Page 21 of Miss Thornfield’s Daring Bargain (The Troublemakers Trilogy #1)

A da didn’t know how long she lay on her back, sprawled out on the dirt floor before she awoke and registered the pain. Everything hurt, from her hip to her head. Ears ringing, skull pounding, she tried to raise herself up. That was when she realized her hands and feet were tied. There was barely any light infiltrating the spaces between the wooden walls. Was it already dusk? How long had they been there? Her breath shortened when she thought of how much darker it would get once the sun was fully set. She looked around the dim room waiting for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. Where was Elodia?

“Ellie?” she croaked out. Silence. Oh God, had they separated them? Was she here all alone? “Ellie,” she called out again, a thread of panic leaking into her voice. Finally, she heard a low moan in reply. She caught sight of Elodia’s golden-brown dress and slowly moved over to where she lay flat on her back. “Ellie, are you awake?”

“Unfortunately,” she grumbled in reply.

Ada laughed, wincing slightly at the stinging sensation on her lip, and helped her up. “Are you all right? Can you move? Did they tie you up as well?”

Ada was only just able to make out the baleful look Elodia gave her before attempting to adjust her clothes. “Just the one question at a time, if you please.”

Ada knew it wasn’t a time to be laughing, but if her friend had the energy to grumble, she couldn’t be too injured. “Are you all right?”

“That depends entirely on your definition of the term. My head is splitting and this floor is… not fit for humans. But I can move, and yes, they did tie me up as well.”

Ada closed her eyes and leaned her shoulder against her friend trying to block out the pain and anxiety long enough to assess the situation. They were no doubt filthy, and captive for the moment, but they weren’t seriously injured and most importantly they were together.

“They used rope, Ada,” Elodia whispered.

“What?” Ada turned to her.

“To tie us up. They used rope.”

It took her a moment to register the importance of what she was saying. Rope… they needed a blade. “Ellie, do you have our hairpins?” she asked.

“Always,” she replied, pulling the six-inch pin from her voluminous curls. The silver filigree detail on the handle made it pretty enough to pass as a trinket, but the shaft hid a rapier thin blade tapered into a wicked point sharp enough to rival any needle. Regina had presented them with it in their third year at school as a Christmas gift.

“While we have the light,” Ada said, pulling her own from her hair and placing the scabbard between her teeth to extract the blade. Holding it between both her slightly numb hands she nodded to Elodia, “You first.” Within moments she had cut through the thick ropes binding Elodia’s hands. Then she flipped the blade towards her and began sawing away at her own bonds as Elodia removed the ropes binding first her feet and then Ada’s.

Once that was done, she put the pin back into its scabbard and stuck it back into her hair. Then she gathered up the ropes and hid them under her voluminous skirts.

“What do we do now?” Elodia asked, hooking her arm through Ada’s.

“I don’t know,” Ada replied. She knew Basil and her brother would come for her, but she didn’t know when. They no doubt already knew she and Elodia were missing, but would they know where they were? Would Mr. Kingston be able to help on such short notice? She couldn’t only rely on them to find her, but she didn’t have much to work with in order to devise a plan of escape.

She didn’t know how many men were outside that door, or how to get home from where she was. She didn’t even know if the carriage was still there, or how far away it was. All she knew was that she wasn’t tied up anymore, and she now had a weapon. She wasn’t going to allow Trent to take her anywhere without the fight of his life.

“They are going to come back eventually. We can’t stay here. Should we try the door? Maybe it isn’t locked.”

“What if it is and there are men guarding it from the outside? Then they’ll know we are free. They’ll probably end up watching us even more closely then.”

“Right and we’ll lose the element of surprise.” Which would be lost already the moment they realized their hands were free. “Maybe we should…” Ada pulled two of the severed ropes out from under her and handed one to Elodia. “Wrap one around your wrists so we still look tied up.”

Elodia nodded, placing the dagger back into her hair and wrapping the rope around her wrists.

“When he gets close enough, we rush him.”

“And we start stabbing.”

Start stabbing . Yes—that about summed it up.

They heard the rattling of a chain. This was it; someone was coming back. Ada tightened her grip on the two ends of the rope and gathered up as much courage as she could muster. Beside her, Elodia straightened her posture, lifting her chin in defiance. The door to the room opened and Trent emerged, carrying a lantern. “Good evening, Miss Ada and… Miss Hawthorne, is it?”

“Mr. Trent,” Ada replied evenly as her heart hammered away in her chest.

“I suppose you’re surprised to see me.”

“Not especially,” she replied. “Bad pennies always turn up, do they not?”

“I ain’t doing this for fun. I don’t have a choice.”

“You don’t need to do this,” she said, and he watched her with a flat expression. “You can take the carriage and just go. You don’t need us.”

“You gonna try to tell me my business, is that it? Cause you’re so high and mighty?” The old mask was gone now, replaced by resentful anger. That thin lip curled into a sneer and those watery eyes narrowed into slits. He pulled a pistol out of his pocket with his free hand and gestured to both of them as Ada watched it in wary silence. “I’ve got people need paying, and you’re going to help me with that.”

