The Dark Lady by Máire Claremont Read Free Book Online

there was no way he was leaving her here for another moment. “We’re going.”
    He dropped the blade and it clunked on Matthew’s fleshy body. The filthy, ballooned figure sparked no pity in him. He started forward and his boot squelched. More blood. A thick pool of it.
    God, what kind of hell had Eva endured that she would kill so brutally?
    “Wait!” she hissed.
    “Come now,” he snapped back. Ignoring her protests, he yanked Eva into his arms, lifting her off her feet and cradling her against his chest. “We have to go.”
    “Eva?!” a girl’s fragile voice called out. Her gaunt frame darted out from under the bed and sprang with surprising speed to her feet. “This is him? The man who came to save you?”
    Nodding, Eva forced herself out of Ian’s embrace, her feet thunking on the floor. Quickly, she glanced up at him, clutching fistfuls of his dark coat. “We have to take Mary. We must.”
    He snapped his gaze from one woman to the next, unsure how the hell he’d gotten into such a situation. “Christ, this is a debacle.”
    Mary drew up beside Eva, her wiry body crackling with ferocity. A sharp little cackle of exultation tumbled from her mouth. “I killed that bastard and he deserved it. I’d kill every one of them.”
    Ian blinked at the tigerish voice echoing from Mary’s small frame. “Later. You can kill them later.”
    Mary’s eyes glowed with such ferocious courage that he had to yank his gaze from them before he could formulate his thoughts.
    He should just leave this other girl. He was here to save Eva. But one look at Eva’s imploring face and the other girl’s elfin one, so frail from neglect, and he found himself saying the words he should not: “We all go.”
    “Thank you.” Eva gasped. “Thank you.”
    They hurried out into the hall, their harsh breaths like a wild chorus of wind. But they had gone only a few feet when they heard the heavy, furious clomp of boots tearing up the stairs.
    The keepers. They were coming.
    “Back passage?” he demanded. There was no time for softness. Later—he could be soft with her later. When she was safe.
    Eva didn’t even flinch at his abruptness but rather whipped a finger toward the end of the hall. He grabbed up both girls’ hands and ran toward the dark stairwell, racing them to escape. The three of them, an incongruous sight, dashed down the hall.
    The girls in their ratty shifts, animated with a mad sort of hope, could not dim his own fury and awareness that they were but a heartbeat away from capture.
    As they ran down the passage, the screams and pounding registered among his controlled thoughts. The others. The other girls locked up behind the doors in the long passage. How many were imprisoned here in never-ending hell? He scrubbed the thought away, knowing what he must do, resolving to return. To save them all after the two firmly at his side were safe.
    They clattered down the last of the back stairs, not giving a whit for silence, all of them knowing pursuit was on their heels like devil dogs. His shoulders banged on the wooden walls, the stairs were so narrow, but the girls were fleet as they charged downward and spilled out into a small hallway that led to a door.
    Mary’s hand tore from his and she flung herself at the door. “Locked!”
    He’d never seen anything like her madness, her body flailing passionately against her barrier to freedom. “Step back,” he ordered.
    She didn’t listen but rather raked her hand down the wood.
    Eva tried to grab her, but Mary wouldn’t stop.
    Not allowing himself to regret the use of force, Ian seized Mary’s shoulders, pulled her away, and shoved herinto Eva’s waiting arms. He raised one booted foot and slammed with all his might. The hinges screamed and then the cheap wood shredded, the panel giving way and swinging open drunkenly. “Go!”
    If they could just reach his carriage, they would be away from this place.
    They tumbled out into the frigid air, the wind tearing up the