Page 26 of A Duke in Pursuit of Passion
"Louisa!"
Ella screamed the name at the top of her lungs, but her sister did not appear to have heard her. The terror she could feel coming off her in waves, even at such a distance, made Ella's skin crawl, and instinctively, she ran.
"My Lady, wait!"
Though she heard Alice, Ella could not stop. She had to reach her sister before she lost her all over again. Only the hammering of heeled footsteps suggested that Alice was following.
"Louisa! Stop!" Ella called after her sister, following the twisting and turning path that her sister was taking down the back alleys, only able to glimpse her here and there before she disappeared again. If she heard her, Louisa's terror at whatever had made her run had left her unable to sense her sister’s reassuring voice.
What could be that bad?Ella wondered, but she forced the thought away. It didn't matter right now. All that mattered was getting to Louisa.
Then, suddenly, there was nothing but a brick wall before her.
"No! No! This can't be happening!" she exclaimed, feebly throwing herself at the wall for some false part she might have missed at first glance. It was all solid. Her frantic mind had tricked her. She had lost Louisa all over again.
Despair surged up inside her, threatening to consume everything. Only Alice's panting breath stopped her from going entirely mad as she skidded to a halt behind her.
"My Lady, we shouldn't be in the back alleys," Alice insisted, almost doubled over with the effort of running. Her mousey brown hair stuck out at odds and ends, and her cheeks were so red she looked like she might pass out. "It's not safe. We should turn back."
"I have to go back," Ella said, half-agreeing with her maid. "I have to go back the opposite way and pick up her trail again."
"No, My Lady, we must return to the estate and tell Lord Rolfe what we have seen."
Alice placed a hand on Ella's forearm as if she meant to drag her back to the market herself. But when they both turned to the entrance of the alleyway they'd come down, they looked at each other once more.
"Do you remember the way back?" Ella asked, nerves clawing her stomach. The moment Alice shook her head, Ella's anxiety grew.
"Come on," she said, trying her hardest to remain confident. "I'm sure together we can work our way back."
Clutching each other's arms and holding tightly to their purses, the two women slowly started to wander back, hoping to find the market before too long.
With each turn they took, Ella felt like they were growing increasingly hopelessly lost. And though they likely did not change physically, the alleyways started to feel smaller, threatening to choke her of air.
It was only when they came to another dead end that Ella realised they were hopelessly lost, and panic threatened to overwhelm her.
"We should never have left the market," Alice muttered, and Ella had to grit her teeth to stop yelling at her. She didn't need to be told that.
"You shoulda listened to ye maid." The words accompanied by a rough and hard to decipher Scottish accent sent a shiver down Ella's spine. She and Alice whipped around at the same moment to find their exit blocked by two burly-looking, red-faced Scottish men.
Their clothing was brown, whether through dye or by dirt, Ella wasn't sure, but either way, it was tattered. The tartan patches fixing up holes in their knees and elbows did little to help the fact. But it was not their clothes that sent terror into Ella's heart.
It was the looks on their faces and the languid way they approached, as though they were two foxes who had cornered a couple of hens and were already certain of the catch.
"Please, sirs, step out of the way so we can be on our way," Ella insisted, bravely holding her head high even though her hand was shaking in Alice's. "We don't want any trouble."
"Well, whether ye came lookin' for it or nay, trouble ye found, love," said the second man. He was taller than the first but just as scary looking.
"Do you have any idea who I am?" Ella demanded, spitting the words before she really had a chance to think about it. "If my father hears of this …"
"And how's 'e come to hear 'bout it?" The first man chuckled, both looking at each other with amusement. Ella's heart sank into her gut, and she wrapped the strings of her reticule around her fingers, preparing to use it to defend herself.
Alice darted sideways, leaving Ella for only a second before she returned brandishing a long wooden pole that looked as though it was the broken handle of a broomstick. She stood before Ella, holding up the stick bravely, and declared, "If you want to get to My Lady, you shall have to get through me."
For a second Ella's heart swelled. Then, just like that, all hell broke loose. The men, still laughing, descended upon them, and though Alice battered them with her stick and Ella swung her heavy purse at them, they both just kept coming. Their laughter and grunting seemed a terrible mix, reminding Ella of the noise her father's prize pigs had made when they were given fresh buckets of slop.
"No! No! Get off me!" Ella screamed.
"Help! Somebody, help us!" Alice added at the top of her lungs. They screamed, hit, kicked, and fought, but it was no good. Ella felt her strength weakening, and the hands of the first man buried themselves in the folds of her skirt, gripping her tightly by the hips so she could not have run even if she'd had the chance.
