Free Captured Love by Jane Lark

well, I will accept him, but you must come and speak with him in front of
me, and let me see how you are together.”
    She nodded, then hugged him.
    ~
    Once the settlement was agreed, Rupert left Rowena and
Kendrick alone, leaving the library door ajar. He did not know what to think of
this. Rowena seemed happy, and her happiness was what he wished for. He’d heard
nothing bad of Kendrick, and yet it simply did not feel right. He looked for
Meredith.
    She was not in the breakfast room.
    “Has Lady Morton already eaten, Owens?” he asked in
the hall, glancing toward the stairs and wondering if she was still in bed.
    “My Lady has gone out, sir.”
    “Out?”
    “Yes, sir, a few
moments ago, and in a hurry.”
    Rupert’s brow furrowed. “In the
carriage?”
    “No, sir, Lady Morton received a letter and then left
on foot a few moments later.”
    “Did she say where she was going?”
    “No, my lord.”
    Why had she gone out? He felt desolate to think she
would go without a word to him. And then he felt ridiculous; how utterly
foolish to make a fuss over his wife going out during the day.
    He stood in the hall, not knowing which way to turn. Normally
by now he would be preparing to go out himself, yet he did not wish to leave.
He wanted to see Meredith and discuss his concerns over Rowena.
    He’d not eaten yet, he remembered. He decided to do
that. Then, when Kendrick left, he could ask Rowena if she knew where Meredith
may have gone. Meredith should not have walked out alone. If he knew where she’d
gone, he could find her and at least accompany her home.
    But Rowena did not know.
    “She has no other friends, Rupert,” Rowena said half an
hour later. “I can think of nowhere she might have gone. The other girls always
tease her about being my charity case. No one else likes her. People have only
ever suffered her presence because of her father’s money-making scheme in
America. Their parents have invested with him. No one would even let her
through the door, if it weren’t for the fact they had a financial agreement
with her father. She is considered a necessary evil. Did you not know?”
    No, he had not known. “Is that why she clung to you so
much?”
    Rowena smiled. “I thought you knew. I thought that was
why you disliked her, too.”
    “I disliked her because I thought she was using your
friendship.”
    “Only as
friendship, Rupert. She
was not even using me to get to you. Not as you think. I doubted her at first,
after what happened. But she was not. ”
    “I do not think she was anymore either, Rowena. But if
she has no one to call upon, then where has she gone?”
    Rowena shrugged. “To her father’s?”
    He would go there. “Thank you. Are you going up to
tell Mama about Kendrick?”
    She nodded.
    “Then tell her I’ll speak to her later.”
    Rowena kissed him before she left the room. Rupert sent
a footman for his hat. He felt strange today, and guilty.
    He put his gloves on, and took his hat, and was just
about to turn to leave, when the doorknocker struck again.
    Owens looked at Rupert.
    “Open it,” Rupert said quietly.
    He was surprised, though, when Meredith and her father
came through the door. “Meredith? I was coming to find you...”
    “I —”
    “May I speak with you in private, Morton?” Her father
gave Meredith no chance to answer. Rupert did not give the man his attention, instead he continued looking at Meredith. She was
excessively pale, and she looked afraid. In fact, she looked just the same as when
she’d arrived with her father at the church. Divine gripped Meredith’s arm, too,
just as he’d done at the church.
    Rupert wondered what her life had been like before
she’d married him. He suspected she’d been as unhappy at home as he’d been in
his childhood, except of course he’d had Rowena. Rowena was much younger, yet
she’d been a reason to endure. He supposed Meredith’s reason to endure had been
knowing one day she would marry... No wonder she had chosen