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As Chris descended the stairs, she tried to pull the top of the dress higher over her breasts, but there wasn’t enough fabric to cover what needed to be covered. With one glance at Pilar, she saw that the other woman was hanging out more than Chris ever hoped to be able to expose.
At the bottom of the stairs, the two men stopped, abruptly leaving the women alone in a large room with brick floors and heavy furniture that was covered with silk scarves. It was a rich room with a few chairs, a small table against one wall and little else.
There was a door to the left with a window next to it. Immediately, Chris went to the door and tried it but it was locked. Just as she was starting toward the window, a voice came from behind her.
“You’ll find all the exits are locked, Miss Eskridge.”
It was a voice she recognized. “You!” she said, turning on her heel.
“I thought you would have guessed by now,” said Beynard Dysan. “After the way you followed me around the house and the forest land, I thought you’d know right away that I was the one who had you taken.”
“I was following Owen,” she said in a half whisper. “Not you.”
“I wasn’t to know that, was I? Will you ladies join me for dinner?”
Involuntarily, Chris took a step backward, moving away from him.
“We would be delighted,” Pilar said, taking Chris’s hand and pulling her forward as she took Dysan’s arm in her other hand. “We are starving.”
Chris let Pilar talk as Dysan led them into a dining room because she wanted to regather her equilibrium. She had to get over her instinctive dislike of this man if she was to find out anything. By the time Dysan pulled a chair out for her, she was calm enough that she didn’t cringe away from him.
When they were all seated and food was set before them, Dysan looked at Chris, at the foot of the long table, across from him, Pilar next to him, and said, “Now, what was that all about at Hamilton’s? What were you trying to find out?”
Chris took her time in answering. She didn’t want to give away too much to this man without finding out what he knew. “My father…” she said, then filled her mouth full of food, taking her time in chewing.
“Yes,” Dysan said, “I know your father committed suicide, but then that husband of yours had something to do with that, didn’t he?”
Chris was sure now that Dysan didn’t know who she really was, that he thought she was actually Diana Eskridge. “Whit and I have…” She looked down at her food and managed to squeeze a tear from her eye. “I really do love him, but my father…”
She looked up at Dysan through damp eyelashes and saw that he was looking at her with great impatience and a lip curled in distaste. Good, Chris thought, let him think that she was a meek, cowardly little thing. Pilar, after a few looks of disbelief at Chris, kept her eyes on the food.
“What did you hope to find at Hamilton’s?” Dysan persisted, sounding as if her timidity repulsed him.
“My cousin, Lionel, was in danger. I only meant to help. Why were we taken? What do you plan to do with us? I was only trying to help Lionel. And Pilar has nothing to do with this.”
Dysan began to eat. “Consider yourself my guests. I fear that I cannot allow you the freedom of my house but you will have every comfort while you are here.”
“Butwhyare we here?” Chris said, leaning forward.
Dysan merely looked at her and said nothing more.
“They will come after us, you know,” Pilar said softly into the silence.
“Do you mean that husband of yours? Do you think he’ll come and rescue you? Shall he threaten me with a garden rake?”
“With a—” Chris said but cut herself off. “Someone will come to find us.”
Dysan put down his fork and leaned back in his chair. “I have sent out over a hundred men to patrol the area between here and Hamilton’s. They are to shoot to kill anyone who even asks a question about one of you ladies or about me. I assure you that no one will come for you.”
“Then it’s ransom you want?” Chris asked without thinking.
“And how can I ransom you?” he asked as if the answer greatly interested him. “Who will pay for either of you?”
“No one will pay money,” Pilar said quietly, “but someone might be willing to pay with his life. We will be found.”
Dysan took a while to study Pilar, looking her up and down in a hot, insulting way. “Perhaps you’re right, but we shall see, won’t we? Now, I’m afraid that this is all the time I can spare you. You will be taken back to your room and you will wait there.”
