Page 60 of Taken to the Grave
“You don’t have to do it at all.”
He shook his head. “That isn’t an option. Into the tunnel. Now.”
With the pistol now aligned with her chest, Audrey saw not just Stevens, but Mr. Fellows as he’d aimed his gun at her while she’d been trying to escape his houseboat. And Mr. Henley, as he’d leveled his weapon on her and Millie as he’d been taking them away from Greenbriar. Both men had fired theirshots. Both had struck her. She’d been lucky those times, but something told her she would not be so lucky now. Not with Stevens exposing his duplicity to her. He didn’t plan to let her live long enough to breathe a word about it to anyone. Eager to delay him, Audrey did as she was told and stepped into the tunnel. Stevens closed the door behind him, and she heard the click of a lock being bolted into place.
“What did you do to Mr. Gye?” She raised her voice, hoping the tunnel would carry it onward, toward wherever Hugh and Thornton were. If they were even still in the tunnel.
“Hush up,” Stevens barked. But then answered, “Gye’s perfectly fine. For now, at least. I came out here after Marsden saw Sir Gabriel this morning, talking about Burdick Close.”
“You knew he’d figured out where the Sanctuary was,” Audrey said, again risking Stevens’s anger by throwing her voice.
“I said quiet,” he spat.
Audrey stumbled over a rise in the tunnel floor. She caught herself, and realized it wasn’t totally dark. Small openings in the ceiling bricks, evenly spaced apart, let in dappled light; looking up, Audrey saw blue sky. There had to be a walkway running right over the tunnel, interspersed with grates.
“I saw Gye outside the proprietor’s house. He said Marsden had ordered him to fetch more foot patrols. That his steward was in some trouble.”
“We know everything,” Audrey said. “And there will be foot patrols and officers and even Sir Gabriel himself here soon.”
“Maybe there would’ve been, had I not told Gye to go back inside and that I’d take care of everything.” The point of the pistol nudged her in the back, between her shoulders. “Move faster.”
Ahead, the grates in the ceiling let in sunlight, revealing where the tunnel branched.
“Go right,” Stevens instructed.
“What is to the left?” she asked.
“Nothing for you to see.” He pushed her again from behind, and she followed the right branch.
Which way had Hugh and Thornton gone?
At the base of a staircase, he barked, “Go up.”
Unless she chose to grapple with him here, she had no other choice. Wherever the stairs led, she might have access to something to defend herself with.
She climbed, her mind racing, her heart beginning to thud out of its usual rhythm. She couldn’t panic. Not now. The stairs led to a long passageway, and as Stevens urged her onward, she passed several doors and the base of a stairwell. After turning down another twisting passageway, Audrey finally entered a vast hall with parquet flooring polished to a gleaming shine, beamed ceilings inset with murals, a long table with at least two dozen chairs surrounding it, couches and chairs, and a massive fireplace. And in front of that fireplace, tied to one of the dining table chairs with blood smearing his face, was Lord Thornton.
Standing over him was the burly man from her visions, the one who’d tried to pick a fight with Sir outside Burdick Close. He brought his fist across Thornton’s chin, and more viscera arced through the air.
“Grant!” Audrey started forward. Stevens caught her arm and hauled her back. She wrestled to toss him off, but he only dug in his fingers harder.
“Ah. The Dowager Duchess joins us, at last.”
Another man stood from a chair near the fireplace where he’d been watching the brute beat Thornton. He turned to greet them.
“Hammond Abbey,” Audrey said, recognizing Mr. Gye’s steward.
He cut a grin, but she could recall seeing the grotesque devil mask with its pronged, lolling tongue.
“Let her leave, Abbey. She’s nothing to do with this,” Thornton slurred, his mouth glistening with blood. His nose looked broken, and a gash ran alongside one eye.
The rest of the great hall was empty. Where was Hugh?
“When a lamb walks into the Sanctuary, we don’t just let it leave.” The steward strolled forward. “Well done, Stevens. Taking the initiative, I see.”
“Gye knows about you,” the Bow Street officer said, practically shouting in Audrey’s ear. “She says foot patrols and the magistrate will be coming.”
Mr. Abbey’s slick grin fell off. “Is that so. Well, Stevens, why are you still standing here? Go head them off. Or else what use are you to me?”
