Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

D iana thought she knew what it was like to be frightened.

She had tried in vain since the fire all those years ago to forget how she had felt, but it had never been possible. She thought that, with time, that may prove to be a good thing, as she would know how to act the next time something caused her to feel afraid. She was wrong.

"Di!" Samantha yelped.

As Diana turned to her sister, she saw her being dragged away. Samantha clung to the door frame, but she was no match for whoever had grabbed her. She was gone before Diana had time to move.

"Samantha," she called out, running to the door, but she felt a sharp grip on her wrist that pulled her back, and then her arms were pinned behind her.

"Why are you in such a rush?" came a whisper. "We only wish to have some fun, that is all."

Diana recognized his voice. How she wished that she did not; it would have been easier to accept such actions from a stranger than someone she had trusted.

"I do not call this fun," she scoffed. "You work for me, remember?"

"I work for your husband," he snarled into her ear. "And I have done all my life, as did my father for the Duke's father, and my grandfather for the Duke before him. It is cyclical, you see, the life of a servant."

"That is not my fault," she whispered.

She had always felt guilty about that, of course, but it was not the time to point that out. The footman was tall and broad, and she did not stand a chance against him. She couldn't fight him off, and so she had to appease him.

"What do you want from me?" she asked. "If you release my sister and me, I can speak with my husband, have you given a higher rank. None of this needs to be known by anyone. We can simply go home and have all of this be done with."

"And we can continue working for you until the day we die, is that it? That is if you even keep such a promise, which we both know you would not."

"I would. Of course, I would."

She would not have, and she knew that. Frankly, she could not live in the same house as them, and so she would inevitably tell her husband about it, and no matter how they were as man and wife, he would have sent them to Bedlam without a second thought. That was his nature—bullies were not tolerated.

"I can tell him that it was the two of you that rescued my sister and me. You have my word?—"

"Forgive me for not caring for the word of a lady who possesses more fortune than the entirety of my bloodline."

"I do not have that much money."

"Your sister certainly does, and she is not even married. Do you know how much she gave to my friend? Four hundred pounds. She gave him four hundred pounds for a mere carriage ride."

Diana could hear Samantha screaming in the next room. She willed someone to come, and to rescue them, but the only one that they had seen was the elderly woman who had welcomed them, and she would be of little help at all.

Nobody was coming.

"Four hundred pounds should be enough, surely?" Diana spluttered. "Besides, you shall not get anything more from her. That was all that she had."

"Then I am fortunate to have taken the Duchess. You owe me, Your Grace."

"My husband pays you handsomely!"

"And gives us so little dignity, too. Truly, I must thank you so endlessly for all that you do. How fortunate I am to be at your beck and call. You are both incompetent and spoiled, just like that wretched sister of yours."

Diana kicked him.

It was a terrible idea, and she knew that, but she could not stand the way he was speaking about Samantha, as if she had been a petulant child demanding to have her own way and had always been like that. It was one thing for two sisters to squabble, but for a stranger to say such dreadful things about her…

"I thought you might at least have more intelligence than that." He smirked. "No matter. I planned for this regardless."

He pulled her to the ground, dragging her towards her bed frame and then tying her down with some rope in his pocket. It was rough, and Diana wondered if her wrists might bleed as they had been tied so tightly, but she tried not to focus on that. Instead, she focused her attention on the man that was rooting through the room.

"I came with nothing," she pleaded. "You know that. You accompanied me. You know perfectly well that you shall not find a thing."

"Very well." He laughed darkly, crouching down in front of her and tracing a finger along her collarbone. "But, my, isn't this a pretty necklace?"

"Do not touch me."

"I shall do as I please. You know, we servants talk, and it would appear that you and your wonderful husband are yet to consummate this sham marriage of yours. Now, that would mean that you are still a lady, and I do prefer my ladies to be of a particular sort."

Diana did not know what he meant by that, not at all, but from the way his face darkened as he said it, she knew that she did not wish to.

His fingers were still at the base of her neck. She felt unclean from his touch, she wanted him gone, but he was not going anywhere.

"Please," she whispered, "do not go any further. We can forget about all of this, I promise we can, and we can give you whatever you want later."

"I want this necklace," he growled.

She thought he might pull it sharply from her neck, breaking it, but instead, he looped a second hand gently around the back, unclasping it and peeling it away from her. Somehow, that was far worse.

"There," he said gently, slipping it into his pocket. "Now, was that so difficult?"

Diana wanted to scream at him. She wanted to pull herself free and fight, even if she knew it was a losing battle. She wanted him to suffer, even the smallest amount, but she knew what was better for her. She had to find a way out to get to Samantha.

"No," she whispered obediently.

"Right. Now, as you are going to be staying put here for a while, I ought to go and help my man with your sister. I assume she is more difficult."

"Then perhaps you may need my aid?" she offered hopefully.

"Ah, yes. Why don't I untie you and give you the chance to do something about it?"

That had, of course, been her true intention. Diana had simply hoped that he would not catch onto it.

