The Bachelor Bargain (Secrets, Scandals, and Spies) by Michaels, Maddison (short books to read TXT) 📕

sooner than others. Sometimes, the lines between good and bad get blurred in the fight to eradicate evil.” The man stood back as his henchman closed and locked the cell door once again, before dismissing him with a quick flick of his head. “But back to the topic at hand, as to why I am interested in you. That can be answered for two reasons. Firstly, it takes money to gain power, and someone offered a lot of money to have you silenced permanently.”

“Someone does want me dead? Who?”

“Someone with a lot to lose, apparently, if you continue your investigation. He’s willing to pay rather handsomely for you to be eliminated.”

“It has to be Lord Daverell behind it then. Am I correct?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes. I would like to know who wishes to have me murdered.”

“Unfortunately, I never disclose my clients to anyone.”

“Then you intend to kill me?” She faced him in defiance.

“Eventually,” he admitted. “Not just yet, though, as I have some plans for you, for both of you. I cannot wait to attain my vengeance against Sebastian using you both. It will drive him insane, and it will be so beautiful to see. But, in the meantime, I need to get back before I’m missed. I shall see you ladies soon. Don’t try to fret too much, and I wouldn’t bother to try to escape, either, as there is no way you can.”

His eyes flickered briefly toward Charlotte before he turned on his heel and marched from the room and up the stairs. The two men who’d been with him followed silently behind, leaving Livie and Charlotte alone.

“That man is horrid,” Charlotte said as she raced over to where Livie was still sitting, her lower lip quivering as she knelt down beside her. “What are we going to do?”

“We need to get out of here.” Livie braced as a sharp pain shot up her leg as she stood and leaned on the back of the chair. “But I don’t see how we can. Our only means of escape are the window and door to the cell, but without any lockpicks I can’t see how we’re going to unlock them.”

“Do you really know how to pick a lock?”

“Yes, though I’m not nearly as proficient as my friend Lady Kaitlyn Montrose,” Livie replied. “Kat can get any lock open in probably less than a minute or two. She’s rather brilliant at it, and Etta is fast, too.”

“Goodness, do most ladies in Society know how to do such things?”

“No, not at all. My friends and I are considered slightly odd in the eyes of most of Society.”

“I think I should like to meet your friends. But here,” Charlotte pulled out some hairpins from the bun of her brown hair. “Could you use these to pick the lock?”

Livie shook her head. “I doubt it. Lockpicks are odd little things with special shapes on their ends to manipulate the lock. Hairpins are different.”

“It worked for the heroine in The Ghost of Balliwick.”

“Oh, that was a marvelous novel!” Livie forgot their dire circumstances for that brief moment as she remembered the scene where the heroine had indeed picked the lock to a library door and found herself confronting a man she thought was the villain but had turned out to be the hero instead. “But fiction rarely mirrors real life.”

“I suppose not.” Charlotte shrugged. “But have you tried picking a lock with hairpins before?”

“Well…no,” Livie admitted. “I haven’t…”

“Isn’t it worth a go?”

Actually, Livie supposed it was. “We have nothing to lose. Come, help me move the chair to the window.”

“You’re not going to try to get out of the gate?”

“No. The window will be your best bet to escape.” Livie hoped against hope that she could manipulate the lock with the hairpins. It really was their only chance. “It leads directly onto the street above, and if you can get up there, you can run as fast as you are able and raise the alarm.”

“I can’t leave you here.” The girl sounded horrified at the thought.

“Well, let’s see if I can get the lock open first, before we argue about the matter, all right? Even though I warn you now, you will concede.”

Charlotte placed her hands on her hips. “You are rather bossy, Livie, are you aware of that?”

“Very.” She hobbled along behind Charlotte as the girl carried the chair over to the window. “All of my brothers, not to mention your brother, too, have taken great pains to tell me so, and on more than one occasion. Now help me up, would you?”

Once Livie was on the chair, with one side of her body leaning against Charlotte’s for balance, she got to work on trying the pins in the lock. After several minutes with little luck, she heard the distinct click of the tumblers falling into place.

“Well, I’ll be…” she muttered, turning the pins a fraction more and adding some torque to the bottom one. Then the sound of the unlocking mechanism clicking into place was like magic to her ears. With a shove, she pushed the window open and a breeze flew in from the outside laneway.

Relief filled her with the thought that they just might get out of this mess in one piece.

“I knew it would work,” Charlotte whispered, with such enthusiasm it made Livie smile.

“I shall have to pay more attention to the actions of the heroines in my novels,” Livie remarked.

It took them a moment to switch places and for Charlotte to climb up through the now open window, headfirst. When the girl’s legs finally wiggled through the space, Livie let out the breath she’d been holding. Thank goodness. At least Charlotte now had a chance.

The girl’s gray eyes replaced her feet as she peered back into the room and stretched her arms down toward Livie. “Your turn now.”

Livie shook her head. “I won’t be able to stand on the chair myself, and you don’t have the strength to pull me through. You must leave me here and get help.