“I’d hoped the laudanum would buy me more time.”
Meg froze. Tension coiled through Dougal.
Alice Atkins had beat them back to the abbey.
They stepped carefully inside the room, Dougal keeping Meg securely behind him with an outstretched arm. She felt the muscles in his arm harden before she saw the reasons why. George’s left eye was red and swelling rapidly. Alice stood on the black-and-gold carpet, hand clamped savagely around Charlie’s throat and pinning her wrist at a ruthless angle behind her back. Charlie looked spitting mad. Alice was eerily calm, dripping with rainwater. Her skirts were soaked, her hair plastered to her head.
“You’ll want to let go of my sister,” Dougal said, very evenly.
“Not until I get what I want.”
Charlie hissed and pulled on her arm, only stopping when tears of pain sprang to her eyes. Dougal took another step forward. Alice tightened her hold on her throat until she squeaked. “I want the treasure, Thorncroft. It’s mine. I’ve worked hard for it.”
“You already know we don’t have it,” Dougal said. “But take whatever else you want. Empty the damn house, I don’t give a damn. Just let my sister go.”
“Oh, I don’t think I will. Not yet,” she replied with a smile that could only be described as disturbing. “You might not have it, but you have Lady Dahlia’s clues. So, now we’re going to find it. Finally.”
“That’s why you drugged us? For the treasure?”
“Couldn’t have you racing ahead of me, now could I? My father never mentioned the west wall before tonight. And I’ve been searching the dining room for weeks.”
Meg’s mouth dropped open. “You were the one I chased out of the window. That iron candelabra didn’t fall into the wall accidentally, did it?”
“Of course not.”
“And the lavender cream,” Meg continued, the pieces snapping together. “You set the fire. That’s why it smelled like lavender, and why we smell it on you now. It wasn’t the dried flowers. It was your father’s arthritic cream.”
“He needs it,” she spat. “And so many more medicines. You have no idea how expensive they are.”
“Why burn down the music room?” Charlie squeaked.
“Because it’s the furthest one from the dining room,” Dougal replied. “Isn’t that right? It got the household out of your way for a few hours.”
“Yes. So you know I’m serious.” She squeezed again and Charlie’s cheeks went pale, her breath stuttering. “Now enough chatter. I’ll have what I came for. Don’t make me say it again.”
“Stop,” Meg begged, making sure the fury inside her did not touch her voice. She wanted to eviscerate her. But she knew the type. She’d get further with calm, honeyed words, however false and however they burned inside her mouth. Her uncle had trained her for this particular kind of person. “Please let her go and you and I will go to the dining room.”
“We’ll all go,” Alice said, but she did soften her hold, however slightly. The storm lashed at the house. They could scream for help but no one in the servants’ hall would hear them. They outnumbered Alice and could well attack together, but not before she could hurt Charlie, possibly fatally. She might crush her windpipe or snap her neck. Meg could see the exact moment Dougal gave into the inevitable. He was no less on guard, but he’d already moved ahead to some other plan. Alice assumed he’d given up. That she knew how dukes acted.
Not this duke.
Dougal turned, dipping his head towards Meg. “Run,” he whispered urgently.
“Like hell,” she whispered back. She might have done it, though, if only to gain some other advantage, some way to return armed to the teeth.
“Everyone stays where I can see them,” Alice demanded. “Now, move.”
They filed down the hall, Charlie stifling small noises of pain.
“The west wall is still a hundred feet long,” Dougal said. “Let my sister go. This will take some time.”
“Then you’d best get started.”
They’d reached the dining room. “Let me go in and light the candles,” Meg said. She didn’t know what advantage she could glean from it, but it was worth a try. Anything to keep focus on her instead of Charlie.
And then it didn’t matter anymore.
Without a sound of warning, Lady Beatrice was suddenly there.