“She’s taken Elisabeth!” Maggie cried. “She’s—” Duncan’s face was instantly sober. “Who, Maggie? Who’s taken Elisabeth?”

“Eleanor!” Maggie managed to cry. “She told Cora she had some business with Jamie McKenna—”

Duncan remained thoughtful, and he spoke very slowly. “That means she’s boarding the same ship as Reeve,” he reasoned. “Elisabeth is safe.”

Maggie tried to go around Duncan in pursuit of the child she loved as her own, but he stopped her, holding her fast by the shoulders. “I’ll take you to the wharf,” he said. “I have a carriage right outside.”

“No,” Cora whispered, but nobody paid any attention. Maggie ran to the carriage and climbed inside without help. “Please,” she implored Duncan, who followed and settled himself comfortably in the seat across from hers, “tell the driver to hurry!”

“No need for that,” he said, brushing off the sleeves of his impeccably clean white coat. “The ship has already sailed. Look at the horizon and you’ll see.”

Maggie fairly dived for the window. There was a vessel on the horizon, as well as several at anchor in the harbor. The carriage, meanwhile, was moving away from the sea instead of toward it.

She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. She’d let her guard down and this was what had come of it. After her first ride in a carriage with Duncan, Maggie reasoned to herself, she should have learned.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked coolly. Duncan smiled at the demand, examining his fingernails. “Home,” he said.

Panic gnawed at Maggie’s insides, but she forced herself to remain calm. “My home is with Reeve,” she pointed out. “Now, stop this nonsense, please, and drive me to the harbor.”

Without looking at Maggie, Duncan shook his head. “The trouble with you and me, my love, is that we’ve never had a chance to get to know each other. That’s why Eleanor and I worked this plan out.”

Maggie’s eyes rounded. “You knew Eleanor was going to kidnap Elisabeth?” she asked in utter shock.

Duncan bristled and, at last, met Maggie’s gaze. “Elisabeth is her daughter—it’s hardly kidnapping.”

Maggie’s shock was consummate. Her mouth dropped open and she forcibly closed it again.

Duncan laughed and the sound was low and harsh, frightening Maggie.

“Elisabeth never let on,” she muttered.

“That’s because she doesn’t remember.”

Maggie locked her hands together in her lap and moved forward a little on the seat. “What happened, Duncan? Why is it so rare and difficult for Elisabeth to speak?”

He hesitated, then evidently decided that there was no reason to keep the secret anymore. After all, he had Maggie and Eleanor had Elisabeth. “Eleanor had left the child before.” He sighed. “Often for weeks. That time Elisabeth must have guessed that her mother was never coming back.”