Page 57 of A Stolen Heart

“The madam?” He tossed the girl the coin, and she caught it deftly. He plucked another from his pocket. “Perhaps you won’t have to stay here with the madam. Take me to her, and I’ll give you this coin, as well. You can go elsewhere and get a new job.”

Janet looked intrigued. Suddenly she grinned, exposing crooked teeth. “Aw right, I will. Wait ‘ere a sec.”

She went into the house with the pail. Thorpe was about to decide he had made a terrible mistake by already giving her the coin when she popped her head out. “Aw right, come on.”

She disappeared, and Sebastian stepped in after her. They were standing in a small entry. The door beside them led into the kitchen area, where several servants were at work. In front of them was a narrow corridor, lit by a few sputtering lamps.

“Old Mags don’t believe in wastin’ light on the likes of us servants,” Janet whispered to him, then started down the hall, waving to him to follow her.

Sebastian did so quietly, tiptoeing up the stairs after her. The girl gestured to him to wait at the top. She stuck her head out and surveyed the area, then signalled to him. She moved noiselessly down a more elegantly decorated hall to a doorway, turned the knob and went inside. Sebastian was right on her heels. He was expecting to find Alexandra in the room, and he was disappointed to find that it was very narrow and small, more like a hall than a room, unfurnished, and containing no one but himself and Janet.

“Where is she?” he demanded.

“Shh.” Janet lifted her finger to her lips and pointed to the wall in front of them. “They may still be with her,” she whispered.

She took him by the arm and led him to the center of the wall, once again gesturing with her fingers to be quiet. A small knob stuck out from the wall, and she slid it to the side. Two eyeholes appeared, and Janet motioned to them. He bent and looked into the holes.

He almost gasped when he saw that they were only three or four feet from a bed. A man, a woman and a bizarre old harridan stood beside the bed, studying the young woman who was on it. The woman on the bed was dressed all in white, sitting up with her legs curled under her. Her head was turned away from him and toward the other people, so that all he could see was the cloud of thick black curling hair that tumbled around her shoulders. The sight of it hit him like a blow to the solar plexus. Alexandra!

Janet closed the eyeholes and whispered. “Soon as that lot leaves, you can go in through the hall door.” She pointed to the hall from which they had come. “Don’t let ’em catch you. I gotta go now.”

“Thank you.” Sebastian pressed the other coin into her palm.

The girl smiled, and her plain face was almost pretty. “She’s lucky to ‘ave you, she is.”

“I’m not sure she would agree, but thank you.”

Janet opened the door and peeked out, then exited quietly, closing the door behind her. Sebastian went to the peephole and opened it.

The woman pushed a lock of hair from Alexandra’s face and tugged her dress so that it exposed the creamy curve of her shoulder. The harridan nodded.

“That should do it. A right picture you make, girlie.” She let out a gleeful cackle. “When those gentlemen see you, I’ll have ’em bidding high as the moon.”

The woman on the bed moved restlessly and ran a hand down her chest and over her breast in a seductive gesture. Sebastian was aware of the sudden fluttering of desire deep in his loins. He was looking at her from the side, but he could see the curve of her breast through the thin material and the pointing of her nipple.

“I feel…funny,” the woman said. Sebastian recognized the voice as Alexandra’s, but it sounded odd, almost slurred.

“No, you don’t, girl,” the harridan said crisply. “No satisfaction till later. Ned, tie up her hands so she can’t touch herself. We want you good and ready by the time the gentlemen come.”

The man pulled Alexandra’s hands behind her back, tying her to the bedpost by her upper arms, which pulled her into an awkward position, her breasts thrusting out sharply.

“A right picture,” the woman in charge repeated, and the three of them left.

Sebastian went swiftly to the door, leaning against it to listen for the sound of their footsteps. When he could no longer hear anything, he eased the door open a crack and checked the hallway. No one was about, so he slipped out and hurried to the next door. He turned the knob, for a moment afraid that it might be locked. But it opened easily to his hand, and he slid inside.

He turned to the bed. “Alexandra!”

It was indeed her. Her vivid black hair tumbled around her face and onto her shoulders like a silken cloud. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes huge and dark in her pale face. She looked beautiful…and utterly seductive. They had dressed her in a simple white dress of the cut and style worn by any well-to-do young woman, a maiden’s dress, quite demure—except for the fact that it was made of the sheerest material, revealing the curves of her breasts, the well of her navel, even the shadow of hair between her legs. The pink-brown circles of her nipples were pressed against it, their centers pointing. Her dress was shoved to her knees, leaving her stockinged legs bare below it. One stocking had been artfully shoved down, exposing her knee and leaving her looking as if she were in the middle of undressing.

Desire flared in Sebastian, unbidden and as hot as fire, making him feel guilty and ashamed for feeling it even as it weakened his knees. He swallowed, his hands tightening into fists.

Alexandra looked at him for a long moment, blinking. Then a slow smile curved her lips, and her eyes shone. “Thorpe! Thank God.”

He crossed the room to her, firmly pushing down his desire. “Are you all right?”

He started to work on the scarf the man had used to bind her to the bedpost. Alexandra shook her head, and her hair brushed against his knuckles, sending tendrils of heat sizzling through him.

“I feel…strange,” she whispered, her voice husky and soft. “All hot and tingly.”