Page 7 of To Win a Viscount's Heart
Dizzy and nauseous she took deep breaths, trying to keep from throwing up.
The last thing her mother had said to Selena was to save herself.
You were right, Maman. It is the only way.She had to leave. Rose Point Chateau was no longer her home. She would follow her mother’s advice and travel to London to the home of the Earl of Bellecote, the family of her betrothed.
She would pack but not for Gretna Green. She would wait until everyone was asleep. Then she would make her escape. Percival had helped himself to her father’s fine whisky, guzzling it like water. He’d spent every night since his arrival, playing cards with Grom, the two of them drinking themselves into a stupor in her father’s library. Surely this night would be no different.
As the house settled for the night, she set her plan in motion. She arranged the pillows on her bed under the covers, to look as if she were sleeping. She blew out the bedside candle and allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Next, she braided her waist-length hair and wrapped it into a coronet around her head. In a basket under the bed, she reached for a canvas sack the maids used to transport soiled linens for washing. Quickly she reached into a drawer and without looking, whipped out a few items of clothing, stuffing them into the sack. She had to make this quick.
Opening the drawer of her bedside table she took out a box of torches. She removed one and set it aside, sliding the box into the bag. She picked up the torch, hefted the sack and tiptoed to the bookcase at the far end of her bedchamber.
Setting the sack down on the floor, Selena crouched and shifted several books on the bottom shelf. Pressing against the back panel, she moved back as the bookcase sprung open on a well-oiled axis. Picking up the sack she walked through the narrow opening into a hidden passage. Deftly, she touched another lever, and watched as the bookcase slid closed, securing the passageway from prying eyes.
Her parents had shown her the secret passageway when she was a little girl. As a child, she would play hide and seek here with her nanny. Sometimes her parents would play with her too. She had so many fond memories of her childhood.
If only she and her mother had had the foresight to make their escape earlier, before it was too late. She bit her trembling lip as she lit the torch and set it on a small table next to a wooden box. Lifting the lid, she took out a pair of boy’s breeches, shirt, and boots. Removing her gown, she donned the breeches and shirt and put on the boots.
She’d always worn boy’s clothes when she went for her morning rides, preferring to ride astride. Her parents had permitted it only on the family estate. She didn’t have room in her sack for the gown she wore, so she folded it and left it on a chair next to the table. She reached back into the box and removed a locket. She opened it and gazed at the miniatures within of her beloved mother and father. She kissed both images and snapped the locket closed. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she secured the locket about her neck.
Reaching back into the box she took out one final item. A small reticule that contained some spending money from her last trip to the village before that devil arrived, and a few jewels her mother and father had given to her, including a sapphire ring, her grandmother’s pearls, and her father’s signet ring—something her mother insisted she have—treasures she’d secured in her secret hiding place shortly after they realizedPercival was not the honorable man they’d believed. She wiped fresh tears from her cheeks at the thought of her lovely and wise mother.
Her ’other’s jewels along with the household funds for the month were in a locked safe in her father’s library. The first thing the bastard did when he arrived was demand the key to the safe from Selena’s mother.
Everything she loved was gone.
I’ll just have to make do, Maman.
If she ran out of money, she would have to sell her jewelry.
She tucked her braid into one of her father’s floppy hats—one that he always wore in the gardens when he helped her mother prune the roses.
She donned her cloak and looped the sack over her shoulder. Picking up the torch, she carefully made her way through the hidden passage and down a set of stairs that led to the pantry behind the kitchen. In the larder, she found a small wedge of cheese and half a loaf of bread, which she stuffed into the sack. She slipped several apples and carrots into the deep pockets of her hooded cloak before making her way to the stables.
Quiet as a mouse, she saddled the large, gray stallion that her father had given her on her eighteenth birthday. The horse nickered upon seeing her.
“Shhh! Azure we must be quiet. We don’t want to wake anyone.” Taking a carrot, she fed it to her horse. She had named him Azure because in the moonlight his gray coat looked blue, and her father had chuckled that the color matched her own silvery blue eyes. Climbing into the saddle, she whispered to her horse, “We must leave.” Without looking back and with tears streaming down her face, she fled in the moonlight.
In one year, she had lost everything—her father, her mother, and all the servants who’d been like family. She wished she could have said goodbye to Maggie and Ben, their cook and stablemaster, but she couldn’t risk being caught by Grom or Percival—or any of his other spies.
She found a small measure of comfort in knowing her parents were together again.
The sky had been overcast when she’d set out just after midnight, and by the time she reached the road that turned toward London, it had begun to rain. Pouring rain.
She uttered a curse. The distance to London was too far in this weather. She looked around in her saddle, searching for some kind of shelter. But nothing was visible. The night was dark, and the rain was cold. London was out of the question.
“Change of plans, Azure,” she said in a low voice, surprised when he snorted a reply. She didn’t think he could hear her over the downpour. Tugging on the reins, she guided Azure eastward. She recalled that her betrothed, Viscount Gerald Lawrence now resided at Bellwood estate in Derbyshire. She and her mother had planned to join the Bellecote family there for the holidays.
Selena did not know what kind of reception she’d find at Bellwood, given the incident at her come out all those years ago, but she had no choice. She needed help and Bellwood was much closer than London.
An hour later, Selena was fighting to keep her eyes awake in the saddle when she heard the rumble of a carriage. Her heart pounding in her chest, she guided Azure off the road, into the woods. Stopping behind a large tree she waited with bated breath, terrified that Percival had discovered her escape and had tracked her down.
“We can’t let him find us,” she whispered.
As if understanding, her horse stilled and neither one of them made a sound until long after the dark carriage rolled past.
“I am so glad you’re here with me,” she whispered, patting her horse’s muzzle. “I could not have done this without you.”
Azure nickered softly.
