Page 93 of A Relentless Rake

“Christ,” he muttered, stunned.

“They knew Henry felt guilty about the Admiralty Club bombing and would never hand over his calculations for the bridge. They wanted me away from the school so they could return tonight when I wasn’t there, so they could force Henry to hand over his calculations, and then—” She choked. When they didn’t need him anymore… “They’ll kill him.” And along with her brother— “Oh, God, Alec,the girls!”

He grabbed her hand and ran, pulling her along behind him. They raced down the alley to the waiting hackney.

“Westminster,” he shouted up to the driver as they hurried into the compartment. “Now!”

Twenty-Four

The hired carriage stopped in front of the school, and Olivia dashed to the ground. She stopped on the footpath and stared up at the building. It was just as quiet and dark as when she’d left, all the shutters closed and the doors locked up tight against the night. Nothing moved, and nothing broke the stillness except for the horses behind her shaking their harness and Alec following her out of the carriage.

Was she wrong? Had she let fear and paranoia guide her to—

A blast tore through the building’s basement.

Olivia screamed as the cellar windows shattered, throwing glass and wooden shutters high into the air. Alec grabbed her and pulled her to the ground to protect her with his body. The explosion shook the earth, and the horses bolted, the jarvey unable to control them as they scrambled down the street in terror. Flames leapt from the basement and licked up the sides of the building as if they were stretching up from the fires of hell.

“The girls!” Olivia pushed herself out of Alec’s arms and climbed to her feet. She raced up the front steps and into the burning building.

Immediately, darkness engulfed her. Black clouds of smoke billowed up from the basement so thickly that she couldn’t see through them, and skin-prickling heat followed after the smoke. But Olivia didn’t turn back. She made her way through the building, blinded by the thickening smoke and feeling her way along foot by foot. Above the noise of the growing flames around her, she could hear the girls screaming for help from their dormitories.

She found the stairs and started up.

Another explosion blasted from below. The force of it threw Olivia against the wall, and she cried out as she grabbed for the banister to keep from falling. The black smoke filled her lungs, each breath a choking and burning gasp. She coughed painfully and covered her mouth with her arm, but she didn’t stop. Around her, the building grew ominously lighter as flames began to eat their way through the lower floors. With panic swelling inside her, she staggered up the stairs.

She reached the dormitories at the top of the town house and heard the girls screaming inside.

Olivia coughed violently as she shoved open the door. Then she sank to her knees and into the small layer of good air still lingering right above the floor.

Inside, the terrified girls huddled together in the corner. Justine Smith and Mrs. Adams were with them, doing their best to calm them and keep them together. They both urged everyone toward the door, but the girls refused to move. They were too frightened to flee.

“Go!” Olivia yelled in a raspy shout. Her voice was already hoarse from the coughing and smoke, her hands and dress blackened from the thick smoke and soot filling the school as the fire spread and consumed it. Flames roared around them, and the heat burned her skin. “Get out—now!”

Justine Smith grabbed the first girl by the hand and pulled her toward the door. More terrified by Olivia’s shouts than of the fire, the girls joined hands and ran from the room. Their screams only grew louder as they moved toward the stairs. Mrs. Adams came last. Her face was completely white even in the dark smoke.

Olivia counted them as they fled, then did the same with the girls in the room across the hall as Mrs. Adams followed her lead and opened the door to order them to safety.

One short.Oh, God, one child was missing!

Her heart knew—

“Cora!” Olivia frantically dropped to her knees to search under all the beds even as the dormitory filled with smoke and the room grew unbearably hot. “Cora, where are you?”

“Olivia!” Alec hurried into the room in his search for her. He coughed into his jacket sleeve as he visibly struggled for breath. “We have to leave, right now.”

“Cora’s missing!” Olivia shook her head as she ran past him and across the hall to search the other dormitory room. Around them, the house creaked and groaned as the flames devoured it. “I can’t leave her!”

He grabbed her arm. “Get yourself out. I’ll find her.”

Overhead, the roof caved in with a sickening bang and destroyed the bedrooms on the floor above.

“Olivia, go now!” he shouted and led her toward the stairs. “I’ll find her. I promise.”

Nodding and coughing uncontrollably, she stumbled down into the darkness of the smoke and ash billowing up as if it were coming from the mouth of hell. She groped her way by feel, her eyes stinging and blinded from the smoke.

She froze and jerked up her head when she heard…crying.

The sound came so softly that it was nearly lost beneath the growls and snarls of the fire. Then it came again, louder this time, and Olivia followed it down the first-floor hall. She opened each classroom door and called out desperately between coughs. Unable to breathe, she fell to her knees and gasped at the last remaining good air just above the floor. The crying grew louder. She reached the last room and flung open the door.