The Property of a Lady - Elizabeth Adler [154]
She pushed the lease back into the safe, shutting the door with a clang she felt sure could be heard a mile away, and quickly thrust the painting back in place. Then, picking a book at random from the shelf, she ran back to the other side of the desk and sat in the big red-leather wing chair.
Her spine crawled as the door opened; she flicked through the pages, pretending not to have heard, and after a few seconds Eddie said, “Are you here for a reason? Or just curiosity?” He walked toward her and took the book from her hands. “A Study of Ballistics—in German? Really, Verity, if you are looking for an excuse to spy on me, you can do better than that.”
“I did not come here to spy on you,” she said indignantly, “I came—” She stopped, remembering that she could no longer say what she had intended to say. She could not tell him they were leaving because now she knew he would never let them go. “I came to ask you why you don’t speak to me anymore,” she said instead.
He shrugged. “I thought it was decided on the Majestic that we had nothing to say to each other. I made a terrible mistake, Verity. You are not the girl I thought you were. But I will not divorce you. You may stay here at Haus Arnhaldt and live like a lady. The young Baroness Arnhaldt.” His thin lips twisted into a cruel smile as he added softly, “For the rest of your life.”
She gasped, wondering, terrified, what he meant. Did he intend to kill her and take Azaylee? All she knew was they must leave here as soon as possible, and in secret.
She stood up and walked past him to the door. Flinging back her head, she met his eyes across the room. “I am still hoping that we can work things out between us, Eddie,” she said quietly. “I will do my best to please you from now on.”
It took all her self-possession to walk and not run back through the hall and up the stairs to her room. All day she worried about how to escape from Haus Arnhaldt. The place was a fortress and twenty kilometers from the nearest town; she couldn’t just pack and ask the chauffeur to drive them to the station in Düsseldorf because he would never do anything without first asking Baroness Jutta. And even if they attempted to walk, she knew they would be missed and brought back. Besides, Beulah was too old for such an expedition and Azaylee too young. She groaned, holding her head in her hands despairingly. All she could do was watch and wait her opportunity, and meanwhile she would tell Beulah to prepare for their flight.
The old woman was thrilled when she told her they were leaving. “It just cain’t come soon enough for me, Miss Verity,” she said, grinning. “Ah cain’t wait to git the hell outa here.”
The opportunity came sooner than she expected and in the most satisfactory way. The detested Baroness Jutta fell while walking in the park and broke her hip. A world-famous bone specialist was summoned from Paris and Eddie was told the fracture was a complicated one. The baroness would have to be taken by ambulance to the doctor’s private Paris clinic, where he could treat her personally. If not, he feared she might never walk again.
Eddie was white-faced and tense as he made the arrangements, and Verity saw her chance. “Your poor mother,” she said sympathetically. “She will be so lonely in Paris, away from her beloved Haus Arnhaldt. Why don’t you let Azaylee go along too, to cheer her up? You know how she adores her.”
His eyes were worried and she knew he had barely heard her. “She really does adore Azaylee. You know how she makes her laugh,” she persisted.
“The baroness is right,” the doctor agreed. “The psychological outlook of a patient, especially a patient of the baroness’s age, is important. If she has family members around her, so much the better. It’s an excellent idea.”
“Then why don’t we all go?” Verity cried, clapping