The Pursuit of Lucy Banning (30 page)

“It would not stand up in court,” Samuel mused. “Hardly more than hearsay evidence that cannot be confirmed.”

“You have my word that I never received the message Will sent me,” Leo pointed out.

“But we have no evidence that Daniel sent a message,” Samuel countered, “and we have only Mr. Edwards’s word that he received a telegram.”

“With all respect, Mr. Banning,” Will said, “this is not a court of law and we are not seeking to press charges. My concern is the safety of your daughter.”

Lucy jumped in. “And mine is Daniel’s welfare.” She looked around the table. “Surely you can all see that he has become unwell.”

“Of course Daniel is not unwell,” Irene Jules insisted, “at least not in the manner you imply. You broke his heart when you broke the engagement, and he has suffered some melancholy, as is to be expected.”

“It’s more than melancholy,” Lucy challenged. “And seated around this table are the people who care for him most. If we won’t help him, who will?”

Silence.

“We’ll speak to him,” Howard finally said. “No doubt he’ll be home when we get there, since he hasn’t come here.”

“He sometimes comes in rather late,” Leo pointed out. “Perhaps I’ll see him at breakfast.”

“If you see him before we do,” Irene said, “please do not alarm him. Just ask him to telephone his mother.”

“In the meantime, perhaps Lucy should have a companion whenever she goes out,” Will suggested. “Her Aunt Violet or one of the maids. At the very least she must have a coachman or footman with her at all times.” He did not dare suggest himself as a suitable companion. Despite the afternoon’s events, the Bannings would surely regard such an offer as inappropriate.

The meat was served, then the vegetables and finally the salad. Will pushed food around on his plates in between sparse bits of conversation. For the most part, everyone lowered their hands to their laps to indicate they were finished nearly as soon as the last person had been served. No one ate, and Will wondered why they were going through the motions of being served. Charlotte moved among the guests, removing plates that were barely touched.

Will saw the maid glance at Lucy just long enough for Lucy to return the look before picking up her water goblet. He laid his knife across his bread plate as he considered the significance. It was a secure glance—familial, a glance friends would share over a confidence. Lucy knew something she wasn’t telling him, he was sure of it.

By general consensus, dessert and coffee were omitted, and Howard and Irene returned to their luxurious carriage. By ten o’clock, Will said good night to Lucy as well—standing in the foyer in the presence of her parents and Leo—and exchanged a glance with her himself. Daniel had not appeared, and Will hoped he would not have the gall to present himself at the Bannings’. However, Daniel’s state of mind was dubious. He’d been doing a lot of things no one would have imagined.

After Will closed the door behind him and stepped away from the house, he turned for one last glance through the window. The others had moved away from the foyer, but Lucy was still there, speaking with Charlotte, their heads curiously close together.

 33 

L
ucy did not see Daniel for the next few days. None of the Bannings saw him, and the servants reported each morning at breakfast that he had not used his room on the second floor. Perhaps his parents had been able to talk some sense into him after all, Lucy reasoned.

On the other hand, Lucy saw Will as often as she could. They had managed a few minutes together on Wednesday after he finished his workday, and she had brought him home for dinner on Thursday, much to Violet’s delight. On Friday, she spent the day at St. Andrew’s as usual, marking the hours until he would arrive to spend the evening painting with the boys. Lucy stayed late to cheer them on. She took a pile of papers that needed sorting to one of the tables in the dining hall, staying well away from any open paint cans or loose brushes. Several of the younger children helped her shuffle papers around until they were called to their own supper. However, most of her attention went to watching Will’s patient instruction and encouragement with the boys. Finally, around six-thirty, Lucy knew she must go home if she were going to be changed in time for dinner.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come to dinner?” Lucy pleaded as Will walked her out of the building to see her safely to the carriage.

He chuckled and raised a finger dotted in blue. “Your parents still are not quite sure what to make of me. Let’s give them some time to recover from having me at their table twice already this week.”

