Freeing Ebony

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

James sent Alice home immediately, much to her displeasure. She wanted to help but James simply wouldn’t have it. James wouldn’t let Henry go alone either. Henry was glad he could depend on his brother to always protect him, just like he’d protected James from himself over the years.

Vernon had gone to the trouble of bringing both Ebony and Ellen to London, and he wouldn’t do so just to discard them. They were in London for a sadistic reason, the same reason that involved Vernon creeping into Ebony’s bed at night. He wanted them both, so there was every chance that he would visit them after the opera performance concluded. It was only a small chance, but Henry would take it.

Henry and James lurked in an alleyway in view of the King’s Theatre. If Vernon exited the building, they would see. The performance had finished in the last few minutes and the audience had begun to file out, happily chatting away.

“I’m sorry I missed your birthday while I was away,” Henry apologised after a few hours of staring at the door. He’d just realised that his brother and sister had turned thirty in March and he’d missed it.

James shrugged. “I’ve had twenty – nine others. I’ll live. But you did miss a good meltdown from Kitty, though. She was complaining of her advanced age.” James chuckled.

“They’ll be others. You know Kitty.” Henry smirked and returned his watch to the theatre doors.

“You are really fond of her, aren’t you?”

Was it not obvious? He’d trekked around the country for her. He was about to confront her captor and rescue her. Ebony was more than just any woman. She was the one who’d changed everything for him. He was no longer tongue tied around all females – it was now just her. “Yes,” was all he said in reply.

“I felt exactly the same way when I fell for – Vernon!” he exclaimed.

“What?” Henry furrowed his eyebrows but then realised his brother was pointing to the producer who had walked out of the theatre with a skip in his step. Henry gritted his teeth. ‘Not tonight, and never again,’ he silently thought.

“He’s getting into a carriage,” James hissed. “Come on, let’s run.”

The brothers took off running behind Vernon’s carriage. Alice had taken the carriage back to Ethridge. Both Henry and James were quick runners after years and years of chasing their sisters about the Ethridge house and grounds. The kept a good distance behind the carriage, which wasn’t going terribly quickly anyway.

After fifteen minutes of running down every side street in London, the carriage finally came to a stop outside a small townhouse on a quiet, secluded street.

James pulled Henry behind a small wall so that they could watch Vernon exit the carriage. The carriage then drove off. From where they were, they could see the door open. An old woman greeted Vernon with a tight hug and kiss. It wasn’t his mother, so Henry presumed her to be an aunt or grandmother. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but by the look on her face, the conversation seemed intense.

Henry was about to charge but James held him in place. “Don’t be stupid,” James hissed quietly. “You don’t go charging into battle with a blindfold on. You evaluate and make an informed decision. Come.” James and Henry crept across the empty street to the window on the house Vernon had gone in to. A sheer curtain covered the window which Henry hoped would shield their faces.

Vernon and the old woman stood in the narrow sitting room and they appeared to be having an argument. The woman’s arms were flailing about as she emphasised her points and Vernon simply stood there with a stern look on his face with his arms crossed.