She looked at him with watery eyes and shook her head. “No, she didn’t. Today we all asked around town to see if anyone had seen her. Nobody had seen her since yesterday. The only person who confessed to being with Tabitha after the luncheon was Miss Talbot. She said she noticed Tabitha strolling alongside the ocean, but that’s the last time she saw her.”
His head throbbed with panic. Miss Talbot? Could the woman be as insane as Miss McFadden made her out to be? He prayed the girl was wrong about the spinster, because if she was correct then Tabitha might be in grave danger.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Slowly, Tabitha cameawake. Immediately, a pain shot through her skull. She didn’t dare open her eyes yet, but being careful, she lifted her hand to her throbbing head. Why did her arm ache, too? Softly, she patted her head, but couldn’t find where she might have injured herself to have that kind of pain.
As she came more alert, a different scent hung in the air, making her want to sneeze. The dusty, unclean scent reminded her of being in Lord Elliot’s attic on those occasions when he’d placed her there as punishment. Wherever she was now, she was certainly not in the room where she stayed at her aunt’s house.
As she tried to remember what she’d been doing last, the memories spinning in her head seemed fuzzy. She recalled her talk with Nic and how much it hurt to say those things to him and to see the pain in his eyes. She remembered going to the ocean and meeting Miss Talbot—Mildred, the woman had asked Tabitha to call her. And she recalled the special kind of tea the older woman had served that made her feel very tired and sick to her stomach. Mildred had suggested Tabitha lie down, and…
That’s all she could remember clearly. But then there were those disjointed flashbacks that didn’t make any sense. Mildred had carried—almost dragged—her to another house up on a hill. Tabitha knew she’d been there before but couldn’t pinpoint the location. Once inside, there were stairs going up, a hiddentrap door, and darkness as they carefully made their way down another set of stairs into a musty, cellar with little to no light.
Mildred’s voice echoed in Tabitha’s mind, but her words didn’t have any meaning. She’d said something aboutjustice being servedand made mention about how allheartless menand the jezebel women who led them astray deserved to die.
It took a few minutes of breathing deeply, but soon the pain in Tabitha’s head lessened enough for her to open her eyes. A small amount of light shone through the cracks on the wooden door at the top of the stairs, but it didn’t highlight the room very well. Thick shadows floated everywhere. She could barely see the stairs she’d come down from the hidden trap door. She rested upon a mattress covered by one woolen blanket, and she was thankful that she had this much. It was then that another scent assailed her senses, smelling like strong urine and…manure. Her stomach lurched. What was down here that had this kind of aroma?
Listening closely, she hoped she could detect any sounds from outside. At first she heard nothing, but soon there was a sound from within the room. The muffled cries were barely audible. Fear of the unknown escalated through her, but then she felt as if she wasn’t the only one in the room. She trusted her instincts that this was a good thing.
“Is anyone there?” she said in a low voice.
A distinct gasp echoed and the rustling sound in the other corner of the room stirred the silence. “Who is here?” The voice belonged to a woman.
Relief swept through Tabitha that she was not alone. “My name is Tabitha Paget. I’m visiting my great aunt, Mrs. Burls.”
“Oh, Miss Paget.” The woman didn’t sound very old. Perhaps still in her twentieth year or thereabouts. “Why are we here?”
“Where ishere?” Tabitha wondered.
“I don’t know, but it’s an abandoned house. I’ve been here almost a week.” A shaky breath rented the air. “At least I think it’s been a week.”
Slowly, Tabitha’s memory opened. She now remembered the house. This was where she and Nic had met that one afternoon. “Have you seen anyone come here?”
“Only Miss Talbot. She’s the one holding me prisoner.”
Tabitha’s head pounded harder. “Do you know why? I cannot imagine that sweet, old woman doing this.”
“Looks are deceiving. Miss Talbot is not the sweet, old woman she has portrayed. She drugged me with her tea that first day, and since I’ve been here, she continues to put something in the food that makes me sleep. I eat it, only because I’m hungry, but I know it will put me to sleep.”
A bitter taste coated Tabitha’s tongue and mouth. She swallowed hard. There had been something in the tea, to be sure. Maybe even in the cookies she’d fed her. It made sense now as to why Miss Talbot kept urging Tabitha to partake of the refreshments.
“I wish I knew why she’s doing this,” the other woman said. “All I know is that she’s not happy with me for making David Griffin fall in love with me.”
Tabitha sucked in a quick breath. “Are you Miss Johnson?”
“Yes.” The younger woman’s voice shook.
“Keep talking. I’m going to crawl over to you.”
“All right.”
As Miss Johnson told Tabitha about how Mildred had brought her here, Tabitha scooted across the dirty floor on hands and knees toward Miss Johnson’s voice. When she reached her, she grasped the other woman’s hands. Sobbing, she fell against Tabitha.
“Oh, Miss Paget, I didn’t think anyone else would be here. I thought I was going to die in this abandoned house…alone.”
A chill passed through Tabitha and she tried to shake it off. She wouldnotaccept death. Especially not now. Not when she had lived through Lord Elliot’s beatings and had begun living the kind of life she’d always dreamed about having. “Nobody is going to die if I can help it.”
Memories resurfaced of those times Lord Elliot took her out in the barn and beat her with nothing but his iron fist. During all of her beatings, he’d been drunk, but the man still retained his strength. The few times he tried to rape her, he’d been too drunk to follow through with it. Thankfully, God was watching out for her then. So she must believe God would help her now.
