“Look sharp, there, lad!” he’d say to one young man. Then, to another, “Run for Cunningham, and take these out! You, there, bring the table in, and all the lanterns you can find!” He was dashing back and forth, then he stopped at me.
Thank goodness he wasn’t looking at the bust. I gulped and moved to stand in front of it.
“Miss Trenton, I am afraid I must ask you to take your leave. I am sorry to be discourteous, but His Royal Highness’s carriage has just stopped outside the courtyard.”
I blinked. “But… but I…”
“I do apologize, but I will be wanted. In five minutes, this room will be crawling with the prince’s men, and…” He shook his head. “It is best if you go. Another time, Miss Trenton.”
I swallowed, my pulse thundering in my ears. “Y-yes. I… thank you. Where shall I—”
But Chantrey was gone, and I was standing stupidly in the middle of a room that now buzzed with chaos. An instant later, I came to myself. I found a rag to wipe the worst of the clumpy goo off my hands, and then I ran for the stairs. William could be in terrible danger.
Darcy
“Backhere,”Ihissed.“Elizabeth!”
She was peeking through the door with one eyeball, trying to watch for the very instant the prince’s men ascended the stairs. When I tugged at her sleeve, she jumped and spun around, her hand over her heart. “Oh, you scared me!”
“If you find that frightening, I suggest you follow me, or you will know true fear. Come! We should not have cornered ourselves in here.”
Elizabeth followed, snagging my elbow like her life depended on it and nearly ripping my shoulder out of its socket. It hurt, but I’d got used to her injuring me. And I didn’t mind any longer. “I didn’t know where else to go. I couldn’t stay where I was.”
I stopped and pointed at the door. “Don’t you realize that if the prince is here to see that statue, someone will come in here to retrieve it?”
She paled. “Oh, dear. I didn’t think—I just wanted to get to you. I thought if… if…”
“Oh, never mind. If we must hide, there could be worse places. Quickly! There are a dozen more crates back here we can duck behind.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her deeper into the room. There must be a closet or a stack of wooden boxes or…
“There!” Elizabeth pointed. “Can we fit in that?”
Cold sweat beaded on my brow. She was pointing at a long trunk, probably used for storing linens and dust shrouds. The lid stood open, it was enormous, and it looked almost empty. But we would have to lie down together to fit inside.
Good heavens.
“Surely we can find something more suited to… ah. There, that one in the back. Quickly!” I stowed the hamper with the fake sculpture behind a box in a darkened corner. Then I ushered Elizabeth before me to a large, upright crate that looked to be built for transporting a life-sized sculpture. There was a pallet leaning against it that would form a sort of lid when it was nailed together, and I pulled it after us to hold against the open front like a door.
Elizabeth’s breath puffed in quick gasps, and she put her hands to the wood. Cracks of light splintered through from the outside, and there was a knothole just large enough for one person to peer out of. Elizabeth pushed her face to it, jostling against me, so I had to shuffle to the back of our odd little box.
The “floor” of the crate was still mounded with straw, just above my ankles, and with every move we made, it crackled under our feet. We would have to remain absolutely still. I sucked in a ragged breath and tugged at my cravat.
A thousand nerves seemed to rip and fire all at once through my body. Pressed up against Elizabeth’s… er, the back of her gown, I would have to be dead not to note the warmth of her thigh leaning on mine through that thin fabric. And it didn’t seem to matter what she wore—her curves were impossible to conceal, as was that delirious lavender-water freshness. It must have been coming from the sumptuous chocolate curls trailing at the nape of her neck. I took out my handkerchief and mopped my forehead.
But torment though it was to practically cradle Elizabeth in my arms, it was made ten times worse when we exhausted the fresh air in our little cabinet. Within seconds, my lungs felt ready to collapse, and every breath required heavy effort, pulling just a trickle of cool air through the cracks. I’d never quite got over the terror of Richard locking me in the closet under the stairs when I was nine, and now it was worse.
Now, we were hiding for our lives.
“I think they’re trying the key for the outer door,” Elizabeth whispered.
I pulled her back. “Best get comfortable, so we do not have to move again once they come in.”
She gave me a peculiar look. “But I was comfortable.”
I coughed. “Yes, well… that posture is untenable for me. I suggest we shift face-to-face, like so. And now we can take turns looking through the knothole.”
Elizabeth shrugged and complied, letting me turn her and maneuver her, so she was not so intimately pressed against me. With opposite corners to back ourselves into, now I stood a chance of escaping without completely losing countenance. But the straw under our feet made a fearful racket with every shift of our weight.
“Shh!” Elizabeth put her hands on my chest, stopping me from moving. “They’re coming!”
