Page 118 of Enslaved
She nodded.
“After tonight, I have never seen you and you have never seen me. Is that understood?”
She glanced at the pistol he pointed at her. “Yes, sir,” she croaked, her voice cracking with fear.
The woman unlocked the back door with one of her keys, and proceeded along an ill-lit corridor between laundry rooms and kitchens. Creatures of the night scuttled away from their feet into the deeper shadows, then the woman led him up two sets of steep stairs that took them up to the third floor.
They encountered no one, but cries of distress, moans of despair, and an occasional deranged laugh came from the locked rooms. The Earl of Bath pinched his nostrils against the odors of cooked cabbage, carbolic soap, and stale urine. The fury within threatened to explode, and he knew that if anyone challenged him, anyone at all, he would put a bullet in their brain.
Diana awoke from a fitful dream and heard her door being unlocked. A dark figure loomed in the doorway. Dear God in Heaven, she had known Bognor would come for her, but she hadn’t expected him in the night. “No!” she cried out sharply. “Don’t touch me.”
At the sound of her voice, Mark’s heart turned over in his breast. He had finally found her. He wanted to warn her to be silent, but all he could say, as he drew close to the bed was, “My sweetheart.”
“Mark?” she whispered, not fully trusting her ears.
“Yes, love,” he murmured low, taking her hand to his chest, where his half-coin rested over his heart. As her questing hand slid over the hard muscles, his deep voice hushed, “Try not to make any noise.”
As he lifted her in his powerful arms, she thought her heart was hammering so loudly it would waken the dead. She clung to him tightly, knowing God and Saint Jude had granted her a miracle. He carried her down three flights, then along the passageway to the back door. He gave the woman a final warning. “I will release your sister immediately. If I were you, I would not sound the alarm, I would lock the door quietly and retire.”
On the ride back to Bath, Mark slipped his arms about Diana and drew her back against him. With gentle hands he brushed her tangled hair back from her temples. “Try to relax; we have a private two-hour drive ahead of us.”
“You are so clever; how did you find me?”
“Nay, love, it was your own wits that led me to you. Only you could have planted the seed for them to bring the half-coin to me.”
“Oh Mark, they put me in the madhouse.” She shivered uncontrollably.
He drew her inside his cloak so that the heat from his body would warm her. Gradually, she told him what happened from the moment she had decided to confront Prudence and Richard. When she finished, she asked, “How long was I locked away?”
“Forty days and forty nights. How did you bear it?” he said very quietly.
“I knew you would come.”
Diana’s words were so sure, so certain, he hated to cast a shadow upon her peace of mind. But facts had to be faced. “Diana, you are still legally under the control of your guardians for another three weeks.”
When she flinched in his arms, he said, “The law is on their side and they will be able to take you away from me the moment they learn I have abducted you.”
“Please, don’t let them put me back in that place.”
He hated to hear her beg, and offered the only solution he could think of. “If we marry, you will be under my authority.”
Diana’s heart soared. This was what she wanted more than anything in the world, yet she knew the thing Mark Hardwick treasured most was his freedom. Her heart overflowed that he was willing to make the supreme sacrifice to keep her safe. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“Don’t thank me, love. It is only a temporary measure. They will go to the courts and have it annulled because I do not have their consent to marry you. All we can hope is that it takes them three weeks to get the marriage set aside.”
Chapter 37
It was after ten o’clock when they arrived back at Hardwick Hall. Diana had the feeling that the house welcomed her, as if she had come home. Mark felt so protective of her, he wanted to sweep her into his arms and carry her upstairs. Why should she walk when he could carry her? But he knew she had been so closely confined she needed freedom of movement.
She paused at the foot of the newel staircase, appreciating its carved beauty. As they climbed the steps together, her fingers wound their way about his. “I love to hold hands with you,” she admitted shyly.
He closed the door and moved into the room to light the lamps. She stayed by the door to watch the room come alive as it was bathed in the soft glow. The four-poster held all her attention with its beautiful green velvet curtains, embroidered with small golden crowns and lions. “I love this chamber. I’ll never leave it again.”
He turned to speak and the words died on his lips. In the ugly brown smock and canvas shoes, she looked pale unto death. He swallowed the lump in his throat and swore a silent vow. If anyone ever hurt her again, he would kill them!
“I know it’s late, but we must be married tonight, so I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave this chamber.”
“I need a bath,” she said softly.
