Redemption by Rebecca King

your account of events
as a true and accurate version, and question whether she is still
alive or not. If she is alive then I suggest you find her, and
quickly or you could find yourself being charged with her
murder.”
    “But I
don’t know where she is,” Julian protested. The realisation that
Ben was serious seemed to dawn on Pendlebury, who began to look a
little panicked. He glanced frantically around the empty room as
though desperately looking for answers; or waiting for Lizzie to
pop up from behind the chaise.
    “It is
your moral obligation to ensure she is safe and well, not leave her
out on the streets somewhere. If you have lost her then I suggest
you bloody well find her again,” Ben bit out, feeling more
frustrated and angry than he had ever felt in his entire life. He
wanted to hit something, Julian mainly, but he also didn’t want to
waste a single moment. He had to try to find her himself and he was
not going to stop until he had her safely beside him where she
belonged, or he at least knew what Julian had done with
her.
    When
Julian took a breath to argue, Ben shot him a dark look and marched
toward the door.
    “How
dare you come in here and tell me what I should and shouldn’t do in
my own house?” Julian countered in hot pursuit.
    Ben
stopped in the middle of the hallway, took a breath, and threw him
a dark look.
    “I dare
because as far as I see it you had an altercation with your
step-sister last night, and this morning she has gone missing. Your
hatred toward her was perfectly clear for the world to see.” He
narrowed his eyes on Julian and shook his head. “If I don’t get her
exact location within three days I shall raise my suspicions with
the magistrate. Three days, Pendlebury.”
    Ben
could only hope and pray that Julian wasn’t sinister enough to hurt
Lizzie. He was selfish and harsh, but also the laziest man Ben had
ever known. But, without any way of knowing what had actually
happened to the woman he had come to care about, Ben couldn’t trust
a word the man said. As far as he was concerned, no man’s sister,
or step-sister, should be able to just walk out of the house, with
their belongings, and simply vanish.
    Either
Julian knew where Lizzie was and wasn’t prepared to tell him, or
Lizzie had flounced out in a huff and Julian didn’t care where she
had gone, and hadn’t bothered to go after her. Either way, Ben
could only hope that at the end of the three days his worry would
be over, Lizzie would be found, and they could put this entire
fiasco far behind them and get on with their future
together.
     
    To his
horror, he was an exhausted and emotionally desperate man when he
stood outside Pendlebury House four days later and watched the
magistrate’s men force their way into the property. Investigations
over the past several days had found no trace of Lizzie since she
had been heard by the staff arguing with Julian on the night of the
ball.
    “Damn
you to hell, McArthur,” Julian swore as he was dragged through the
front door toward the jailer’s cart. From the look of his alcohol
stained shirt and bloodshot eyes the man had just been hauled out
of bed, or had fallen into a booze fuelled sleep in his armchair.
Whatever the case may be his unkempt appearance spoke of excesses
far beyond someone who was concerned for their loved one’s
whereabouts. This was a man who had spent last night whoring and
gambling, and without a care for anything other than his own
pleasure.
    “If you
have nothing to hide, why aren’t you out there searching for your
sister?” Ben challenged.
    “I
didn’t kill her,” Julian yelled, and redoubled his efforts to
wrench his arms free of his captors’ hold.
    “Where
is she then?” Frustration made Ben’s voice as sharp as it was loud.
“Why? If you didn’t want her, why in the hell didn’t you send her
around to me? Why didn’t you insist that I offer for
her?”
    “You
know nothing,” Julian snarled disparagingly. “I wouldn’t