Page 59 of Heart of Iron
He glanced at the pair of ladies who’d followed them from the ballroom and sent them fleeing with a glare.“Problem solved.”
“Don’t argue.You can’t carry me the entire way down those stairs.We’re on the ninth floor.”
His face turned to hers, hints of amber burning around his pupil.“What happened?”
She shook her head.She had to get him out of here before he erupted again.“The elevation chamber.”
The liveried footman nodded to them as if he saw ladies being carried out of the ballroom every night.The polished brass doors to the elevation chamber slowly opened, revealing the smooth brass panels of the walls.
Will carried her inside and the doors slid shut.
She gestured for him to put her down.A frown drew his eyebrows together, but he complied.
“What the hell happened?”The chamber lurched into movement and he grabbed at the wall, his eyes wild.
“I went for some air on the balcony.”There was no getting around the truth.“Colchester came out after me.”
Will’s gaze dropped to her bloodied glove.His nostrils flared.“He cut you.”
The words were a promised threat.She had to diffuse the situation.“I broke his nose.It’s an even trade.”
“Lena.”
“It’s barely even a scratch—”
“You were terrified,” he snapped.Turning, he swung a fist at the wall and the brass panel caved beneath his fist.
She flinched.“Please.Don’t.”
Reining himself in with a visible clenching of his will, he slid a hand down the wall.“I wouldn’t hurt you.You know that.I’d never hurt you.”
She realized she was pressed back against the far wall, her nerves strung too tightly to relax with his temper riding the chamber like a cyclone.
“Yes, I was scared,” she said.“But I’m safe now.That’s all that matters.”
“What did he do to you?What did he say?”
Hethreatenedtokillme.She paled and shook her head.
The steady jolt as the steam engines deep in the Ivory Tower’s cellars winched them down became almost hypnotic.Will didn’t find them so.He prowled the small room, his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes bright with anger.
“I hate small spaces,” he said, too much white showing in his eyes.
And she suddenly realized his temper wasn’t only strung so tightly because of Colchester.“Does it—does it remind you of the cage?”She had to clear her throat to get the words out.
His gaze cut to hers and he nodded.
“Here,” she said, slipping her hand into his.“I’m here.”
Nodding at her, he looked away.But his fingers slid through hers, squeezing hard.“The cage weren’t so bad.I could see through the bars.”His expression darkened.As if he saw something else, something beyond the smooth walls of the elevation chamber.“When I disobeyed they used to beat me unconscious.But as I grew older the threat of that didn’t scare me as it used to.”Licking his lips.“There were a cellar.Deep underground.They used to lock me in there.For days.Or weeks.No way o’ knowin’, it were so dark.Not even a rat down there.”
A little boy, lost in the dark.Her heart ached for him.“You’re free now.”
Will’s gaze met hers.“I ain’t free, Lena.Not yet.It’s just, the cage’s bigger now.All o’ Whitechapel to roam.”
“But you’re here now.”
An angry twist of his expression.“’Til the treaty’s signed.I have to make sure the Norwegians sign it, else I’m back in the ’Chapel and the others, those like me, are still in their chains.”
