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The scoundrel pulled the bottle away and replaced it with a cloth, tying it behind her head. Lavinia tried to fight, but his hold on her was tight.
She fought nonetheless, trying to scream to no avail.
“This is a feisty one,” the thug said. “Can I have her?”
Lavinia’s eyes widened, and she stilled immediately.
“You can’t have anyone, Doug. That’s not why we’re here!” the other man replied irritably. “Now help me load this man onto the horse.”
The man called Doug tied her hands behind her back with a rope and walked toward the other man. They picked up Roth and hoisted him on the horse, face down.
“That’ll have to do,” the smaller of the two men said. “We’ll get him to a carriage like this.”
“What about her?” Doug asked.
Lavinia had a hard time concentrating. Her vision became blurry—even more blurry than before—and a slight buzzing in her ears was getting louder and louder.
“He said to take the marquess and no one else!” A man’s unpleasant voice cut through her subconscious.
Lavinia continued hearing voices around her but couldn’t distinguish who was speaking or what was going on.
“But he also said to harm no one!” She thought this was Doug’s voice.
Lavinia squinted and tried to push herself up, but it was no use. Her head became as heavy as a boulder, and she toppled over.
“We can’t leave her here like this. She’s seen our faces!”
Blast!They will kill me.Damn Roth. Why did she have to go and seek him out? Why did she have to run toward him and scream like a bloody idiot instead of running away?
“Then we take her with us?”
Oh, no!Lavinia managed to raise her head slightly. “Take me where?” Or at least that’s what Lavinia attempted to say, but what came out sounded something like, “Tlk m wl?”
“Bloody wench is still awake!”
Lavinia fell back down again. She shouldn’t have made herself known! But her brain wasn’t functioning normally or was barely functioning at all. Now they were going to kill her!
“Damn it!” the other man grumbled. “Give her more laudanum then. And load her on top of the horse. We’re taking her with us.”
“No, no!” Lavinia tried to scream as loud as she could, but the strength had left her, and all she could do was just moan.
Collecting the last of her strength, she managed to twist and roll away, but fate was against her. The men reached her in two quick strides and fed her a few more drops of a vile drink before everything went dark.
* * *
There was a sound of horse hooves and a carriage moving. A quick flash of the sun in his eyes, and then someone poured water on him. Everything was as if in a daze. Sebastian could not comprehend what was going on around him.
The next moment he was casting up his accounts, and yet again, he was back swaying in the carriage as voices shouted over him.
The door banged closed loudly, and Sebastian struggled to get up, but the moon hid behind a cloud, and he fell back into bed.
None of it made sense. There was an echo of voices, and then her angelic face.
Lavinia.
Light flashed as if the candles were blown out by the wind, and then it was dark again.
When Sebastian finally opened his eyes, he stared at the bed canopy above him. He blinked. His lashes stuck together, his eyes dry as a desert. He squinted at the canopy again.
