Page 79 of A Silence in Belgrave Square
We reached the next floor, finding all quiet there as well. I was about to continue upward when I heard a muffled noise.
Adam darted around me and raced to the first door off the staircase. He opened it but obviously found nothing inside, because he backed out and ran to the second. He ducked inside this room and did not return.
I hurried to its door and peered in.
Hannah sat on a straight-backed chair in the very middle of an otherwise pretty sitting room. Her hands were bound behind her, her feet lashed to the bare legs of the chair, a cloth tied over her mouth. Her eyes, above the gag, held both relief and fury.
Adam already had a pocketknife out and was sawing through the thick ropes. They were tough and wiry, the kind a country steward might use to bind up a pole on a sagging fence.
As Adam kept cutting, I closed the door, moved quickly to Hannah, and eased the gag from her mouth. “My dear, what happened?”
Hannah wet her lips and swallowed, grimacing. “ ’E’s lost ’is mind, that’s what ’appened.” Her voice was hoarse and dry.“Bleedin’ arse.” She still wore her black maid’s gown and pale muslin apron, but she’d dropped all pretense of prudishness.
“Lord Downes?” I asked.
“None other. He’s got Lady Fontaine upstairs. Heard ’em tramping over me. His tough put me in here when I tried to pull her out of this house.” Hannah’s expression held rage, disgust, and some fear. “What’s our Sean doing ’ere? This bloke’s dangerous.”
Adam didn’t answer. He kept his head down and continued working.
“He came to fetch me,” I told her. “Good job he did, eh? Adam—I mean, Sean—take your mum out when she’s free. I’ll find Lady Fontaine.”
“Not a bit of it.” Hannah kicked at the bonds Adam had loosened, managing to extract one foot. “You’re not going up there by yourself. I told you ’e’s a madman.”
“Didhemurder Lord Peyton?” I asked.
“If he did, he did it without coming into the house,” Hannah said, sounding disappointed to admit this. “Everything was bolted up that night—I swear to it. I checked the doors every night before I let meself go to sleep.”
Adam cut through a cord that bound her hands, and Hannah flailed until she disentangled one wrist. She and I helped Adam loosen the other ropes, and between the three of us, she was soon free.
I caught Hannah when she stood up and half collapsed. “I’m all pins and needles,” she complained. “Damn the wretch.”
“It will wear off soon.” I held her until she nodded at me that she could stand.
There were welts around Hannah’s wrists, and her mouth was red where the gag had pressed. Adam regarded the signs of bondage with murder in his eyes.
“He’ll pay,” I assured the boy. “Why did he dismiss everyone?” I asked Hannah.
“So he could continue his heinous plan,” she answered grimly. “Why else?”
Once Hannah could walk without stumbling, I opened the door again and peeked out into the hall.
All was as quiet as before. I heard no one upstairs and wondered if Lord Downes had departed with Lady Fontaine. If so, where would he have taken her? And did she go with him willingly?
I led the way to the next flight of stairs, Adam aiding Hannah as the circulation returned to her legs and feet. I knew neither she nor Adam would sensibly flee back to their own home, wherever it might be, so I didn’t bother arguing with them.
We crept up the stairs, all three of us tense and listening, but we heard nothing. The normal sounds of a house this size were absent, and I knew the maid spoke the truth when she said the entire staff had been sent away. I wondered if Lord Downes realized the cook had instructed the kitchen maid to remain behind to finish the cleaning.
Hannah pointed to a door that led to the room directly above the chamber where she’d been imprisoned. I tiptoed to the entrance, put my ear to the door, and listened.
“When are we off to Paris?” Lady Fontaine’s voice came readily to me, but she sounded eager, not frightened. “I will have to shop quite a bit once we reach there. I’ll need new frocks, because the ones I have now aren’t good enough for Paris.”
“Soon,” a gravelly voice answered. I heard a click, as though someone consulted a pocket watch. “Once I know all has gone well.”
“You aren’t taking all that with us are you?” This question held a touch of nervousness. “I’m not certain they’d allow us on the train.”
“No,” the man barked. “It’s staying. To erase all my sins.”
I did not like the sound of that.
