Stealing Utopia by Tilda Booth

Author:Tilda Booth
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781609282554
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2010-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Exhausted, George expected to lose consciousness the moment his head hit the pillow. Instead he tossed and turned, unable to still the thoughts in his head. He was simply too keyed up to rest. Which was why he was awake when the door across the hall clicked softly open about an hour before dawn.

In a flash he was out of bed and at the door. He opened it a crack and saw Jane, fully dressed, creeping down the hall. He caught up with her before she got to the top of the stairs.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Shh,” she whispered. Glaring at him, she tried to jerk her sleeve out of his grasp. “You’ll wake everyone up.”

“I don’t care. Where are you going?”

“We can’t talk about it out here.”

“Very well,” he said, refusing to moderate his voice. He dragged her back to his room and shut the door, turning the key in the lock. “Now you can answer my question.”

“You’re being ridiculous. Let me out.”

“Or what? You’ll scream?” George slipped the key into his robe pocket. “I should think that would attract exactly the kind of attention you’re trying to avoid.”

“You’re impossible.” To his astonishment, she sat on the bed, put her head in her hands and cried.

“I’m not falling for your tears.” George made his voice icy, but she didn’t stop.

“I told you, I never cry. I don’t know why I keep doing it around you.” She sounded nearly as confused and angry as he was.

Against his better judgment, George sat next to her and put his arms around her, soothed her with his hands and murmured nothings under his breath.

“I can’t stay.” She put up a token struggle, pulling against his embrace with no more force than a butterfly. “I have somewhere that I must go. Someone I must see.”

“Where? Who?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Is it a husband?” he asked, dreading the answer.

“No, but…” She drew in a quavering breath. “It’s my sister. She’s only fifteen, and she’s my responsibility. I need to get her and then the two of us can get out of England.”

“What, now?”

She trembled against him. “As soon as possible. I’m sure that Easton doesn’t know about her, but I’m afraid that once he starts searching for me, he might discover her.”

“It’s four in the morning. You can’t do anything now that couldn’t be done twice as quickly in a few hours. You can’t even catch a hansom cab at this hour.” Putting a hand to her face, he tilted it up to look into her eyes. “Let me help you. Please. I have an idea. I have a friend who keeps a private airship at the General Steam Navigation Company’s yards. One of the new French designs, but on a smaller scale. He has given me permission to use it freely, whenever I wish. I can have it take you and your sister wherever you like, within its traveling distance. We’ll go together, as soon as it’s light, to get your sister and arrange for passage.

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