Creighton Manor (21 page)

After the spectacle, the party didn’t last much longer. Gillian was grateful for she felt physically drained. She tried to smile and carry on a conversation with the women, but she found her heart wasn’t in it.

When she could finally retire for the night, Dora came in the room and helped her out of the beautiful, party dress. Then Dora wished her a goodnight, leaving Gillian by herself.

She pulled back the comforters and crawled into bed, but she couldn't sleep. She thought about what Ellery had said to her. Was she in love with Zachary? It had to be true, didn't it? Why else had she been so upset that he had been kissing an old girlfriend? She turned over and slammed her fist into the pillow. He could have at least had the decency to meet Violet in private and not display his affections at their marriage reception of all things. How humiliating!

She rolled over and stared at the ceiling. What did she
expect? She told him she wouldn’t return his affections. She told him if she were able to return to her time, she would go. However, she was still here.

"That's it!" She'd lay down the ground rules. When he won the bet with Cyrus Locke, he could move into Creighton Manor with Violet. However, until then, he had to promise to behave as though this marriage was the real deal
.
 

She sat up and threw off the covers with determination.
There
was no time like the present to confront him. She jumped out of bed and put on her robe and slippers. She quietly opened the door and poked her head out into the hall. It was dark
and silence greeted her
. Everyone must have settled down for the night.

She quickly approached Zachary's room that was directly across from hers. She saw the light filtering underneath his door and
k
new he must still be up. She knocked. No answer. She knocked again thinking Zachary hadn’t heard her, but still no answer. She tried the door. Finding it unlocked, she opened it just a tad. "Zachary?" She opened the door the rest of the way. To her horror, she saw Zachary sprawled on the floor. “Omigod, Zachary!” She ran toward him. As she leaned down someone grabbed her. She struggled, squirming to be free. She kicked her assailant and took great satisfaction in hearing him grunt, but she couldn’t shake free. She opened her mouth to scream, but the guy covered her mouth with a cloth. The sickening smell burned her nostrils and her vision blurred. Then there was nothing.

Gillian groaned and raised her hand to her throbbing head. She sat up, but the sudden movement made her dizzy and she shut her eyes, willing the wooziness to cease. Where was she? What happened? Then it all came flooding back to her. Someone attacked her.
Zachary had been sprawled o
ut on the floor in his room and
…
God, was he dead? She searched the darkness, trying to see if Zachary was with her. She crawled a small distance, feeling the ground for a body. She stopped in her tracks when she heard whining. "Molly, is that you girl?” Molly's answer was to lick her face. Gillian put her arms around her. "I'm so happy you’re here. Do you know where Zachary is? Is he in here, girl?"

Molly answered with a whine. She turned and walked into what appeared to be a stall. Gillian's eyes had adjusted somewhat to the darkness now and she was able to follow. In the corner, she saw Zachary. He lay still as death. A hard fast fear grew in her stomach as she knelt down beside him, touching
him and
looking for signs that he still lived. She let out a sigh of relief when she felt his chest rise and fall. She felt his head first for any damage and came across a large bump near his temple. She inspected him for any other wounds and fortunately found none. Whoever had done this must have caught him off guard
,
too. She wondered if it was the same men from the waterfront or the one who took potshots at him from the rooftop. The bastards were persistent. However, if they had planned to kill them, wouldn't they have done
so
already
?

She didn’t have time to worry about that right now. She needed Zachary on his feet so they could escape. "Zachary, come on.” She shook him. “You have to wake up
.”
She hated to do this but she saw no other choice. She slapped his face as hard as she dared. When he moaned, she knew it was working. She slapped him again and he stirred. She was about to hit him one more time, but Zachary’s hand snaked out. In a split second, he tossed her like a rag doll and was upon her, grabbing the collar of her nightgown. “Zachary, it’s me, Gillian.” She barely choked out the words and prayed he was coherent.

Zachary lowered his arm at the sound of Gillian’s voice. "Gillian?" he croaked.

             
"Yes, it's Gillian." He let her go and she let out a sigh of relief.

"Where are we?" Zachary sat down next to her and looked around him.

"I have no idea. I was hoping you could shed some light on that matter. I woke up on the ground outside this stall and Molly led me to you.”

"Molly?" He looked to the far corner and noticed the dog.

"Don't ask me how she got here because I have no explanation. She seems to show up when there's trouble."

"Well, she's right. This definitely doesn’t bode well. Let's see if we can see where they’ve dumped us." Not too steadily, he rose to his feet.

"Be careful." Gillian wrapped his arm around her shoulder,
supporting his weight as he steadied himself. "You have a
dreadful bump on the side of your head."

"You don't think I know that?" he snapped.

She let go of him and he staggered, but managed to remain standing. "Well, you don't have to bite my head off,” she spat. “I didn't put it there."

He harrumphed at her flare of temper. "Keep your voice down and follow me. As far as we know, our kidnappers could still be somewhere close.” She moved nearer to him and his eyes locked onto what she was wearing. "You're in your night gown," he stated the obvious.

"No kidding. Did you figure that out all by yourself?" She couldn't believe he would take the time out to discuss her attire when their lives were in danger. "I asked the kidnappers if I could get dressed first, but they answered me by stuffing a chloroform cloth up my nose
.”

His only answer was a grunt
as he turned and
walked out of the stall. He stood in the darkness and listened.

