The path had come full circle.
"It would seem, then." Duncan said to Sin-Jin as they left the rodent infested storeroom, "That the lovely Vanessa has lied to you again."
Sin-Jin said nothing. He only prayed that Vanessa had not lied when she said that Rachel was still alive.
Chapter Forty-one
Rachel had no idea how much time had passed. She was exhausted, and weak from hunger. No one had been by to feed her or give her water to soothe her parched throat. No one had been by at all. Whether she had been left here for a matter of hours or days she had no way of reckoning.
She thought she fell asleep once from exhaustion. She remembered starting as she felt something biting her. With a scream that ricocheted silently in her brain, Rachel bucked and writhed and whatever it was had scurried away from her. From then on, she worked more frantically at her ropes. Perspiration, tears and blood had all mingled freely. She refused to stop. Couldn't stop. Fear hovered over her, goading her on.
Finally, the blood seeping from her wrists had wet the ropes sufficiently enough to allow Rachel to loosen them. Arms aching, muscles straining, she twisted the ropes apart far enough to yank the rest of her hand free.
Free!
Her hands were finally free.
Tears flowed, unheeded, down her face. With arms that trembled spasmodically, weakened by the position she had been forced to assume, Rachel raised her hands to drag off her blindfold.
Pain had her blinking furiously. Her eyes felt as if they had swollen shut. But it was only the darkness that made them feel that way.
As she concentrated, straining hard to focus, she discovered that she could detect shapes. Small, furtive, moving shapes. Rats. Rotting hay or straw was on the dirt floor beneath her. A thin sliver of light was coming from a crack in the walls high above her, letting her see.
Daylight.
Rachel could only guess that she was in some sort of dungeon or cave. But where? And why?
She removed her gag, spitting the filthy rag out. Coughing, she began to choke. A sickening heave within her stomach rose up to her mouth. Moments later, she was retching, sobbing.
No, no time for pity. She had to get free. It was all that mattered.
With stiffened fingers, she worked at the ropes around her bare feet.
Rachel realized that she was shaking again. She couldn't let the iciness claim her, the fear that had been eating away at her. The rodents would come for her if she stopped.
The single thought galvanized her and kept her from giving in to despair.
Her legs finally free of the ropes that bound them, Rachel tried to rise. They buckled beneath her and she fell.
"Stand, damn you stand," she ordered her limbs hoarsely. The sound of her own voice comforted Rachel and she tried again.
And again.
Until at long last, she gained her feet. Unsteadily, she wavered and spread her hands before her, trying to touch something solid.
Her fingers met only air. Dank, stagnant air.
Biting her lower lip, Rachel took a hesitant step forward, and then another. Her heart hammered in her breast, afraid of what she might find.
Perhaps she was in an underground cave. One misstep could have her plummeting over the edge into an abyss.
She stood still, trying to steady her legs. They felt like pudding, ready to betray her at any moment.
Slowly, listening for sounds, vainly attempting to still the drumming of her own heart, Rachel shuffled forward a painful inch at a time. Why was the wall so far away? Why couldn't she find it?
Her outstretched hands touched something damp. Cool. Solid.
The wall.
A stone wall. Rachel nearly wept for joy. Taking a deep breath of the foul air, she braced herself to go on. Patiently, though her nerves were shredded and screamed for mercy, for rescue, she inched her hands along the wall, searching for a way out.
"Oh God, Sin-Jin, where are you?" she sobbed.
"He's not here," she answered the next moment, digging for inner strength. "And you are. Now work with that, Rachel O'Roarke. Or you'll be nothing but food for the rodents before long."
Softly, because it made her feel better, she began to sing to herself.
And all the while, her fingers worked along the walls. Searching.
Storming the front door would have given vent to his pent-up fury. And it was his right as earl to take possession of the manor. But Sin-Jin had no desire to give Vanessa the advantage of being prepared for him. He no longer knew what she was capable of and would take no further chances. Rachel's life could very well be at stake.
