Half dragging Eliza, Daniella managed to get her away from the flames but they could only go lower, not higher. They were trapped.
“Who are you? Where are the others?” Eliza asked her as they fled the smoke and heat.
“We don’t have time for this now but I am a friend of Darius’s. Do you know where the children are? Darius or my husband? Wickham? Do you know a way out?”
“Wait. You’re Daniella? You aren’t Darius’s friend.”
“Whatever he told you about me, I am his friend and I am here to help. Now, do you know where the children are being held?”
“Follow me,” Eliza said, overtaking at a run, uncaring of whatever lay between her husband and this woman at this exact moment in time. She lifted her filthy skirts above her bare feet so as not to trip and fall. “I think I remember the way.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
There was so much smoke. The stench of burning timber made Darius’s eyes water and caused his throat to feel as though rusted wire was trying to make its way down to his gut. He coughed before bracing himself to have another run at the locked door. Pain jarred his entire body. He clenched his teeth against hopelessness. Since the door opened in, there wasn’t a chance to break it down from their side. Ships were built solid for a reason.
“That door is never going to give,” Marcus said behind him, stating the obvious in a toneless voice.
“I’m open to better ideas,” Darius replied, surprised when sarcasm emerged instead of desperate fury.
When he turned back to the stateroom, Marcus had put his boot to the dead Earl of Wickham to knock him onto the floor. Taking the legs of the chair and flipping it upside down, he held it high above the table and then slammed down with a show of power Darius had rarely seen from his old friend. The timbers splintered and came apart in large pieces.
He threw a leg to Darius and then indicated the huge window facing out to the water. “We have to break our way out and jump.”
“I can’t leave without knowing where Eliza and the children are.”
“We don’t have a choice. We can either die in this room or take our chances in the bay. It’s the only way.”
He didn’t like it but Marcus was right. Hopefully they would have time to swim around to one of the ladders hooked onto the dock and then get back above deck.
Just as the two men began to shatter the thick glass, working at the muntin to displace the panes, the door Darius had tried to break down came crashing in, pieces of the busted lock clanging across the floor.
Trelissick eyed them both and then grinned. “Redecorating? If you think you have the time…”
Darius cursed and barged out into the corridor. The smoke was thicker there and he slowed as visibility reduced. “Damn it!” he roared. “Eliza!”
He’d had her. He’d had her back, in the same room, and he’d stood there like a man who valued his life more than that of his wife. She may have only been his wife for a week but she had crawled her way around his walls to touch a piece of his heart. Her and those damned siblings of hers. This was why he didn’t get close to people. This was why he sailed his ship with his men and didn’t form attachments that lasted more than one night. If he lost them, he would… He would… God, he didn’t even want to think about it.
If he didn’t have Sarah to consider as well, he would have charged his way through every room on the ship; he would walk through a wall of fire to find them. But he did have Sarah and she needed him to stop and think, to process and evaluate.
He needed Eliza.
He hadn’t understood it until she’d been ripped from his arms but the truth was there, stark and raw. The last week had been a series of ups and downs but he’d felt contentment, a sense of true family. As much as he’d run from that almost his entire life, he wanted it back and he wanted it back now.
Benny appeared through the smoke, tearing him from his dark thoughts. “You have to follow me, Captain. The stern is aflame from one level down but she’s spreading and spreading fast. According to one of the crewmen we’ve taken prisoner, there’s only a small amount of shot on board but enough to take us all down to the bottom if it goes.”
Darius grabbed Benny by the shoulders and physically turned the man, taking off after him, holding his breath for as long as he could. Within a few moments they emerged onto the decks, the air slightly clearer, the calls of men echoing against the glow of flame as a bucket line was formed to douse the fire. Even Darius could see the effort was futile and only slightly slowed the inevitable.
He knew the ship well. He knew Eliza and her brothers and sisters would be held nearly in the lowest levels. Only one level above the bilge water and rat infestations. One level below the fire burning out of control.
Darius looked to Benny. “Have you tried to get down there?”
“Impossible. Whoever started that fire must have
