“Then we’ll have to sneak out the front.” Eleanor turned and started forward. Her shin banged into the low stage, and a very unladylike word came from her mouth.
I pointed to the doorway, and the figure standing in it. “I echo that oath.”
Miss Abbott held her candle high, blinking in disbelief at the empty chairs and then at us. “How…?” Her mouth clamped shut, and she fumbled to open her reticule.
I pushed Eleanor onto the stage, heaving myself up behind her. There were some rooms behind the platform, to hold sets and allow the cast to change for any plays they put on. We could barricade ourselves inside.
And be trapped for the fire that was coming.
It was one hell of a choice, setting oneself up to either burn to death or allowing oneself to be shot. My instincts screamed to delay the inevitable as long as possible. Time meant hope, and avoiding being shot gave us a few more moments of life.
Miss Abbott pulled her gun from her bag before we made it to the stage door. The wood of the door jamb exploded as a bullet smashed into it. Eleanor and I froze.
Miss Abbott stalked toward the stage, holding the candle in one hand and her pistol in the other. “I will be very happy to be rid of the pair of you.”
Eleanor stepped in front of me, holding the knife out, the dear, silly girl. “It won’t look like fire killed us. There will be holes in our bodies. The authorities will know someone killed us, and my mother is in custody.”
Miss Abbott climbed the two steps onto the stage. “At this point, I don’t care.”
I looked around, hoping a spear or sword from the latest play had been left out on the stage. I saw nothing. Except for a loop of rope.
Miss Abbott stalked closer, she and Eleanor facing off against each other.
I sidled toward the wall that held the rope. I needed Miss Abbott in just the right position on the stage. I needed Eleanor out of the way. And I needed this all to happen before Abbott shot us.
“It’s no wonder Lady Richford ran back to her husband.” Eleanor took a step to her left. “You’re a soulless, heartless creature. No one could love you.”
With a few flicks of my wrist, I loosened the figure eight shape of the rope, holding the weight of the stage curtain in my hand.
“She did love me!” Miss Abbott stumbled forward, the muzzle of her weapon centering on Eleanor’s chest. “But she was weak. She listened to her family instead of her heart. And we all paid the cost. Just like you will now.” She closed one eye, aiming at Eleanor.
A blur of black and white shot from stage left and collided into Miss Abbott just as I dropped the curtain.
A shot rang out, and Eleanor screamed.
Chapter Forty-Five
Lady Mary
“There’s only somany times I can apologize.” I hadn’t even wanted to apologize the first time, but the bruised and puffy skin around Mr. Rollins’s eye had forced the grudging response.
Mr. Rollins held a slab of one of my very expensive steaks to his face as he sat back in the large wingback in my parlor. Eleanor perched on the armrest, her hand on his shoulder, seeming to want constant contact.
He glared at me from his one free eye. “Didn’t you see me coming? I had her. There was no need to drop a weighted curtain on my head.”
“Obviously I didn’t.” I drained my glass of brandy and contemplated another. It would be my third. On a normal night that would be excessive, but nothing about this night had been normal. I poured another.
“But how did you know to look for Miss Abbott at The Minerva Club?” Eleanor gazed upon Frederick like he was St. George after slaying the dragon. She brushed a lock of his hair off his brow. “You threw yourself on Miss Abbott right before she could shoot me.”
I refrained from pointing out that my dropping the curtain also saved her. Let the girl give all the praise to her beau. All the obstacles to their happiness seemed to have disappeared along with Eleanor’s memory of everything she and I had done to save ourselves.
“Her landlady came out to investigate who was pounding on Miss Abbott’s door.” Frederick wrapped his free arm around Eleanor’s waist and slid her onto his lap. “She said she saw her tenant get into a carriage with a….more mature woman.”
I snorted. I was certain those weren’t the woman’s exact words. No matter. If my white hair caught the notice of the landlady and led to Frederick’s precipitous arrival, then I was quite happy with its lack of color.
“It shouldn’t have taken me so long to realize Abbott was the culprit,” Frederick groused. “I knew there was something familiar about the posey ring found in the stash Bannister had taken from his mother’s house. Miss Abbott had been wearing a matching one the day I questioned her.”
I refrained from pointing out that if he had let me see all of his evidence I might have made the connection. “It also was inscribed with the wordsJe t’adore?”