Since she had knowledge on her side, stealth was all that was available to them. Stealth and surprise.
There was an alternate means of entering the manor. Sin-Jin and Duncan entered the grounds by way of the woods that surrounded the rear of the estate. It took Sin-Jin several frustrating attempts to locate the entrance of the cave that ran underground more than two miles away from the manor. It fed directly into the lower cellar, which would lead them to the library.
After a moment's hesitation, Duncan followed Sin-Jin into a cave opening that was scarcely bigger than a full grown man and not much wider. It felt as if he were willingly venturing into a tomb. Duncan had always favored the light.
Inside the passageway widened to accommodate the two men traveling side by side. Duncan held his torch aloft and looked about, leery of bats. "Nasty little piece of work, this."
Memories returned to Sin-Jin like a page from a well-loved book. Time and again he had eluded his tutor by slipping out of the library and down these narrow passages. Burns had showed him the way in secret once many years ago. He doubted if any other member of his family knew of its existence. It had made him feel proud and special then to know about it.
Sin-Jin hurried through the dark corridor. A draft came from some unknown opening and the torch flamed higher. "My great-grandfather had it dug out in case he and his family had to flee from his enemies."
"His enemies," Duncan repeated, amused. "That being poor folk?"
He couldn't blame Duncan for his feelings about the rich. In the last two days, they had shared food, lodgings and sections of their past. Duncan's had been a hard life. Sin-Jin had known Duncan's father by reputation and the reputation had been an ugly one.
He spared the man a look now. "They were on the side of Mary, Queen of Scots. Not a popular stand in those days."
"Ah." Duncan nodded. "I'm well acquainted with stands that are not popular."
They traveled for a time in silence. The sound of water trickling from an underground stream in the distance was heard, making Duncan uneasy. He was relieved when the passageway widened even further.
When it did, Sin-Jin pointed his torch toward the side and squinted. There were two doors set in the walls, not five feet apart. If he didn't miss his guess, therewere cells beyond them.
It reminded Duncan of the prison where he had once languished, waiting for death to be meted out. Fortuitously, his men had rescued him before the hangman's noose could claim him.
Duncan indicated the cells to Sin-Jin with his torch. "Your great-grandfather have his own dungeons as well, did he?"
Something leaped within his chest as Sin-Jin approached the two cells. Hope? Fear? Surely Vanessa hadn't placed Rachel in one of the cells. The very idea was too heinous to consider.
"I don't know what he used those for," Sin-Jin replied honestly.
But he could well imagine. He remembered talk of a foolish young daughter who had tried to elope with the son of the captain of the guard. A Protestant. She was not heard from again. But on cold, winter nights, the servants swore that her voice was heard, calling for mercy. He thought he could hear her singing now.
A chill slivered down his spine.
Rachel stopped singing and held her breath. Was it her imagination? Had she conjured Sin-Jin up so often, she could now hear his voice? But it was plain, she could swear that she had heard it plain.
"Sin-Jin?" Rachel's voice swelled as hope, panic and frail nerves broke. "Sin-Jin, are you out there?"
"Oh, my God!" Unable to believe he had finally found her, that she had been thrust here in this nether world, Sin-Jin ran the rest of the way to the cell. Their fingers entwined over one another through the bars. "Rachel, are you all right?"
Her knees threatened to buckle again. She wanted to laugh, cry, everything at once. "No, I am not all right!" Her parched throat croaked out the words. "Now stop asking foolish questions and get me out of here!'
The sob that threatened to emerge was swallowed as hope flushed through her like a moonbeam streaking across the surface of a lake. When she had seen the distant light of the torch, she had thought her jailer was finally coming for her. She feared the confrontation, but anything was better than remaining trapped in this enclosure with nothing but vermin for company.
She yanked at the bars, though she had tried them countless times before. Her frustration to be free nearly exploded within her.
"Please, Sin-Jin," she cried.
