Page 77 of No Ordinary Lady

“I suppose so. Why?”

“Just do as I say and poke your arms out,” Daniel said with an exasperated sigh.

“I’m not climbing out on the ledge to win my freedom from this room,” she warned him. The room and window were much too high from the ground to mount that sort of escape. There was nothing but flagstones beneath the window.

“I’d never ask you to put yourself in danger for me, but I need to see you, Marian. Just open the window and show me you’re really all right.”

“Oh, very well,” she agreed and rushed to the window. When she threw it up and poked her head out, she risked a single glance down. Yes, a fall from this window’s height would surely kill her, or ensure a slow and very painful death. An escape in that direction would be foolish in the extreme.

Another window rattled open to her right.

“Thank God,” Daniel said as soon as he saw her. “I thought you’d gone without saying goodbye! Thought I’d have to chase you into the next county to find you again.”

“I’d never leave without saying goodbye to you,” she promised.

Daniel was at a window in his mother’s bedchamber, and he grinned at hearing her promise. Marian grinned back, then showed him her hands, and that she really was free and well.

“You stay right there, and I’ll be back with an axe if need be, to get you out,” he promised.

Marian smiled at the thought of him butchering a door to get to her. It was rather a romantic gesture, but utterly unnecessary. She was almost certain that the countess would relent now that Danny knew. “Danny, wait?”

He returned to the window. “I’m sorry I borrowed money from your room last night without asking permission,” she admitted.

“Borrowed? I think you mean stole. But why did you wait until now to take it? I expected it days ago.”

She was taken aback by his question and took a moment to think of the right way to answer. Of course, she’d hoped not to have to leave him. But the fact of the matter was, she’d almost forgotten she didn’t really belong here.

She’d made friends, ladies who expected better from her, and she’d betrayed them all. And there was Danny now, smiling at her as if she was already forgiven, and he was going to marry someone else.

“I liked it here too much,” she admitted at last. “I liked your family. Enjoyed having, well…not having to steal for my supper every day.”

“Can you still like my family when my mother has locked you up?”

“It was an accident,” she promised him. “No harm done.”

“Except to my nerves, and Granny’s. If it was an accident that you were trapped in Mother’s dressing closet, Marian, wouldn’t she have heard your cries for help and done something about it? She has excellent hearing.”

But before Marian could answer him, Danny disappeared.

Yes, that was a huge flaw in her insistence of mistaken entrapment, but she would not change her story now. The countess had spent last night sleeping in her own room and could have released her long before this if she’d wanted to. However, Marian would not drive a wedge between the lady and her son.

Marian ducked back inside the dressing closet and closed the window again, locking it for good measure. She turned to face the door to wait for Danny—but the countess was standing directly behind her now, the door closed at her back. A key clenched in her hand.

She had the oddest look on her face, too.

Marian curtsied, marveling that the countess had managed to surprise her yet again. She hadn’t heard the woman let herself into the chamber, and neither had Danny. “Good morning, my lady.”

“You freed yourself?”

“Yes.”

“And lied about me to my son?”

“Of course, my lady,” Marian agreed. “There’s no need to bother your son with trivialities, provided you grant me my freedom, that is.”

“The bonds. How long did it take you?”

“The bonds were not as tight as they could have been. I can teach you to do a better job with that later if you’d like.”