Her footman, now attacker, walked away, but only reached the doorway before he was met by the other.

"She is subdued," said the second. "She fainted the second I began to tie her up. She is lying in her bed now."

Diana's blood froze. Samantha was, for all she knew, lying unconscious in the other room, and nobody was there to care for her, and she was stuck in place with two men who clearly wanted something from her.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked once more, now that both men were nearby. "Surely you have not been simply waiting to attack?"

"Of course not, not with a duke residing there, at least." One smirked.

"But when the darling younger sister of the Duchess demanded to leave, well, we could hardly say no to a face as sweet as that, could we?"

"Especially knowing that her protective older sister was far more likely to come to her aid than the absent Duke. Why have one when you can have two, as they say?"

"And if the Duke does come for us?" Diana asked. "What will you do then?"

"We shall never find out," the first snarled. "You cannot honestly tell me that you believe that he cares that much for you. Look at you, you are tied to a bedpost, unable to do anything more than pester the two of us instead of simply letting us do what needs to be done."

"None of this needs to be done!" she exclaimed. "You could have simply left us alone, taken what you wanted whilst we slept, and we would have been none the wiser. In all honesty, this has been quite foolish of the two of you."

"Terribly bold, isn't she?" Samantha's captor sighed.

"Yes, and it is quite a shame, as she might have been pretty without the scowl."

"How can I do anything but scowl in a situation such as this?"

"By doing as you're told," Samantha's captor said gently, crouching down in front of her. "Go on, Your Grace, smile for us."

"No."

"I thought you wanted to have this over without having to do anything other than what is needed. I need you to smile before we leave you."

"You need to go now before someone comes to find us."

"Nobody is coming for you," her captor sighed. "When will you realize that? We are not stupid, and as I told you, servants talk. We know all about your father, who could not care less about you, and we know that the Duke cannot stand you. Simply put, nobody cares about the fate of two useless, little ladies who do not know their place."

"Diana!" Samantha exclaimed, running into the room.

"Dear God," Diana's footman huffed. "I thought you said she fainted."

"She did, I thought."

"As if you truly fell for that." Samantha laughed. "Let her go. The Duke might not care enough to come after me, but she is the village's Duchess. They will want her back. You know as well as I do that she is beloved by them. He will come for her."

"He will not." Her captor smirked. "Very well, we can have a family reunion here so that I do not fall for any of your tricks again."

The two men took Samantha and roughly tied her to the bedpost next to Diana's. Diana wanted to scream and cry, but to her surprise, her sister put her head against the post and began to laugh raucously.

"Very well," Samantha sighed, "I ought to know my place, as you say."

The two men nodded before stepping outside, no doubt to plan their next steps.

"Ransom, do you suppose?" Samantha asked.

"Why are you not taking this seriously?" Diana hissed. "You were free! You could have escaped."

"And angered them so much that they might have done something awful to you in my absence? Certainly not. If one of us has to be here, then both of us do. We do all of these horrid things together, you know that."

Diana wanted to ask her sister why she thought that was, as it had been her younger sister running away that had gotten them there in the first place, but she held her tongue. They had already discussed the matter before all of this, and so there was no need to continue it any further.

"For what it is worth," Samantha sighed, "I am sorry. I hadn't expected any of this to happen."

"No, of course, you did not." Diana laughed sadly. "Neither of us could have ever predicted this. The only sign I truly should have picked up on was the eagerness of the second footman to bring me here."

"The duplicity of man, as they say."

Both sisters giggled, but it was not real for either of them. It was completely empty, partly out of despair.

"So," Samantha continued, "do you believe we might be held for ransom?"

"They would be fools to do that. The Duke knows who they are—they could hardly get away with it. Besides, they are quite convinced that the Duke does not care enough about either of us to come to our aid. Part of me is inclined to agree."

"Then that part of you, as well as those two monsters, is wrong. The Duke cares deeply for you, and I know that you reciprocate such feelings. Should we be so fortunate as to make it out of here, you must tell him."

"I cannot do that."

"So you would be content if you were to die in this very room tonight and never have told him?"

"Samantha, we are not going to die."

"Perhaps not tonight, but in another fifty years or so. What is the difference? Either way, you would have gone your entire life having not told your own husband how you felt, and that is not like you."

"And suppose I do tell him, and he does not feel the same way, and then I must live another fifty years in that house with a man who doesn't love me. What then?"

"You complain to your loving younger sister about it, of course."

"I suppose. You'll always be there, won't you?"

"Like a thorn in your side, whether you like it or not."

"Very well, should we get out of this situation, I shall find a way to tell him."

"Wonderful. Now to… get out of this situation."

"I feel quite safe in my promise."

Suddenly, there was a noise outside their room. It was not the sound of the two men enjoying themselves in any way. It was something far more sinister than that. Then there was an almighty crash, and then another, and then…

"Diana?" came a man's voice. "Is that you?"

"Your Grace!" Samantha called back. "We are here, come quickly!"