Page 72 of A Whisper of Desire
The inside of the carriage was too dark for her to see the woman clearly.
The two of them were alone in the carriage.Good.Marisa felt capable of handling one woman.
Perfect.Time to escape, then.She tried to rise, but through her drug-induced haze it suddenly dawned on her that her hands and feet were bound. Damn.
Think, girl.
The young lady across from her stirred.
“Are you awake?” Marisa asked, her voice soft enough not to be heard by those above.
“Yes. We’ve been kidnapped, haven’t we?”
“Yes. Did you see who took you?”
“No. Did you?”
Marisa fumed because she hadn’t seen anyone, but she was pretty sure it was the villainess behind her capture. “No. I didn’t see who took me. My name is Marisa, Marisa Spencer, Duchess of Lyttleton.”
“Marisa, I didn’t recognize you in men’s clothing. I thought you a young lad. It’s me, Lady Isobel.”
Lady Isobel Thompson, Earl of Northumberland’s daughter. Relief seeped into her dry throat. Marisa didn’t for one moment believe Isobel was their villainess. She’d known Isobel most of her life.
Isobel was a sensible girl who was a year older than Marisa, but Isobel’s father died eighteen months ago and she’d been in mourning until the beginning of this season. Isobel’s stepmother had brought her to town for her first season two months or so ago.
“Do you know why you’ve been kidnapped?”
Isobel’s voice cracked. “No. Tonight, I was at Lord Marbury’s ball and I received a note to meet my stepmother at our carriage, but when I got outside somebody grabbed me.”
This didn’t make sense. Why would their enemy kidnap Isobel? She had nothing to do with the Libertine Scholars.
Marisa pulled her thoughts away from that puzzle and back onto their current situation. “We need to get free and make our escape.”
“My hands and feet are bound.”
An idea came to mind. If she could use her teeth to undo Isobel’s bindings to free her hands, then they could help each other.
The only problem was how to reach her. She decided the best idea would be to roll off the squab and onto the floor. Then Isobel could roll over until her hands were hanging over the edge of the seat.
“Can you turn to face the back of the squab and let me study your bindings?” Isobel did as she requested. “They don’t look too tight. I might be able to loosen them with my teeth.”
Before Isobel could respond she rolled onto the floor. Unable to use her hands to cushion the fall, the impact jarred her already sore head. “Can you move your hands closer to the edge of the squab?”
When Isobel complied, Marisa strained her neck upward and set about using her teeth to try and pull the knots undone. To her surprise the knots were not tied as tightly as she’d thought. Still, the muscles in her neck and cheeks were screaming by the time she’d managed to free Isobel’s hands.
In a flash Isobel pushed herself into a sitting position and leaned forward to tackle the bindings round her ankles. Before she could free her feet, there was a huge cracking sound. The carriage began to shudder and shake, then on a roar the carriage tipped sideways and crashed to the ground.
The panicked horses tried to bolt and the carriage was racing over gravel and dirt that flew into the carriage through the broken window. Thank goodness she’d worn men’s hardened shoes this evening. Marisa could feel them scraping along the dirt road through the broken window.
Isobel’s cries could only just be heard over the sound of the crashing and banging carriage and the squealing horses.
The carriage was at last beginning to slow, and Marisa slowly let out the breath she’d been holding. She was being thrown around, smashing her shoulder into the side of the wall where the squab was attached to the carriage floor.
She could hear Isobel on the squab above, cursing and gripping the back of the squab as tightly as she could.
“I think we’ll be fine, as the carriage is sl—”
Soon as she said the words, a horse’s terror-filled scream rented the air and they slammed into something solid. Her head hit the floor hard, pain rendering her speechless. The last thing she saw was Isobel’s hand reaching for her as she was flung from the carriage as it began breaking apart around them.
