Olivia stumbled and fell as she was given a final hard shove into the room that would be her prison. Just before the door closed, candlelight illuminated the windowless room, and she saw she wouldn’t be alone. The door slammed shut, the light vanished, and a key rattled in the lock. A bar was shoved into place. By the time she caught her breath, the retreating footsteps could no longer be heard.
“Alastair?” Olivia awkwardly pushed herself up on all fours, then sat back on her heels. “Alastair? Is that you?”
“S’me, Livvy. S’me.”
The room’s overpowering stench made Olivia gag. Sweat, urine, vomitus, and other human waste, all of it overlaid by something pungent and oddly fruity, assailed her. She grabbed the hem of her gown and pressed it against her nose and mouth. The fabric did almost nothing to stay the foul odor, and she could taste it on her tongue, feel it enter her lungs.
“Are you drunk, Alastair?” she asked through the folds of linen.
“S’wine cellar. Course I’m drunk. You will be, too. S’only way.”
“Where are we?”
“I tol’ you. Wine cellar. Good stock. She selects it, I think. Likes to.”
Unable to stomach tasting the air any longer, Olivia lowered her hem a fraction and breathed carefully through her nose. The back of her head ached where she’d been struck. She rolled her shoulders and felt the knotty tension between them. She’d no chance to prepare for the attack and would not have known what had been used against her if she hadn’t caught a glimpse of the villain and his weighted walking stick in the carriage. She’d feigned unconsciousness, hoping it would give her an advantage when they arrived at their destination. What it did, however, was give the villain an opportunity to bind her wrists before she knew what he was about. Her wild struggle came too late to be effective, and the hand he clamped over her mouth took away her voice and her breath. When she finally slumped against him there was no fight left in her. Her body jerked and shuddered, but it was in the throes of surrender, not in preparation for another round.
“She?” Olivia asked. “Who isshe?”
Alastair groaned softly, held his head in his hands. “Mus’ you go on and on, Livvy? She’s she. A-lysss.”
Mrs. Christie, then. More annoyed than alarmed by this intelligence, Olivia released her gown altogether and began to work on the knots of her wrist bindings. She used her teeth to loosen the fabric, nibbling and tearing at the knots until she felt one of them give. After that it was easy to pull one of the ends and make space enough to slip her hands free. He’d bound her with a length of lightly starched cotton. His cravat, she realized, as she folded it into thirds and tucked most of it under the sleeve of her pelisse.
“How long have you been here, Alastair?”
“Don’ know. Wha’ day is it?”
“Wednesday.”
“Wednesday. The eleventh?”
“The eighteenth.”
“Oh, well, then, s’been a week and a bit. S’easy to lose time here.”
“I’m sure drinking helps.” Olivia rose to her feet and carefully made her way toward the sound of his voice. She found him with the toe of her foot, then hunkered down beside him. “Have you been hurt?”
“My pride.”
“Yes, that is always the deepest wound.” She touched his forehead, brushed aside a lock of hair that had fallen over his brow. “You have not been treated kindly, I think.”
“Not kindly, no.”
She could not even be put out with him. He was so clearly gone in his cups that he was doing well just stringing a few slurred words together. The fact that he was still sitting upright had more to do with the wall at his back than his strength of will. Olivia removed her pelisse and made certain it was under her before she sat. Alastair, if he could have seen what she was about, would probably have rolled his eyes at her fastidiousness, but Olivia believed she needed to embrace dignity for as long as possible.
“Do you know why you’re here?” she asked.
“Don’ think she likes me anymore.”
“Yes, it seems that might be the way of it.”
“S’all right. I don’ like her s’much either.”
“Good for you.”
“She wan’s the ring, Livvy.”
“Hardly surprising. You took it back from her, didn’t you?”
