AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where’s your wife, James?” Michael managed.
“She’s here.” James stood, looking at the very spot where he had left Marina, only, she wasn’t there.
He stumbled back onto the road, hardly caring that he was nearly run down by the fire service cart and their horses as the men jumped down with their hooks attached to ropes, ready to do their work.
“Marina!” James bellowed, scrambling through the crowd. He pushed men out of the way as he searched for her, but there was no gown amongst the suits, no pair of large green eyes looking up at him.
She’s not here.
“Marina!”
* * *
Marina felt a heaviness in her head. It was as if her head had become some leaden weight, making her neck ache to lift it high. Eventually, she managed it with her eyelids flickering open.
What happened?
She struggled to recall the last things she had said and done. She remembered pleading with James not to go back into the building, but he did then there was that crack on the back of her head. Something had struck her. Had she fallen to the ground? She could certainly remember the feeling of her cheek on the wet cobbled road.
“Er…” She made a noise as she lifted her head high, trying to make sense of her surroundings, but all was black. When her eyes saw nothing but darkness, she began to panic. Her body twitched, and she tried to move, only to find she was fastened down.
She had been forced into a chair, her wrists were bound to the arms of the seat, her ankles to the chair legs, and her waist was wrapped with rope for good measure to the back. Jerking her neck left and right, she tried to see something of her seated position, but it was all too dark.
“No. No!” She began to panic, pulling at the ropes.
How could this have happened?
She wriggled, desperate to be free, but the ropes at her wrists began to cut into her skin, and she could practically feel blood dripping down her wrists.
“You’re tied too tightly for that.” The sudden voice had her freezing in the room. Her eyes sought out the source of the voice.
Footsteps followed, and she barely made out a set of stairs ahead of her. The steps came from high above, suggesting she was in some sort of dark basement or cellar. It made sense as to why she was so cold with a feeling of dampness in the air, possibly coming off stone walls.
A candle was lit on the stairs, and a figure was revealed. With such a small candle, the orange glow was feeble, but it was enough to show it was the masked man who had attacked her in the carriage. The sight of him had her fingers curling around the arms of the chair and her stomach tightening into a knot.
He walked down the last of the steps, revealing he had a limp, for he put most of his weight on one leg.
“Who are you? Why are you doing this?” Marina demanded, leaning forward as much as her rope would allow her.
“Fear not.” His voice was insufferably calm. “You won’t be hurt if your husband does as I ask him to.”
“What is it you ask of him?” Marina swallowed uncomfortably, feeling a large knot in her throat.
“To write off my debt. That’s the problem with gambling hall owners, you see. They’re too impatient. They don’t wait for a man’s luck to turn. So, I’ll make my own luck turn.” The masked man stepped toward her, raising the candle higher. Marina backed away in the chair, away from the hot wax she feared would fall on her skin. “The threat only lasts until he agrees to give in to me.”
“And what will happen if he doesn’t?” Marina asked.
The man didn’t answer, and his expression was hidden behind the black linen cloth he wore over his face.
CHAPTER18
“Search for her. Find her!” James ordered his staff. The two serving men he’d grabbed for the task nodded hastily and hurried off. They divided themselves between the groups gathered outside of the gambling hall, gawking and watching as it burned. Yet no one returned to James to say they had seen Marina.
Reaching for the other side of the road, near to where Michael was sitting on the pavement with his head curled forward as he held onto his wound, James leapt onto a low-lying wall. He used the extra height to search for Marina, watching as the firemen began to tear down the tiles connecting his gambling hall to the buildings either side of it.
She’s not here!
“Marina!” James bellowed her name, cupping her hands around his mouth to call for her. Still, there was no answer.
