Rowan's Lady by Suzan Tisdale Read Free Book Online

repeatin’ me words.”
    “Da lets me say damn,” Willie told her.
    As if her father had anything to say on the
matter. “Yer prayers have just been doubled, Willie. And if ye dare say it
again, ye’ll go to bed early.”
    Willie stared back at Arline. Arline had to fight
the urge to laugh. She could tell the child was thinking hard on her threat.
Mayhap the child was used to having her own way with her father or mayhap she
was simply testing her boundaries. Either way, it mattered not to Arline. She
would not have the child go back to her father using foul language.
    Willie turned her attention back to the scrap of
cloth. “I do no’ like sewin’. I’d rather be out of doors playin’.”
    Arline couldn’t argue with her. She too would have
preferred to be out of doors, taking in fresh air, walking through the autumn
leaves, anywhere but in this room or this old, damp castle.
    Arline went back to her project. There had to be a
way out. Mayhap she could bribe one of the guards? But with what? The promise
that as soon as she turned five and twenty she would send him money from the
funds her father held for her? Even she wouldn’t be inclined to help someone on
that promise.
    Nay, there had to be a way out. Over the past
year, she had discovered a few passages hidden behind walls and tapestries. But
they had led to nowhere other than the gathering room below stairs and the
kitchens. She had supposed they had at one time been used by servants. Over the
decades rooms and additional stories had been added onto the original castle. Endless
stairs that led to nowhere could be found quite easily.
    But, could there also be stairs that led to
freedom? Arline had to believe there were. Even the home she grew up in had
hidden escape routes. And it was by no means a castle.
    Arline looked out the window at the bright autumn
day. The trees were just beginning to turn. Arline knew that very soon the
autumn rains would begin and likely not cease for quite some time. All too soon
rain would turn to snow.
    But she wouldn’t be here to see another winter. In
less than two weeks her marriage to Garrick would end. He would have it
annulled and she would be sent back to her father.
    If Willie’s father did not pay the ransom before
she was sent back to Ireland, then who would care for her? Her heart went heavy
with the thought of this sweet, innocent child left alone in the care of
servants or, worse yet, Garrick’s men.
    Arline could not allow that to happen. She had to
find a way out and had to find it quickly. No matter what the consequences if
she were caught, she had to do what she could for Willie’s sake.
    As soon as night fell and Willie was lost in
peaceful slumber, Arline would begin what she could only pray would be the
first step toward freedom. She would find a way out.

Four
    It had taken Arline five nights of prowling through
black corridors and hidden passages before she finally found a way out. Blessed
Mary, she had done it!
    She had found a small hidden door in the small
chamber she used as a dressing room, and she had found it quite by accident. She’d
been rummaging through her trunk looking for buttons to use as eyes for a doll
she had made for Willie. The buttons were mismatched, but Arline was certain
that Willie wouldn’t mind.
    She had dropped one of the buttons behind the
trunk when she shut the lid. In her search for the errant button, she had felt
a draft coming in from the wall behind the tapestry where the trunk had sat all
these many months.
    It had not been an easy feat, after three nights
of scraping her hands and knees from crawling around on rough stones, bumping
her head, running into dead ends, she had finally found the way out.
    Tonight would be the night. Her marriage would
undoubtedly be annulled in three days. More likely than not, Garrick would send
her away as soon as the priest granted him his request.
    There was no time to lose and there was too much
at stake if she waited.
    Arline