“If you stay, they will find you. We must go.” I reached for her wrist.
“How dare you put your hands on me.” She smacked my grip away. “Release me this instant.”
Stupid girl. It would serve her right if I left her here to be devoured.
The bedroom door slammed open.
“Penelope, my darling!” Lady Richwell burst into the room, clutching her thick dressing robe to her throat. For the high ruler’s wife to leave her quarters undressed, things had to be dire.
Rose stumbled in behind her. Frazzled and pale, she clutched two hastily packed satchels.
A stern-faced guard I recognized as Reginald remained in thehallway, sword at the ready. “My lady. There isn’t time. We need to hurry.”
“Momma!” Penelope batted me away, scurrying out from her hole.
“My love. Thank goodness you’re alright.” Lady Richwell smashed her precious daughter against her sagging bosom. “Come, darling. The manor isn’t secure. We must get to safety.”
“Yes.” Penelope swiped snot from her nose with the back of her hand. “That is what I said to Serafina, but she wouldn’t listen. Instead, she shoved me beneath that retched table.”
Lady Richwell’s narrowed eyes snapped to me, disdain in their depths.
“Who are they, Momma?” Penelope cried. “What do they want?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve yet to spot their banners. I’m sure it’s some godless band of heathens who have learned of our wealth and my daughter’s beauty. Surely, they mean to steal both.”
I met the guard’s pale expression, and we shared a look. These were no ordinary thieves, and there would be no banners. It wasn’t beauty nor gold they were after, but fresh meat.
Lady Richwell tugged her daughter toward the door. “Come. Your father is readying a wagon for us.”
“Excuse me, Lady Richwell,” Rose dared to call out. “What about the staff? What are your orders?”
The lady stopped only long enough to sneer. “I’m sure you will manage. Right now, I think we agree Penelope is the priority and must be protected at all costs.”
Rose hefted the satchels she carried and bowed her head. “Yes, my lady.”
Another explosion shook the room, shouts echoing up the stairwell. A second guard stumbled inside, eyes wide. “They’ve breached the inner door. The first floor is lost.”
Lady Richwell wailed. “They’ve cut off our path to Edmund. What shall we do?”
Reginald cast a wild-eyed look at his comrade. “There’s a window at the end of the hall in the east wing. If we make it there, we can climb out and down the trellis.”
As far as plans went, it wasn’t terrible. Rose and I could escape the same way.
“Absolutely not,” Lady Richwell huffed, her cheeks reddening. “My daughter and I will not be crawling out of windows like common harlots.”
“But, my lady,” Reginald pleaded. “It’s the only path open to us.”
Her gaze narrowed with the protective gleam of a mother protecting her cub. “Then you must clear a path through the first floor to my husband.”
The guard blanched. “My lady, I beg you. There are too many of them. It’s not possible.”
She swept a calculating glance around the room, then fixed her attention on me. “Unless… Serafina. You are the same size as my daughter. Are you not?”
“Yes?” I answered in a cautious tone.
“You could serve as a decoy. To lure the ruffians away so that Penelope and I may escape unscathed.”
Dread wiggled through my insides like worms caught in the sun. “My lady, I couldn’t possibly impersonate royalty.”
