Page 89 of Ravished

Bryce lunged at her, eyes alight with an unholy fire.

Harriet fled down the second aisle of cabinets. Bryce was right behind her. He would catch her in another two strides.

She saw the chair she had used when she had examined the forged fossil. It was standing where she had left it in the middle of the aisle. She jumped up on the seat and scrambled up onto the top of the cabinets just as Bryce grabbed at her skirts.

He missed.

Harriet raced along the top of the cabinets, scattering skulls and femurs and vertebrae into the aisle below. Bryce pounded along in the aisle, obviously intending to catch her at the far end when she tried to reach the door.

"You may as well come down now, you little bitch. There is only one way this can end." There was a terrible sexual excitement in Bryce's voice now.

Harriet ignored him. Her goal was the large stone sitting on top of the last cabinet in the aisle, the one that contained the fossil impression of a large, spiny fish. She prayed the stone would not be too heavy for her to lift.

Bryce never guessed her intention. It probably did not occur to him that a woman would resort to such a means of defending herself or that a woman would be strong enough to do so even if she tried.

But Harriet had been digging fossils out of solid rock for years. She had spent hours wielding a mallet and chisel. She knew she was no weakling.

She grabbed hold of the chunk of stone and hurled it down at Bryce's blond head just as he reached up to grasp her ankle.

At the last instant Bryce realized what was happening. "Damn you, no." Bryce's yell was choked off as he tried to leap back out of the way.

But he was too late. He barely managed to avoid the full impact of the heavy stone. As it was, it caught him a glancing blow on his head and bounced heavily on his shoulder before falling to the floor with a crash.

Bryce stumbled and went down. He lay very still, his eyes closed. Blood leaked from under a lock of blond hair that curled over his forehead.

A terrible silence filled the shadowed room full of bones.

Harriet stood on top of the cabinets, gasping for breath. Her heart was pounding and her hands were trembling. She stared down at Bryce, unable to think clearly for a moment.

Then she forced herself to scramble down from the top of the cabinets. She was afraid to go over to Bryce. She did not know if he was dead and she did not want to find out.

But she needed the key to get out of the chamber.

Harriet took several deep breaths and approached Bryce's still form very cautiously. When he did not stir or open his eyes she dropped to her knees beside him and reached into his pocket for the key.

Her fingers closed around the heavy iron object. She withdrew it quickly. It felt cold in her hand. Bryce still did not move. She could not tell if he was even breathing.

Harriet waited no longer. She ran to the door, inserted the key into the lock, and opened it.

She was free.

She dashed up the stairs to the ground floor and found everything shrouded in shadows. The heavy drapes on the front windows had been drawn against the late afternoon sun.

The door of Mr. Humboldt's private study opened. A stooped, heavily whiskered figure loomed in the doorway rather like a large spider. The figure scowled ferociously at her. "Here, now, you ain't the cook with my supper. What the devil are you doing here? All the visitors are supposed to be gone by now."

"I was just on my way."

"What's that? Speak up, girl." He cupped his ear.

"I said I was just on my way," Harriet said loudly.

He waved her off impatiently. "Go on, get out of here. I've got important work to do. Much too late for any damn visitors. If it wasn't for the fact that I need the money to buy more fossils, I would never let anyone at all into this house. Bunch of amateurs and curiosity seekers. Fools, the lot of 'em."

Humboldt turned around and stomped back into his study. He slammed the door behind him.

Harriet realized she was trembling. She brushed what dust she could off her skirts. When she opened the front door of the museum and stepped out into the street she saw Beth waiting for her near the carriage. The girl was laughing at something the coachman had just said. The lad who had taken the admission fees was with them. All three of them turned to look at her.

"Ready to leave, ma'am?" The coachman asked politely.

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