Her instincts had kicked in thirty seconds too late.
Just as she began screaming, the footman placed a scarf into her mouth and tied another behind her head. The earl leaned forward and pressed the gun between her breasts.
“Best not to struggle, my lady. I have nothing to lose byending your life today. I won’t hesitate to do so if you give me too much trouble.”
The mad look in his eyes lent truth to his promise.
Lilly stilled. Staring back at the earl, she attempted to calm herself and analyze her situation. As she did so, the footman tied her hands uncomfortably behind her.
The footman then crouched on the floor to tie her feet. As he did so he pushed her dress up to her knees. When he was done, the earl turned the gun on his own employee. “Hand me your other pistol,” he ordered.
With an uncertain look in his eyes, the servant obeyed and turned over the weapon.
“You ought to know better than to touch a lady that way,” he said. “Damned animals—every one of you.” He spat at the man and then shot him right between the eyes.
Michael foundhimself running past pedestrians for the second time that day but did not stop until he reached the gardens he knew Lilly loved. Breathing heavily, he looked around frantically. She wasn’t here!
But she must be!
He’d been so certain he knew where she had gone!
Bang!
A loud cracking sound echoed off the nearby marbled gazebo. Recognizing a gunshot, Michael leapt over a concrete bench and raced toward the street. It sounded as though it had come from Kensington Road.
He didn’t want to believe it had anything to do with Lilly, but an ominous foreboding filled him at the sound. Guns were not often fired in Hyde Park.
As Michael drew nearer to the road, a flurry of venders andpark goers were ogling a carriage racing away at a dangerously high speed.
Accosting a sweeper who stood on the curb with his broom, Michael demanded, “What did you see? What happened here?”
The sweeper wiped his mouth before speaking. “I think the bloke ‘at took off with the lady were a nobleman. She seemed willing enough but let out a scream once she were inside wit’ ’im.”
Fear coursed through him. “What did she look like?” Michael demanded.
“Pretty li’l thing. She ’ad the most unusual ’air, not silver, but not yellow like, either.”
“And the carriage, what did it look like?”
“Oh, it was fine, sir. That’s ’ow I guessed it was one o’ you lords. ’Ad one o’ them fancy designs on it.”
A crest. The Earl of Hawthorne.
It had to be. It was the only possible explanation. The man was insane and today, in a fit of temper, Michael had pushed him over the edge!
Michael hailed a hackney and returned to where he’d left his driver. He would need help if he were to save her from the earl.
And then the horrible, unthinkable truth hit him.
It was possible she was already injured, or worse. Where had the pistol been aimed when the shot was fired? He forced the thought from his mind. He could not, would not allow his thoughts to go in that direction.
He arrived back at the Sheffield town house to find Ravensdale and Danbury had returned ten minutes earlier. Michael was ushered into the drawing room where a number of concerned faces turned to look at him hopefully.
Mr. Joseph Spencer stood behind his fiancée who was sitting on the loveseat holding Lady Eleanor’s hand tightly. Lady Natalie sat beside her mother. Danbury stood by thewindow. Lord Ravensdale was pacing the room like a caged tiger. They all looked at him expectantly.
“She has been kidnapped,” he told them. “She may be injured.”
After Hawthorne shot the footman,Lilly’d taken one look at the dead man’s lifeless eyes and fainted.
