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СКАЧАТЬ some distress. I think that warrants your attention far more than an antenna broken off my vehicle. Constable—” he squinted at the young man’s name tag “—Constable Burke looks more than capable of taking my complaint.”

      “Yes sir,” Constable Burke said with such enthusiasm, Rachel felt a strong desire to smack him.

      “So, your sister is missing? Victoria?” Crenshaw said loudly, turning back to her with a great show of concern that was, she suspected cynically, more for Prince Montague’s benefit than hers. “What makes you think that? Your father hasn’t mentioned it to me.”

      “He’s never exactly made Victoria one of his priorities,” Rachel said. Certainly not when they were children, so why would he bother now?

      “Don’t be silly. He always loved you both madly.”

      She took a deep breath. She had not come here to be called silly, or to be mocked for her feelings. Though Lloyd Crenshaw and her father had been friends, no one could ever say with such certainty what went on in another’s home, behind closed doors. And behind closed doors, her father had been hostile to her sister, a fact that had caused Rachel to feel bewildered and guilty and caught in the middle because he had favored her so markedly.

      “In fact, now that I think about it, I’m sure your father said Vicky was going away on a holiday.”

      Another thing her sister detested was being called Vicky.

      “I think there’s something wrong,” Rachel said. “Victoria usually tells me when she’s going away. Her neighbor said she had gone away, but that she should have been back by now. I’m telling you, my sister is missing.”

      She was not happy that the last came out with a squeak that showed how very close to tears she was.

      “What would you like me to do then, dear?”

      “Whatever it is you usually do when someone goes missing,” she said, her voice raw.

      “Well, if you insist then, we’ll do a missing person’s report, but really, Rachel, Vicky has always been a bit of a wild one.”

      She stared at him, flabbergasted. She could feel tears of frustration and fear building pressure behind her eyes. Her sister was not “wild.” Not in the least. Headstrong, yes. Adventurous, maybe. Spirited, definitely.

      But wild, and all the things that implied?

      “She is not!” she snapped with such vehemence even she was taken aback. She met Crenshaw’s eyes, and the flatness in them filled her with a feeling of defeat. She looked down at her trembling hands. “Please,” she said, “please help me.”

      And help came. From the most unexpected of sources. Suddenly she felt the brush of that expensive overcoat against her shoulder, and saw a glove quickly slipped from the strong and warm hand that covered hers.

      The sensation was shocking, unexpectedly delightful, like coming to a place of warmth and comfort after a long and lonely trek through the cold.

      How long since anyone had offered her such a simple human gesture of support? How long since she had been touched?

      Far too long. All the stresses and strains of single motherhood now seemed to be pushing from behind her eyes, too, this tenderness from a stranger breaking the dam of control she had built around her heart.

      She felt the first tear slip down her cheek, and yanked her hand out from under the weight of his to brush it away.

      “Really, Corporal,” her defender said with annoyance.

      “Sergeant,” Crenshaw corrected him.

      “Sergeant, I think just a little sensitivity would not be out of line here.”

      Crenshaw looked mutinous, like a little boy who had been reprimanded, but he dutifully took papers out of a drawer and began to fill them out. Rachel noticed his stubby fingers were nicotine-stained above the class ring he wore. She fished desperately in her pocket for a tissue. Her fingers felt a baby soother, and a crushed bonnet. Desperately, she considered blowing her nose in that, when a handkerchief was pressed into her hand.

      She looked up at him. The gentle kindness in his eyes made her want to weep anew.

      “Thank you,” she said, and dabbed at her running nose, and eyes. The handkerchief was gloriously soft, and held a scent so powerful and compelling, she wanted to leave her nose in it forever.

      “Rachel,” said Crenshaw, “what is your second name? And your full street address?”

      The pure monotony of being asked such routine questions as her correct street address, and Victoria’s, and watching Crenshaw write them out with a painfully slow hand helped Rachel regain her composure.

      “I’m fine now,” she said quietly to the man beside her. She stared at the now used handkerchief, uncertain what to do with it. She certainly didn’t want to return it to him in this condition.

      “Keep it,” he said, reading her mind.

      “Thank you.” Two thank-yous in two minutes. If he did not go soon, she’d end up owing her life to him. That was the game she and Victoria used to play. If one did the other a kind turn three times in a row, then the other would say jokingly, “Now I owe you my life.” It was one of those funny, tender things that only they understood—their kindnesses to each other had been the life raft they both clung to in the turbulent waters of their growing up.

      Prince Montague did not leave, and she was glad for that. She suspected Crenshaw’s cooperative manner would disappear when he did. But he did not disappear, a fact not lost on Crenshaw, either.

      “Sir, is your report completed?” Crenshaw asked pointedly.

      “It is,” Montague replied, deliberately not taking the point.

      “We’ll do everything we can to find who vandalized your vehicle. One of those Thortons, most likely. You’re on their territory now.” He chuckled at his own humor. “Perhaps the Duke hisself. The tabs say there’s no love lost between your two families.”

      “I’m sure the Grand Duke of Thortonburg has a little more to do than to follow me around breaking antennas off my vehicles,” Montague said, a thread of irritation appearing in that well-modulated voice.

      “Just attempting a little levity, sir,” Crenshaw said. “Would be funny if it was him, wouldn’t it?”

      “I don’t think so, particularly. Now what are you going to do for this young lady?”

      “I done the report!”

      “And then?”

      “I’ll post it, naturally.”

      “Perhaps it wouldn’t be too much trouble for you to stop by—did you say Victoria—Victoria’s place of residence and ask a few questions. Her landlady, her friends, might know something.”

      That mutinous expression appeared on Crenshaw’s face again.

      “Well?” Montague prodded, his voice so low that Rachel glanced up at СКАЧАТЬ