Tenacious Trents 03 - A Reluctant Rake (40 page)

“I did that for
me
.”

“If I ruin Audrey then Trent will be
mine.”

“Trent will never be yours,” Lydell bit
out. “He’ll end up dead in an alley like the other two.”

Millicent pulled back, confusion swept
over her face. “Other two?”

“You killed Dalton and Everton?” Jordan
asked for confirmation.

“I am not going to stand by why another
man lifted my wife’s skirts.” Lydell grasped Millicent’s arm. “And
I needed Miss Montgomery married to you, not Everton.” He started
dragging Millicent toward the door.

“You can’t hurt Jordan, I won’t allow
it.”

“You have no say, wife.” He glanced
back to Audrey and Jordan. “I’ll be back when I’ve decided how best
to dispose of the two of you.”

He pushed his wife into the sitting
area and slammed the door.

Jordan glanced at Audrey, her face
completely devoid of all color with the exception of a small
trickle of blood, all the more bright against her white cheek.
Thank goodness they had arrived when they did. Her light brown eyes
were wide with fright as she stared at the door. Millicent’s knife
lay on the bed beside Audrey and Jordan moved to grab it. If he
could get the rope cut from his wrist he would have a better chance
at fighting Lydell.

The door flew open before he reached
the bed. “Not another step, Trent.”

Jordan glanced back to find Lydell
moving toward the bed, his pistol leveled on Audrey. As much as he
wanted the knife and to be free, he was not going to risk Audrey’s
life.

Lydell stepped around Jordan and
grabbed the blade. “Stupid woman.” He pocketed it and exited the
room. In the silence Jordan heard the click of a lock.

“They are going to kill us,” Audrey
whispered.

Jordan sank down onto the side of the
bed. “I won’t allow it.” He longed to pull her into his arms and
kiss away her fear but he couldn’t do a blasted thing with his
hands tied. He needed a knife and tried to recall if he had
pocketed his own this afternoon when he dressed to see Audrey.
Anything he had done after leaving Newgate was a blank with only a
few snippets of memory. Why couldn’t he remember how he got here?
He always carried a small knife among other items but he never used
the same pockets and liked to move things around. Why couldn’t he
be more like Clayton with everything always in the same place and
nothing out of order?

He bit back a groan. It was because of
Clayton and his need to have ultimate control that Jordan always
moved things around, including the objects he carried. The problem
was he couldn’t remember dressing today. He flexed his ankles. If
the knife was in one of his boots he would be able to feel it. It
wasn’t there.

“Search my pockets. I must have
something that will cut through this rope.” He would do it himself
but it was impossible.

Audrey wiggled until she could sit. It
was difficult to find purchase with her hands shackled so Jordan
grasped hers and pulled her forward. Where had Millicent come by
metal shackles?

She started in his upper pockets. The
first item she tossed on the bed was his coin purse, quickly
followed by a cheroot and flint. Her hands slid further down,
finding a flask and corkscrew. She laid them on the bed with the
other items and continued searching.

Where was his knife? Jordan closed his
eyes and tried to remember dressing this afternoon. Or was that
yesterday afternoon? It had to have been yesterday. Surely he
hadn’t left it at home.

His eyes popped open. “There is an
inside pocket in my overcoat, right side.”

Audrey slid her hands inside his coat
and felt around. When she straightened and her eyebrows shot up he
knew she had found it. “Why didn’t you tell me it was there
before?”

“I couldn’t remember,” he bit out. Why
couldn’t he remember such simple things?

“What happened to you?”

“What do you mean?”

She lifted her hands and let her
fingers trail down the side of his face. “There is blood on the
side of your face, and a lump just above your temple. “

Is that why Lydell used the excuse that
he had hit his head? Jordan knew he would never fall in a carriage
so Lydell must have hit him. Was that why he was having trouble
remembering what happened earlier or why he couldn’t recall what he
put in which pocket?

Jordan shook the thoughts away. He
would worry about his confusion and lack of memory later. Right now
he needed to save Audrey. He held his wrists out to her. “Start
cutting on the rope.”

She did as he asked; sawing away and
the threads began to break one by one. Occasionally she had to rest
her hands. “I am sorry but these shackles are heavy.”

“I know, love.” The metal was cutting
into her tender skin and a few scratches had begun to bleed
slightly as she worked on setting him free. Jordan would have done
it himself if he could, but he had only Audrey to rely on for
getting free of the ropes. Once they were both out of here he would
take care of her wrists and any other part of her body that needed
care.

The rope finally gave way and fell to
the floor. Audrey sighed and let her hands fall again. Jordan put
his arms around Audrey and pulled her close. Feeling her softness
melt into him and smelling the spring sent of her hair renewed him
in a way nothing else could. They would escape this predicament
alive.

“We need to get out of here,” she said
into his chest.

Audrey was right. He would have all the
time in the world to hold her later, if they managed to escape. He
pulled back and lifted her hands. “Where did Millicent put the
key?”

“I never saw a key. She said she wasn’t
certain there was one.”

Jordan jumped from the bed and began
searching table and dresser tops and drawers. There was no key to
be found. Maybe it was in Millicent’s pocket because he couldn’t
believe anything that woman said.

