A cold wave of fear crashed over her. The room, moments ago a sanctuary, now felt exposed, vulnerable. She recoiled from the window, her breath coming in shallow gasps.
“No,” she said, her voice tight. “Move everything back. I will remain in the smaller room.”
The older maid hesitated, a crease forming between her brows. “But, my lady, this is your rightful chamber. The other room is scarcely fit for—”
“I said no.” Elizabeth’s tone brooked no argument. “Please, do as I ask.”
The maids exchanged uneasy glances, but nodded. “As you wish, my lady.”
Turning on her heel, Elizabeth almost raced back toward the smaller room. Toward safety. As she rounded the corner, she collided with a figure emerging from the doorway. An armful of gowns tumbled to the floor between them.
Elizabeth recoiled a step as though she had seen a ghost, her pulse slamming against her ribs. And then she recognized the face.
“Alice?” she whispered.
The young maid froze, the bundle of gowns sagging slightly in her arms. Her eyes, wide and glistening, darted to the floor. “My lady—”
“Alice!” Elizabeth surged forward and grasped her by the forearms, the stiff silk of her own sleeves rustling with the suddenness of her movement. “Where have you been?”
Her voice cracked. She could not help it. Her hands clenched tighter around Alice’s arms, not enough to hurt, but enough to make sure she would not vanish.
“I—I did not mean to go. I swear it, my lady. I did not—”
“I thought you were dead!” Elizabeth’s breath shuddered out of her lungs as she crushed the poor girl, along with the bundle of gowns, in an awkward embrace. “We searched. That is… I know you were tracked—good, clever men searching for you! I asked everyone. I feared—” She stopped herself. “You were gone.”
“I was taken.” Alice’s voice broke on the words. “I could not stop them.”
Elizabeth stared at her—really stared. The hollows beneath her eyes, the faint scars along one cheekbone, the way her shoulders tensed under the weight of both memory and fabric.
She stepped aside and pushed open the door to the nearest room. “Come in here,” she said, not waiting for Alice to agree before tugging her inside. “Tell me. Tell me everything.”
Alice hesitated only a second before obeying. The gowns spilled onto the chaise as she lowered her arms, her posture awkward, wary.
“I was taken,” she said again. “After the fire. I had stepped out to fetch more water. Someone grabbed me at the alley near the chemist.”
Elizabeth sank onto the window seat, her legs suddenly weak. “You were alone?”
Alice nodded. “He said you would be joining me soon. That… that I would be a companion to you. But he lied.”
“What happened?” Elizabeth’s fingers dug into the window cushion, her knuckles white against the fabric. “How did you get away?”
Alice’s eyes flicked to the floor. “They questioned me, my lady. About you. Where you had gone. Who you might tell. They thought I knew more than I did. I told them you were summoned to be with Her Majesty but they would not believe me.”
Elizabeth’s heart plummeted. “And made you suffer. Because of me.”
Alice twisted the edge of her apron tighter between her fingers. “They kept me in a cellar. I do not know where. The windows were too high to see out. They brought me stale bread and water, and sometimes… sometimes nothing at all.”
She drew in a trembling breath. “The man who came the most—he was always angry. Said he’d seen me walking with you. Said I had to know something. When I told him I didn’t, he hit me. Backhand, mostly. Sometimes the belt.”
Elizabeth’s breath caught. “Good Lord…”
Alice went on, as though afraid to stop. “Then one night, the one who watched me drank too much. He slumped in the corner of the coach when they moved me. I waited, pretended to be asleep. When I was sure he was out cold, I opened the latch with my teeth and pushed the door open.”
“Good heavens! You jumped from a moving carriage?”
Alice gave a small, humorless laugh. “They were going slow through a village. Not many lights. I leaped.”
Elizabeth stared, horrified. “With your hands tied?”
