The Lady and the Earl (53 page)

Declan
spit in the man’s face, receiving a blow to the stomach in return.  He buckled over in pain, causing the other men to laugh cruelly. 

“Is that all you’ve got,”
Declan
taunted a little breathlessly.

The man laughed coldly before raising his fist to slam into
Declan
’s
face. 
Declan
took the blow well.  Any other man would have gone to the floor, but
Declan
held his ground
, blood pouring from his nose.
  The men hooted with laughter and jeers as the blood poured.

“
H
ad enough?” t
he scar-faced man asked. 

Declan
grinned before spewing blood all over the man’s face and clothes.  Furious, the man
hit Declan again.  His head flipped backward, but again he did not go down.
  Connor was quite pleased with his friend.  The man would have made an excellent fighter.

“Enough Rupert!”
Lucas yelled as he entered the room.  The scar-faced man stopped, and everyone looked at Lucas, who strode across the room eyeing
Declan
coldly. 

Connor watched as Lucas walked up to
Declan
and slammed his
own
fist into
Declan
’s
gut.  This time
Declan
went down gasping for breath. 

“I see Maggie told you about my secret passageways,” Lucas said.  “I guess I should have thought better of leaving her behind.  All is well, though.  Now you are my prisoners, along with anyone else who tries to leave your home, Cunningham.  So you see
?
I have won.  I have Allana, and now I have leverage over her because you were foolish enough to think you could sneak in here undetected.  Did you think I
would
not anticipate something like this? 
Doesn’t matter.
  It actually might be better this way.  Now, she must agree to be mine.”

“She will never agree to that,”
Declan
spat out at Lucas.

“Oh?  I think she will, especially when your life depends on it,” Lucas sneered.

Declan
lurched at Lucas, but came short as the scar-faced man, who Lucas had called Rupert, knocked him to the ground with a kick to the back.  Lucas
raised an eyebrow
as
Declan
hit the floor face first.

“Lock them up downstairs,” he
said
before leaving the room. 

The entire time Lucas had been there, he hadn’t looked at Connor, and that made Connor furious. 
I can’t believe I used to call him my friend,
he thought angrily.

“Start moving,” someone said behind him, shoving him in the back.  Three men were dragging
Declan
in front of Connor.  He looked like hell with blood dripping from his face and the black eye that was beginning to form.  Connor watched his friend hopelessly.  Right then their situation looked pretty grim.

The mercenaries—Connor counted twelve—led Connor and
Declan
to a large open hall where the stairs were.  There was one massive staircase in the middle of the grand hall, leading down to the main floor and the main entranceway to the house, and at both ends of the large hall were two smaller staircases leading up to the third floor.  Both of these staircases went up a flight of stairs before coming to a small landing that turned and led up another flight of stairs.  Allana was being kept in one of the bedchambers up there.  They were so close.  If only they could somehow get free…
.

The main front door to the house, which stood at the bottom of the massive staircase in front of them, opened.  Connor’s heart dropped.  Five men were dragging a burly man with graying hair into the house.

“Father,” Connor whispered.  So Lucas had
not lied.  P
eople
had been
watching the house for others leaving. 

“Shut
up, you,” Connor’s captor said, jabbing him in the back. 

But where were Maggie and Lilly?  They were probably somewhere here too.  Connor had hoped his father, Lilly, and Maggie had somehow gotten past any mercenaries watching the roads, but now he knew otherwise.  There would be no outside help.  Their situation looked very grim indeed.

Allana dress
ed
quickly, but she was
not
about to wait for Lucas to return.  She’d rather take her chances with the window and the long drop below.  She walked to the window and shoved it open.  It was definitely a long drop.  If she fell…she couldn’t think about that.  She had to try or brave her chances with Lucas.  Him, she knew she did
not
want to face.  She gathered her courage and climbed up onto the windowsill and looked down at the small ledge below.  It looked to be about
as wide as her forearm
without any handhold
s
unless you counted the cracks between the bricks.  She would have to rely on balance more than anything to make it to the next window.

Carefully, she lowered herself onto the small ledge below her window.  The cement was cold on her bare feet as they gripped the rough surface, but she did
not
regret leaving her slippers in the room.  She felt her feet would grip the ledge better than shoes would have.  Slowly, she began to slide her feet along the ledge toward the next window
, pushing her weight back against the house
.  It was a very slow process with the gusts of wind that blew at her skirts.  Twice they nearly dislodged her from the ledge.  They would be calm one moment then mysteriously turn violent the next, charging at her from out of nowhere to beat against her.  She sighed in relief when her hand finally grasped the edge of the next windowsill.  She slid a
few
more feet to
where she was center with the window before trying to open it.  It wouldn’t give.  She pushed frantically, hoping it was simply stuck, and almost fell.  Heart pounding and blood rushing, she clung to the windowsill and fought back tears that threatened to fall.  It was locked.  What would she do now?  She couldn’t go back. 

