A School for Unusual Girls (31 page)

My fault. I upset the apple cart. Jane was right. I was dangerous. I ought to have stayed in the corner doing needlepoint.

As if she could read my mind Daneska said, “How very remarkable you are.” She smoothed her fingers along the skin of my neck and shoulder.

Sebastian groaned. I saw by his expression how desperately he hoped I would not give away the secret. Or was he afraid for me? Perhaps both.

Daneska whirled back to him and dug the point of her knife under his chin. “So, you see, the Iron Crown wants your little ink and I'll have it one way or another.” Blood ran down her blade.

“Stop!” I blurted. “He can't tell you anything. He doesn't know the formula. I had to change it before I came. That's why I'm here. The one he helped me with is useless.”

Sebastian's shoulders sagged and he closed his eyes. I'd said the wrong thing. But I couldn't let them hurt him anymore.

“I knew that much by your conversation in the hallway. Now, if you would be so good, I need the recipe.” She shoved the dagger deeper and blood spurted onto her gown. She grimaced. “That is going to stain,” she murmured, but then focused on me. “Now, you were saying…”

“I'll tell you.”

Sebastian struggled with his captors and shook his head. Daneska forcefully rammed her elbow back into his abdomen. She didn't even turn around or blink. He bent forward with a groan, but she continued to smile pleasantly at me. “Do get on with it. Then we can all go home from this wretched smelly little room and be happy.”

He warned me off with his eyes.

She gestured to the big one. He struck Sebastian in the face and blood spurted out of his nose. “No more,” I begged. “I said I would help you. Why are you hitting him?”

“Because, my friend, you are not talking fast enough.” She whirled behind me and grabbed my hair, twisting it around her palm, coiling it so tight I thought it might rip from my scalp.

Her ruffian slugged Sebastian again and split open his cheek. We were so close I could almost feel his skin tear. I whimpered.

“Hurts, doesn't it? Watching someone you care about suffer. You can make it all stop.”

“I don't have the exact measurements. I'd need my notes.”

The other man slugged Sebastian in the ribs. He crumpled against the wall. She yanked my hair, cranking my neck back so far, that I looked at her upside down. “Georgiana, you are trying my patience. Your cook assured my man that you were the smartest little thing she'd ever laid eyes on, and that you had a memory longer than the King's Road. That is a direct quote. Quite in awe of you, your cook was. So, you see, you must do better than to say you can't remember.” She let go.

Sebastian slumped to the floor with the next blow. Why did he not moan?
Why?
Was it so I wouldn't tell them? Did he think I couldn't see how much it hurt? He should not have been so brave. His courage made me love him more, made me feel each blow all the more keenly.

“Pulverized gall,” I said, loud enough to make them stop.

Sebastian shook his head and struggled to sit up. He tried to shout at me through his gag. But I couldn't let them hurt him anymore. “And alum.”

She crossed her arms. “You must not lie to me, Georgiana.”

“Don't you need a pen and paper to write this down?” I asked.

She inspected the tip of her dagger. “My little dumpling, you are not the only one with a good memory.”

“I see.” With a sigh, I continued. “Two parts copperas.”

“Copperas? What is that?”

I groaned because it was such a good question. Why couldn't she be stupid? It might've taken the Order of the Iron Crown years to figure out the meaning of that one component.

Just then, the latch broke and the door burst open. Lord Ravencross flew into the room. Tess rushed in right behind him.

Daneska signaled the biggest footman. He yanked Sebastian to his feet and dragged him to the window. I shouted for Tess, but it was too late. Daneska's henchman heaved Sebastian over the sill and shoved him out of the third-story window.

I screamed.

Tess kicked the footman between his legs and the oaf doubled over and swung wildly for her. She brought both fists down on top of his neck and he collapsed. She grabbed him by the hair and slammed his face into the floorboards.

Daneska hung on to the curtain and leaned out the window. No doubt she derived some grizzly pleasure from making certain she'd killed Sebastian. I roared with anger, but stopped mid roar. Daneska jumped.

