Page 93 of A Night of Forever
They found Philip cradling Mrs. Clarke who had a nasty bump on her right cheek. She was beginning to regain consciousness.
Arend found some sherry in the larder and poured a small glass. The housekeeper was struggling to sit upright when Arend crouched to hold the glass to her lips.
“Lady Isobel,” the woman cried.
Fury bubbled in his blood. “Did she do this to you?”
“No.” Mrs. Clarke stared at him as if he were crazed. “Of course not.” She blinked, turned her head slowly, and reached for the glass he held. “The woman behind her did. The one with the pistol.”
A sliver of hope tried to pierce the newly reinforced fortress round his heart.
“Did Lady Isobel say anything at all?” he asked, with his breath held tight in his aching chest.
“No.” Mrs. Clarke paused. “Yes. I think her mouth moved, but I didn’t catch what she said. I was so surprised to see a woman dressed as a man. Not Lady Isobel,” she said hastily. “The one who hit me. But it was a woman, and she had a pistol.” Her eyes went wide. “She could have shot me. She might shoot Lady Isobel.”
Arend tried to hide his frustration and disillusionment. If Isobel hadn’t gone willingly, why hadn’t she tried to call out?
“Think.” Hadley clipped him on his shoulder, clearly having surmised what he was thinking. “Only a fool would shout out with a gun at her back.”
He knew what Hadley said was true, but still doubt ate at him.
“God damn,” Sebastian snarled from the cellar below. “That hurt.”
A moment later he came back up the stairs with a bloody scratch carved in his cheek. “The tunnel goes in two directions and I have no idea which way they went.”
He brandished a hairpin. “I slipped on the step and fell flat on my face and this little bugger dug into my cheek. I almost lost my eye.”
Arend snatched the pin from him. “It’s one of Isobel’s.”
Sebastian snorted. “It must have fallen out of her hair as they were escaping through the tunnels.”
“Not possible.” Arend twirled the hairpin around his fingers. “She didn’t have any in her hair when I left her.”
The other men stared at him blankly.
Hadley cleared his throat. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” His mouth curved as he remembered their intimate moments. “I removed each one myself. And if I missed any then, they would not have stayed in her hair for very long afterward.”
Mrs. Clarketsked, but then she said, almost grudgingly, “Yes, Lady Isobel’s hair was down.”
A spark of hope bloomed in Arend’s chest, and he raced for the tunnel.
“Light,” he commanded, and Philip handed him a burning lantern.
He stepped down onto the dirt holding the lantern high. His gaze swept the ground to the left, then to the right. He bent lower, and swung the lantern wide.
That’s when he saw something glinting in the dirt a little farther up the tunnel. His heart began to race as he jogged that way, Sebastian close behind.
“What is it, Arend?”
He said nothing until the light of the lantern caught yet another pin several yards farther on. This time he smiled wide, his heart unfurling, the pain in his body disappearing. But suddenly his joy was replaced by raw fear. Victoria had his Isobel. He knew what she’d want in return. Him. Well, she was going to get him.
“Isobel has left us a trail.” He bent and retrieved the first pin. “Victoria took her this way.”
“Tookher?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes. She’s deliberately dropping the hairpins to show us the way. These little devils are going to be harder to find once we leave the tunnels, so we don’t have much time.”
