They turned, seeking the origin of the frantic tapping noise. A familiar face was pressed to the library windowpane.
“Rabbie?” she said in disbelief.
He nodded and mouthed a word: Open.
And then another: Hurry.
Logan cursed and hurried to the window, pushing it open and extending a hand to help Rabbie through.
Once inside, Rabbie straightened and plucked bits of greenery from his sleeves. “There you two are.”
“What the devil are you doing?”
“They wouldna let me in the front. I’ve been peeking in every window, looking for you. Narrowly escaped a thrashing from a pair of footmen.”
“What’s happened?” Logan demanded. “Is it Grant?”
“No, no. Grant’s fine. It’s the lobster.”
Maddie gasped. “She’s molting?”
Rabbie pulled a face. “Och, no. Well, I canna be certain. Not exactly.”
Logan knew that look on his soldier’s face. It didn’t bode well.
“Tell us at once,” he said. “The full truth.”
“The lobster’s gone missing. She escaped.”
Chapter Twenty
They left the ball at once.
Logan offered to go ahead home on his own. “You needn’t leave with me,” he told her. “You should stay and meet Mr. Dorning. Rabbie can see you back to Lannair afterward.”
Maddie wouldn’t hear of it. “I can’t do this without you. And if Fluffy’s missing, I have to help search. She’s more than just an assignment. You know that. She’s a pet.”
Logan led the way outside, ordering their carriage with a brisk command. Since Rabbie’s horse was spent, he would have to ride with them. In the coach, the journey would take . . . Logan did a few mental calculations . . . four hours to return to Lannair. If they were lucky.
Which meant Logan had four hours to pass before he could be of any practical use in easing the worried look on Madeline’s face.
And he was going to spend every minute of them scolding Rabbie.
While the coach was brought around, Logan grabbed him by the coat front. “You had one task.”
Rabbie swallowed hard. “I know.”
“Watch the lobster.” Logan gave Rabbie a little shake. “That was the only duty I gave you. How could you manage to muck that up?”
“Well, you see. I was watching her in the studio. But ’tis a mite uncanny up there, ye ken?”
Yes, Logan knew. The place made his skin crawl too, but that was no excuse.
“So I put her in a bucket and brought ‘er downstairs while the lads and I played cards. Someone must have kicked it over. Next I looked, she was gone.”
The sheer idiocy of the entire scenario left Logan speechless. Their coach was brought around, and he helped Maddie in first before joining her.
“Not to worry,” Rabbie said, climbing in. “By the time we get back, the other lads will have already found her. How far can a lobster travel under her own power, anyway?”
“I dinna know,” Logan gritted out. “That is a question a dutiful soldier would never need to ask.”
As they started home, Maddie was quiet. And pale and distressed.
Logan wanted to punch a hole through the carriage top. It was a hard top, which meant he would have bloodied his knuckles in the effort—but he was certain his rage would have made it happen.
He turned to her. “How long can a lobster live without being in water?”
“A few days if she’s inside the castle, where it’s cool and damp. But if she found her way outside to the loch?” She shook her head. “The freshwater would kill her.”
“We’ll find her. Dinna worry. We’ll search all night if need be.”
She rested her head against the side of the coach and said quietly, “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Like the devil it doesna matter.”
“This is all my fault. It was wrong of me to trap her in that tank. No wonder she leapt at her first chance to escape. If she wanted to mate with Rex, she would have done it by now. Perhaps he’s all wrong for her. Perhaps he’s a brutish lout of a lobster with poor hygiene, and she wants nothing to do with him.”
“What about your life-cycle drawings?”
She only shrugged. “Apparently I’m a woman with no future prospects in illustration.”
Right.
Logan kept his calm for the remainder of the journey. Barely.
When they arrived back at Lannair Castle, the men had not yet found the lobster on their own. Damn.