Page 76 of The Curious Life of the Unfortunate Duchess
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She stared at him imploringly.
“If you do not bring me back to Mr. Cooper, what do you intend to do?”
“You ask too many questions!” Mark snapped. “Give me a moment to think in silence!”
“You can release me, Mark,” she told him. “I will never tell anyone about you. I will say it was Cooper who acted alone—”
“Shut your mouth!” Mark whirled to stare at her and Elizabeth clamped her mouth closed, terrified at what she saw in his eyes. It was the first time she had seen any true sign of danger and she realized that she had pushed him much too far. She lowered her eyes demurely.
“Forgive me, Mark. I did not intend cause you trouble.”
“Well you did!” he spat. “Now I must figure out what to do with you.”
Elizabeth could not be certain what options he was entertaining but she was moderately sure that killing her was not one of them.
“If Cooper learns that I have helped you and hidden you, that will be a bullet in my back but if I permit you to leave, we will never collect on the ransom.”
Elizabeth waited, her breath held heavily in her chest.
“I will go back to Cooper and convince him to go through with the ransom without you present. When we have our money, I will come back and free you.”
Elizabeth was paralyzed with fear.
“Y-you intend to leave me here alone for a day—bound?”
“Have you a better idea?” he snapped. “It is the only way.”
“What if he refuses to go through with it?”
Mark snickered coldly.
“He will not. It is all he wants. This is our final raid. Once we have collected the funds, we will disappear from Britain, never to be seen again.”
“You cannot leave me here bound,” Elizabeth insisted. “I do not wish to ever see Cooper again. I will wait here until you return, I swear it, Mark but you cannot—”
“It is not a subject for debate,” he retorted. “You have done more than enough flimflamming of your own, Miss Elizabeth.
He did not permit her an answer and he disappeared into the woods, leaving her calling out after him. When he had gone, Elizabeth clamped her mouth together, the threat of Cooper finding her filling her mind. She could not yell for assistance, not when she did not know where she sat, her fingers growing cold from lack of blood. Her eyes darted around the tiny space, looking for anything she might be able to use to free herself but there was nothing but four walls and sleeping bats who she could not see.
Elizabeth glanced down at her lap, noticing how pale her feet had gone. She would not last in such a situation for an entire day. She needed to free herself again.
She moaned quietly as she strained against the chair, the seat rocking precariously beneath her.
The chair in the cellar loosened the binds when it broke. This one will splinter with ease.
She dismissed the warning voice in her head which told her not to aggravate the wounds on her wrists. She had no other choice.
With a crash, she heaved herself sideways, the chair cracking with the motion. In seconds she was rubbing the twine against the rough edges of the broken wood, gasping in pain.
I will do this. I will break free and get back to Brookside before the ransom goes through. Leonard and Father will not spend one pence on my release, so help me God. I will do this.
She chanted the mantra in her head over and over, until, through the pain and the blood, she once more managed to free herself in the very same manner she had in the cellar. It was odd that Mark would have left her with precisely the same tools to escape but she reasoned that he had likely not had time to discover how she had managed to break free.
He might return to ensure I am where he left me. I must leave at once.
Her arms were cut in so many places, she could not be sure where one injury started and another stopped. Tears of agony slipped down her cheeks but she did not permit herself allowances for self-pity. She threw open the door to the windowless shack and froze, her resolve draining into the blood trails at her feet.