Gillian listened, too. Everything was quiet, too quiet.
"Well, are
we going to—
"

“Hell and damnation, woman," he interrupted with a hiss. "Hush. And do not move. I'll be right back
.”

She immediately lost sight of him in the darkness. She hugged herself as fear threatened to take over. Where did Zachary go? Stay here? Why? So he could go and get himself killed. Oh yeah, great idea, she thought to herself.

Molly came and sat down beside her. "Good girl. Stay with me, will you?”  Molly licked her hand.

A good five minutes went by and still Zachary didn’t return. She wished she had her flashlight so that she could see what was going on. She wanted to call out to him just to reassure herself he hadn’t been caught, but then she didn’t want the ones who kidnapped them to realize they weren’t unconscious anymore. She was in no hurry to find out what they had planned for them.

Then she thought she heard something to the right of her. Before she could manage a scream, someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth. "It's me," Zachary whispered in her ear. He released her and she turned around and slapped him.

"You scared me," she hissed.

"I knew you couldn't see me and I didn't want you to call out. We're not alone. As far as I can tell, there are two men with guns standing guard outside."

"Great. What are we going to do?"

"I'm not sure. I don’t think we need to worry just yet. They must have orders not to kill us or else we'd be dead already. Maybe they have something more sinister up their sleeves."

"What could be more sinister than being dead?"

"Torture comes to mind
.”

"If you're trying to make me feel better, you’re failing miserably." Gillian put her hands on her hips.

"Believe me, I wish I were joking. One thing for sure, when I capture one of those men out there, I'll make him tell me whose behind all this
.
"

"I thought you suspected Cyrus? And what do you mean when you capture those guys out there? How do you plan on doing that?"

"First question, I need proof Cyrus is behind this. I can't very well go and accuse the man without proof. Second, we're going to have the advantage of surprise. We'll create a diversion and—
"

“Hello.” Gillian waved her hand in front of his face, drawing his attention. "If I do recall, you said the men out there have guns. How do you plan on capturing them when we don't have a weapon?” 

"I have my knife." He leaned down and pulled it from the side of his boot.

"Are you crazy? Bullets against a knife!" She could barely keep her voice low.

"Well, do you have another suggestion? Do you just want to wait
and
see what they have planned for us?"

"No, but I personally don’t wish to rush to my death either
.”

"We don’t have much of a choice here unless you have someone that intends to rescue us. Hey, I know." Zachary snapped his fingers. "Maybe, lover boy will rescue you."

"Lover boy?”

“Ellery Livingston
.”

“What are you talking about? Did that blow to the head mess up your brain?”  She wasn’t whispering anymore.

"Do you mind lowering your voice?"

She obliged but she was far from finished with their conversation. "Well, since you’re bringing up love interests, what about you and Violet? I saw you necking in the hall."

"Necking?" He lifted his brows as he tried to discern what she meant.

"Sorry, you don't know the term." Sarcasm dripped from her words. "Kissing her. Don't try to deny it. I saw you."

"Who said anything about denying it? However, it isn’t what you think."

"Really, because where I stood it sure looked like you were examining her tonsils with your tongue?"

“And when I came upon you and Ellery, it appeared as if your bodies were fused together.”

“You’re insane! He’s your friend.”

“Obviously, the definitive word would be:
W
as my friend. Enough of this!  I would love to continue this discussion but this is neither the time nor the place. If we get out of this alive, we'll argue it out later. Now come with me." He grabbed her hand, dragging her behind him. As they neared the door, Gillian could see a bit of light between the cracks. "They have a fire going," he informed her.

"How do you know there are only two of them out there?” 

Zachary pointed to a small opening just above her head. It was eye level for him, but not for her. He peered out of it now.

"Still only two of them,” he said before looking at her. "Now on the count of three, I'm going to kick open the doors. Stay to the side here and don't move. When no one emerges, they'll come to investigate."

"You plan on killing them?" she asked horrified.

"Not if I can help it. Just stand back and make sure you stay out of my way
.”
He centered himself in front of the door. With one swift movement, he plowed into it. Only his plan didn’t work
as
he had thought. The door didn’t
budge. Zachary fell
backwards, landing hard.

"Any other smart ideas?" She looked down at him, her lips thinned with annoyance.

He ignored her comments. "They must have it barred on the outside."

"You think?" she said rolling her eyes. "Are you sure there isn't another way out?”

He stood brushing of his pants. "No, there isn't another way out. I've been around the whole place."

"Great. Just great." She threw her arms up in the air.

"You’re acting as if this is all my fault."

"Well, isn't it?" Gillian put her hands on her hips while she waited for him to answer, when he didn't she continued, "Don't you see? You need to give up your quest with Creighton Manor. Is it really worth being abducted in the middle of the night? You have what's important. You have a nephew who adores you. You have Lotti who cares for you. You have Ellery, believe it or not.
Family and friends are important, not a house."

Zachary painfully noticed that she didn’t include herself with the people that cared for him. He agreed that family was important, but his whole life had been wrapped around getting that manor back in his possession. He couldn't let it go, not now, when it was so close to being in his grasp. "I can’t give up Creighton Manor."

"Even with someone trying to harm you, that is all you care about. What a sad selfish existence."

Zachary didn’t have a chance to comment, for they heard the door to the barn being pried open. Zachary quickly grabbed the piece of wood that was leaning against the wall. They both ran to the other side and waited.