She tested her jaw. It didn’t seem like it was broken, but it certainly hurt. “What are you talking about?”
“Just a short time after I showed you this room.” He motioned around him, then held up the metal box in his hands. “And this box, a spy broke into my home and tried to steal it. When I told you about the incident, I admit you covered your reaction well. But I saw it when I said my guards shot an intruder… it all began to add up.”
“I don’t like death,” Audrey explained, damning herself for not practicing more self-control at the party. Once again, her wild emotions had betrayed her. “You assume too much about me from that one fact.”
“Yes, but after the ball I saw you in Griffin Berenger’s arms, allowing him to console you.” Ellison leaned so close that she could feel his breath on her skin. “And the pieces all fit together perfectly.”
“Saw Griffin comfort me?” she asked, wrinkling her brow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Through his study window,” Ellison said with a sneer. “I saw you put your arms around him like the whore you really are.”
The blood drained from her cheeks, but with all her strength she forced herself to continue the ruse. “You saw nothing. He and I are friends, nothing more. You’ve let your jealousy get the better of you and it’s muddled your senses, but…”
“Enough!” Ellison roared as he slammed his fist against the desk.
Audrey jumped at his rage, then squared her shoulders. There was obviously no use denying her role to Ellison any longer. He knew everything and her explanations only served to anger him further.
She narrowed her eyes. “What you do to me now is irrelevant. If you’ve done wrong, you’ll be caught. The Crown has too many good men after blackguards like you.”
“Yes, but I can conclude my business and take down a few of those ‘good men’ before I’m caught. And if the some of those agents… like your brother… are busy looking for you and your ‘maid’, it will afford the perfect opportunity to slip out of the country.” A thin smile spread Ellison’s lips. “Now, take her away, Quentin. Put her with the other one.”
The bigger man grunted and turned to haul her from the room.
“Oh, and Quentin?” Ellison said. “Make sure you remove the lock pick in her hair.”
***
The room was very dark and very small. Audrey stumbled in and reached the opposite wall in just a few short steps. The door slammed behind her and she pivoted to beat on it with her fist.
“Let me out of here!” Quentin laughed from the other side. The noise faded away as he walked down the hall. “Big oaf!” she called out, leaning her back against the door and folding her arms.
“This is quite a pickle, eh?” came a familiar voice from the corner of the room.
“Hannah!” Audrey felt her way around the perimeter of the closet until she reached her friend. When she felt her friend’s arm, she latched her hand on and squeezed.
“Ouch!” Hannah breathed, yanking her arm away but not before Audrey felt how limp and cold it was.
Audrey flinched before she hugged Hannah gently. “What happened?”
“Quentin turned out to be less of gentleman than he appeared.” Her friend laughed, though the sound was painful. “When I wouldn’t go with him quietly, he broke my arm.”
Audrey’s eyes filled with tears at the pain in her friend’s voice. “Hannah!”
“And what about you? You’re bleeding.”
“How on earth can you tell that?” She drew back as her eyes began to adjust to the dim room. Only the light from beneath the doorway gave them any illumination.
“When you hugged me,” Hannah explained, sinking down to a sitting position on the floor as if she were very tired. “I felt something wet and sticky on my cheek. Since I know you aren’t exactly a drooler, I guessed it was blood. Did Ellison do something to you?”
Audrey shrugged as she took a place beside her friend. “A bit of Ellison, but mostly I did it too myself trying to run in the dark. He caught me in the office just as I took the evidence. I was so excited about getting the paperwork, I completely forgot all the important things one must do when one is spying.”
Hannah drew in a sharp breath through her teeth as she shifted position. “Like checking the corners in a room?”
“Exactly.” Leaning down, Audrey found the hem of her dress.
“Well, you always were bad at that,” Hannah teased. As Audrey ripped a strip of fabric from her gown, Hannah barked, “What are you doing?”
“Making a sling for your arm,” Audrey said. “Then I’m going to figure a way out of here. It’s still an hour before Ellison and I are supposed to leave for the final fete of the Jubilee. It will be even longer before Noah and Griffin notice we’re missing unless I get out of here now and let them know the danger.”
Hannah sighed with resignation. “It’s too bad. I always liked that dress, too.”
“So did I,” Audrey said as she wrapped the fabric around her friend’s neck, then slowly slid her bad arm through the makeshift sling. “But I like you more. Is the pain very bad?”
“Pretty bad,” Hannah admitted. “He did some kind of strange twist when he broke it. I swore more than I did in all my years on the streets of London.”
“He must have enjoyed that.” Audrey gave a nervous laugh as she looked around them for a way out. But there was nothing she could use to free them.
Things were looking very grim indeed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
When the closet door opened an hour later to send bright light showering in on the two women, Audrey still had no plan. It was difficult to come up with a way to fight an enemy with no idea what that enemy was preparing to do.
Ellison took two steps inside the little room and grabbed Audrey’s hair in one steely fist. Before she could fight, he yanked her to her feet and dragged her into the hallway. Pain shot to the roots of her hair and she yelped.
“Now, my little vixen, you’re coming with me. You’ll want to see what I have in store tonight.”
“Let me go,” she said through clenched teeth as she wrapped her hands around his wrists to lessen the painful tug on her roots.
“As for your friend.” He motioned to Hannah. “Quentin, once we’ve departed… kill her.”
“No!” Audrey screamed even as Ellison dragged her down the hallway toward the stairs. “Hannah!”
But there was no response.
“Help me!” Audrey yelled as they passed through the hallways. Chambermaids and footmen ducked their heads as she passed by, going about their work as if Audrey didn’t exist… as if they weren’t watching her being taken to her death with every step.
“You see,” Ellison said as he dragged her down the stairs. She slipped and stumbled her way after him, banging her shins against the floor and her elbows against the hand railing. “When I hire servants, I choose ones who are loyal to me.”
She pulled back against him. “Or too cowardly to stop you!”
“One way or the other,” he said with a chuckle and a shrug. “They won’t rush to your aid, or assist your friend.”
Tears of horror filled Audrey’s eyes. Hannah was going to die, and probably her, too.
Ellison took her out a side door and they stood in a narrow alleyway, away from the street where neighbors and friends might see her plight. Just as they reached the curb, a carriage pulled up in front on them and Gregoire, the burly driver from the ball a few nights before, stepped down from the box up top. Audrey noticed the man had an enormous black eye and was missing a few teeth since she’d last seen him. Remembering Douglas’s promise to ‘talk’ with Gregoire about his improper behavior that night, Audrey shivered.