“Will I see you tomorrow?”

“The moment I can leave the office. I do have to catch up on a few things.”

He glanced around, then kissed her just as Archie opened the door to her carriage. She would rather have been looking for the streetcar, but Will insisted she not put herself in situations where she could be caught off guard. Archie’s instructions from Samuel Banning himself were to wait for Lucy as long as necessary.

Lucy entered the front door and, as usual, put her things down on the foyer table.

“Oh, there you are,” Flora said, coming from the parlor. “Finally!”

“I know I’m late, but I promise I’ll be changed in time for dinner,” Lucy assured her mother. By now Charlotte would have already laid out a gown to replace the sporty-looking brown broadcloth suit Lucy had chosen for a day at St. Andrew’s.

“Irene telephoned,” Flora said. “She wants to know if you’ve seen Daniel.”

“Why would I see Daniel? After what happened the other day—”

“That’s just it,” Flora said. “After what happened the other day, it seems no one has seen him at all. He never went home that night. Irene and Howard assumed he stayed here. Today they discovered that he hasn’t been to the bank since Monday. Yesterday he missed a critical meeting with a new manufacturer the bank managers were counting on him to woo.”

“Slow down, Mother,” Lucy said. “Are you sure no one has seen him? Not since I saw him on Tuesday?”

“He hasn’t been here, he hasn’t been home to Riverside, and he hasn’t been to the bank. That’s what I’m saying. His poor parents are out of their minds with worry.”

Lucy turned her palms up. “I haven’t seen him nor heard from him.”

Flora gave an exasperated sigh, and Lucy started up the stairs. She didn’t know what her mother expected she could do, and frankly, she was relieved not to have any notion of Daniel’s whereabouts.

As she expected, Lucy found a gown and accessories laid out on the bed. The damask fabric was overlaid with netting in the bodice and embroidered with delicate flowers in three shades of pink. Charlotte had chosen a silver locket to accent the scooped neckline, and Lucy was pleased with the selection. However, the dress included tiny buttons in two rows up the back, so Lucy would need help. She pressed the annunciator button to inquire if Mrs. Fletcher might spare Charlotte from the kitchen.

When the maid entered, she smirked playfully. “Mrs. Fletcher is none too pleased with my being pulled away so close to serving time.”

“We’ll be quick,” Lucy promised, stepping out of her skirt. “Just get me buttoned up.”

Charlotte picked up the gown from the bed and held it ready for Lucy to step into. “Did you see Mr. Edwards today?”

“I just left him. That’s why I’m so late.”

“I’ve been thinking, Miss Lucy,” Charlotte said quietly.

“About what?”

“About you and Mr. Edwards. I don’t want to be between you.”

“What do you mean?”

“The baby. And what you’ve done to help me. I’ve decided that if you trust Mr. Edwards, then I trust him.”

Lucy swiveled to look her maid in the eye. “Are you sure?”

Charlotte nodded, then moved behind Lucy once again to tackle the buttons. “Your mother has been full of questions today.” She pushed the first stubborn bead through its loop.

“Do you mean about Daniel? She waylaid me the minute I walked in the door.”

“I think she’s worried.”

“She loves Daniel,” Lucy said simply. “Apparently his mother telephoned.”

“I heard Mrs. Banning take the call. Mrs. Jules sounded frantic. It was all your mother could do to calm her down enough to understand the problem.”

“Daniel will turn up, and when he does he’ll have an explanation. He always has an answer.”

Charlotte was silent and tugged at three more loops.

“What is it?” Lucy prodded. “I can tell when you have something on your mind.”

Charlotte shrugged. “Has he ever gone missing before?”

“Well, no, not to my knowledge.”

“Then something
could
be wrong. When Mr. Edwards went missing, you were frantic yourself.”

“That’s different. Will and I have come to care for each other.”
To love each other.
“I was worried something had happened to him.”