Impossible
. I struggled to scoot my chair closer.

“Hold still,” Tess ordered. “I'm trying to untie you.”

As soon as my ropes were off, I rushed to the window. A hay cart rolled through the narrow alley below bearing the prone body of Sebastian. Daneska sat beside him on the hay. That sneaky cheat! She'd
known
the cart was there. She'd planned this mode of escape the whole time.

I yelled to her. “Let him go!”

“Come and get him,” she jeered as the dray turned out of the alley. I could've sworn she gave me a flippant farewell wave, but the moonlight was weak, and I could not escape the last image I'd had of Sebastian's face, battered, bleeding, and desperate.

“We have to go after them.”

I whirled around just in time to see Lord Ravencross plow a conclusive fist into the remaining blackguard. Tess had her knee pressed into the back of the blighter on the floor, and was using my ropes to bind his feet and wrists.

“Hurry! Daneska's taking him away.” I dashed past the broken door into the hallway. “We must go now!”

I couldn't wait for them to secure Daneska's men. Sebastian was wounded and probably dying. I raced down the back stairs. There had to be a servants' door to the alley. I startled a maid on the first floor. She averted her eyes, as do maids in all great houses. I grabbed her shoulders and made her face me. “Which way to the alley on this side of the house?”

She trembled with fear, and who could blame her. The blood smeared across my bodice made me look like a murderous madwoman.

“Speak up, girl!” I gave her a shake.

She pointed to a side corridor. I darted down it and nearly ran face-first into a footman. I backed away, knowing that Daneska might have more spies in the household.

“May I help you, miss?” He looked down his nose, assessing the disarray of my hair, my bloodied gown, and God knows what else that was horribly out of place.

I decided to take a chance. “Yes! Take a message to Lord Castlereagh. It is of the utmost importance that you give it to him and no one else.” He looked at me with far too much haughtiness to be an imposter. “Tell him Lord Wyatt has been wounded and captured by Lady Daneska. You must beg him to notify Captain Grey immediately. She is escaping in a hay cart. I am in pursuit. Can you remember all of that?”

He frowned even more than before.

“Answer me! This is a matter of life and death. Do you understand?”

“Yes, miss.” He let go of the indignant air he'd been holding. “This is quite out of the ordinary, but I will carry your message to his lordship.” He said something more, I believe it was something about not going out into the night without a chaperone, but I had already run down the passage and burst out of the side door.

I dashed to the corner, turned right and ran across the cobblestones in the direction I'd seen Daneska go. I thought I spotted the cart in the distance. But it was dark and the ruddy London mist made everything look like ghostly drays bearing traitors and wounded spies. The paving stones were hard and sharp beneath my kid slippers and I had no idea where I was going, but I kept running, knowing only that I must find that wagon.

 

Twenty

YOU WILL NEED ME

I was stumbling and panting for air when Tess caught up with me. Her expression looked grim. That meant I'd failed. The nightmare was still in place. I wanted to scream in anguish. It was grotesquely unfair.
Cruel
. How could so much rest on one failure? One mistake? And dear God in heaven, why must it be
my
mistake?

My stride faltered. I wanted to collapse right there on the street, wanted to crumble into tears of regret, wanted to scream at the perverseness of the universe. But I couldn't. My lungs burned like the fires of hell and my heart felt heavier than a fieldstone, but I knew if I gave up now Sebastian would die. That lone thought drove me forward. The whole continent might sink into ruin because of me, but the truth is I thumped each bruised foot, one after the other, because of Sebastian. Call me selfish, I could not bear the thought of living in this muddled world without him in it. He would surrender his own life to save all those thousands of strangers. I could do no less, to save him.

While a single grain of hope remained, I would not give up. The fact that Tess ran alongside me meant there was still a chance. She scooped my arm and tried to tug me faster, but my short legs were no match for hers.

I pointed ahead, into the darkness. “They turned up there,” I gasped. “You're faster. Go!”

She took off and I pressed forward. The sound of hooves clanking against the cobblestones alarmed me. I glanced over my shoulder and a horseman bore down on me. I ran even harder to escape.

