A Girl Who Can Dream

Chapter the Sixth

I stayed at the door a moment longer, hoping to overhear anything else, but I soon removed my ear and walked over to the window. Hoping against hope that something useful would be able to be seen, though I knew it was unlikely.

I stuck my head through the hole and looked around. The scene was mostly the same, though a small public dog-cart was stationed in front of the house which I currently was in. The driver, a man with graying hair, sat in the driver's seat, waiting for his client to come out of the house.

Suddenly, outside my door, there was the sound of loud footsteps that were the complete opposite of a servant's quiet tread. These seemed more like a nobleman's confident stride, something that resembled my father's gait. Curious, I switched my position again, my ear now against the door as before.

"This is it, my lord." The young servant girl's voice sounded, small as before. Emma, I remembered her name was. It seemed to me like they were right in front of my door. Sir Victor! Of course he'd come to check on me. The sound of a key turning in a lock sounded before the door opened slowly. The feeling of impatience to see who my guest was heightened as the creaking of the door's hinges reached my ears.

I'd been too slow to step back and fell directly on a man's chest. He caught me before I made him fall backwards. As soon as his hands were on my shoulders, I jerked upward in sudden attention. This grip wasn't unfamiliar. It was very, very familiar. These were the hands that had held mine just yesterday as we'd danced without a care in the world.

"Grayson!" I barrelled into him, a large smile on my face. I embraced him with a ferocity that I'd never used before. "Oh my gosh, Grayson." I was sobbing as I buried my face in his chest.

"Woah there," His voice was soft and it seemed that there were tears in his eyes as well, which really confused me. "Let me explain everything." He untangled me from him and we walked into the little room. He seated me on the cot and stood in front of me.

I barely noticed as the servant girl closed the door behind us. My eyes were completely focused on Grayson. His eager face, his unusually untidy appearance, his tired eyes.

"Where am I? What's happening? We aren't at Garner or Lavender Hall. Answer me, Gray. Please." My tears had dried by now and I needed answers.

"Wait." He looked at the closed door and took in a breath. "I can't stay long. Sir Victor has gone out to his club, but he'll be back soon enough and I need you to know that I must leave immediately after this explanation. Promise me that you'll stay strong, Cecelia."

I grabbed his hand in mine and squeezed tight. "I promise you, Gray. Now, get on with it."

"Last night, a servant, Molly I believe her name was, came in the middle of the night to check on you. She claimed that you'd been anxious before going to sleep, and since she wasn't asleep anyway, she could come and make sure you were alright. What she found wasn't a peacefully sleeping Cecelia, but an empty bed. Now, she immediately called your father, her husband, and the other servants in, one of which thought to ride to Lavender Hall and call on me, thankfully.

Worried for you, I rode to Garner Hall alongside the servant. Once there I surveyed the room. Now, many thought that you'd run away, including your father, but the servant, Molly, and I were very firm in the knowledge that you wouldn't do that. Meaning it had to be a kidnapping.

The Duke wanted to call in a private investigator or Scotland Yard, but I thought otherwise. If the issue became public, then a scandal would arise and bring misfortune on the Cavendish name. So I offered to find the culprit myself. Your father gave me a day, in which, I have successfully found you, have I not?

I saw no struggle signs on the sheets, but the window was unlatched and the vines that climbed up to your chamber were tampered with, one of them even broken. At the front of the house, near the gates, were the tracks of a dog-cart. They were faded, but fresh compared to the tracks left behind by the ball guests' carriages.

I decided that you didn't have any enemies early on. I interviewed Lord Cavendish, but he, too, couldn't think of anyone who would wish to harm him or you. That's when I remembered the odd man, the baronet, from yesterday's ball. You hadn't said it outright, but I could see the fear and worry written upon your face. And, when we were dancing, I could feel the racing of your heart. Something was off about that man.

I knew only his name, but with the help of an encyclopedia, I easily located his residence, a large mansion-villa overlooking one of the main streets of London. Now, I called in, not knowing how to ask for an abducted maiden, but I was lucky. Sir Victor was away at his club today. His child, a young boy of thirteen I read, was away at his private academy.

The servants asked me to wait, but I posed my question to them outright. I asked for a young maiden being detained in the house. Most of them denied your existence, but a young servant girl helped me. She led me here and I met you here." Grayson finished his narrative, his eyes boring into mine. "Do you know why Sir Victor has brought you here?"

I was still processing the story of my disappearance but I managed a small shake of my head. I closed my eyes, racking my brain for a theory but pulled up blank. "Maybe Father put him up to this." The sentence popped out of nowhere. "I knew nothing of this baronet, but apparently he is some friend of my father's."

Grayson's eyes became thoughtful as he scratched his chin. He blinked. "We can't cross anything out at this point, Cecelia. I'll look into it."

The door opened and a girl's head poked into the room. She wore a white servant's bonnet and her eyes were wide and curious. "My lord, the master is nearing the house. It is time to go."

Grayson squeezed my hand before letting go. "I'll see you soon, Cecelia. I'll be back with or without your father. I will free you one way or another. In the meanwhile, stay strong and don't agree to anything Sir Victor asks. Anything. Promise me."

"I promise." I said and he turned around, ready to leave. "Wait, Grayson." He looked at me. "Be careful. This baronet is dangerous."

"I will, Cecelia. But I will stop at nothing to get you out of this man's clutches, out of this man's mercy." Grayson walked out without a backward glance, leaving me alone in the damp room once more.

Before long, after Grayson and the servant girl's footsteps receded, there were more footsteps as another person walked closer to my door. Again, this wasn't a servant, it was someone more important or, at least, someone who thought they were more important. This time, I didn't make the mistake of keeping my ear on the door because I could clearly hear the sound of metal on metal as whoever was on the other side unlocked my door.

Whoever this mystery person was, they didn't have anything to hide like Grayson. They walked around like the house was theirs. Sir Victor! It had to be.

The door opened, creaking on its old hinges, revealing a stooped, balding man. He didn't seem too old, but like the years that he's had in England have been rough, like he's been through too much to be able to explain. He wore that creepy smile of his and I knew immediately who it was.

"Young, little Cecelia. Such a dear child." Sir Victor mused, stepping into the room in his half-limping sort of way. He walked straight to the cot and sat down. His unsettling beady, black eyes stared straight into me, not in Grayson's concerned manner, but like a hawk, studying its prey.

I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, not knowing what was going to happen. After a moment of scrutiny, he started to speak, slowly, as if daring me to ask him to go faster. "Cecelia, Cecelia, such a pretty, pretty name."

I snapped, knowing that I shouldn't. But his words, his nerve to kidnap a duke's daughter and try and get away with it, it made me want to burst, so I did. "It's Lady Cavendish to you," I sneered. "What do you want from me anyway?"

The man looked at me, a semi-curious face on him. When he answered, his face was calm, as if his words weren't meant to blow me away. "Everything."