“I’m afraid I also need to ask what you might construe as a somewhat delicate question regarding Lady Aurelie’s other relationships.”
Brundage’s eyes flared, and then he gave a nod of comprehension. “Ah, yes. I believe I know what you’re about to ask. No. I’m unaware of any other men in Aurelie’s life. She’s been so sheltered, you see, I don’t understand how she could have possibly met anyone her guardian didn’t intend for her to meet.”
“Sounds a bit like prison,” Hawkes said brightly.
Brundage opened his mouth. Then closed it again.
Hawkes continued briskly, “Assuming she has not been kidnapped, do you have any notions about why she might have wanted to leave? It may be material in discovering where she might have gone.”
Brundage went abruptly quiet.
Hawkes felt that prickle of portent at the back of his neck that meant he was closing in on a truth.
Brundage looked toward the mirror, then abruptly turned away, as if the sight of his own face disconcerted him.
“We did have a... disagreement... about a month ago, as we prepared to take dinner together. I would characterize it as a lovers’ quarrel. She is willful, as I said. I regretted what transpired. Later I gave her a fine piece of jewelry and she graciously accepted it along with my apologies. We exchanged tender words. Three weeks later she, and the jewelry, were gone.”
Hawkes noted with interest the recurrence of the tiny tic of the muscle in Brundage’s jaw.
He might indeed be worried about Aurelie. He was, at the very least, worried, in general.
But Brundage was also definitely moreenragedthat his fiancée had disappeared than worried.
“What sort of jewelry did you give her? It might help determine where she would be likely to go. Would it finance passage to China, to England, to America, to—”
“It’s an emerald. Set between two diamonds, on a gold chain. And yes, to any and all of those, if sold to someone scrupulous. I should very much like to retrieve it. They were family jewels.”
He regarded Brundage for a moment through smoke. Now he had it.
“Whose family jewels?” he asked almost lazily.
Brundage stared at him.
And then he made a stunned sound. A sort of shorter, bitterer cousin to a laugh. “Ah, Hawkes. Well done. Not mine. Or, notyetmine. I borrowed the necklace from a French family with an eye toward possibly purchasing it for Aurelie. I had not yet decided whether I should, so I have not yet paid for it. They lost nearly everything in the first revolution and have desperate need of the money. I suppose they thought if they left it with me, I would find myself unable to part with it. I thought to do them a favor, you see.”
“Of course,” Hawkes said gently. “Like the favor you did for me when you saved my life.”
Brundage nodded once, humbly. He paused. “You see, there is talk of my being appointed the ambassador to France.”
“Ah,” Hawkes said. “But the powers that be are disinclined to appoint a man whose fiancée has gonemissing, and an accusation of a stolen necklace would be a scandal of both domestic and international proportions should the news become widely known?”
“It seems unlike you to state the obvious, Hawkes.” Brundage had clearly made an effort to sound amused. He succeeded in sounding mostly testy.
Hawkes offered him a placating smile. Because of course that’s why he’d said it aloud: for the pleasure of making Brundage testy.
This was why Brundage was so thoroughly distracted. And why he’d decided to risk contacting Hawkes. He was inquitea bind.
“And does Lady Aurelie have any money of her own with which to flee? To your knowledge, did she still possess the necklace the last time you saw her?”
“She has been given an allowance by her guardian, and it is my understanding—from him—that all of her spending is accounted for. He has also set aside settlement money for when we marry, but she of course does not currently have access to it. I do not know how or where she could possibly get more money. And yes, the last time I saw her, she was wearing the necklace. And all seemed well between us.”
Well, it clearly wasn’t.
Hawkes perversely admired Lady Aurelie for convincing Brundage otherwise. For nearly four weeks since that argument, from the sound of things.
He wondered why she’d waited precisely that long.
“Hawkes...” Brundage paused at length. “I know these details I have to offer do not quite add up to a person. Perhaps I do not seem sufficiently distressed. But I am indeed desperate to find her. My heart is, in fact... breaking.” He grimaced self-deprecatingly.