The Ruby in the Storm

Chapter 43: Arise Like Fire

"As long as you are with me, anywhere is home."

Lucy smiled, and this time it was not forced.

XXX

Lydia paced her room, trying to find any means of escape. Being the daughter of a Magistrate, security was her father's utmost priority for his daughters, so he made it so that their rooms were not easy to either escape from or anyone to break into.

Still nursing the dulling sting on her face from her uncle's slap, she felt her rage bubbling over to the point where she was sure she would tear this room apart. How dare he lay hands on her! Her father would have never allowed it. He would have beat his own brother to a pulp if he'd been alive.

But he wasn't alive, and she had to take care of this problem herself. And she would. She would run that man, she would destroy him. Her father would have kept a cool head and methodically planned out any demise, and she felt the need to do the same. Still, it would have been easier to run her uncle over with his own carriage.

None of that meant anything if she was still stuck in her room.

The hair pin trick was easy on her father's study because she had watched her mother do it from time to time when her father locked himself in there, but it would not be easy on her room door. Plus, she did not have enough hair pins to keep making attempts!

"Cursed uncle," she snarled, still pacing. God, but she knew enough of his foolish plans to ruin him. She knew what he held over Fredrick, the debts he owed him, the blackmail he likely used against Phillip to keep him in line. How far was he willing to go to ruin their lives all to ensure this family's status?

Her sister had been stalked, assaulted, lied to all her life, sent on the run, and kept away from her family and yet he was worried about his status? Lydia wanted to throttle him. She would throttle him!

Those men were still here, speaking with her uncle. Lydia wanted to see Lucy above anything else, but she also wanted to see if she could glean any possible information from them that could help her sister as well.

Lydia rattled the lock on her door again and cursed foully when it didn't budge. Whirling around, she looked around her room for the thousandth time in the hope that inspiration would strike, but it had been emptied out when she had left for London with her mother and sister.

No key, no pins, nothing to pick the lock...

That only left one thing, the last weapon in her arsenal, and the only one she had not wanted to use as it would likely distract her uncle and those men from whatever conversation they were having. Still, she could not stay in here forever, locked away like some prisoner. She had to find her sister.

Lydia quickly gathered the notes and papers that she'd found in her father's study and hid them in the last place her uncle would look – her brassier drawer. She tucked the proof of her uncle's blackmail against Fredrick in her the inner pocket of her cloak and turned to face her bedroom door.

Here goes nothing...

"Help!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, pounding on her bedroom door. "Please, someone help!!"

It was as she predicted, a chorus of pounding footsteps sounded from down the hall.

"Help me!!"

"Ms. Lydia?!"

The sound of her maid's voice made Lydia almost sag with relief. "Coral, I'm in here!"

The doorknob to her room rattled and, in a manner of seconds, her bedroom door flew open and she was face to face with her panting, terrified maid. Clearly the poor girl thought Lydia was in some sort of crisis, which was true... But likely not the sort of crisis she had feared.