Page 3
“Like a vampire,” Phoebe whispered.
Anna’s eyes grew wide.
“I told you he was mad!” Phoebe clutched Anna’s hand. Anna attempted to withdraw her hand from Phoebe’s steely grip to pat Miss Grace’s hand, but Phoebe wouldn’t let her and tightened her grip even more. Miss Grace reached out for her other. Anna found herself quite imprisoned between the two.
“What are we to do now?” Miss Grace wailed. “How are we to get rid of him?”
Anna untangled herself from the two women and took a step back. “Do you mean to say he is still here?”
“Of course he is.” Miss Grace sniffed as she wiped her nose. “Fortunately, I remembered to slam the door shut and lock him in.” She pulled out a key.
“How on earth will we get rid of him?” Phoebe asked the question that was at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
Both Phoebe and Miss Grace’s heads turned towards Anna.
Anna waved her hands in wild denial. “Oh no, no, no!”
“Yes, Anna, you must! I can’t possibly do it. Not after what he did to me.” Miss Grace’s face threatened to crumple again. “And we can’t send Phoebe in there. She is in mortal peril from her own uncle. We must protect her at all costs.”
Anna agreed. The cogs in her mind started to turn, but she couldn’t, for the life of her, come up with a better solution.
“Joe?” she said hopefully. Joe was their gardener. Surely he could help?
Miss Grace shook her head. “He works on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but today is Tuesday. And Bessie had to leave to visit her ill mother.” Bessie, their cook, was a big and burly woman, and she might have been able to take on the mad earl, particularly since she said she knew some boxing moves that might have come in handy. But now she wasn’t here. “We are the only ones in the house.”
With a madman locked in the parlour.
“What to do?” Anna muttered.
“Anna has to go,” Phoebe said. “Anna must go and tell him she is Miss Hilversham. And then you can send him away. Tell him that my help is urgently needed at the seminary to help with—with something,” she ended lamely.
“But he will know immediately that I am not Miss Hilversham.” Anna took a step back, shaking her head vehemently.
“He won’t know. He hasn’t ever met her,” Phoebe said with a zealous look in her eyes that Anna did not like at all. “All you need to do is change your dress into something more imposing. And then you go down there and tell him that I am not going with him but staying here. You’ll need to act. You’ll need to talk with authority, and lift your nose a bit, you know, like Miss Hilversham tends to do, and say things in a slightly scathing way, like ‘this kind of behaviour is not acceptable’, you know, emphasising the not the way she does, which always tends to make one feel like an insect. If you enunciate words with the same cold precision, he will be intimidated into respecting you, and then he’ll leave for sure.”
Anna sincerely doubted it.
“If you are willing to do it, I will go down there with you. We will confront him together. I will protect you, and you will protect me. We women must stand up together against any sort of danger. Together, we can do it.”
Miss Grace nodded wildly. “It is an excellent idea, Phoebe. I will go and find a dress for Anna to wear.”
“But, but, but…” Anna stammered.
“It is the only way, Anna.” Phoebe pulled her to the door. “We will do this together.”
Chapter 2
Anna’s hands trembled as she fiddled with the key to unlock the door to the parlour. She dropped the keychain twice with a loud rattle, and only at the third attempt did she finally manage to insert the key into the lock. She turned it slowly, and with a big breath, pushed the door open.
Anna swallowed nervously and stepped inside. She felt Phoebe behind her, clinging to her skirt, shaking with fear, her breath coming in fast gasps.
It was still morning, but the room was half in shadow, for the heavy curtains had not been opened. A few thin rays of sun were groping through them, bathing the room in eerie twilight.
Anna’s eyes swept the room, past the flickering shadows in the corners, and stopped in front of the massive black shape that stood in front of the fireplace.
Mon Dieu! He was a giant! Dark, massive, unkempt. Miss Grace had spoken the truth. Images of vampires, werewolves, and other monsters came to mind. She chased them away immediately.
He evidently hadn’t heard them enter because he didn’t turn around. Instead, he fell on his knees, leaned forward as if wanting to crawl into the fireplace, stuck his head inside and, like a dog, started to bark up the chimney.
