Her whole world had been shattered, and she had no idea how to piece it back together again. But when Malcolm walked out of the room, he left a void she could not bear.
“Malcolm?” she whispered.
The secret door opened, and Malcolm was standing in her room. He had changed to dry trousers, and had shuffled off his wet shirt.
She sat up in bed, wanting to say something but completely unable to. Silently, he padded over to her bed, lay down next to her, and enfolded her in his bare arms until they both fell into a restless sleep.
TWENTY-FOUR
Serena awoke with a start.
The room was awash in pink and lavender as the dawning sun penetrated the lace-edged curtains. All was quiet and still.
She exhaled in relief. She’d had a horrible nightmare that her father had been abducted. Rolling over in her bed, she closed her heavy eyelids against the syrupy memory, and loosened the constricting ribbon on her dressing gown before she let herself doze off once more.
Her dressing gown? She bolted upright, still clutching the silver-embroidered garment, and realized with growing terror that it had been no dream.
She looked around the empty bed. Malcolm! He had been here. But now he, too, was gone.
She flew to the secret door and flung it open. His bed was empty.
In a sleepy stupor, Serena raced to her father’s room.
There was Malcolm on his knees, studying the broken window.
She didn’t know which to register—relief at seeing Malcolm, or horror at witnessing the state of the room.
“I think I can piece together what happened here last night,” he said, straightening to his feet. He was fully dressed in his black tailcoat and trews, and his white cravat was hastily tied. “Let me show ye.”
He held out a broad hand, and she placed hers in it. It was warm and dry, and enfolded her trembling one completely. He pulled her to the window.
“As near as I can surmise, there were probably four of them. Two of them came up the ladder, and two remained below. They waited for the ambassador to fall asleep.” He picked up a piece of glass from the floor. “They must have used a club wrapped in a plaid, or an elbow—something covered in cloth—to break the lower window pane.”
He held the shard up for her inspection. A few threads of wool were snagged on the jagged edge.
Malcolm pointed at the window hasp. “That’s how they were able to release the catch to let themselves in.”
Serena’s gaze crossed from the window to the bed. “Did my father not hear the window break?”
“I don’t believe so. The crash might have coincided with a peal of thunder, or he was too heavy in sleep. At any rate, two men came in and …” He went to the bedstead, grabbed a pillow, and mimicked the gesture of covering a man’s face with it. “ … muffled his cries with the pillow. See here? The pillow is still damp on both sides—from the man’s rain-soaked hand, and from yer father’s open mouth.”
Serena whimpered.
“After waking him, I think they would have put a kerchief in his mouth to keep him from sounding an alarm, and flipped him over to tie his hands behind his back. Nothing was taken from the room, so it would seem they brought everything they needed. It was planned meticulously.”
“Oh, my poor papa.”
“And brave. He didna go with them meekly.” Malcolm walked over to the upturned mattress on the floor. “The ambassador put up a fierce struggle. I think he grabbed the mattress behind him when they tried to lift him. I also think he pushed one of them onto the writing desk, for it was overturned. They seized him and dragged him to the window, where he continued to fend them off. But as ye can see”—Malcolm closed the wardrobe door, and Serena saw a crack in the wood webbing up from its center—“they slammed him up against the wardrobe. Once, maybe twice. This must have been how they were finally able to subdue him.”
Serena covered her mouth with her hand. In addition to the shock to his heart, her father was also probably injured.
“His shoes are here, his suits are here. They took him away dressed only in his sleeping gown.”
Hauled away from his bed in the middle of a rainstorm—frightened, injured, and undressed. Anger replaced dread. “Who took him?”
He crossed his arms at his chest. “Hired toughs. I’m certain of it. I found his diplomatic case on the floor beside