Once this had been decided, he turned his mind to the other thing. All in all, he thought he might lose his follower by simple misdirection. Any followers were in search of Genevieve, not Aufors. Therefore, if the rider or riders thought Genevieve was known to be in a particular place, he or they might stop following Aufors and go on to that place. He made a little plan, then let his mind drift onto other things: to the research he had done in the archives, to the unexpected amiability of Prince Delganor, to the things that Duchess Alicia knew but didn’t say, to the possible reasons her daughter had had for running away from her husband. He strongly suspected that all these happenings were linked, but he could not find any common factor among them.
About noon, he saw three riders approaching from the west, whipping their horses as they came. When they saw him, they pulled up their lathered mounts, one among them shouting, “Hey, you there, have you seen anybody on this road this morning?”
Aufors eased himself in the saddle. “Yes. Several.”
“Who?” cried the first man. “Who’ve you seen?”
Aufors shook his head, smiling slightly. “I have no idea. I don’t know the people hereabout.”
“Come,” cried the first, rather angrily. “Men, women, what?”
Aufors took a deep breath. “Four men, several miles back, with a flock of sheep. A whole clutch of people and children threshing grain with oxen. That’s on the Wantresse side. On the Southmarsh side, I saw several young fellows hunting ducks.”
“Did you see a woman with a baby?”
Aufors allowed himself a ponder on this subject, finding it possible to answer with complete truth. “I don’t think I’ve seen a woman since I left the Reusel. There may have been women with babies at the threshing, but I don’t remember seeing any.”
The three muttered together, then the questioner turned to Aufors. “You’d have noticed this one. Long red hair and a pretty face.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice anyone like that. Who is it that’s missing?”
“The Earl Ruckward’s wife. And his infant daughter. They were thought drowned, but someone told the Earl his wife had been seen here, on the Wantresse road.”
“Taken, you think?” asked Aufors, his mouth open. “Abducted?”
“Why should you think that?”
“Well, stands to reason a young woman with a child, an infant, wouldn’t be traveling alone. And if her husband doesn’t know where she is, then chances are she was abducted. There’s a frightful lot of it going on, I’ve heard.”
“Where? Where is it going on?”
“Well,” Aufors eased himself and again adopted his pondering expression. “All during this trip I’ve heard there was a great deal of abducting going on in Nighshore county in Sealand. And in Dania, both.” The last of which was certainly true. People at the inns were talking of little else.
The three before him looked at one another in puzzlement. “Nobody said we should look for her there. Just said ask if she’d been seen, along here.”
“Not by me, I’m afraid,” Aufors responded. “I’ll keep my eyes open for her, however.”
“If you see her, send word to the Earl. He’s staying at Poolwich, at the Elver’s Wife.” And the three rode on eastward, galloping furiously.
Aufors gave silent thanks for the encounter, which had warned him to stay clear of Poolwich. Also, if the men took all the talk of abductions seriously, it could well deflect the search. Meantime, he would definitely plan to sail up the Potcherwater, preferably on some old tub that no one would look at twice.
Before arriving at the post house, he put a stone in the horse’s hoof and then, when he stopped, complained loudly about the horse being lame and the necessity of giving it a day’s rest on the morrow. At supper, he was accosted again by searchers, as well as by a single rider who had come in some time after Aufors himself. All claimed to be hunting Earl Solven’s wife. Aufors pretended to get quite drunk with them after dinner, saying he didn’t care about Earl Solven’s wife for he was on his way to a wife of his own, who was waiting for him at Poolwich.