Page 110 of Enslaved
For one brief moment she wanted to believe her uncle. But in her heart she knew it was true. The blindfold had been removed from her eyes and she saw clearly what a scheming pair they made.
“Then you won’t have any objection to an investigation of how you have administered my finances,” she declared triumphantly.
“None whatsoever,” he said grandly. “In two months time when you come of age, I will turn everything over to you and you can investigate to your heart’s content. I shall be glad to be shut of the whole responsibility.”
Prudence knew she must bring her back on track. “Diana, have you remembered where you have been all these months or are you still insisting you were swept back to Roman times?”
Diana swung around from her uncle to face Prudence. “For such a respectable woman, you have decidedly obscene thoughts. You are simply panting for me to confirm that a lover got me with child and I hid away for nine months. But that simply isn’t true, Prudence. I went back in time to when the Romans occupied Aquae Sulis. The general who enslaved me, Marcus Magnus, was Mark Hardwick, the Earl of Bath. And yes, Prudence, we were lovers!”
Richard pushed open the door into the dining room. “Have you heard enough, Doctor?”
The burly man stepped through the doorway. “She is completely delusional. I’ll sign the papers.”
“Who the hell is this?” Diana demanded, furious that they were deceitful enough to conceal someone so that their conversation could be overheard.
“This is Dr. Clayton Bognor. He has agreed to take over your case.”
“I’m under the care of Charles Wentworth. Do you seriously believe I’d accept a doctor of your choosing?”
“You have no say in the matter. You are a minor.”
“Step aside!” Diana was almost choking with fury.
Her uncle did not step aside. He and the doctor closed in on her and held her firmly by the arms.
Diana struggled fiercely. “Take your hands from me, you scheming swines!”
Dr. Bognor clamped a cloth to her face. Diana gasped, breathed in heavy, noxious fumes, and slumped into her uncle’s arms.
Diana felt herself being lifted. She opened heavy eyes and realized she was being carried into a large building that looked like a stately home, except it had bars on the windows. The two men who carried her were Dr. Bognor and her uncle Richard. Dear God, it was another nightmare that was not a nightmare. Was she losing her mind?
No, it was really happening. She could feel the fingers of the doctor digging cruelly into her soft flesh as he carried her, and her head ached vilely from the substance he had used to render her unconscious. Prudence was nowhere in sight, but Diana knew she must have approved this abduction.
When they took her inside, anger momentarily overrode fear. As they set her feet to the floor, she shook off Richard’s hold on her. “Where am I?” she demanded.
“You are in a hospital,” he replied soothingly, as if dealing with a hysterical child.
“I’m not staying! There’s nothing the matter with me!” She tried to shake off the doctor’s hold, but he held her in a viselike grip.
“Of course you’re not staying; as soon as you are well, you may come home,” Richard promised.
Fear was slowly gaining the upper hand. Diana knew what they were doing. They were going to confine her here indefinitely, so they could control her money. Panic choked her. She must escape! She saw Bognor’s hand gripping her arm and in a flash she sank her teeth into his flesh and bit down hard.
He cried out in pain and released her immediately. Richard made a grab for her, but she darted away to stand behind a huge mahogany desk between them. The matron who had been sitting at the desk jumped up in alarm. Diana picked up the chair the matron had been sitting on and hurled it at Dr. Bognor. It missed him and crashed into the wall, making an ugly hole in the plaster.
Diana snatched up an oil lamp. “If you don’t let me out of here, I’ll take this bloody place apart, stone by stone!” She had been imprisoned before; this time she wasn’t going meekly.
“She’s insane, call for attendants!” Dr. Bognor ordered the matron.
Diana smashed the lamp and threw it onto the papers stacked on the desk. It blazed up immediately, and the three people in the room fell back. Diana immediately made a rush for the door, but to her utter dismay she found it locked.
Two large, athletic-looking women in striped uniforms came forward. With a shiver, Diana thought of the bath slaves in Aquae Sulis.
“We have no alternative,” Bognor said, beating out the flames with his coat. “Put her in a straitjacket.”
“Nooo,” Diana wailed as the females easily subdued her frantic struggles.
They took her upstairs to a small room that had no furniture. A window, set high in the wall, had bars across it. Diana breathed deeply trying to hang on to her sanity. She knew she must escape from this place, but no plan suggested itself. She could not do it with physical strength; therefore, she would have to use her wits.
