She remained mute for the entire journey south. If the manservant was alarmed at her lack of emotion, he did not show it. Elizabeth smiled woodenly and tried to be pleasant. It wasn’t that she wasn’t sad; it was that she was unable to process anything at all and felt numb.
She was still convinced she would arrive to find this had all been a big misunderstanding, and her mother would smile and tell her not to worry.
Suddenly, she recognized the road they were on, and her heart leapt into her throat.
She had walked these roads hundreds of times, on her own two feet and on horseback. Her heart sped up as they proceeded down the lane that led to the Ashcroft Manor.
“Stop the carriage.”
Roaring filled her ears, and she flung open the carriage door while it was still moving.
“I said STOP.”
The manservant warily slowed the carriage to a halt. She jumped out of the carriage, stumbling and falling onto all fours.
“Lady, we are nearly there—” The words were lost in the wind as she had already started sprinting towards the manor.
The window beside the door was smashed open.
Her heart sank.
The last feeble hope came crumbling down as she sprinted towards the manor, as if getting there a few seconds earlier would change the outcome. Reaching the heavy oak doors, she hesitated, her knuckles resting just a hair’s breadth above the wood. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for what she was about to find and banged several times.
There was no answer. She knocked again. Where was the housekeeper?
To her surprise, the handle turned easily, and the door creaked open. It had been left unlocked.
The entrance hall was empty. All the servants had been cleared out, and it was with a great sense of trepidation that she took a few steps into the entrance hall. It looked identical to when she had last seen it. She sniffed. The hall smelled of a pungent cleaning solution. Sniffing again, she noted that the sharp-smelling cleaning solution had been used all over the marble floor.
Why did they have to clean the floor?
Bile rose in her throat.
Tearing through the house, Elizabeth was desperate for some sign they’d escaped. Every room looked untouched—pristine.
Charlotte,she realized.
Charlotte had restored everything, trying to spare her the sight of—Don’t think about that.
Her father had to have left a clue somewhere, some inkling that this was all a misunderstanding. He had to have left her a note telling her exactly where she could find them—happy and well—a few cities over.
They had no enemies. It didn’t make sense that anyone would want to harm them.
She thought she saw something—a shadow lingering around a corner and sprinted towards it.
There!Hope flared in her chest. They were hiding, of course, they were hiding, waiting for her to—
“Mother!”
A hand grabbed her arm.
Gasping, she spun around. Panic gripped her, and her eyes flew wide.
Looking down, she saw the manservant had grabbed her arm. He had scared her half to death.
“Lady Elizabeth, my apologies. I did not want you to slip.” He gestured at the floor, where it looked slick. “There’s water on the floor.”
Elizabeth swallowed. “Ah, right. Thank you.”