“Maybe you could pick the
lock?”

He looked at her. There was the
possibility. He picked the knife up again and studied the lock. “It
doesn’t take a normal key but a screw.” He tilted the opening to
the light so he could see better. “There are a series of groves and
a lot of rust.”

“Try the cork screw,” Audrey
suggested.

It was a much smaller tip and Jordan
bent, twisting and turning the tip in the lock but he could not
disengage the mechanism. “I am sorry, Audrey, but they are going to
have to wait.”

She bit her bottom lip and
nodded.

Jordan grabbed his knife and the
corkscrew and approached the door quietly. He knelt on the floor
and put his eye close to the keyhole. “I don’t see anyone in the
sitting area.”

“Can you hear anything?”

“No.” Jordan straightened. “I think
they left or are in another chamber.” He leaned down and looked
again. “The other door is open. They must have left because Lydell
closed it when we entered.”

“Then we should hurry.” Audrey swung
her legs over the side of the bed and walked toward Jordan. He
began to fidget with the lock on the door. First with this knife,
which was too wide and then the corkscrew. After a moment he heard
the click and was able to turn the handle.

Jordan stood and held out his hand to
Audrey. “Let’s hurry.”

She gestured for him to move forward
and she would follow. It was probably best since he couldn’t
exactly hold her hand. He grasped the knife and moved through the
sitting area, pausing as they came to each separate door, waiting
to hear voices or movement. There was complete silence.

Jordan jerked at the creak of an
unoiled hinge and tightened his grip on the knife. The door leading
to the main hall was slowly pushed open further. With his free hand
he pushed Audrey behind him.

A head tentatively peeked into the room
and Jordan relaxed. It was the driver. Surprise lit his face and he
entered the room, gun drawn.

“Mr. Trent, is all well?”

“No.”

The driver reached into his pocket and
handed Jordan another gun. “I retrieved it from beneath my seat.
Lydell was acting strange and I thought it best to do as he wished.
I saw his pistol when he followed you to the house.”

“Where have you been?” Jordan didn’t
mean to sound harsh but he could have used his help
earlier.

“Trying to determine where he had taken
you,” the driver defended. “Come along. We should be able to get
out of here by the back stairs.”

“Won’t the servants say anything?”
Audrey asked.

The driver snorted. “Each one of them
is looking for a new position. They certainly are not going to
inform their current employer that their kidnapped victims are
escaping.”

“He is mine,” Millicent
screamed.

“Not until I am cold in the grave,”
Lydell returned.

Jordan listened for where the voices
were coming from. The two had to be standing at the top of the
stairs or very near to them. Were they on their way back to the
suite of rooms?

“All the sooner would suit me,” Lady
Lydell yelled.

There was a grunt and thud. Had she
attacked him?

“You bitch,” Lydell ground out right
before a gunshot echoed through the upper hall.

Audrey looked to Jordan as what she
assumed was the sound of a body falling down the marble stairs.
Instead of trying to escape, Jordan altered his direction and moved
to the main entry. Audrey followed him and gasped at the blood
along the wall.

“Good God,” the driver
muttered.

She followed his line of sight. Both
Lord and Lady Lydell lay at the bottom of the steps. “Are they
dead?” her voice was barely a whisper.

Jordan put an arm around her waist. “I
believe so.”

Servants rushed from all directions,
stopping when they came to the bodies of their employers. Where had
those servants been when she screamed as Millicent held a knife to
her cheek?

“I knew they would come to a bad end,”
a footman muttered.

“Someone should go for the magistrate,”
Jordan suggested from the top of the stairs.

“Did you kill them?” a maid
asked.

No, not again. Why were people so
intent on casting Jordan as a murderer?

“They killed each other,” another
footman said.

Audrey studied him as relief washed
through her. “I was just coming from the library when I heard them
argue. Lord and Lady Lydell were at the top of the stairs. She
stabbed him and he shot her then they both fell.”

It was rather odd. None of the servants
seemed overly upset. If she didn’t know better, she would have
thought they were discussing something as insignificant as the
weather. How very sad.

“I’ll fetch the sheriff,” a lad offered
and was out the door quickly.

“While we are waiting, could someone
look in Lady Lydell’s pockets for a key?” Jordan lifted Audrey’s
hands so they could see the shackles.

A maid bent to do the task and didn’t
seem bothered that she was going through the pockets of a dead
woman. “She doesn’t have a key on her.”

“Millicent said she got them from the
cellar. Could it still be down there?” Audrey called
down.

An older gentleman nodded toward two
younger footmen and they disappeared. She could only assume they
were going to look for the key.

“I’ll search their suite of rooms,” a
maid offered and another followed her up the stairs. They barely
glanced at Audrey and Jordan when they moved to let the servants
by.

There had to be a key somewhere. These
shackles grew heavier by the moment and her arms were getting tired
from holding them up. If she let her wrists drop her shoulders
ached.

Audrey and Jordan stood in the center
of the stairs. She didn’t want to go down to the foyer because the
bodies lay there and she would have to step over them, and she
certainly didn’t want to return to the chambers they had come from.
For lack of any place to sit, Audrey sank down on the stairs and
rested her hands on her lap. There was instant relief to her arms
and shoulders.