Page 57 of Daring the Forbidden Earl
Barreling down the stairs, they had just reached the last step when a figure rushed forward from the hallway, off to the side. With a swift kick to the back of Johanna’s knee, the man sent her sprawling to the floor. The thud winded her for a moment, and she lay in a daze, trying to figure out what was happening.
“Run!” she heard Nora croak, and as she turned, her eyes flew wide. A huge man in a top hat and cloak, his face as obscured as it had been when Johanna chased him through the streets, had his arm around Nora’s neck. Using his other arm to brace against it, Johanna did not need to be a physician, or a brawler, to know that he was choking her friend.
She scrambled to her feet, torn between aiding Nora and sprinting for the door, to try and seek help from Liam and Kenneth, who were waiting in the carriage outside. As it turned out, she had no chance of doing either.
The man in the top hat dropped Nora like a sack of potatoes and strode toward Johanna. She opened her mouth to scream, but his enormous hand silenced it in an instant.
Chapter Thirty-Three
With the arrangements made for their departure to Gretna Green, Mark paced restlessly back and forth in his drawing room. He had sought temporary solace in a snifter of brandy, but it had done little to help his fraught nerves.
I should never have let her go there alone. I should have insisted upon taking her there myself.
He eyed the carriage clock on the mantelpiece, wondering what could be taking Johanna so long. They had agreed to a rendezvous here, at his home, before taking the carriage to her apartments, so they could collect her luggage and then, with any luck, be on their way northward. But they had made that plan some three hours ago, and there was still no sign of her.
“I should go to Lord Dresday’s abode. I should ensure that my love is fine, and all is well,” he said aloud, fearing the deafening quiet of the drawing room. “And I should demand that Miss Steele tell the truth, so we can be done with this.”
Unless she has changed her mind?
The horrifying thought struck him out of nowhere, like a stray thunderbolt. What if Miss Steele had somehow convinced Johanna that hehadspent the night with her? Or what if she was having second thoughts about marrying a known rake, fearing he might break her heart? In that moment, Mark felt utterly sick.
For who would want to bind themselves to someone like me?
“My Lord!” A sharp bang ricocheted through from the drawing room door, jolting Mark out of his unpleasant contemplation. Chalke entered directly afterward, once again ignoring Mark’s request for him to wait for a reply first.
Mark shot him a startled look. “What is it, Chalke?”
“Lord Keswick and Lord Hudson are here to see you, My Lord. They appear to have Lady Keswick with them, also, but—”
Mark’s friends burst into the room a second later, though it was not a comforting entrance. Liam held Nora in his arms, her body limp and her head lolling against his shoulder. Worse still, Johanna was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is she?” Mark barked. He did not need to name her. From the worried looks on his friends’ faces, he could tell they knew exactly who he meant.
Liam did not answer. Instead, he carried his darling wife to the nearest settee and lay her down. Perching on the edge of the settee, he tried to shake her gently, but it seemed she was entirely unresponsive. And for that fleeting second, Mark put aside his concerns for Johanna, and looked to Chalke.
“Send for a physician immediately!” he ordered, before he let his terror flood back in. He turned his gaze to Kenneth. “Where is she, Denninson? Where is Johanna?”
Kenneth shook his head grimly. “We do not know, Dear Boy. I am so deeply sorry, but… we do not know.” He glanced at Liam. “Westwood and I were waiting outside Lord Dresday’s home, as instructed. We waited and we waited, and when over an hour had passed, we realized something was amiss.”
“I found her…” Liam rasped, brushing his fingertips gingerly across Nora’s pale cheek. “She was at the foot of the staircase, unconscious. Whoever did this… they just left her there, as though she were refuse in the street. And I cannot get her to awaken.” His breath hitched. “But her heart is still beating, and I must cling to that.”
Mark’s heart ached as he watched his miserable friend try to urge his wife back into consciousness, but that pain was swiftly overcome by true, cold, unadulterated fear. Of course it was despicable that this had been done to Nora, but where was Johanna? Why had she not been left at the foot of the staircase with her friend?
“And Johanna was definitely not with her?” Mark croaked.
Kenneth sighed heavily. “She was not, Dear Boy. And no one exited via the front door, for we had our eyes upon it the entire time we were waiting there.” He paused. “Naturally, I sought information from Lord Dresday, but he would not allow me entry. As such, we came straight here.”
Mark marched toward his bureau and wrenched open the top drawer. From inside, he plucked his pistol—the same one he had taken to Hyde Park last night. Ensuring that it was loaded and ready to fire, and picking up a pouch of lead balls, he slipped the weapon into the waist of his trousers and headed for the drawing room door.
Kenneth blocked his path. “Do not do anything rash, Dear Boy.”
“Stand aside, or I will force you to,” Mark hissed.
As far as he was concerned, the only culprit of this crime was Lord Dresday. The wretched Baron was likely irked by the developments that had occurred last night and taken matters into his own hands, made all the easier by the fact that Johanna had gone straight to his door, of her own volition.
Kenneth reached out and put a hand upon Mark’s shoulder. “What do you intend to do?”
“I will go to Lord Dresday and demand entry,” Mark replied, his words dripping venom. “If he refuses, I shall break down his door and point this pistol at his head, until he either tells me where Johanna is… or I shoot him.”
