Heloise glared at the clock as it chimed two. Raven had been gone for over an hour. An initial burst of fevered activity had resulted in nothing more than a bruised wrist and an increasingly frayed temper. From what she could hear, the party was still going strong; carriages would arrive at dawn for the last straggling revelers. He’d better not have left her to rejoin the party—
The door swung open and her head snapped up.
Raven bent and retrieved her slipper, then held it out to her like a peace offering. She accepted it with as haughty a look as she could manage while handcuffed to his bed.
“I’ll let you go if you promise you won’t try to escape.”
Heloise nodded enthusiastically. She held still as he released her wrist, judging the distance to the door as he removed the gag. Worth a go. She leaped forward.
He caught her around the waist with humiliating ease and lifted her off her feet while she kicked and thrashed. Her heel made contact with his shin and he growled, tightening his grip.
“Stop it!”
“No!”
“Stop it or I’ll throw you on that bed and show you just how much stronger I am.”
It was a good threat. Heloise stilled, breathing heavily. He loosened his grip slowly and lowered her to the floor.
“That’s better. Now, are you going to be sensible?”
She nodded meekly.
“Good. Come on.” He caught her hand.
“Don’t you need to pack?”
He shook his head. “My ship’s still at anchor in the cove, always ready to go at a moment’s notice.”
“How convenient,” she murmured sarcastically.
She’d forgotten that he kept his own ship in the bay. During the war he’d regularly posed as a smuggler to slip unnoticed into France, and only a few months ago he’d rescued her brother Nic; his now-wife, Marianne; and the French aristocrat Louis-Charles de Bourbon, in a daring nighttime raid from Brittany.
The only people they encountered in the hall were an amorous couple entwined in a doorway. The man ushered his giggling partner backward with an audible “Shhh!” and the door clicked closed. Heloise felt her face flame and glanced up to catch the slow, mocking curl of Raven’s mouth.
Instead of using the main stairs, he led her to another service staircase and through an enormous, and deserted, reception room.
Heloise gasped. Whereas the hallway depicted gods and goddesses in joyful abandon, this room depicted hell, all red, black, and orange. All four walls enclosed one huge battle scene—with rearing horses, and soldiers in billowing capes with slashing swords. Above, on the ceiling, a grotesque catlike animal with a yawning mouth depicted the entrance to the Underworld itself. Gruesome souls writhing in torment were wreathed in smoke and flames, surrounded by more battling gods and goddesses. The trompe l’oeil effect was so well executed that the real green marble pillars of the room were almost impossible to differentiate from those that had been merely painted on. The whole effect was uncomfortably disorienting.
There was the Grim Reaper, with his sickle and hood. And Hades, thundering up from the Underworld in his chariot. The tale of Hades and Persephone had been one of her favorite Greek myths as a girl. Her younger self had thought it breathtakingly romantic; imagine having a man desire you so much that he’d defy the gods to have you.
Heloise suppressed a snort. Ha! It was just another kidnapping. And there was nothing romantic about that. Raven wasn’t stealing her away because he loved her. He was only doing it out of duty and friendship.
Raven shot her a teasing look over his shoulder as they crossed the marble floor. “I’ll be honest, Hellcat. I expected more histrionics.”
“I haven’t seen where it would help,” she said bluntly. “If you’d like me to start screeching like a banshee, you have only to say.”
They reached a side door without encountering another soul, not even a servant. Raven retrieved a dark leather satchel waiting on a hall chair, slung it over his shoulder, and drew Heloise out into the kitchen garden.
The slap of the cool night air brought the reality of the situation home with a jolt. This wasn’t a joke or a nightmare. Raven really was planning to put her on his ship and sail away. He was completely mad.
Clouds covered the moon, but he led her unerringly through the shadows, apparently unconcerned that whoever had shot at them earlier could still be loitering in the darkness. Heloise was about to point this out, but she found she needed all her breath to keep up with his brisk pace. She flinched at every snapped twig and looming bush but they navigated the gardens without incident and plunged into a bank of huge rhododendrons. When they emerged on the other side, the moon slid out from behind the clouds and Heloise stopped dead.
They were standing at the top of a cliff. A gust of wind flattened her dress against her legs, bringing with it the bracing tang of seaweed and brine. Below them, in a rocky inlet, the dark outline of Raven’s ship bobbed on the tide.
A set of rough steps had been cut into the side of the cliff. Raven let go of her wrist and took her hand and Heloise was glad of the reassuring strength of his fingers. Her legs seemed to be alarmingly shaky. He helped her down onto a wooden jetty attached to the rocks and she suppressed a shiver. The ship creaked and groaned like an invalid and the waves sucking at the rocks sounded like a monster smacking its lips in anticipation of a good meal.
Raven hailed a shadowy figure on the deck with a shout. “We’re here. Prepare to weigh anchor.”
Heloise’s feeling of doom persisted as her feet left the solidity of the dock and she ventured up the swaying gangplank; she glanced down at the dark, unfriendly waves and shuddered. Raven ushered her across the unsteady deck and down a set of steep wooden steps. The area below was extremely cramped. A number of small wooden cots had been set in rows on one side, presumably where the crew slept, and the air was warm and close.
“They double as coffins if anyone dies at sea,” he said cheerfully, noting the direction of her gaze. “Not an inch of space in a place like this.” He led her to a narrow door and opened it with a flourish. “Only one cabin, in fact. Mine.”
And with that, he shoved her inside.