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“So they do not come into the house?”
“Not unless I need ’em for sommat and call ’em in special. Can’t trust ’em with the girls.”
“Who manages the dogs?”
“Them dogs’ll tear you apart,” she snarled. “And I’ll laugh to see it.”
“Who is in charge of them?” the earl repeated. When the woman didn’t speak at once, Poppy rushed forward and pinched her upper arm.
“Oww!”
“You don’t like how it feels?” Poppy asked. “Fancy that!” There was an angry murmur from the former captives.
“Joe feeds them,” said the woman quickly.
“Joe would be the groom?”
He received an affirmative grunt in reply. “Ye’ll never get away from here,” she added.
Lord Macklin replaced the gag. He rechecked the bindings before leaving her on the narrow bed. Teresa locked her in. “We should secure the doors that were locked as well,” he said. “In case anyone does come to check.”
Teresa did so.
“You will all wait here,” he began then.
But this drew a chorus of protest that made Teresa’s heart leap with apprehension. “Quiet,” she hissed.
They obeyed, but none of the girls would agree to stay in the house. Freed from their prisons, they wanted to run. Nothing else would do.
“We are trying to get away,” Teresa told them softly.
“You didn’t have no plan how to get out?” asked Poppy.
“If you don’t like it, then you can stay behind, puta!” said Sonia.
“We will bring everyone,” said Teresa, glad Poppy knew no Spanish. “It was difficult to make a plan when we knew nothing of this place.”
“A moment,” said the earl. He disappeared into one of the rear bedchambers down the hall. After a short time, he came back. “All right, the stables are within the inner fence,” he said. “Away from the dogs. A fortunate thing for us. We will all go out there together. The garden is overgrown. There is a row of yews we can use as concealment.”
“This ‘concealment’ is what, please?” asked Jeanne.
“Something to hide us from the house,” replied Teresa. She turned to the earl. “We should find one guard, possibly sleeping, and the groom Joe in the stable.”
“Yes.”
“Unless that creature lied to us.”
“She named all the people I’ve seen,” said Poppy. “I watch…watched out the window.”
Lord Macklin nodded. “Let us go. Carefully and quietly.”
Leading them down the first flight of stairs, Arthur winced at the noise they made. No one was talking. All were trying to be quiet. But eight people simply could not move silently.
The corridor on the next floor remained empty. Arthur pointed at the door of the chamber they had been given originally, and Señora Alvarez nodded. They had agreed that she would leave it locked to throw off pursuit.
He didn’t bother to look for a back stair. It would likely end near the kitchen, which they had to avoid. He would have to find another way to the rear of the house.
They edged down the stairway to the entry hall, also empty, and into a reception room on the right. This opened into a second large chamber behind and then another, smaller parlor, which had two windows looking out to the back.
