A Disappearance in Drury Lane Read Online Free PDF

You ask me to help you, and in return, I receive only your promise that Perry won’t sell me off. That’s it? That’s your bargain?”
    “I am afraid so.”
    Felicity leaned down and kissed me again, her lips warm and soft. She must have dazzled her clientele, and she must dazzle poor Pomeroy.
    “All right then,” she said.

Chapter Three
     
    Felicity had to help me stand. As soon as I got to my feet, I fell to the floor, my head spinning. I lay there in a heap of pain, wanting to expire.
    Felicity gave me no mercy. She put a digging hand on my shoulder and dragged me up again. “We have to hurry. If he comes back and catches us, we’re done for.”
    I wanted to know more about this man who thought nothing of kidnapping a viscountess’ betrothed off the street and threatening slavery to a young woman if she didn’t help him. But breathing and moving took all my energy; nothing remained for more speech.
    Felicity ducked under my arm, half carrying me to the door. The room turned out to be very small, the door not many steps from the bed. The door also appeared to be unlocked. Felicity opened it easily and led me out to a small landing at the top of a flight of stairs.
    No lock or bolt? Either her fear had been strong enough to keep her in place, or Felicity had not been honest with me.
    She helped me down the stairs and out a door at the bottom, which didn’t seem to be guarded. Again, too easy.
    We emerged into a narrow passage that smelled strongly of slops. The night was still black and shrouded in fog. I had no way of knowing where we were or even what time or day it was. Was this the same night I’d been kidnapped? Or had more time passed?
    Felicity ducked out from under my arm and pinned me back against a cold wall. My weakness alarmed me. A slim woman, even one as fit and strong as Felicity, should not have been able to shove me about.
    “All right, Captain. You make good on your promise. Get me away from here. Somewhere safe.”
    I tried to nod, but my head hurt too much. “I’ll need a hackney.”
    “I’ll get one. But we need to hurry. No telling when Perry will be back.”
    I gave up on the next nod as well. Felicity left me leaning against the wall, the only thing holding me upright. My legs kept trying to bend, and in fact, did so without my awareness. When Felicity returned, she found me sitting on the noisome cobbles, my knees around my head.
    “Captain, we have to go .”
    She pulled me up too fast, and I nearly fell again. Felicity managed to hold me upright, my arm slung around her shoulders, and we stumbled from the passage to the street. I thought we were in the environs of Drury Lane, somewhat north of the theatre, closer to High Holborn, but I couldn’t be certain.
    A hackney waited not far away, the driver looking about him uneasily in the thick darkness. He jumped down from his perch when we approached and helped Felicity lift me inside.
    I groaned as the coachman’s touch pressed my hurt ribs, but his look held no compassion. Likely he thought me drunk, and I could not blame him his assessment. I reeked of the passage I’d collapsed in and the gin Felicity had poured down my throat.
    “Where to?” the coachman asked.
    “Curzon Street,” I managed to say as Felicity crammed herself against me in the small seat. “Number 45.”
    “Right you are.”
    The hackney listed sickeningly as the coachman climbed back to his box, and I nearly brought up all the gin.
    When I dared open my eyes again, the coach was moving and Felicity glared at me. “We can’t go there .”
    “Can you name a safer place?” I asked, my voice weak. “My lodgings are unguarded. If Mr. Perry finds us gone, he will go first to Grimpen Lane to look for me. The friends I’d turn to for help are not in London.” All my London friends were gone, in fact—either at country homes celebrating Christmas or in Oxfordshire waiting for my wedding.
    “We might be safe from Perry, maybe,” Felicity said. “But