Page 47 of Captivating the Countess
1001, 1000, 999, 998... Bell concentrated on counting backward until the fog dissipated. When she no longer felt in danger of toppling, she looked down again. No one raced screaming into the corridors.
She’d caught part of the rehearsal and knew they employed fake gunfire. Perhaps someone had just been startled—
A heavy thud, followed by more screams. But she was prepared this time and took deep breaths to resist the dizziness. Rain’s voice shouted over the rest. Rain never raised his voice. Torn between the duke and the need to dash downstairs to see if anyone was harmed—Bell hesitated in uncertainty.
The chandelier swayed wider and creaked louder.
Back stairs.She dashed around the gallery and down the corridor to the intersection with the north wing. The duke’s suite wasn’t far from there. She could stop...
The very worried Miss Damon emerged from the stairwell before Bell could reach the duke. “Drucilla is sobbing as if her heart is breaking. I cannot make out a word she is saying.”
Torn, needing to be three places at once, Bell wanted to add her screams to those below.
But screaming wouldn’t help. Praying she made the right choice, she hurried upstairs to the crying child who might hold the key to the evening’s chaos.
Seventeen
“Grab the corners and lift,”Rain shouted to the men he’d positioned around Teddy’s blamed canvas chandelier. It had been a marvel of a multi-layered kite more than a chandelier, and now it lay in a tangled web on top of Teddy, Alicia, and the hysterical actress.
As the wooden frame and layers of canvas rose, Rain ducked under it. He hadn’t dared send anyone else beneath the contraption, not to rescue his sister. He found the black rags she’d been wearing in a tangle of rope and sheets. She didn’t seem to be moving. He swore under his breath. He needed to verify nothing was broken before he dragged her out.
Using his back as brace, he held up the contraption until he could see. Alicia was face down on the floor but breathed, thank all the heavens. He murmured senseless words as he touched her neck and did a swift examination of her spine.
Grunting, she suddenly pushed up and flipped over. Wiping a loose strand of hair from her face, she glared. “Well, that was not what I’d hoped.”
“Better than two-hundred pounds of crystal.” He wanted to hug her, but he was not a demonstrative man. And he still had Teddy and the actress to locate. “Can you crawl out on your own?”
She glanced around and pointed to a man’s boots. “That should be Teddy. Lady Pamela ought to be...” She wrinkled her nose and peered under the folds of fabric. “Closer to the fireplace, I believe.”
The boots were already stirring.
“All the chandeliers are swinging,” someone shouted from beyond the contraption.
“Well, that ought to empty the house in the morning.” Grimly, Alicia began crawling beneath the edge Rain held up. “Maybe that’s the ghost’s intent.”
“Keep everyone in this room where it’s safe,” he ordered. “Tell the footmen to serve champagne.”
Bell? Where was Bell? There was a small chandelier in the sitting room of her suite. And in his father’s chambers! Panic seeped over his normal calm.
Taught since birth to give commands, Rain resorted to training now. “Have one of the servants run upstairs to check on Father and another to locate Bell.” The servants, at least, would use their sheltered stairwells, away from chandeliers.
“Aye, aye, captain.” Alicia slipped from beneath the canvas.
If any of the louts holding up the corners had the brains of a peahen, they’d be dismantling the contraption by now. Instead, Rain had to crawl over to be sure Teddy was conscious. Apparently, he was lying there, studying his failure, and not dead.
“I’ll leave, just as soon as I figure out how I failed,” Teddy grumbled when Rain raised the canvas over him.
“You’d have to figure out how a ghost sways all the chandeliers in the house at once. Help me lift this damned contraption and find Lady Pamela. She stopped shrieking, so she must be dead.” Rain could hope.
“If she’s not calling for the removal of my head, she’s probably dead,” Teddy agreed glumly, climbing up on all fours to lift the center of his contraption on his bulky back.
The action revealed Lady Pamela crumpled on the carpet, beating it with her fist and weeping. Rain wasn’t going near her. “Your turn, old boy. Go rescue the hysterical lady.”
“She’s having a tantrum. Can we just leave her under here?” Despite his words, Teddy began crawling over to comfort the victim of his incompetence.
“Your guest, not mine. I have an entire company to settle down.” Praying his cousin didn’t marry a featherhead like the lovers he chose, Rain retreated from beneath the canvas. Now that he knew everyone was alive, he pushed the frame up, gathering the folds to collapse it in the middle.
The men holding the corners followed his example, leaving Lady Pamela and Teddy exposed and unharmed.
