“She’s the runt of the litter, that one, my lord. These would be a better choice.” The breeder picked up the three males, who squirmed in his arms and licked his face. “That is unless you don’t mind having her go into heat and having pups of her own.”
Colin gave that deliberate thought. His two hounds were male—and large. The tiny puppy gazed up at him with her huge eyes, and he couldn’t help but think of Anne. With another scratch to her head, he rose. “Fair point. What will happen to her?” He inclined his head toward the puppy, who whined for more attention.
“Don’t you worry about that, sir. If we can’t sell her, we’ll take good care of her.”
Reassured, Colin paid the man and boarded his coach for home. As the puppies played at his feet, he pushed aside the guilt for leaving the tiny puppy. But he couldn’t put his girls through the heartbreak if one of his hounds got her with pups and she had trouble delivering them.
Once again, his thoughts turned to Anne. As often as they’d made love, she could be pregnant soon. Would she be able to survive the birth? She had to.
He simply wouldn’t accept any other outcome. As hard as Margery’s death had been, Anne’s would be so much worse.
The puppies pushed all morbid thoughts from his mind as they frolicked and played on the floor by his feet. He’d forgotten the joy that having a puppy entailed. Until one of them lifted his leg and relieved himself on Colin’s boots.
His head fell back against the squabs once more, and he laughed. He couldn’t wait to get home and show the puppies to Anne and the girls.
CHAPTER 30
Darkness surrounded Anne as she inched through the musty passageway. The lamp provided little comfort. Instead, the light cast menacing shadows that loomed at her approach. Narrower than the generous expanse she had imagined, she recoiled each time her arm brushed against a dusty wall.
As she followed the confined inner hallway, she discovered it branched off at the end. She decided to go right, because why not? Right was right after all. She let out a nervous giggle at the thought.
She halted and squinted. Farther up and to her left, a small shaft of light cast a ray into the darkness. With tentative steps, she approached.
When she rose on tiptoe to where the beam of light poked through the darkness, she peeked through. The familiar sofa sat in the middle of the—currently unoccupied—blue parlor.
“I knew it.”
Thinking she might have missed another entrance, she pushed against the wall and felt for another latch, but her attempt was unproductive. After making a mental note to come back at a later time, she continued down the passage.
Floorboards creaked and groaned under her steps. Somethingscurried behind her, and half turning to glance back, she raced forward.
When she redirected her attention in front of her, a sticky substance hit her in the face. She yelped, then performed a frantic little dance before pawing the substance away with one hand. She lifted the lamp closer. Silky strands of a spiderweb clung to her fingers.
“Ihatespiders!” And their webs. Images of giant eight-legged creatures coalesced in her mind as she gazed at the dense andenormouswebs her outstretched lamp illuminated.
Rather than moving forward and through the rest of the arachnid architecture, she turned around and retraced her steps to the fork in the passage.
With a momentary stop at the juncture, she worked out the directions. Left would lead her back to the safety of Colin’s study. Straight would take her where she had not yet dared to explore.
As narrow as the other, this path seemed better traveled and—thankfully as far as she could tell—if not entirely cobweb-free, no massive traps awaited her. Onward she braved.
Minutes later, her courage vanished. A squeak and the scurrying of tiny feet propelled her forward, and she hoped with all that was holy not to run into more spiders or their webs. Her foot landed on something squishy. She lowered the lamp and gasped at the decaying mouse.
Dead, glassy eyes, or rather one eye, stared up at her. The other eye was missing as if something had decided it was a rather tasty dish and had taken a bite. Stomach roiling, she shuddered and hurried past the poor creature.
Although she did her best to take care where she stepped, more fallen comrades of the mouse littered her path. As she stepped over the mice, floorboards groaned in protest.Crack.Without warning, one of the boards gave way under her weight, and her foot slid downward, nearly sending her off balance. Panic seized in her throat as her arms flailed, and her grasp tightened around the lamp. With a sigh of relief, she yanked her foot free before it became wedgedin the crevice.
Recovered, she hurried forward. The passage ended at another fork, reminding her of the maze at Hartridge House. Only she didn’t have Colin with her to show her the way.
With a huff, she proceeded. She didn’t need Colin. She could find her way around herself.
Once more, a small beam of light broke through the darkness. As she grew closer, the dim light from the lamp illuminated a shape of something ahead.What is that?A tight, watchful knot formed in her stomach. She kept a keen eye on the object lest it move and rush toward her.
Thankfully, it remained stationary, and her tension eased at a table resting against the wall.
Was the silly thing taking her in circles?
No. A box of lucifer matches lay next to another finger lamp on the table. She held the lamp and had taken the matches with her in case her lamp blew out.