The sound of her pleading undid him. Sin-Jin pulled at the door, but it remained fast. He clenched his hands in impotent anger, looking around for something to batter the door open with.
"Here try this." When Sin-Jin turned, Duncan handed him a rusted key on a corroded ring.
Sin-Jin stared at it dumbly for a moment. He hadn't expected it to be this easy, not when everything else had been so difficult.
"Where the hell did you get this?" he demanded incredulously.
"Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth," Duncan said with a shake of his head. He pointed to the wall on the other side of the cells. A huge nail protruded from the wall. "It was hanging right there in plain sight." He shrugged. "I guess whoever put her here didn't think anyone was going to come strolling by to rescue her."
Rachel didn't recognize the other voice. She didn't care if St. Michael had come with all his archangels or Lucifer with his devils as long as the door to the cell opened. "Will the two of you stop having a discussion out there and get me out of here?"
Sin-Jin swiftly jammed the key into the lock and turned it. After a moment, the lock gave and sprang open. He pulled the door of the cell and Rachel fell into his arms.
Tears sprinkled liberally through her sooty lashes as she hit his shoulder with the flat of her hand. It was a weak blow at best. "What took you so long?" she cried with obvious relief.
Sin-Jin just held her to him as he wrestled with his emotions. A part of him had been afraid that he would never see her again. She clung to him like a child emerging from a terrifying nightmare. He kissed her head softly, the relief that flooded him temporarily draining him of the ability to speak.
"I stopped to ask directions," Sin-Jin finally answered. "Here." He fumbled at the water pouch that hung from his shoulder. He'd thought to bring it at the last moment, as if something had warned him that he'd have need of it. "Drink slowly," he cautioned.
It tasted better than the best ambrosia. After a moment, Rachel felt almost reborn. With a desire for vengeance stirring her blood.
Duncan stood off to the side, waiting for the scene to be played out. They deserved their privacy, he thought. But time was important. Discovery could come at any moment. They had to be prepared.
Duncan tapped Sin-Jin on the shoulder. "We take the same route out?" he suggested.
Sin-Jin's face hardened. "Take her to the horses, Duncan," he instructed, handing Rachel over. "I've a score to settle."
Though she was weak from hunger, strength seemed to flow into her from an unknown source. Revenge was a powerful revitalizer and it coursed through her veins now with the force of a gale.
"The hell I'll stay with the horses." Both men looked at her in surprise.
Summoning every ounce of strength she had left, she raised her chin. "Your score is nothing compared with mine. Where am I?" she demanded although she thought she already knew the answer to that.
"Beneath Shallot," Sin-Jin told her.
Rachel's eyes glinted in the light from the torch. "I surmised as much. I think the fair Vanessa should avail herself of a wig maker. And quickly." For emphasis, Rachel grasped the air and yanked it to her. "Just point me in the right direction," she instructed Sin-Jin.
He wanted to send her away, but she had the right to confront the woman who had ordered her abduction and condemned her to die within the squalor of that cell.
Sin-Jin looked over Rachel's head and saw Duncan looking at him, waiting. This was entirely Sin-Jin's play.
"This way." Sin-Jin pointed forward.
The cave and its passageway ended beneath the library. Sin-Jin crept up to the top of the stone stairway and listened against the wooden barrier. On the other side the entrance was rendered invisible by a section of a bookcase. He heard nothing. Taking a deep breath, he slowly pushed the bookcase open.
The room was empty.
Sin-Jin and Duncan drew their swords and then stepped out into the room. Rachel spied the fireplace. Stepping out between the men, she quickly seized a poker. Her hand curling over the hilt, she looked at Sin-Jin.
"I'm ready."
It occurred to Sin-Jin that Joan of Arc probably had the same look in her eyes riding into Orleans. But with luck, the ending would be written differently for them.
It was noon.
Vanessa sat alone in the huge dining hall. She liked her own company and the stillness didn't bother her. It gave her time to reflect. And enjoy.
