A Most Mysterious Gentleman (#1 Sweet Nineteenth Series) VERY SLOW UPDATES

Part 2

Rosalie gaped.

"Father? What ever can you mean?"

Her Father gestured for the valet through the gap in the door. Rosalie quickly covered up as much as possible.

"No-one's to know, and this story needs to be told."

Stephen entered, at least she thought his name was Stephen, and watched bemusedly as Eva blushed madly.

I'll need to see what's going on there later.

"My Lady, he war-erm- as drunk as a sailor last night."

Rosalie blushed madly, had he been regretting their marriage for the next day that much? Though she supposed she had been treating him pretty badly.

"And I woke him this morning, and he was lying in a chair, hadn't even bothered to undress and get into bed-"

He Father interrupted him. "Get on with it man."

Stephen scowled ever-so-slightly before schooling his features.

"Well to put it simply, I woke him up, left him to wash and by the time I was back, he was gone."

Rosalie gaped, was that it? He could have gone for a walk, down to the kitchens, to the cellar for goodness sake for more wine he clearly believed he needed to go through with the ritual today.

Stephen seemed to see her expression. "No Milady, perhaps I didn't speak clearly enough. There was a substantial amount of blood on the floor by his chair."

Rosalie's emotions did a little tumble. "Well did someone take him?"

"I believe so my lady, there was a paperweight on his desk that was covered in blood. I believe they knocked him on the head with it and took him away."

The Duke had been silent but then promptly burst forth, "but there's no possibility of someone could dragging a fully grown man out of here without any person noticing!"

Stephen went a little green. "There's a secret staircase in his office that leads to a tunnel, which in turns leads to an opening in one of the far fields. It was used an escape during the Tudor era."

The Duke sat down heavily. "We have guests arriving in a matter of hours. We can't tell them."

"Why ever not Father?" Rosalie asked.

"Because of the nature of his work." The Duke deliberately did not look her in the eye and she was left wondering what he meant.

"But we could send out a search party-"

"Oh for heavens sake Rosalie, where would we start to look?"

"Well- they can't have gotten too far, how long ago did you leave him?"

Stephen looked shamefaced again. "A couple of hours."

"Gad's man," her father went a little red in the face, "why did you only tell us now?"

"Because I didn't look close enough to see the blood my lord. He'd been," he looked at Rosalie apologetically, "a little resentful recently."

Rosalie bristled, uncomfortable and even a little hurt.

"He's a man with a quick temper, although he usually controls it with exercise. So I thought he'd gone for a ride, or even a walk."

"But it was not so?" The Duke asked.

"No, I asked about him in the Stables and he would never walk for so long when he had jobs to do, he's a good man, he never puts his wants first over others."