Page 55 of Love and Other Disasters

Sophie was special. Sophie was his.

He’d never let anything, or anyone, come between them. Especially not his own brother.

Jasper wiped his hand on his handkerchief, flipped Sophie over onto her stomach, and slid back into her, ready for round two. Their partnership had to continue.

Chapter Sixteen

Sophie looked under the children’s beds and then in a closet, balancing Isabelle on her hip as she moved through the room. “Thomas? Liam? Where are you?”

There was no answer. No response to any of her calls. At this time of day, almost noon, the children should be hard at work on the lessons she’d left behind and awaiting the delivery of their luncheon. The boys were not in the nursery, but they must be hiding somewhere close by.

The boys had never disappeared from the nursery like this before. But then again, Sophie had always been here with them at this time of day. They must have gone looking for her…and that made her angry with herself.

She had momentarily forgotten her sole reason for being at Ravenswood. Sophie was not a guest who could come and go as she pleased or ignore her responsibilities. She was a governess first.

Giving in to her desires with a rake was always a mistake.

Sophie thrust the child at the confused maid, who had been fast asleep when she’d come in after changing back into her normal clothing. “Take Isabelle to Lord Jasper.”

“Yes, madam. Again, I’m so sorry,” Kate whispered. “I did not know I’d nodded off.”

“The children must have tiptoed out,” she answered, and the maid hurried to scurry away with Isabelle.

Sophie watched her go with a heavy heart. It had been a mistake to entrust anyone here with Lord Nash’s sons. She was sure no harm could come to them on their unchaperoned tour of the large house. But she liked to know where they were at all times.

She retraced her steps to her own chamber, then checked all the rooms until she reached the main staircase. If Thomas and Liam had gone in search of Sophie together, expecting to see her in her own room and not found her there, they must have gone farther afield after that. Perhaps downstairs.

The boys were not on the third floor. There was no reason for them to go up to the attics. Perhaps they’d gone to visit their uncle to ask where she might be.

She rushed down the stairs to the family wing. Kate was just leaving Lord Jasper’s room, her arms empty of the child. Sophie went to his room and knocked at the door, hoping she might find the boys with him.

“Come in,” Jasper called.

She opened his door and poked her head in. Jasper was in the middle of the room, Isabelle held aloft over his head and laughing down at her father. It was a charming scene, to see father and daughter at play, and at any other time she might have stayed to watch them together. But as she took in the rest of the chamber, her hopes of finding her charges were dashed. “Have you seen Thomas and Liam this morning?”

“No. Should I have?”

“I don’t suppose so. Excuse me. I will have to check all the rooms in the family wing. Perhaps they have gone to Lord Nash’s chambers.”

“Sophie!” he called out, but she was already hurrying away and couldn’t stop to explain.

Sophie had never had any reason or desire to enter the remaining bedchambers in the family wing before. This area was private, only for the duke, his brothers, and their immediate servants.

She opened Lord Nash’s door, poked only her head inside and called out the boys’ names.

They didn’t answer, but she darted inside anyway to check under the gigantic bed in case they were hiding there. But they were not, and she got back up, frustrated. It was not like them to hide from her or go where they were not permitted. Their father’s chamber was off-limits to them, as were all others nearby.

She put her hands to her head and then rushed for the door. Thomas had made the decision to assert himself and ignore the rules because his governess had deserted her duties for one night and morning. She backtracked and checked all the rooms in the family wing, even the duke’s grand chambers, which she couldn’t imagine they had cause to enter. They would be in such trouble if they had meddled with anything there.

She met Lord Jasper holding Isabelle on her return to the staircase. “Are you playing a game with the children? We could join you if you like.”

She shook her head. “I’m uncertain if it’s a game.”

“What’s that supposed to mean,” he asked, eyes widening as she ran past him. “Sophie, wait!”

“I can’t find them.” A pit of worry was growing inside her belly. This was not a game, but a danger she’d not expected. In London, children disappeared all the time and were never seen again.

She flew downstairs, ignoring Jasper’s repeated calls to talk to him, checking the library, drawing room, ballroom, cigar room, Jasper’s study, and even the duke’s too. No sign of the children anywhere in the house. From any servant she passed, she received a denial that they’d ever been there. The boys were not in the servants’ hall, where they ought not to go alone, anyway. Certainly not begging treats from the kitchen staff.