Fa
rther down there appeared to be a small balcony, which stood out from the ledge.  It would be a longer trek than the one
she’d
just endured, but she
refused to
go back.  Gathering her courage once more, she carefully maneuvered her way to the other side of the window and balanced herself along the ledge, praying the next window would be unlocked.  Once again, she
slid
her feet slowly along the ledge toward her destination.  The wind seemed to be getting worse as it pulled and beat at her.  It was as though it was playing a game to see which gust could knock her off of the ledge first.  Her eyes water
ed
from the cold, making it difficult to see, but she kept going.  Before long, she was within reach o
f the small balcony and its rot-
iron railing.  She took the last few steps toward safety
,
reached out and grabbed the railing, bringing another sigh of relief. 

Please be unlocked,
she thought after pulling herself over the railing and into the protection of the small balcony.  She reached for the handles
of
the double doors and hesitated.  Shouldn’t she check t
he room first before barging in
to unknown territory?  Holding her breath, she slowly peeked inside the room.  It was dark without any movement.  No
one
was inside.  Escape might actually be possible.  She tried the handles and found with a little effort the doors opened, allowing her to enter the room and examine it.  

The room was similar to the one
she’d
just left.  There was a large bed in the center, a dressing area, a large closet, and a spacious fireplace, and all of it was covered in dust that made her sneeze violently.  She
needed
to get out of here before someone heard her.  She walked to the
door and listened carefully.  She heard ruckus coming from somewhere in the house and decided to wait for it to calm before venturing out of the room.  When it finally did calm, she pushed on the door, but the door wouldn’t budge.  Panic seized her once again as she frantically tugged and pushed.  Had she escaped one locked room to find herself in another?  She tried it once more, and this time, the door gave way.  She burst into the hall to come face to face with Lucas. 

He stared at her in surprise.  “How did you
—
”

She cut him off by throwing her fist into his face as hard as she could
.  He stumbled
backward from the unexpected force of it.   

She broke into a run, heading for the stairs.  Her fist was throbbing from hitting Lucas, causing her eyes to water
and making her wonder if she’
d broken it.  Hopefully, the punch had slowed him down enough for her to get to the stairs that were so close.  Otherwise, the pain she was feeling had simply been in vain.  She glanced over her shoulder to see Lucas reaching for her.  A scream ripped from her lungs as she felt his hands wrap around her waist. 
No, it couldn’t have been in vain.  I have to keep trying,
she thought. 
S
he rolled with agility and slipped from
Lucas’s
grasp.  Just a few more feet to the stairs…
.
 

*
             
*
             
*

Declan
’s
head lifted when he heard the scream from above.  “Allana,” he whispered.  The scream
sounded so close.  “Allana!” h
e shouted as his own adrenalin began to pump.  She was in trouble, and he was a prisoner.

*
             
*
             
*

Allana froze when she heard his voice.  He was here to save her
!
  Before she could call out in return, Lucas was on her
,
pinning her to the ground.  If only she hadn’t stopped.  She fought with every ounce of strength she had. 

“
Declan
!” s
he screamed desperately as her arm
s and legs flailed about wildly
.  Her knee connected with
Lucas’s
anatomy, and he doubled over in pain.  She brought it up again to accentuate the pain before slipping from beneath him.  She was inches from the stairs now, so she lunged for them while trying to get to her feet.  Something hit her from behind, causing her to stumble forward and roll down the first flight of stairs to the middle landing.  Dazed, Allana looked around to see what had assailed her.  The remains of a large vase lay shattered next to her.  Lucas had thrown it to keep her from getting away, and now he was on his feet descending the stairs toward her with a look of contempt and furry on his face.  He swiped a hand across
his bloody lip and glowered at her
. 

*
             
*
             
*

Connor’s head shot in the direction of the scream.  He glanced frantically at Declan.  Declan had thrown
his head back hard, connecting with the man holding him up.  The contact dropped the man immediately and caused the other captors to stare at
Declan
dumbfounded.  His unexpected actions had taken them off guard, buying
Declan
enough time to lower his shoulder and charge head-on into one of them, tackling him to the ground and knocking the air out of him. 
Declan
then rolled over onto his back and kicked a third captor over the stairs’ railing.  The man he had tackled was trying to move beneath
him
, so
Declan
rolled to his feet and kicked the man in the face.  He was now alone for the moment.  He looked around to see where the next assault was going to come from.  There were nine men left, but six of them were halfway down the main staircase, which left the three with Connor.

Connor
threw
his own head backward toward the man holding him.  The man was expecting the move after seeing
Declan
level one of his comrades with it, and backed away to prevent the blow.  This gave Connor room to whip around and kick the man in the groin, sending
the fellow painfully to the ground.  Connor proceeded to kick him in the face, rendering him unc
onscious
when one of the two remaining men wrapped his arms around Connor to stop him from kicking the fallen man further.  Rupert was the third man left, and he was coming at Connor from the front to help tackle him to the ground. Connor used his captor behind him as a base and lifted both legs in the air, kicking hard at Rupert.  The force knocked not only Rupert backward, but also Connor and the man holding him.  They tumbled into
thin
air down the massive staircase.  Connor knew he was a dead man, but then something caught his fall.  He and his captor had collided with the six assailants coming back up the stairs.  The collision knocked several of the men, including Connor, down the staircase all the way to the bottom.  Only two, besides Rupert, escaped the fall.