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She sighed and shook her head. “I was here for a few hours before you, and I’m afraid there’s no way out except through that door, which seems to be locked securely.”
“I hope you don’t mind if I have a look around myself,” he said tightly.
“Of course not,” she murmured, watching as he prowled the perimeter of the room, poking and prodding at things for a good while.
Then suddenly, he lunged against the door, beating on it and kicking at it with all his might. “Let us out!” he screamed. “Come and face me like a man, you son of a bitches!”
She cringed, his sudden violence terrifying her. But as he continued to beat at the door and yell, her heartbeat settled, and she realized he’d had to try.
However, no matter how much he pounded and screamed, there was no response from the other side of the door and even he, the giant of a man that he was, didn’t have the strength to break through it.
At last, he subsided, pressing his forehead to the door for a few minutes as though trying to compose himself before returning to her side with a huff. “I wish I knew who’d taken us and why,” he muttered, his voice hoarse from shouting, as he sat on the cot beside her. “I don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”
She just shrugged. Heather Fields, the lady’s maid, would know nothing about the people who’d taken them. How she wished she could go back, make different choices, and still be innocent of this whole mess. She’d been so angry with the hand fate had dealt her, so determined to change not just her own life but others as well. Now, she saw that being her best friend’s lady’s maid had not been so bad. At least then she hadn’t had blood on her hands.
“It doesn’t appear that they intend to starve us,” she said after a long while, shaking herself out of her dark thoughts and waving at the table where a pitcher of water and some bread and cheese had been placed. “Would you like to eat something?”
He shook his head, seeming lost in thought, his dark eyes fixed on the wall. She imagined he was probably trying to figure a way out of the mess he’d found himself in, and she sincerely hoped he succeeded. She couldn’t very well seduce or cajole information out of him if he wasn’t here.
Cold dread ran through her, however, as she realized Jacob would have no further use for her once Drake was gone. Her usefulness to him had obviously run its course. Jacob had said the others wanted him to get rid of her, and she wasn’t foolish enough to believe that anything she did in this cellar would change their minds about her.
Biting her lip in worry, she poured herself a glass of water and sipped it, wishing she had any idea of how she could escape this nightmare. She darted a quick glance at her companion, wondering if her only way out might be to throw in with him. Could he protect her, or was he even more dangerous than Jacob?
After a long period of staring at the wall, he began to poke around in the drawers of a small desk and nightstand, under the cots, and in the blankets and pillows, bringing everything he found back to the table. It wasn’t much, just some candles, matches, a few books, and other odds and ends. Still, she admired his resourcefulness.
“At least they didn’t leave us in the dark,” he muttered, the first thing he’d said in quite some time.
“Thank goodness,” she said with a shudder, though she really didn’t think he’d been talking to her. “I’ve never been comfortable in complete darkness.” The thought of those first few moments, when darkness had surrounded her, haunted her. Jacob knew she was afraid of the dark. He’d obviously want to terrify her. Luckily, she’d been down here before and had remembered where they kept the matches.
He sighed and came to sit beside her again, a little closer than she thought necessary. “I’m sorry,” he said abruptly. “This must be even more disconcerting for you than it is for me. And if you really were taken by mistake...”
His sudden kindness and concern left her reeling. She didn’t think that he spent much time comforting women, as he really wasn’t that good at it, but she appreciated the effort. Especially since she didn’t deserve it.
“Yes,” she replied numbly. “It’s quite... disconcerting.” That was putting it mildly.
He turned so that their knees were touching and took her hands earnestly in his. “I’ll get you out of here safely. You needn’t worry.”
His big hands were warm and surprisingly calloused. She hadn’t thought he was the sort of man who’d ever done a day’s hard labor in his life but perhaps she’d misjudged him. His dark eyes stared intently into hers, and she found herself believing him. If there was a way out of this mess, a man like Drake Blackstone could probably find it.
She just didn’t think there was any way out.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “You’re very kind.”
He scoffed and withdrew his hands, surging to his feet and once again starting to pace the length of the room in agitation. “I’m not certain anyone has ever said that to me before.”
She blinked. “Never?”
He shook his head. “I think I frighten people more than I soothe them. But I don’t want to frighten you. I know you’re terrified enough as it is.”
She could only nod because he wasn’t wrong. She didn’t think she’d ever been this frightened in her life. Trying to take both their minds off what might be happening outside the cellar door, she cast around for some neutral topic of conversation. “Are you and Quinn... err... Inspector O’Brien... friends?”
Pausing his obsessive pacing, he shoved his hands in his pockets. “I was his superior, so I don’t think I’d consider us friends. But I do like and respect him.”
“Allison will realize I’m gone,” she said confidently. “She’ll send him out looking for me.” She doubted Quinn would make much headway though. She’d taken special care not to let either Allison or her husband know of her involvement with the Citizens Committee.
“You call your employers by their first names?” he asked, frowning in disapproval.
Irritation rose within her, and she did her best to tamp it down, knowing that he’d been trained all his life to believe that those who worked for him were barely worth his notice. “We’ve known each other since we were children. Whether it is socially acceptable or not, Allison treats me like a sister.”
