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Her balled fist hit Harrison at the corner of his mouth, the power behind her swing enough to bust his lip. It wasn’t much of a break but a few drops of blood pooled at the corner of his mouth.
Harrison grabbed her and pulled her toward him, jerking on her arms painfully. “You shouldn’t have done that.” His grip on her wrists tightening.
“I want my baby!”
“You’re in no position to demand anything of me, especially now.” He licked his bloody lip.
“Where is she taking him?”
“Somewhere he will be taken care of.”
“I can take care of him!”
“Not where we’re going, you can’t.” Pulling on her arms, he turned her toward the door and pushed her ahead of him. “Get moving. We don’t have much time.”
Betsey hurried to the door and ran down the hall toward the stairs. Harrison yelling her name quickened her steps. She didn’t slow as she reached the steps and ran down them and toward the front door, jerking it open moments before Harrison grabbed her. “Let me go!”
Harrison wrapped an arm around her waist and ushered her out the front door and onto the porch. The woman carrying Samuel was nowhere in sight.
“Let go of me, Harrison.” She struggled in his arms, tears filling her eyes again. A man and woman walking on the other side of the street drew her attention and she screamed, “I’m being held prisoner,” before Harrison clamped a hand over her mouth, his arm around her waist tightening as he picked her up and started around the house.
He pushed her back against a carriage, the hand over her mouth closing around her neck. “Don’t ever do that again.” His fingers tightened, her airway cut off. “As of now, Samuel is safe but one word from me and he’ll be left on the side of the street and forgotten.” The pressure on her throat let up. “Now, get into the carriage.”
“Where are we going?” Those shadows she’d seen from her window were men packing trunks onto a wagon sitting behind the carriage. She watched them for long moments, then turned away. “Harrison?”
He smiled. She’d been with him long enough to read every single facial expression the man had and that smile meant he was up to something.
He lifted a hand and brushed a lock of her hair away from herface. “You promised to run away with me, remember? I’m taking you up on the offer.”
Betsey’s hands started shaking moments before her knees went weak. “We’re leaving?”
“We are.”
She looked toward the men loading the trunks. “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to Paris, where else?”
Betsey looked to the sidewalk where she’d seen the woman carrying Samuel. “Where was that woman taking my baby? You said you’d give him back to Aaron.”
“I am. She’s taking young Samuel to his father as we speak.” The smile was back, but she wasn’t fool enough not to know he was lying. He wasn’t giving Samuel back to Aaron. He never had any intentions of doing it either.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat and willed her limbs to stop shaking. “What did you do with Aaron?”
“What do you mean?”
That smile was still tilting the corner of his lips and she knew, nothing he told her would be anywhere near the truth. She closed her eyes, seeing Samuel and Aaron in her mind’s eye and realized how stupid she’d been. She’d given up her freedom and her child and probably got Aaron killed in the process.
Tears burned behind her closed eyelids, her fingers curling into her hands to make small fists she knew would do little to no damage but she wouldn’t let this man continue to take things from her. For as much as Harrison claimed to have only her best interest at heart, she knew, deep down, she was a prisoner and always would be.
“Come, Elisabeth. You’ll feel like yourself once we’re on our way.”
Betsey looked up and felt what little life she had in her drain away. This handsome man had promised her the world and given her the very best of hell. He’d taken her baby and more thanlikely, killed the only man she’d ever loved, and he’d done it with her blessing.
She looked to the carriage and to the wagon loaded with trunks behind it. “We’ll be taking a ship, then?”
“Eventually, yes.”
Betsey nodded and turned to the carriage, taking Harrison’s hand when he offered it. She sat numbly as he gave the men with the wagon instructions of some kind. She had no idea what he had planned but somewhere between here and Paris, he’d find himself with one less passenger. She’d get away from him even if she had to do it in the middle of the ocean. He’d taken everything from her and she’d be damned if he got her too.