“That’s how Mrs. Jules feels—and your mother. He’s gone missing and they don’t know if he’s going to be all right.”

“It does seem irresponsible of him not to inform the bank of his plans,” Lucy admitted. “And he looked positively frightful the other day.”

“So you can understand why they’re worried.”

Lucy tugged at the shoulders of her gown. “Charlotte, get me out of this monstrosity.”

“Miss Lucy!”

“I know where Daniel is,” Lucy said. “Tell Archie to get the big carriage ready, and two horses. Quick, undo those buttons!”

Minutes later Lucy was downstairs again in her brown suit and a warm cloak and flying out the front door. “Archie, take me back to St. Andrew’s. That place really needs to get a telephone.”

At the orphanage, Lucy jumped out of the carriage without waiting for Archie to open the door and ran into the dining room.

“Oh, good, you’re still here,” she said when she spotted Will cleaning brushes. “I need you. Daniel is missing and I know where he is.”

Will looked skeptical. “Lucy, can’t someone else find him? Are you sure you want to put yourself in his path?”

“I decided not to marry Daniel, but that doesn’t mean he’s the enemy,” Lucy said. “I grew up with him and was engaged to him. I know him better than anyone else. He needs help. If you’re with me, I know I’ll be all right.”

She held her breath, willing him to speak.

“Of course I’ll come.”

At Lucy’s urging, Archie kept the horses moving at a canter, especially after they left the confines of Chicago traffic.

“You really believe he’s at the lake house?” Will asked.

“He loves it up there. He always said he could think clearly when he was there.” She hesitated to say more. “It’s where we first kissed, and where we first talked about getting married.”

“And he proposed there last summer. Leo told me about the Fourth of July hoopla.”

“Daniel adores his work at the bank, and he loves Chicago. But if he is going to disappear anywhere, it’s going to be at their lake house.”

“Which is right next to your family’s lake house.”

“I’m worried about him, Will. It would be easy to put him out of my mind after the way he’s been behaving, but what if he can’t help it? What if he’s truly not himself? How can I walk away from him?”

Will put his arm around Lucy and squeezed her shoulder. “You can’t. This is the right thing to do.”

“It’s at least a three-hour trip. We usually make this journey in daylight. The roads are not well lit.”

“It’s nearly a full moon,” Will said. “That will help.”

They cantered through the communities that had sprung up north of Chicago. Ravenswood, Lincolnwood, Wilmette, Northbrook, Highland Park. The burgeoning web of railroad tracks allowed people to live in outlying areas and still enjoy the benefits of being near Chicago. Gradually, though, the towns grew more rural, hugging the shore of Lake Michigan between Chicago and Waukegan.

Two lanterns hung from the front of the carriage, lighting the road before them as it narrowed and curved through the thick trees. When they passed through Lake Forest, the last town before the stretch of exclusive lakefront property where the Bannings and Juleses owned land, Lucy leaned forward, feeling her pulse race.

“I hadn’t realized how black the sky is away from Chicago,” Lucy said. “The view of the lake is spectacular, though it will be hard to see much tonight. I always imagined bringing you up here on a fine summer day, not the middle of a frigid night.”

“We’re here for Daniel,” Will said, “not the view.”

Finally Archie slowed the carriage and turned on a familiar lane. Lucy knew where the ruts were on this road and braced herself by gripping the carriage seat.

“Can you hear the lake?” Lucy asked, cocking her head to listen to the water slapping the ridge of rocks at the end of the lane. “We’re almost there.”

The carriage stopped behind two houses with floor plans that mirrored each other.

Will gave a low whistle. “Those structures are not exactly rustic cabins.”

“We bring most of the household staff when we come,” Lucy explained. “We share the pier between the two houses.”

Will reached across Lucy’s lap and pulled on the door handle just as Archie appeared to open the door from the outside.

“Shall we check the house first?” Will suggested.

“All right,” Lucy said. “Archie, perhaps you’d better come with us.”

“Yes, miss.”