Page 79 of Dark Tidings on the Thames
“Charles,” Kara said. “In some way.”
“But why in the night sky? I would have thought she would look inthe museum, or even in a painting or another piece of art.” Beth sighed. “Perhaps Emelia will provoke Gyda into telling her. She has never explained it to me.”
“Nor to me,” Kara said. “She will tell us when she is ready, I imagine.”
Beth’s gaze had already wandered in the other direction. “Speaking of which, we have taken much longer than I expected. Rob must be ready to scream. Perhaps I will go and invite him and his vibrations to sit by the embers.”
Kara laughed as Beth moved in the opposite direction. “Wait! Take the lantern,” she called, but Beth just scampered on.
The fire faded while Kara sat alone a few minutes. She wondered what Niall was thinking, over there in the dark. She knew he would not have liked being left, but she also knew he trusted her—and Gyda, too.
When Beth did not return right away, Kara decided she and Rob might have decided to take advantage of the dark. With a sigh, she stood and took up the bucket they kept with the wood, intent on fetching water to douse the last embers.
She’d just reached the edge of the lake when she heard Beth cry out. Her heart stopped. The bucket slipped from her fingers.
With a soft cry, Kara turned and sprinted back to snatch up the lantern before heading toward the spot where Beth had disappeared. It took several moments of silent, frantic searching before she found Rob stretched out on the ground, alone and knocked out cold.
With a gasp, she fell beside him. Thank all the saints, he was breathing. “Rob!Rob!” She shook him, but he didn’t respond.
Anxiously, she patted his face, even as she looked frantically around for a sign of Beth.
Then she glimpsed it. She brought the lantern closer to Rob’s face. A great red circle of a bruise marked his temple. What in seven hells had made that?
Her head came up. She heard a thrashing in the woods.Beth!
Think! Think!Checking one last time to be sure Rob was breathing, she left the lantern and got to her feet. She took a step toward the northwest. The sound had come from that direction, had it not?
Yes. There were several more footsteps, quick and furtive.
Walking carefully, trying not to make a noise, she ventured deeper into the wood. Mentally, she reviewed what tools she had in her specialized pockets. Her lockpicks. Matches. Cursing, she wished she’d tucked a blade somewhere, but when she’d last left the house, she’d been going to visit the mill. How had things come to this in just over a day’s time?
Moving quietly meant moving slowly, but after a moment, she heard the snap of a branch and a low curse. They were not far ahead of her.
Because surely this was Royston’s doing. It must be him. But how had he found them out here?
Carefully, carefully, she placed each step. Glancing back, she could see the light of the lantern through the trees. Hopefully he would think she was still back there. Ahead, she heard a grunt and a few quick steps before another, larger thrashing of brush. She eased closer.
“Stop it!” someone ahead hissed. “I won’t tell you again!”
“Let go of me!” Yes, that was Beth, and she’d said it in a snarl.
“Hush now! Do you think I’ll let you go? After I’ve gone to all this trouble to track you down? No.” His voice lowered, the tone turned ugly. “You will pay. You must.”
“Pay for what? I’ve done nothing to harm you!”
There was another round of crashing footsteps, then Beth grunted in pain. Kara used the noise of the commotion to creep closer. Crouching down, she could see that she’d drawn abreast of them, two dark figures in the dim light. Royston had shoved Beth’s back into a tree and pushed his face close into hers.
“Done nothing to harm me?” He gave a harsh laugh.
“Nothing!” Beth insisted. “I don’t even know how you found us, so far out of the city. Or why?”
That seemed to give Royston pause. He pulled away a bit, although he kept her pinned to the tree. “Oh, yes. It was the most fortuitous thing. After you escaped me, andIescapedthem, I thought your friends would surely whisk you away. It made sense that you would all retreat to Sedwick’s estate. I decided to anticipate you all, establish myself in the neighborhood so that I could watch for my next chance.” He drew a deep breath. “You would have made a mistake, eventually. They always do, you know.” He gave a sharp laugh. “Imagine my surprise then! There I was, standing like cattle in third class on that train, when you walked by with the Italian woman! Boarding the very same train! I thought surely it was fate. It meant I was vindicated in choosing you.”
“What rot!” Beth spat.
“No, it is true! It must be. How else could I have followed you so easily, out to this forsaken place?”
“You followed because someone in that village was eager to gossip about us, I would imagine.”
