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He pointed his finger at her. “Let me make this clear, dear sister—”
“—I am not your sister.”
He bowed and again almost lost his balance. “Step-sister, then.” He burped. “You will remain here until the auction.”
Since they’d never discussed it in front of her, she feigned ignorance. “Auction?”
Randolph snapped his fingers, again, grabbing the bedpost for purchase. She had the feeling she could walk over and with one shove to his shoulder he would be on the floor.
Where was Lyons? If he wasn’t in the house, she could very well escape. Almost as if he’d read her mind, Randolph said, “Don’t think you will get out of here until we’re ready to release you. I have both footmen alerted that you are unbalanced, and they are not to let you leave the house.” He grinned and her stomach roiled. “For you own safety, of course. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my beloved step-sister.”
Amelia quickly glanced around the room, looking for some sort of a weapon to use on the two footmen if she managed to get past Randolph. Just as her eyes landed on the iron poker next to the fireplace, Lyons sauntered into the room. He appeared to be less inebriated than her stepbrother.
“Ah, our lovely prize has awoken.” He turned to Randolph. “Why didn’t you summon me? Have you told the lovely Miss Amelia what our plans are?”
“Was just about to, old friend.” He burped and closed his eyes briefly.
Lyons cast a reproachful glance in Randolph’s direction. “You need to cut down on the brandy if we are going to do this right. We must make plans and you can’t do that if you’re always reaching for the bottle.”
Randolph raised his arm to wave the comment off. He lost his balance, fell to the floor and immediately began to snore.
“Get him out of my room,” Amelia said.
Lyons grinned at her. “All in good time, my dear.”
“Don’t ‘my dear’ me. I have no intention of going along with your ‘plans’.”
Lyons walked closer to her and she backed up, stopping when she reached the wall. “Don’t come any closer or you will regret it.” She’d learned years ago how and where to strike a man to leave him crying like a babe.
“Hmm. It seems our little prize has a mean streak. That would make you more attractive to a certain sort of gentleman. We must remember that when we advertise our auction.”
“It won’t work.”
Lyons raised his eyebrows. “Indeed? And why is that?”
“Because I won’t go along with it. As I said, I know how to defend myself.”
He moved a step closer, and she tensed, getting ready to knee him in the groin.
“Ah. I can see you are preparing to harm me.” He tsked and shook his head. “We can’t have that now, can we?”
Abruptly he turned on his heel and walked to the door. “I will send dinner up to you and have one of the footmen remove Newton here.” With those curt words, he walked past the threshold and slammed the door.
Amelia slid down the wall and collapsed into a heap on the floor. She wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging her knees to her chest. For the first time since they grabbed her outside of The Rose Room, she cried.
* * *
Driscoll fisted his hair in frustration for what seemed like the hundredth time as he paced his office. He grew more frantic by the minute. According to his calculations, Amelia had been missing six days.
The first thing he did after Dante gave him the news was clip his brother on the chin. Hard enough to make his point, not hard enough to put him out of service. Then he went to Scotland Yard to gain their help.
Even before he arrived, he knew that it was most likely a futile trip. When the officer began to question him, he felt ridiculous. No, he wasn’t completely sure Miss Amelia Pence was her real name. No, he didn’t have any prior address for her. No, he knew nothing of her family. No, he didn’t know if she had friends.
He didn’t mention the necklace because he knew in his heart she didn’t take it. Dante was still working on that one.
The only time the officer seemed interested was when Driscoll told him she left all her belongings behind, even the money she was saving.
He took down the information, but he smirked when he said most likely the young lady disappeared because she grew tired of him. Only the thought of spending time in jail kept him from planting a facer on the officer.
