No doubts.
“I should meet the others downstairs.”She threw him a cheeky smile.“I’ll see you later tonight to celebrate having raised enough to fund the foundling home.”She squeezed his shoulder and padded from the room.
And then they would have a wedding to plan.
His attention went back to his best mate.A jagged band strangled his lungs, covered in barbs that sank into the organ, ripped away at the meat of him, made drawing in oxygen impossible.Rafe had to be there.I can’t do this without you.
Derek blew out a watery breath.He had broth on the bedside table.At the first sign of lucidity, he’d be ready.If Rafe thought he could leave Derek, he was sorely mistaken.Death would have to tear his brother from his cold-dead hands before he gave Rafe up.
56
Livy
“Ithinkthat’severything!”Aunt Mellie’s voice echoed through the sitting room they were using to temporarily store all the items from the night’s auction.
Livy finished—very carefully—leaning a covered painting against the far wall of the chamber.Tonight had been…it had been acrush, and an incredible success.Franny and Lord Rutledge had just left with the ledger of winning bids.They’d not only raised enough funding for the foundling home, they’d exceeded the fifteen thousand pounds they’d needed.
Her eyes sank shut, her heart beating a rapid staccato against her breastbone.They’d done it.Nothing standing in her and Derek’s way.The construction could begin, and soon, hundreds of children would have a roof over their heads, and hot meals in their bellies.She couldn’t wait to get home and tell Derek.Her pulse faltered.There was still the Duke.
Livy wasn’t usually a bitter person.She always tried to look at life with a positive outlook.But for goodness’ sake, the man deserved a break.Why did the world have to be so cruel?Hadn’t he suffered enough?It made her abnormally and exceptionally angry.Furious.It made her want to do something irrational.She’d…she’d scorch the earth, watch it all go up in flames, to end his suffering.
Oh dear.Derek’s melodramatic nature was rubbing off on her.
A hand landed on her shoulder.“Ready, Olivia?”
She smiled at Aunt Mellie.“Yes.”
Her aunt’s light blue eyes softened.“I’m so proud of you, Olivia.Not just for tonight, but for everything you’ve accomplished and overcome since coming to London.I always knew you’d grow into a woman to be reckoned with, but the woman I see before me…” Aunt Mellie blinked rapidly, forcing the tears beginning to pool back.“Dear, she’s a woman I look up to and admire deeply.One I know will go on to do a great many things—who will change this world for the better.”
Shattering glass echoed through the chamber, and they both jumped.
“What on earth?”Aunt Mellie breathed, hand on her chest.
Livy turned toward the sound, eyes scanning the room.Her heartbeat skittered through her veins.“Perhaps we placed something too close to the edge of a table…” That was when she saw it.The flames.“That was one of the oil lamps, Aunt Mellie!”
She ran for the door.“Come on, we need to get out of here immediately.”And they needed to find help and get this fire out with haste.She glanced behind her, her aunt on her heels, scanning all the items tucked away from the auction.Oh no nono.They needed to put this out before all of these items went up in flames.
Livy gripped the doorknob and—it was locked.She twisted and pulled frantically.“It’s locked, Aunt Mellie.”Oh my god!What was happening?They were locked in?
“What do you mean it’s locked?”her aunt said, her words tight and high-pitched.She shouldered Livy out of the way and tried the door herself.“How could it belocked?”
“I don’t know!It locks from the outside, and you need a key.”She patted her person, even though she knew she’d left the keys outside the room intending to lock up once everything was sorted away in the room.
Livy glanced at the fire, the fire that was already eating its way through the tablecloth of the table the lamp had been sitting on.“Can we put it out?”
“We’ll have to try.Let’s try to smother it.”
They rushed forward and pushed all the items from the table.They took the end of the tablecloth farthest away from the fire and threw it over the flames.But the flames only burned through the cloth.They had nothing to beat it out with.Nothing to douse it with.
“All right.That isn’t going to work,” Livy said through heavy breaths.“We need to get out of here.”
They turned toward the door, the door that was very close to the rapidly growing flames.
“How on earth are we going to manage that?”
That was a very excellent question.Livy closed her eyes.She tried to calm the panicked buzzing in her head, tried to get her brain towork.They would get out of here.They just needed to not lose their heads.She turned toward her aunt.“We need to break out of here.It’s just a matter of how.That is our only option.There are no windows.We can’t put it out.”They both glanced toward the fire, smoke already forming at the ceiling of the room.
“We need to do this fast, Olivia.”Aunt Mellie coughed.“This isn’t a large room.”
