Belle - Lesley Pearse [40]
‘This is better, no risk at all. We just take her straight into the cabin and keep her there,’ Sly replied.
From that little exchange Belle gathered not only that they were taking her out of the country on a ship, but that they were worried about someone seeing her and guessing she was being abducted. While the thought of being taken out of the country made her as frightened as she’d been on the previous night, knowing they were anxious pleased her. She thought that meant there might well be an opportunity to get help or indeed to escape. She continued to pretend to be asleep in the hope that they would say more. But nothing more was said, and Belle braced herself to shout and scream when a good opportunity came along.
All at once the carriage rolled on to gravel, then stopped. Belle continued to pretend to be asleep, but when she was hauled out of the carriage by Kent, she struggled with him and screamed.
‘Shut your noise,’ Kent hissed at her, putting his hand over her mouth.
Belle saw they weren’t at Dover docks as she’d expected, but on the short drive of a small but very pretty clapboard house which was painted white with a blue front door. She’d seen such picturesque houses depicted on chocolate boxes, the garden usually bright with flowers as though in high summer. But even in January this garden was still attractive, with hedges cut into different shapes and several bushes covered in red berries.
At first glance she’d thought the house was isolated, but now as she looked around she saw it was sandwiched between two others, just a fence separating them. Clearly Kent was afraid someone would hear her and come to see what was going on. But he held on to her mouth too tightly for her to scream again as he dragged her towards the front door.
No sooner were they in the house than Kent gagged her with a white scarf. ‘I can’t trust you to keep quiet,’ he said.
Belle was left standing in the hall, gagged and still bound hand and foot, while the two men went upstairs. She thought it must be Kent’s house for he’d pulled a keyring from his pocket and selected the right key out of a bunch just by looking at it. If this was the house he’d been intending to take Millie to, she would have liked it, for it was a very pretty place.
Belle couldn’t see the whole house of course, not from just standing in the hall, but what she could see was lovely and quite feminine in style. The hall had a shiny polished wood floor, with a shaggy blue rug in the middle, and there was a glass dome with little stuffed birds perched on a tree inside it. The stairs had a thick blue and gold carpet and a small crystal chandelier sparkled above her head. She shuffled forward a few steps so she could see into the sitting room, which was decorated and furnished in shades of blue and green, with hundreds of books in a floor-to-ceiling bookcase.
It didn’t seem right for a brute like Kent though. Puzzled, she was just about to shuffle forward again so she could see more, when the men reappeared at the top of the stairs, carrying a big red trunk between them. Belle’s heart sank because it was obvious what it was for. Shuffling backwards towards the door, she begged Sly with her eyes not to do it.
‘It won’t be for long,’ he said apologetically.
They brought the trunk right down the stairs, then opened it in the hall.
‘There’s no air holes,’ Sly said, looking at his companion.
‘Then make a few,’ Kent said churlishly and walked off towards the back of the house.
Just the thought of being locked into a small space sent Belle into a panic and she could hardly get her breath. She could see she’d need to keep her knees bent to fit in it, but if they were prepared to go to these lengths to conceal her on a ship, what were they going to do with her when they got her to France?
Kent came back up the hallway with a glass of something in his hand. He put it down on the hall table, nudged her towards a chair, then removed her gag. ‘Drink this,’ he ordered, holding the glass to her lips.