“Regardless, she has been missing since early this morning. Is that a normal habit of hers, to go about town without an escort?”

“No indeed, she rarely goes about town at all. She’s been quite the recluse, my sister, since we moved to London. Wasn’t always the case, least not in Portsmouth. Think this city intimidates her.”

“Then why the devil would she go out in it alone?” That question merely gained a shrug from the boy, prompting Vincent to clarify, “You have no idea, then, where she might have gone today?”

“Possibly to collect our Christmas decorations? I’m afraid I have been nagging her—”

Vincent interrupted impatiently this time. “No, I told her I would have them fetched.”

“Then to my father’s office?”

“No, the clerk there said she hadn’t been by,” Vincent replied.

“You’ve already been searching for her?”

This was asked with a raised brow that looked quite odd on a ten-year-old face. Yet the implication was still there that the boy had just drawn conclusions from that information that were no doubt wrong, yet drawn nonetheless.

“Did I mention responsibility?” Vincent almost growled. “I thought so. Of course I would find it necessary to look for her, when she’s bloody well been gone for half the day.”

“Do you realize how upset you sound, Lord Everett? Do you take all of your responsibilities this seriously? Or just my sister?”

Vincent sighed and got out of there. He wasn’t used to dealing with children, and he certainly wasn’t used to dealing with little adults in child form. Silly boy, to try and credit Vincent with emotions, of any sort.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

LARISSA WAS WALKING IN THE HOUSE JUST AS VINCENT came downstairs again. She looked cold. She looked tired. She was windblown and damp from snow drizzles that she’d probably been caught in more than once. She was infinitely beautiful even with wind-chapped cheeks.

The anger came immediately to replace the worry he’d undergone, now that he could see she was unharmed, and he blasted her with it the second he reached her. “Don’t ever leave this house again without taking one of the footmen with you! Do you have no sense at all, to not realize what could happen to you out on those bloody streets?”

She stared at him, and stared. She was probably too tired to muster any expression. Finally she said simply, “They aren’t my footmen to command.”

“Then consider them henceforth at your beck and call—!” he growled, only to be cut off.

“Nor did I have a choice in the matter. I had to go out . . . so I went.”

He gritted his teeth. “There is no ‘had to’ involved. The only rational choice would have been to stay indoors on a day like this.”