“We are not going anywhere with you. If you let us go—” Elodia said.

“—Shut up.”

“—you have a chance at surviving. If you insist on this course of action, your little mix-up with the underbelly of London will be the least of your problems, I assure you.”

“I ain’t scared of your toffee-nosed old man. He’s soft in the ’ead as it is, parading his little West Indies adventure around London.”

Elodia’s eyes narrowed. “And yet he has more sense than you, chasing a worse idea to amend a bad one.”

“Shut your foul mouth, you little bitch. You think a jumped-up mulatto has the right to talk to me like that? Men like me built this country, not animals like you. Just because your mother spread her legs in a field for the right man doesn’t give you a right to anything.”

Ada felt Elodia stiffen beside her. Don’t Ellie. Beyond the disgusting allegations about her mother, there were a few words Elodia didn’t condone in her presence and that was certainly one of them. If she lost her temper at the wrong time, they could end up in a worse situation than they were already in. But Elodia didn’t move, only glowered at him with unbridled rage.

“The law would seem to disagree with that thesis. Perhaps you would have gotten further if you had given it a try, you might have had a hidden talent for it.”

“You little—” he took a threatening step forward, his hand curling into a fist and lifting to strike her.

“The law, I mean. Of course.” She gave him a mocking smile.

“You think I won’t kill you?”

“Ellie,” Ada hissed, watching the mad glow of desperate hatred in Trent’s eyes.

“I think you’re stupid enough for anything,” Elodia replied with the composure of a dowager duchess despite her disheveled state.

“We’ll see about that.” He started towards them again, his pistol hand unsteady, his breathing erratic, and Ada tensed in readiness. She’d use the rope to strangle him. She’d use anything. She wasn’t going to allow him to hurt them.

Then they heard the sounds of fighting outside. Trent turned towards the sound as it grew louder. Basil. Ada glanced at Elodia and smirked. They were here, so there was no reason for them to wait any longer.

Silently they rose to their feet, and Ada unwound the rope around her wrists as Elodia removed the dagger from her hair. She let out a slow, silent breath as they drew ever closer. In one motion, she and Elodia attacked. Ada jumped on Trent’s back, wrapping the rope around his neck, and threw her weight backwards with all the strength she could muster.

Elodia grabbed the hand with the gun and set her knee on his wrist before stabbing downward with her hair dagger clutched in one tawny, bloodless fist. There was a moment of surprise when Trent went down with a pained roar but then she remembered the strategy Regina had learned from her father. When you are smaller than your opponent speed is of the essence, you keep moving and keep attacking until they stop moving.

Trent bucked his body ferociously in an attempt to dislodge them, but sheer desperation lent her the strength to keep a tight grip on the rope as his face turned scarlet and then purple. All they needed to do was wait for him to pass out, but she was worried about what would happen if his strength outpaced hers. His free hand flailed backwards, aiming for her face, and instinctively she grabbed it. Big mistake.

In an instant he was free and backhanded Elodia so hard she hit the ground in a motionless heap. Ada pulled her dagger from her own hair and lunged at his back again, wrapping her right arm around his neck and her legs around his torso as she stabbed down repeatedly with her left hand, aiming for his stomach, his chest, his shoulders, his face, anywhere she could reach. He flailed again, but he was growing weaker, she could feel it. She removed her legs and pushed forward until he was prone on the floor and still her bloody fist kept moving.

He wouldn’t take anything else from her, she would make sure of it.

A pair of hands fell on her shoulders, and she went wild, terrified that his friends had come to help him, she kicked and bucked trying to get her arm back far enough to make contact, then the voice registered in her ear.

Ada, sweetheart. Ada it’s me, I’ve got you, you’re safe.

The scent of cloves and lavender. Basil. It was Basil. She went limp falling against him as her body dissolved into shudders. His arms came around her tightly, his cheek pressed against hers, his mouth pressed kisses wherever he could reach.

“Basil,” she whispered.

“I have you. I have you. You are safe now.”

She nodded and turned to him, pressing her face into his chest.

“Did he hurt you?” he asked, and she shook her head.

“I’m all right,” she choked out as her eyes filled with tears. “Ellie, he hurt her.”

“Your brother has Miss Hawthorne,” he said, and Ada looked up to see Richard carefully gathering up Elodia’s limp body into his arms before rising with her and walking out the door.

Basil kissed her head, and she closed her eyes tightly, desperately soaking in the sensation of being in his arms, hearing his heartbeat.

“You’re certain you’re well?”

“Yes. Is he dead?” she asked, glancing at Trent’s immobile body bleeding onto the ground.

“Not yet, but I’ll see him hanged for this even if I have to string him up myself.”

“Basil.”

“I have never been so terrified in my life as when you didn’t come home. I nearly dropped dead on the spot.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” she replied, leaning her head back to stare up at him in the growing darkness.

“So am I. But I’m tying you to the bed for at least two weeks while I recover, just in case.”

“I wouldn’t mind that too much so long as you stayed with me.”