Free Mally : Signet Regency Romance (9781101568057) by Sandra Heath Page A

innkeeper had married again. Anyway it was there come the morning. No one saw the gentleman or the young lady. So that’s it, I’m afraid, the trail has run out. I tried, I offered various sums to various people, but they just did not know.”
    â€œAnd no one could give a better description of the gentleman other than that he was tall, dark, and not particularly fashionable?”
    â€œNo, madam. When he hired the phaeton at Gloucester it was a wet day and the man wore his hat well down and a cloak which flapped around him like a live thing. Hid anything of notice about him fairly sure.” Mr. Paulington got to his feet. “To my mind, Mrs. St. Aubrey, it seems certain that your sister knew this man before she left Llanglyn and that the full intention was to run off with him. The fiddling around at London and so on was just to throw off any trail—they were not to know that
I
would be following them.” He sniffed proudly.
    â€œThey still succeeded in the end, didn’t they?”
    â€œEh? Well, yes, I suppose I must admit that. Though I
could
go back and try—” Then he shook his head. “No, it’d be more than any needle in any haystack you care to mention. There’s roads in and out of Hereford like nobody’s business, and the night’s long this time of year, they could have gone
any
where. I have to admit defeat, Mrs. St. Aubrey, much as it grieves me to say so.”
    Mally opened her reticule, where she had earlier placed a sum with which to pay him. “Thank you, Mr. Paulington.”
    â€œI only wish—”
    â€œNot to worry, no doubt in her own good time my sister will return to us. Thank you again, Mr. Paulington.”
    â€œThank
you,
Mrs. St. Aubrey.”
    She heard the front doors close after him, and then she left the library and went into the drawing room.
    â€œOh, there you are, Mother. How do I look?” She smiled brightly, much more brightly than she felt.
    Mrs. Berrisford put down the eternal crochet work. “Oh, most perfect, Marigold,
most
perfect. Sir Christopher will surely fall in love with you all over again.”
    Mally went to the table where Digby had earlier placed a decanter of Malmsey. She poured two glasses of it, more to give herself a moment to consider than because she wanted a drink. What should she tell her mother? Maria had eloped, and had given not one thought to the misery she caused her mother. And it would appear that the man came from somewhere reasonably close to Llanglyn, for why else would the trail end in Hereford? Perhaps he was already known to her mother— Anything was possible. But who was the other man searching for Maria? The decanter rattled against the glasses, for her hand was shaking. Well, whatever it was all about, for the moment the main thing was to reassure her mother.
    â€œMother, I have just been speaking with Mr. Paulington.”
    â€œOh, dear. It’s not going to be bad news, is it? Oh, it is, I can see it in your eyes, you’ve something
dreadful
to impart!” The crochet slipped to the floor as Mrs. Berrisford’s hands flew to her mouth.
    â€œNo, no, Mother, don’t immediately think the worst like that. Listen now.” Mally crouched beside her mother’s chair and put the glasses on the floor. “I think we have to accept that Maria has eloped. She was met by a gentleman at Cirencester and drove off in his phaeton with him.” Best let the trail end at Cirencester—
    â€œA
gentle
man?”
    â€œYes. Not a leviathan of the
haut ton,
I fancy, but nonetheless a gentleman.”
    Mrs. Berrisford searched her face with hurt expression. “But why could she not have left word? Or sent word? Why leave me to worry so, especially when she knew I was already upset about poor, dear Agatha. I did not think she could be so cruel to her own mother.”
    â€œOh, you know Maria. She just probably did not think—and she was upset