“I need you to get off the bed with me now, Fenella. Letme help you.” She managed to drag the girl off and stand her upright. “Let’s walk to the water now.”
“Tired,” Fenella whispered.
Had they kept her here, drugged, since her disappearance? The thought pushed rage through the fear inside her. That was weeks ago.
“I know but if we are to escape, we must rid you of some of your lethargy.”
“No escape,” Fenella slurred.
“Yes, there is,” Eliza said, determined they would do just that. She didn’t know how, but they had to try. “Do you know where you are, Fenella?”
“A barn.”
She talked to her, asking questions that the girl could not yet answer. Eliza saw a jug of water and reached for it. She sniffed it and found it contained milk. Hoping it wasn’t sour, she filled a mug.
“You must drink this now, Fenella.”
The girl obediently took it. She then drank all of it at Eliza’s insistence. She picked up a chunk of stale bread next and forced Fenella to eat that. Lastly, she left her leaning against the table and hurried to the ewer of water. After rinsing out a cloth, she brought it back.
“I’m going to wash your face with this cold cloth now, Fenella.”
“Is it dirty?”
The Scottish burr reminded Eliza of her uncle.Mungo.No, she wouldn’t think about that infuriating man now because the thought of not seeing him again made her feel as if she’d taken a punch to her stomach.
Focus, Eliza.
“Yes.”
She ran the cold cloth over her cheeks and down herneck. Eliza then led the girl to the water and plunged her hands into it.
“Why are you doing this? Who are you?”
Her voice sounded stronger now, more alert.
“My name is Eliza, Fenella, and you must listen to me carefully now. I work with your uncle Mungo at Crabbett Close. Your father came there looking for you.”
“Father.” She pressed a hand to her mouth.
“Yes, and they will find us soon, so we need to help the other girls wake up and be alert. Can you help me do that? I want us to escape on our own if we can. But if not, they will come for us.”
“You work with Uncle Mungo?”
“I do, and he and your father are coming to get you.”
Eliza saw the first spark of hope in the blue eyes then.
“I love Uncle Mungo.”
“He’s grumpy and rude but loyal,” Eliza conceded. He was also very possibly the first man she’d ever had true feelings for, and she wasn’t quite sure why.
Mungo and the Nightingale family would likely know by now that Eliza had not returned to Crabbett Close, but what she didn’t know was if they would search for her. She wasn’t important to them like Fenella was.
Suddenly all the insecurities returned. The feeling of being alone, with no one to care. No, they cared—she had to believe that. They were different from her uncle and the others who had drifted in and out of her life.Mungo cared.
“Can you drink another cup of milk, Fenella?”
“I can.” She sounded determined now.
