Page 45 of Daring the Forbidden Earl
“No… I cannot disturb her tonight,” Johanna said to herself. “I will wait until Friday. If I have not heard from Mark by then, I will seek him out myself.” For she knew she would have to see him, to ensure that Miss Steele had kept her promise. Then, she would tell Mark of her part in keeping Lord Dresday at bay, and perhaps that would be enough to soften his anger toward her.
She lumbered back onto her two feet and steadied herself on the hallway paneling. Catching her uneven breath, she listened to the terrible quiet of her apartments. Thanks to Mark, and the daydreams she enjoyed of him, she had forgotten just how dense that silence could be. Even when she was married, the quiet had always been the same. Unbearable.
“I do not think I can sleep tonight,” she muttered, wondering how she might distract herself until morning.
Walking toward the tiny parlor at the back of her apartments, she struck a match and lit a few lanterns, to try and make the darkness seem less intense. But it only brought new, terrifying shadows into the small room, where they danced wildly upon the walls and slithered across the floorboards toward her.
“You are being foolish,” she scolded herself. “Do not lose heart until Mark gives you reason to.”
Forcing herself to be courageous, she sat down in one of the dusty armchairs and took up a book that she must have left on the side table a long while ago. She blew some motes from the opened pages, reminding herself to tell Mrs. Sawyer to clean in here.
Her eyes flitted across the paper, trying to remember where she had left off, but the words jumbled together, leaving her more and more frustrated. Of course, she knew her frustrations lay elsewhere, but there was nothing she could do about those.
“Gather yourself, Johanna,” she said sharply. “He ran away, true, but he did not say he would be gone forever. You are imagining a separation that has not happened. If you continue in this manner, you will—” Her words were cut off by a loud knock on the front door, which sent a jolt of fright through her.
A moment later, that fear turned to hope. Leaping out of her armchair, she tore out of the small parlor and down the hallway. A second, louder knock echoed toward her, the noise dying just as she reached the entrance of her apartments. Surely at such an hour, it could only be one person. Mark had come back, she felt certain of it. And they would kiss and forgive one another, and retreat to her bedchamber to enjoy each other.
Taking a second to smooth down her mussed hair, she flung open the door in excitement… but there was no one there.
“Mark?” she whispered, poking her head out of the doorway to check the hallway beyond. “Mark, are you there?”
No reply drifted back to her.
Puzzled, she turned to go back inside. As she closed the door behind her, she could have sworn she heard the quiet, unnerving scuffle of someone outside, running furtively past the locked entrance of her home.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Three nights later, with Friday looming on tomorrow’s horizon, Johanna awoke from her fitful slumber with a start. A loud knock echoed through her apartments, as it had done for the past three nights, robbing her of her much-needed sleep.
If Mark were here, I would not feel so afraid.
Gingerly, she threw back the coverlet and padded across her bedchamber floor. She took a cloak down from the hook at the back of the door and threw it around her shoulders, for tonight she did not intend to let the mystery knocker get away. Indeed, she was already fully dressed for the occasion.
“You will not fright me again, whoever you are,” she whispered, as she slipped out of the door and headed down the hallway to the front door.
Truly, these nightly interruptions had become ridiculous, and though she had tried to ignore them, the knocks had grown in frequency. On that first night, when Mark had abandoned her in a hurry, there had been three more knocks to terrify her. On the second, six. On the third, they were almost every hour. And tonight, there had already been four knocks since she had retired to bed two hours ago.
It will be bored children, playing the fool.
She had noticed a congregation of children on the corner of her street, just that morning, who had looked to her with a glint of mischief in her eyes as she had gone on her daily walk to Mark’s townhouse. She never knocked onhisdoor, but she hoped to catch a glimpse of him, so she could assure herself that he was all right. For she had decided not to mope, but simply to wait and hope he came back to her.
As long as Miss Steele keeps her promise, Mark will be well. Lord Dresday will not be able to make another threat, for it will appear as though he is a coward for not showing up.
At least, that was Johanna’s hope.
Creeping all the way down the hallway, Johanna paused and waited for the knock that she knew would come. As she waited, she reached out for the cricket bat that she had recovered from her husband’s boxes of belongings and gripped the worn handle as tight as she could.
Fear prickled up the length of her spine, her stomach churning with nerves, as she took away her clammy hands and wiped them on the wool of her cloak, before resuming her grip. She knew this might be dangerous, but her mother and father had raised her to be tough. In place of affection, they had taught her how to defend herself, and how to stand up for herself. And she would do just that against whoever was causing this disturbance.
I wish Mark were here, though. I really do.
Standing there in the silence of her entrance annex, listening to the tick of the carriage clock and the pounding of her heart, she tried to hush her breaths as best she could. Of course, she did not really believe the miscreant would be able to hear her through the door, but it served to be cautious.
Come on, whoever you are. Do not be shy now.
She had just adjusted her grip on the cricket bat, when a loud, frantic banging erupted through the quiet, bombarding Johanna’s ears. Terror spiked through her chest and, for a moment, she could not move. Her body remained rigid, her breath held, her eyes wide.
A moment later, she sprang into action. Keeping hold of the cricket bat, she lunged forward and took hold of the door handle, wrenching the door open to reveal the shadowed corridor beyond. But there was no one standing there. In truth, she did not know why she had expected anything different.
