Falling for the Marquess - Julianne MacLean Page 0,115

her heels, so Adele promised to keep it secret. Which she did. For about an hour. Then she told her father, who promptly marched out onto Fifth Avenue and brought the girls home and put them to bed with no supper. Adele, conversely, had been given an extra slice of blackberry pie.

Clara and Sophia didn’t speak to her for a week after that, but then they forgave her—as they always did—and told her they supposed it was her job to keep them out of trouble because she was the sensible one.

But even now, as women, Clara was still trying to talk Adele into misbehaving. Adele smiled and supposed it would never change. She’d be an old lady with a cane and spectacles, and Clara would try to convince her to dance in the rain. Adele smiled again and shook her head.

Just then, she heard another thump, almost as if there were a monster under her bed. Her heart leaped with panic, but she quenched the sensation because she’d stopped believing in monsters under beds many years ago.

Nevertheless, she tossed the covers aside to check. Her toes had just touched the floor when a man rose up in front of her. Adele gazed at the dark figure in terror and tried to cry out, but before she had a chance, a cloth soaked in a strong-smelling chemical covered her mouth.

Heart now blazing with terror, she struggled and tried to scream, but couldn’t make her voice work. Then she felt weak and dizzy, and lost all sensation in her body before she gave up the fight and remembered nothing more.

Book One

The Adventure

Chapter 1

Somewhere in Northern England

Three days. It had been three long days, and now it was beginning to rain. A storm was brewing.

Adele rose from the hay-filled tick that served as her bed and walked across the creaky plank floor to the window. All she could see in every direction were endless, rolling hills of grass and rock beneath an angry gray sky, swirling with the oncoming threat of bad weather. Hard raindrops pelted against the glass.

It was barren and lonely, this part of the world, wherever it was. She hadn’t seen one person. Not even a lone goat or sheep. There were no trees, and the wind never stopped blowing. It pummeled the stone cottage on top of this sadly forsaken hill, rattled the windowpanes, and whistled eerily down the chimney. The door to the stable knocked and banged constantly. All day long. That—combined with the musty, damp smell of this room—was enough to drive a person to the brink of madness.

Adele made a fist and squeezed it. She had been steered off course into fierce, treacherous waters, and she wanted her calm life back.

If she still had a life to go to…. She wasn’t even sure Harold—or any man, for that matter—would want her after this, because she had no idea what her kidnapper had done to her. All she knew was that he had undressed her at some point, because when she woke up, she was wearing someone else’s shabby, homespun dress. Beneath it, she wore petticoats and a shift with ivory stockings, but no corset and no shoes. She had no idea what happened to her nightgown, nor did she know why her abductor had undressed her. To be less conspicuous, perhaps, in delivering her to this place of custody? She hoped that was the reason.

Adele breathed deeply in an effort to keep a cool head. She must not panic or lose control. That would do her no good. She had tried everything to escape this room in the past few days. She had pounded on and shaken the door, shouted for help, used all her strength at the window, but her efforts had been futile. All she could do now was wait for something to happen—something she could act upon. Or for someone to find her. Surely her mother was searching, and the police were investigating.

Just then, the front door of the cottage opened downstairs. Heavy footsteps entered the house and pounded across the hard floor. The door slammed shut and Adele’s heart quickened with fear. She stood quiet and still, listening.

Voices. It was more than one person, which wasn’t the usual routine. There had only ever been one captor here to bring her food and water. What was happening?

Suddenly, a commotion erupted. There was a frenzy of footsteps. A piece of furniture fell over. Or it was kicked over. Was someone here to rescue her?