Georgette Heyer - These Old Shades by These Old Shades

Author:These Old Shades
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-04-28T12:29:03+00:00

CHAPTER XIX

Lord Rupert Wins the Second Trick

Léonie awoke, sighing. Nausea threatened to overwhelm her, and for a few minutes she lay with closed eyes, in semi-consciousness. By degrees she shook off the effects of the drug, and struggled up, a hand to her head. She looked about her in bewilderment, and found that she was on a couch in a strange apartment, alone. Bit by bit memory came, and she got up, and went to the window.

“Tiens!” she said, looking out. “Where am I now? I do not know this place. It is the sea.” She stared at the harbour in bewilderment. “That man gave me an evil drink, I remember. And I went to sleep, I suppose. Where is this wicked Comte? I think that I bit him very hard, and I know that I kicked him. And then we came to that inn—where was it?—miles and miles from Avon—and he brought me coffee.” She chuckled. “And I threw it at him. How he did swear! Then he brought more coffee, and he made me drink it. Faugh! Coffee, he called it? Pig-wash! What then? Peste, I do not know anything more!” She turned to look at the clock on the mantelpiece, and frowned. “Mon Dieu, what is this?” She went to the clock, and regarded it fixedly. “Sotte!” she addressed it. “How can you be noon? It was noon when he made me drink that evil pig-wash. Tu ne marches pas.”

The steady ticking gave her the lie. She put her head on one side.

“Comment? Voyons, I do not understand this at all. Unless—” her eyes widened—”Am I in to-morrow?” she wondered. “I am in to-morrow! That man made me go to sleep, and I have slept all day and night! Sacré bleu, but I am angry with that man! I am glad that I bit him. Doubtless he means to kill me, but why? Perhaps Rupert will come and save me, but I think that I will save myself, and not wait for Rupert, for I do not want to be killed by this Comte.” She considered. “No, mayhap he does not want to kill me. But if he does not—Grand Dieu, can it be that he elopes with me? No, that is not possible, because he believes I am a boy. And I do not think that he can love me very much.” Her eyes twinkled impishly. “Now I will go,” she said.

But the door was fast, and the windows too small to allow her to escape through them. The twinkle died, and the small mouth set mutinously.

“Parbleu, mais c’est infame! He locks me in, enfin! Oh, I am very angry!” She laid her finger on her lips. “If I had a dagger I would kill him, but I have no dagger, tant pis. What then?” She paused. “I am a little frightened, I think,” she confessed. “I must escape from this wicked person. It will be better, perhaps, if I am still asleep.”

Footsteps sounded. Quick as

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