Page 40 of A Lady's Past
He did know. It had taken all Preston’s influence to arrange an escape with the Buckrose Horsemen. Still, he would go if Diana was there. “I can never make up the debt I owe you for saving my life, but I cannot live knowing I left her to my fate or worse. We cannot imagine the horrors they have in store for my Diana if they get her back to France.”
“There is no debt, Jacques. You would do the same to save me. I have no doubt of that. But returning to France now is a death sentence, and I won’t be able to help.”
“Then we had better hope Victor Caron fails in his assignment.”
ChapterTen
The sun coming in the filthy window did not improve the look of the room that made up Diana and Honoria’s prison. A cockroach skittered across the floor and disappeared through a crack in the wall. It was not the first time Diana wished she was an insect and could escape her prison.
“Is this what it was like?” Honoria’s voice was soft with sleep, but it still surprised Diana, as she thought her friend asleep.
“What do you mean?”
Honoria sat up, stretched and made a face as she looked around the shabby room. “When they kept you in France, was it like this terrible place?”
Flashes of her mother’s throat slashed and her father stabbed through the heart pummeled her brain. The gray stone walls of their dungeon were splattered with their blood. The putrid stench from the bucket they used for necessities filled her nostrils. “No, my lady. This is far better.”
“Better!” She looked around the sparse room with bare, worn, wood floors and tattered curtains that may have once been blue. Pulling Diana into a warm hug, Honoria said, “Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry for what you have endured.”
“It was not your fault, my lady.” The sun cast odd shadows through the grime on the windows, and Diana traced the path with her gaze. It would be a long day, and no telling where it would end. More than likely, she would be crossing the English Channel by nightfall. The only thing Diana must be sure of was to gain Lady Chervil her freedom.
Wishing she wore plain clothes rather than an evening gown wouldn’t make it so. Diana got up and brushed out the gown’s skirt, realized it was hopelessly wrinkled, and walked to the window.
Honoria yawned. “You are a remarkable person, Diana MacLeod. I wonder if anyone has told you so.”
The only thing she was remarkable at was getting the people she loved killed. “I’m very flattered that you are fond of me, my lady. I’m quite fond of you too. I don’t think I have ever had a finer friend.”
Throwing her feet over the side of the bed, Honoria cocked her head and watched Diana. “I like you, Diana, but that has nothing to do with the fact that you are extraordinary. I would not survive more than a few hours in this hovel, yet you endured worse for years and still glow with hope.”
“I think that just makes me a fool.” With nowhere to sit other than the bed, Diana leaned on the wall. It was unladylike, but she no longer cared. It was as if the past few months had never happened, and she was a prisoner again. There was no need for the rules of society where she was going.
“You are certainly no fool. You are a vibrant, beautiful and brilliant woman who was thrown into an unbearable situation through no fault of her own. Yet look at you. Most people would be a whimpering mess after such a turn of fate.”
“I only endured because I had no other choice.”
A sad smile tipped Honoria’s lips. “Oh, my dear, there are always choices.”
“I have made some terrible ones. I should never have involved you and the Everton Domestic Society in my messy life. It would have been better to find a quiet place to live, out of sight, and take a job as a shopkeeper’s assistant. If I had done that, you would not be here. Maybe I would still be sweeping some bookstore’s floors right now. It wouldn’t be wonderful, but it would be safe.”
Rising and stretching did little to add to Honoria’s height. Yet there was something regal about the woman. She walked to Diana and patted her cheek. “Coming to Everton House is the smartest thing you’ve ever done, and I imagine you have done some very brilliant things. Jane and Rupert know everyone, and almost everyone owes them a favor. They won’t rest until we are safe at home.”
“They have no way to find us, my lady. I don’t want to upset you, but we are likely to be loaded on a ship bound for France at any moment.” Diana hadn’t meant to raise her voice, but her calm facade was slipping.
Taking her hand, Honoria led her over to the bed, and they sat. “Tell me how you escaped last time.”
Diana cringed. “It is not a nice story. You will be shocked and likely never speak to me again.”
“Nonsense. We are friends and nothing you will say can change that. Tell me. I think it will do you good to let it out.” Honoria patted Diana’s hand where it lay in hers.
Could she? Diana had held on to all the pain of her imprisonment for so long, she didn’t know if she could share it or if sharing it would help. Hands shaking, she took a moment to steady her nerves. In the daylight, it was harder than telling Jacques about being captured and losing her parents. “I don’t know where to start.”
Honoria squared her shoulders. “I will help you. You were taken from your family home in the north and carted where?”
“The carriage bumped and banged me around, but they’d put a hood over my head, and I couldn’t see where they were taking us. Mother found my hand and held tight. Her hand trembled in mine, and I wanted to be strong for her sake. The ropes that bound our wrists cut and rubbed my skin.
“The sun shone through my hood after what seemed like hours of travel and the scent of the sea reached me. When they tossed us in the hold of a ship, they cut our bindings and removed our hoods.”
Squeezing her hand, Honoria lent strength and stability. “How horrible that must have been for you.”
