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My heart soared. I couldn’t believe my luck, or lack of it, perhaps. I had found the lass Much got all rosy-cheeked when speaking about. The lass he pined after—though shrewdly denying it, of course. He said she’d vanished from Baron Easton’s estate shortly before he did.
Seconds later, my heart plummeted to my chest.
Because I had found her . . . and could do nothing to help her. Not when I was a prisoner myself.
“Any idea where they’re taking us, Maria?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
She shook her head fervently.
“Okay. That’s okay.”
I gasped as another thought came to me.
“I have a favor to ask.”
She cocked her head, curious and scared.
“Can you tell me what’s in my hood?”
“Pardon, ma’am? I—”
I turned my head away from her to face the two girls to my left—all of them sleeping—and the dozing guard at the end. Across from us on the other bench, two of the five girls were awake, while the other three also slept.
The two girls who were awake watched us intently. I worried if they kept it up, and Maria and I kept talking, we’d all be knee-high in shit pretty soon.
“It looks like . . .”
I hung on Maria’s every word.
“. . . a key?”
My breath came out wavering. A key?! “You’re sure?” I whispered once I’d turned to face her.
“Hoy!” called the guard at the end, now awake. “No talking!”
I was caught, simply too stunned to—
Smack!
My head whipped to the side from the sharp crack as the guard smacked me across the face. Pins and needles stung across my cheek, yet I stared defiantly at him.
He stood over me, thrusting a finger down at my nose. “Keep glaring at me like that and you’ll get the backhand across ye, too.”
I kept glowering.
“Or would you rather I stuff that pretty mouth full of cock, you slimy bitch?” When I lowered my face, pitching my eyes to the floor in faux submission, he grumbled, “That’s what I thought.” Then he retreated to his end of the bench. “None of you can talk, got it?!”
The frightened girls—all of whom had abruptly woken up at the sound of the slapping—nodded diligently.
I steeped in my anger, yet I didn’t stay angry for long.
Because Guy of Gisborne had put a key in my hood!
I glanced down at the manacles in my lap, and knew where the key would go. I couldn’t think about Guy’s motivations, or how badly I missed the Merry Men, or my stinging cheek, or the fear staining every girl’s face in here.
All I could think about was how I was going to get that fucking key into the lock of the handcuffs without getting caught.
Chapter 44
