Bram reached the front door and hammered hard on the wood. It was several minutes later that they heard loud barking before it opened slightly.
“Margaret, please let us in. I fear Miss Wilson has gone missing, and we have grave concerns for her safety,” Ellen said, stepping forward as the woman stared at them through the few inches of space between the door and its frame. Lamplight showed Ambrose a black nose poking through lower down. Growling softly, Barnaby was ready to attack.
“Settle down, Barnaby,” Ambrose said, holding his hand to the small gap for the dog to sniff. His growling stopped, clearly remembering him as someone who helped rescue him and his mistress from the hell they were living.
“Move back now, boy,” Margaret said, stepping back herself to allow them inside.
Ecstatic now that the people entering his new home were not dangerous, Barnaby was doing his best to greet everyone.
“Miss Wilson has gone missing, Margaret,” Ellen said. “We had hoped you may have seen her?”
“She has not been here today, but we were expecting her,” Margaret said, now looking worried. “What do you suppose has happened to her?”
“That, we don’t know,” Alex said. He was scratching the top of the dog’s head now.
“I need to borrow your lamp, Margaret, as I must go to the kitchens and look around,” Ambrose said.
She handed it to him without protest.
Ambrose ran to the stairs and down to the kitchens. He found the room with the secret door and started pulling books down. He released the shelf lever, and then the door.
“We are behind you,” a deep Scottish voice said over his shoulder. “Lead the way, my lord.”
Ambrose stepped inside. He hurried along the narrow hall until he reached the stairs and then went down.
“She’s not here,” Alex said suddenly.
“I agree. The thimble is not in this direction,” Leo added.
Ambrose ignored the words and kept moving, hoping they were wrong but knowing deep in his gut they were not. Desperation had him running past the cloaks hanging on hooks and entering the room where the altar sat. It was dark and empty.
“Tilly,” he whispered as if she was merely hiding and would suddenly appear.
“We will find her,” Alex said, gripping Ambrose’s shoulder.
“I’ve had another vision,” Ellen said from the doorway.
Ambrose looked at her, almost not wanting to hear what she saw. Her eyes were huge in her face now.
“Tell us,” Mungo ordered.
“I keep seeing a small girl talking to Tilly, and Theo mentioned her too,” Ellen said. “She’s in a small space.”
“Tilly?” Ambrose asked, his heart thudding hard inside his chest.
“Yes. Barely big enough to stand, and she’s angry but also scared,” Ellen said, her words hoarse. “We have to find her, as danger is closing in around her.”
CHAPTER 22
They’d dragged Tilly into a warehouse, then put her in a large wooden crate. After they’d slammed the lid shut and locked it, fear had gripped her, tightening the muscles in her body and making it hard to breathe.
You can’t get out. No one will come for you. How would they find you in here in a city of millions of people?
She’d fought the voice inside her head before it completely consumed her. Ambrose would find her, Tilly told herself. With help from the Nightingales and their clairvoyant skills, she would not be in this prison for long. She repeated the words like a mantra, over and over until she believed them.
When she’d first been forced in here, there had been cracks of light filtering in from outside, which had made her wonder if she was close to a window. Tilly had pressed her eye to the sliver of a gap in the wood and seen nothing but a grey smear of cold illumination. Still, those thin threads of light had made her feel like she wasn’t alone, which, of course, she was.
At first she’d heard voices and screamed, banging on thewood with her feet and fists until her knuckles bled through her gloves. Panic had her yelling until her throat burned. But no one had come to let her out. No one had even talked to her, and then when she’d had no more strength to fight, she’d lain there with her eyes closed, focusing on something—anything—that would help her through this hell.
