard face, his hand shook. “I have no idea how I ended up at home in my own bed, but before we left, someone assured us Miss Beddow’s driver had taken Jason home. We would never have left him behind!” he insisted. “What sort of louts do you take us for?”
Rubio’s gaze didn’t waver. His disdain filled the narrow hallway. “My opinions don’t matter,” he replied in an ominous tone. “What you recall about last night not only determines what happens here in the next few minutes, but it may well set my sister’s future. Details, man! At what time did you last see Jason?”
The three hungover friends glanced helplessly at each other. “Was it midnight? Or closer to—”
“Two, it was!” Nicholas piped up. “The bell tolled the hour when we got to the door and Jason tried to beg off. Remember?”
Rubio crossed his arms. “So it might have been, what? Three, or half past, when you staggered out of those rooms? Why do I suspect this impressive pack of Romeos paid to sleep in those ladies’ beds?”
As their stricken faces betrayed this very possibility, Jude listened closely. If Jason had arrived at the whorehouse in the wee hours, how likely was it that Miss Amelia had planned to go to Brighton today? His father’s expression said he, too, had heard this glaring discrepancy—and that he was fed up with the entire situation.
“This yammering gets us nowhere,” Lord Darington snapped. “We have waited half an hour and still have no idea where the groom is. Meanwhile our friends are making up their own stories in the sanctuary. If the organist plays that song one more time I’ll bloody well knock her off the bench!”
Jude grabbed his father’s arm. “We must first inform Maria and Mum! Consider their wishes—”
“All the wishing in the world won’t get Jason to the altar! If something has happened to my son, this church is the last place we need to be, damn it!” His face grew mottled as he took one last look down the corridor in either direction. “I shall inform our friends of this unfortunate situation and ask them to assist in our manhunt! You may tell your mother and sister. And Maria, of course.”
Jude’s insides constricted. But when his father strode toward the sanctuary, there was nothing else to do but carry out his orders…and bear the brunt of three females’ dismay. He prayed for the right words, damn glad Rubio Palladino walked with him. Maria’s younger brother believed Jason’s fate had gone beyond the revelry of a bachelor party and that Maria would be the one who suffered most, even if she wasn’t showing it.
When Jude stepped into the overheated parlor, the room seemed to hold its breath: two shrill voices stilled and three sets of eyes drilled him. “Father is in the sanctuary announcing that we must cancel—”
“No! He cannot do this to—no, I say!” Jemma screamed. When she rushed forward as though to strangle him, Willie jumped to the floor. The ferret raced between him and Rubio and out the parlor door. “Father has no right to—”
“Intolerable!” his mother snapped. “Once again that insufferable man has taken it upon himself to wreak havoc! It’s my place to—”
Despite the increase of their volume and pitch—and the way Maria’s face crumpled—Jude smiled to himself. It was his mother’s mission to create a stir wherever she went. As Jemma chased after Willie and Mum followed her, vengeance against Father on her mind, he stepped over to take Maria’s hands. “I’m so sorry this is all whirling like a hurricane—”
“Do we know what might have happened to Jason?” She stood up, blinking bravely, gripping Jude’s fingers as she looked at her brother. “Yesterday afternoon, he was his usual playful self! Declaring his love—fastening this pendant about my neck and proclaiming himself the happiest man on earth. I will not believe he backed out of our wedding!”
“Nor will I, Maria. Father and I encountered…a suspicious story at the parlor house where Jason last went with his friends.”
A bloodcurdling shriek from the sanctuary made them look toward the door.
“My God, there’s a white rat running down the aisle!” someone yelled.
“He’s jumped up my skirts! Sweet Jesus, save me! Save me—ooohhhh!!”
More shrieks and screams followed. Whatever his father had been saying to their assembled guests, Jemma’s ferret had called a halt to his announcement and all hope of having a ceremony. Not even Jason’s appearance would convince the women to stay now. Jude sighed, torn between duty to his family and affection for Maria. “Since Jason’s absent, I should try to catch that infernal little rodent,” he muttered. “If you’ll wait here, Maria, I’ll see you home—”
“I’ll take her.” Rubio slipped a protective arm around his sister’s shoulders, his eyes shining with concern. “We’ll leave now, while the uproar is diverting the guests’ attention. Saves you a lot of explaining, dear sister. Shall we go out the side door?”
She nodded mutely. Her midnight eyes looked huge with unshed tears as she gazed at Jude, and his heart ached for her. “It’s probably best,” he agreed. “I’ll talk with you later—and meanwhile, please believe we will find Jason! This is all a horrible twist of fate, and he is not to blame! He loves you, Maria!” And so do I. More than I can say.
Maria sighed and turned to go, making the exquisite choker wink in the late afternoon light. As he noted her shaking shoulders, and the way even her gown had lost its luster, Jude hoped he’d said the right thing. And he prayed the bejeweled butterfly wouldn’t become a memento of the nightmare this wedding day had become.
6
Maria slumped in the carriage seat, invisible to the crowd departing the church in such haste. At last she allowed the tears to fall, grateful that Rubio held her. She’d heard enough complaints and insinuations from the Darington family to last her a lifetime, yet it was Jason’s voice she needed to hear. Where could he be? What could have happened to him? Never mind that his mother and sister were so wrapped up in their dramas they didn’t care about him. If only she had a way to know her beloved fiancé was all right….
She raised her head. Studied her brother, who looked so handsome today despite the suit that constrained his usual flamboyant style. “What are you not telling me, Rubio? You talked with Jason’s friends! You heard them, and felt their vibrations, yet—”
“Something doesn’t add up. If I speak too soon, I’ll only upset you more.”
“Nonsense! What do you know?” Her voice sounded high and shrill, as though she’d spent too much time around Dora and Jemma. But her brother’s expressive face belied a concern, a puzzlement, that went beyond any pranks pulled at a bachelor party.
Rubio shifted on the seat. Held her hands and closed his eyes…relaxed until his shallow breathing and slow pulse told her he was in a trance state, plumbing the depths of the unseen worlds around them. “Secrets,” he whispered. Then he was still a long time. “I feel the presence of untold stories…of emotions that hide from the light of day. And they involve you, sister.”
She cried more earnestly then. First Jason went missing and now her dear brother accused her of withholding valuable evidence! “If you’re saying I had something to do with Jason’s disappearing, I saw him just yesterday! As I’ve told you, he gave me this pendant as a wedding gift—”
“He was in your bed, was he not?”
Maria’s mouth clapped shut. “We’ve watched over each other since Mama died, Rubio, but that gives you no right to—”
“I am not judging or accusing, Maria. I can feel Jason’s imprint…on your heart and soul, as well