Concern raced through the sergeant’s eyes. “Hyde Park is right here, but...”
But the park was huge. And how much time had passed since the ladies left the hotel? If Aleida didn’t suspect Beatrice, she’d be in significant danger.
“All right, men,” the sergeant said to the other two officers, “we’ll organize a search. Wilkins, ring the station, tell them to send more men. Bright, come with me.”
“I’ll come too.” But Hugh’s voice sounded fragile.
“As will I,” Gil said.
Doubt twitched in the sergeant’s lips, but he blinked. “We can use the help.” He assigned the men to sections of the park, starting at Park Lane and working west, with Hugh assigned to the northernmost section, near Speakers’ Corner.
The men hurried out of the hotel and fanned out to search.
As Hugh ran north up Park Lane, orange firelight brightened the sky, and screaming bombs crashed into buildings ahead of him.
His chest seized from the burst of cold air and the resumptionof exertion. “No, Lord.” He couldn’t have an attack. He had to save Aleida.
“Aleida!” His call disappeared into the noise of explosions and crackling flames.
He coughed from the effort of raising his voice, and his pace slowed.
“No.” Hugh forged ahead, crossed a street, ran harder. Speakers’ Corner lay only a half dozen streets away.
Black smoke roiled from the building straight ahead. To detour around it would add delay, and every second counted.
Hugh whipped out his handkerchief and pressed it to his nose and mouth. He charged forward, veering into the street to avoid the worst of the smoke.
His eyes burned and watered. Despite the handkerchief, he could feel particles depositing in his lungs, clogging them.
He gasped for breath, pushed through to clear air on the other side, and lowered the handkerchief.
He wheezed, coughed, struggled for air. Each breath ached on the way in, whistled on the way out. Stars formed in his vision.
Hugh’s pace lagged. He stumbled down off a curb, scrambled to get his feet beneath him, staggered forward.
What if Beatrice took Aleida to Hugh’s sector? If Hugh didn’t arrive, no one would.
Now his old enemy, his asthma, his weakness, was endangering the woman he loved.
Hugh stepped up onto a curb, but his foot disobeyed him, and he fell flat on the pavement, slamming out the whisper of air remaining in his lungs.
Battling for breath, he dragged his knees beneath him, planted one foot, pushed up. His leg shook, and he collapsed against the wall of a building.
“Aleida.” Her name evaporated in his mouth.
The scream of a bomb, a rush of wind.
Hugh hunkered low, flung his arms over his head, flung up a prayer for Aleida. Hugh wouldn’t be able to help her. He’d never see her again.
The pavement leaped beneath him. Sound exploded in his ears. Debris pummeled his back.
And the stars in his vision winked out.
44
Beatrice marched Aleida up the paved walkway in Hyde Park with her grip tight around Aleida’s right arm.
Soon that grip would be tight around Aleida’s throat.
