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CHAPTER 27

AURORA

I met Lizzie in the hallway.

She was softly closing her bedroom door.

We were both dressed in head-to-toe black.

“Where’s your suitcase?” I whispered.

“Already in the car,” she whispered back.

I nodded. We crept further down the hallway, and I waited while Lizzie snuck into the nursery and kissed baby Richard goodbye.

We then crept down the servants’ back staircase.

Frost chilled our breath as our feet crunched on the ice-covered grass.

We kept looking over our shoulders up at the house, searching for signs of life or alarm. It loomed over us like an ominous presence. I couldn’t help thinking its dark windows were staring down in judgment of what we were about to do.

We hunched down and ran across the lawn to the stables. The horses snorted and stamped their feet at the interruption of their slumber when we crept past them. Richard and Lizzie kept the cars hidden behind a massive sliding barn door to help preserve the Victorian aesthetic.

Out of a row of luxury cars, Lizzie pointed to a sleek, shiny black one. “I was able to sneak the keys for the Bentley,” she said with a wink.

She used the key fob to pop the boot. I placed my suitcase next to hers and then got into the passenger side.

She placed the key in the ignition and paused. “Are you sure about this?”

I bit my lower lip. We were taking a huge risk. I was literally dizzy from the adrenaline pumping through my veins. After pausing a moment, I nodded my head. “Absolutely. They totally deserve this.”

Lizzie leaned forward and was about to turn the key when I called out, “Wait!”

She turned wide eyes to me. “What?”

“What if they hear the engine start?”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Should we try to push it until we are out of earshot?”

“The driveway is over a kilometer long. It would take ages and they would see us from the windows.”

“Crap. We should have drugged their wine with sleeping pills.”

“We talked about that. It was too risky.”

I sighed. “You’re right. We’ll just have to risk it.”

We both held our breath as she turned the ignition key.

The car started.

Still, we waited, wondering if Richard and Roman were magically going to appear on the hood of the car to stop us.

After several heartbeats, there was no cry of alarm.

I let out the breath I had been holding. “I think we’re okay. Just drive slowly.”

Lizzie gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white as she slowly drove the car out of the shelter of the stable and into the open air. We were completely visible from the house. With her keeping an eye on the road, I stared up at the bedrooms, straining to see if any lights turned on.

We didn’t take a full breath until we turned out of the estate.

I leaned back in my seat. “Holy shit. We did it! We escaped!”

Lizzie laughed. “I can’t believe we pulled it off. How long do you think we have before they notice?”

I looked at the clock on my phone. It was four a.m. “If we’re lucky, they won’t even wake up for a few hours. We’ll be long gone by then.”

Lizzie nodded. “The private plane hangar is only a few villages over. I already texted the pilot to be ready. We’ll be up in the air and on our way to Monte Carlo in less than an hour.”

I leaned back into the soft leather heated cushion.

We had been secretly planning our escape for months. The men thought they were so clever with their games. We decided it was long past time. We teamed up and played an epic one on them. They had absolutely no clue. By the time they woke up this morning, we would be in the air on our way to the luxury villa we’d rented on the French Riviera.

We left several clever clues for them to follow our breadcrumb trail.

“How long do you think it will take them to find us?” I asked.

Lizzie laughed. “Oh, at least a few days. There’s no way they are going to figure it out sooner than that.” She threw a glance in my direction. “You know Roman is going to tie you up and drag you to the altar after this stunt. There will be no putting him off of marrying you now.”

I smiled. “I’m counting on it.”