Chapter 35

35

T ricia and Lily made haste to Thomas's suite of rooms. Lily knocked on the thick wooden door.

"Mr. Longbottom?" Lily said. "Are you in there?"

A moment passed. Lily knocked again. And then again.

Anxiety curled through Tricia. Where was Thomas's valet? Shouldn't he be in the suite tending to Thomas? Shouldn't a physician be here? Or Thomas's mother, the dowager countess?

Where was everyone?

Thomas's valet was always in the suite. Where was he now?

Tricia turned the doorknob.

"Tricia, love," Lily chided her. "We can't go in uninvited."

Tricia looked back and forth from the closed door to the duchess's concerned face. "I'm worried sick over him, Lily. Someone means him harm." She knocked again. "Where is Mr. Longbottom? Why is no one answering?"

"I shall go and fetch another male servant. He can go in and check on the earl." Lily turned around, lifted up her skirts, and bolted down the hallway.

Tricia turned back to the door.

It really would be improper for her to enter this suite uninvited, even with the large diamond adorning her left hand indicating her commitment to her future husband.

And she was dressed in little more than a robe.

"Lily?" she called down the hallway. "Did you find someone?"

No response from the duchess.

Damn it all. There was a time and place for propriety, and it was not now.

Tricia turned the knob, and it opened. She walked into the sitting area. "Mr. Longbottom?"

Tricia walked toward the door to the bedroom, her slippers padding on the Turkish rug covering the hardwood floor.

The door to Thomas's bedchamber was cracked slightly, and Tricia peeked?—

"No!" she yelled.

A figure clad in black stood over Thomas, holding a pillow to his face.

Tricia couldn't think. She could only act. She quickly grabbed the large Ming vase from Thomas's night table, ran forward, and just as the figure was turning to meet her gaze, she brought it down with a crash over his head, watching it shatter onto the carpet and onto Thomas's bed.

She gasped when the man fell to the floor. It couldn't be…

But he was up in no time, his hands closing around her neck. "You little bitch. Now you'll have to die with him."