Page 23 of A Stormy Season

“She wanted what every woman wants, no? To rule over the man.” He smiled in amusement.

Luke’s face reddened. The man was speaking ill of Anne. His jaw flexed but he said nothing.

Lenoir turned to Jane. “I am not a gentleman to say this. That is what you are thinking, no?” He laughed.

“You are a villain, kidnapping and murdering innocent people,” Jane said, wishing she could hurt him the way he had hurt Luke.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Lenoir made the annoying sound as he shook his head slowly. “You sound very feisty for an English gentlewoman, Jane Gilchrist. But I have never murdered anyone who was innocent.”

Jane did her best to slow her breathing and control herself. It would be better if she could pretend to be docile and afraid, but she wasn’t sure she was equal to the task.

“It is nearly dawn,” Lenoir said. “We will leave you, but when you are ready to tell me where your wife may have hidden the list, you may call out to me. Perhaps I will release you if you give me something useful. Now I must go and write a ransom letter to Mr. Gilchrist.”

Lenoir lifted his hand and the other men filed out of the room, two in front of him and two behind him.

So he had four men.

They took the lantern and closed the door behind them, then the sound of a key scraped in the lock, leaving Jane to glance around.

They were in a room, but it was so dark she could see only that they were in a basement room with one small window above their heads. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw a mattress on the floor, nothing else.

“Are you all right?” Luke asked. “Forgive me for ruining your dress.”

“The dress is nothing, under the circumstances. And I am well. Are you all right? You were bleeding rather profusely.”

“I will live. But we have to escape from here.”

They could certainly agree on that. But how would they do it? They needed a miracle.

Chapter Eight

Luke tested his bonds, but they were so tight around his wrists that they didn’t give at all.

His heart sank again as he thought about how he had inadvertently gotten Jane Gilchrist kidnapped.God, forgive me.

Jane didn’t deserve this. She might be independent minded, but she was a good woman from a good family and Luke felt sick at the thought that she might suffer because of him.

No, not because of him. Because of Anne. What was she thinking trying to blackmail a man like Lenoir? Was she trying to get money? Or did she have regrets about her involvement with him and trying to free herself from him?

He was always thinking up the best possible excuse for her behavior. Why was he still doing that?

“Are you all right?” Jane asked again.

“Yes, I am well.” He had to get them out of this place.

“I will try to get loose,” Jane whispered. She started gnawing at the bonds around her wrists, pulling on them with her teeth.

Luke started walking around the small room, looking for anything that might be used as a weapon. But the room appeared to be completely bare, except for the mattress on the floor. There was not even a blanket.

He tried the door handle but it was locked, of course. He checked all around it, even trying to peek through the keyhole but they must have left the key in the door, for he could see nothing. And the crack underneath the door was not big enough to see much of anything.

He used his fingers to feel around the edges of the bricks in the wall, looking for a loose one.

After perhaps half an hour of this and getting three-quarters of the way around the room, he still hadn’t found a loose brick.

“I did it,” Jane said suddenly in a low voice, lifting her hands in the air.

She’d gnawed her bonds off with just her teeth. “That’s very good,” Luke said.