“I just need one piece for the element of surprise.” She doubted it would do much damage but still, she had to try.
Ruby worked her way along, stopping to tug on each piece. Of course, nothing came free, but she had to try. She continued, gripping each piece and trying. Dropping to her knees, she did the same to the lower pieces. Nothing budged.
“There has to be a way.”
Shuffling along on her knees, she gripped another piece and felt something. Pulling the lamp closer, she bent to look at what it was. A small gold lever protruded underneath.
Heart thumping, Ruby shot a look over her shoulder. The door was closed. She pushed the lever to the right. The panel before her opened.
Rushing back to the bed, she tugged down the covers. Placing the pillows beneath, she then pulled them up. She’d done this often when she was supposed to be sleeping and instead was visiting Adam.
Running back to the secret passage, she slipped inside with the lamp and closed the door behind her.
CHAPTERTHIRTY
“She cannot have just disappeared!”
He was roaring. He knew it, they knew it, but he couldn’t stop himself. The woman he loved had been taken from under his nose, and two days later he had still not found her.
When Ella had run into the breakfast parlor, white-faced and crying, with two maids, he’d picked her up and held her close. She’d babbled something about Ruby, men, and Walter.
Forrest had handed her to Adam and run from the room with his cousins on his heels. He’d reached the garden to find Walter barking as he ran up and down the fence line.
They had swarmed out onto the park but had not seen Ruby. They’d then looked everywhere, but there had been no sign.
“We are doing everything we can to find her, Mr. Howarth,” Geraint said.
They were at the church. Gabe had brought them all there after the note had arrived. He’d not slept, he’d searched. Morning had brought them back to the townhouse where his cousins had snatched sleep and he’d paced, chafing at the delay in finding her. Waiting for their informants to call with anything to help him find her. They’d repeated the process and still nothing. Ruby had simply vanished.
“TheGodfreyhas gone,” Zach said curtly.
“Yes,” Geraint said, “I know.”
That had been their first call. After telling Adam to look after Ella, he’d told him he would get his sister back and run from the house. They’d galloped all the way to the docks to find theGodfreygone.
Cold dread had him wondering if the woman he loved had been on board. But questioning those nearby, he’d been told it had left in the middle of the night.
“We have asked every informant we have and ridden to every corner of London, and there is no sign of her,” Forrest snarled.
“We will find her,” Geraint said. “We are doing what we can. I have utilized everyone to search.”
“It is not enough!”
“That will do, Forrest,” Michael said. “Roaring will not get Ruby back.”
“And yet your behavior when everything happened with Freya was controlled, was it?”
Michael thought about that. “Roar away,” he said.
A knock sounded on the wooden door.
“That was five knocks,” Zach said. “I thought it was meant to be four.”
Geraint rose and moved with haste to answer it.
“I have never seen him move like that,” Gabe said.
Zach followed.