“Miss Fitzwilliam!” I knew that voice and slowed my steps. Captain Grey galloped up beside me. His mount shied at the sudden stop but he held out his hand to pull me up behind him. “Which way?” he shouted.

Ravencross and two other men reined in beside us.

“There,” I wheezed, and pointed. Ravencross took off after Tess.

But I'd been so far behind, and the night so dark, I couldn't be certain where they'd turned off. “That one. I think.” The hesitancy in my voice was unmistakable. Captain Grey barked orders for his men to scour each of the side roads.

The captain and I rode straight to the street I'd indicated. We no sooner turned than my hopes crashed against the bricks beneath us. There were a dozen side streets and alleys. “They could've gone anywhere,” I groaned. “We've lost them.”

The moon skated out from behind the clouds for a moment, and I thought I glimpsed the back edge of the cart turning down a side street at the far end. “Down there!” He followed my shaking finger and we raced down the street and took the turn, but they were nowhere in sight.

“Of course!” the captain exclaimed. “Hold steady, Miss Fitzwilliam. I know where they're headed.”

I gripped the sides of his coat and we took off at a gallop. The smell of the Thames was unmistakable. It reeked of sewage and rotting garbage, and we raced straight into the salty stench.

The banks of the Thames were chaotic; every inch crammed with ships and boats. We had to slow our pace to pick our way around fishing traps, piles of refuse, and broken oars. Even at that late hour, men were in our way, loading crates, hauling racks of fish ashore, and repairing hulls. Torches mounted on docks and a fire heating a drum of smoking pitch obscured our view. I strained to see past the smoke and flickering flames, into the darkness beyond.

“We'll never find her.”

He urged his horse onto a quay. “Watch for movement on the water. My men reported a suspicious-looking sloop moored near here. She won't be in full sail.”

“There!” I pointed at a ship moving quietly across the water.

“Right.” He headed straight down the nearest dock, but the clutter slowed his horse. He swung me down and I ran to the edge of the pier.

“Daneska!” I shouted.

Like Queen of an armada, she stood tall in the port stern, surveying the shore. I wanted to jump in and swim after them, but that would accomplish nothing except my capture or more likely my drowning. Even if I managed to climb aboard, I'd be no match against her four burly oarsmen. “Come ashore!” I yelled. “I'll trade the formula for Sebastian.”

“Meet me in Calais.” And just like that, she waved farewell.

“No! Wait!” I shouted so loud all of London surely heard. “Come back!”

Her wicked laugh rippled across the black water.

Captain Grey tied off his horse and ran up beside me. I clutched his sleeve. “Do something!” In a mad flash, I remembered the day my father's favorite dog had turned rabid. He shot the bitch rather than let her destroy the rest of his pack. It had to be done. “Shoot her!” I couldn't stop myself from yanking on his coat. “You must shoot her!”

Grim-faced he clasped my shoulders. “Would you have me sign his death warrant?”

I blinked, not understanding.

“How long do you think that hired crew would keep him aboard if she were dead? As soon as they hit open water they'd toss him overboard for fish bait.”

He was right. The men at the oars looked like pirates at best. Daneska's ship sailed silently into the black mists of the Thames. My voice cracked with anguish. “But we must do something.”

“I'm going after them.” He let go of my shoulders. “To Calais.”

I shook my head. “But it's a trap.”

“Undoubtedly.” His torment mirrored my own as he watched her ship fade from sight. I knew then how like a son Sebastian was to him.

“I'm going with you.”

“Impossible.”

I didn't explain that it was all my fault, that I needed to right my wrongs, or even that I loved his
almost
son. It would have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, I stated the facts. “You need a counter trap. I have something she wants. I will be your bait.”

He said nothing for a moment. Lines of misery deepened on his face. “She wants the ink, yes, but surely you realize she intends to extract much more from him.”

I hadn't thought of that. The truth of it set my insides to bubbling; a caustic mix of terror and anger like the vat of stinking tar boiling on shore. “All the more reason to bring me with you.”