Beth hesitated, but then nodded. Annabelle had the right to make her own decision, and the offer to come join her and Josh in India would be an open-ended one. If she felt the time was right in a month or a year, then she could make the journey.
‘I love you.’ Beth gripped her sister in a tight hug.
‘I love you too. Now go get your Mr Ashburton.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was almost mid-morning by the time the carriage was approaching Leonard Ashburton’s country residence. She had moved quickly at Birling View, instructing the footmen who were still there from the house party to ready the hired carriage before her mother could think to forbid it. Without even packing a change of clothes she had departed, knowing she needed to catch up with Josh as soon as possible. Even so she had been forced to stop in a coaching inn as the light failed and the coachman insisted they wait for dawn before continuing as he didn’t know the roads. At the inn she had sent the coachman to enquire about Leonard Ashburton’s exact address as she didn’t want to waste a minute driving round the area surrounding Tunbridge Wells searching for the estate.
Now she had pressed the coachman into starting just as the first light peeked above the horizon, meaning they had made good time, but still she felt as though she were too late.
‘This is the last day Lady Hummingford has paid me for,’ the groom said as he helped her down from the carriage. ‘The carriage is due back in London by nightfall. Do you wish me to wait?’
‘Yes, please. I may need to travel to London myself.’
‘Very well.’ He stepped back, leaving her very much alone on her approach to the house.
It had a pretty brick façade with climbing flowers covering the lower half and large windows that must let in a lot of light. It was large without being imposing and looked surprisingly welcoming.
Beth wondered how much influence over the appearance of the house Leonard Ashburton had. She knew it was one of his uncle’s properties, all of which would be inherited by Leonard, but she didn’t know if he was allowed to treat this as his own house already. It seemed too pretty, too frivolous for the stern and sober man.
Knowing she was trying to delay the moment she had to knock at the door, Beth forced herself forward and picked up the heavy knocker.
‘Lady Elizabeth Hummingford to see Mr Joshua Ashburton,’ she said to the elderly butler who opened the door.
‘You’d better come in,’ Leonard Ashburton said, not waiting for the butler to speak, as he emerged out of a room off the main hall.
It was bright and airy inside and Beth felt the urge to dawdle and gawp, but she quickly followed after Leonard Ashburton, perching on the edge of the seat he indicated in his study.
‘Is your brother here, Mr Ashburton?’
‘No.’
She felt her hopes fizzle and die. Josh might have gone straight to London instead, straight to the docks if she were unlucky, to find a ship to book passage on back to India. To get as far away as he could from her.
‘He left about two hours ago.’
Damn coachman insisting they stop overnight. She would have caught Josh if they’d pushed on.
‘Did he say where he was going?’
‘What business do you have with my brother, Lady Elizabeth?’
Beth swallowed. She wondered how much of the last few days Josh had told his brother and knew by the suspicious look in Leonard Ashburton’s eyes it must have been a good proportion of it.
‘I need to see him urgently.’
‘I see. Am I to understand you’ve made a mistake that you wish to rectify?’
Beth nodded.
‘Thank goodness for that. I was worried you were really dense. And, of course, then I would have had to marry you and I find it hard to tolerate stupid people.’ It was the longest sentence he’d ever said to her and Beth was struggling to work out just how many times he had insulted her in it.
‘I do not wish to marry you,’ she said sharply. ‘I just want to find your brother.’
‘And marry him, I hope?’
‘Yes. If he will have me.’
‘Hmm. Perhaps he will. Josh isn’t good with rejection, not after what happened when we were children, but if you can catch him before he sails hopefully you can show him it was just blind stupidity on your part.’
Beth clenched her jaw and ignored the fresh insult.
‘Where has he gone?’
‘To London, to the docks, to seek passage on a ship back to India.’
‘When is he planning on leaving?’
‘As soon as possible.’
Standing abruptly, Beth felt some of the blood drain from her head. She needed to get moving, to start the journey up to London. No doubt Josh would be on horseback rather than in a cumbersome carriage, so he had that advantage over her as well as a two-hour head start. She would need some luck to find him.
‘Do you know which docks he will head for?’
Leonard Ashburton quickly wrote down an address for her and together they moved into the hall.
‘Good luck,’ he said. They were the friendliest words he’d ever uttered to her. Perhaps with the knowledge he wasn’t going to have to marry her he was able to warm to her a little more.
‘Thank you.’
Beth hurried down the steps and gave the address to the reluctant coachman. He grumbled something about needing to be back in Southwark by five o’clock sharp, but climbed up to his seat at the front of the carriage anyway and, once Beth was settled, urged the horses down the driveway.
Glancing back, Beth saw the stiff figure of Leonard Ashburton watch her go and wondered if he was truly keen for her to reach