She smiled as she looked at the covered dishes on the table. There was a bountiful meal before her. It whetted her appetite to know that somewhere below her, while she partook of this feast, Rachel was slowly starving to death.
If the rats weren't getting rid of her first.
Vanessa laughed to herself as she spread the linen napkin on her lap. She hoped the rodents would make a good meal of her. It served the chit right, spoiling all her plans. She knew she could have had Rachel easily disposed of in France, but that would have been far too quick. She relished the thought that the girl would die slowly, torturously.
As well she should.
Vanessa raised the wine glass in a silent toast, then brought the glass to her lips and slowly sipped. She could wait. It was only a matter of time before Sin-Jin would change his mind.
And in the event that he didn't, he could be gotten around as well. She had money and power enough to see to that. That brute, Simeon, would be more than happy to squeeze the very life out of Sin-Jin's brawny, sensuous body. And then there'd be no more Lawrences left to get in her way.
She frowned as a movement reflected in her silver bowl caught her eye.
What—?
Her shriek was muffled by the hand that clamped over her mouth.
Chapter Forty-Two
Vanessa's eyes were huge as she saw Sin-Jin and another, taller man circle the table and stand in front of her. How had they gotten in without her knowledge? Why hadn't one of the servants warned her?
She tried to scream and the sound was pressed back into her mouth.
The hand covering her mouth was small, slender, dirty. A woman's hand. Vanessa bared her teeth, ready to take a bite out of the palm.
But just as Vanessa opened her mouth to strike, Rachel pulled her hand away. It came back with a fury as she hit the older woman across her cheek with the back of her hand. The force of the blow rattled Vanessa's head.
"Bitch!" Rachel spat.
Vanessa leaped to her feet, her chair clattering to the floor. She whirled to look at her bedraggled assailant and her mouth fell open in shock.
"Whore!" Vanessa screamed at her when she found her voice.
Duncan leaned toward Sin-Jin. He'd seen enough confrontations to know that a fight was going to follow. "I don't think she s
hould have said that to Rachel."
Neither woman heard Duncan. Throwing the poker on the floor, Rachel lunged at Vanessa, screaming an oath that made the other woman blanch. Shrieking, nails protracted, the two women fell to the ground, grappling with one another like alley cats over a table scrap.
Sin-Jin-moved to break them apart, but Duncan laid a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. When Sin-Jin looked at him quizzically, Duncan shook his head.
"Let her get it out of her system. She's earned the right," he advised, nodding toward Rachel.
Or where Rachel had been a moment ago. Hands fisted in Vanessa's hair, Vanessa's nails clawing at her clothes, Rachel rolled over and over again, first on top, then beneath the richly dressed woman.
Duncan crossed his arms before him, studying the combatants. "Are you a betting man?" he asked Sin-Jin mildly.
He saw the wisdom in Duncan's words, but couldn't help the momentary flash of concern. "Rachel," Sin-Jin answered without hesitation, stepping back quickly to get out of their way.
"Vanessa is the larger," Duncan pointed out. "She has the advantage of weight and size."
Sin-Jin laughed, his eyes never leaving the two. Obviously the man had never known a woman like Rachel. "Have you ever seen a game cock attack a dog?"
Duncan nodded. Already he could see that Vanessa was flagging. "Point well taken. I'm to lose, then?" The knowledge made him smile.
Vanessa crumpled in a heap on the floor, sobbing. Her dress was torn, her eye swollen and two of her teeth were loosened. Her lower lip was bleeding. Indeed there was blood all over her dress.
Sin-Jin glanced in Duncan's direction. "I'm afraid you just did." Sin-Jin put out his hand for payment.
Duncan merely nudged Sin-Jin's hand closed. When the other man raised a brow, he laughed heartily. "I set no terms to the wager."
Sin-Jin couldn't find it in himself to quarrel. Not when everything had turned out so well. Drawing Rachel against him, he hugged her.
"Feel better?" he asked.
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