“Moi aussi,” said Jeanne. All the girls but Odile crowded forward as if they would be happy to join in. Fists were raised.
“Three,” said the woman. “Two maids and a cook. They stays in the kitchen unless I call for them.”
“Las criadas son muy grandes y crueles,” said Sonia.
“The maids are large and cruel,” Teresa translated. The girls nodded.
“They get their licks in whenever they can,” said Jill, pointing to red finger marks at her wrist.
“What about the gate guards?” the earl asked the proprietress.
“There’s two of them,” she responded sullenly. “One on and one off. They live in the stable with Joe.”
“So they do not come into the house?”
“Not unless I need ’em for sommat and call ’em in special. Can’t trust ’em with the girls.”
“Who manages the dogs?”
“Them dogs’ll tear you apart,” she snarled. “And I’ll laugh to see it.”
“Who is in charge of them?” the earl repeated. When the woman didn’t speak at once, Poppy rushed forward and pinched her upper arm.
“Oww!”
“You don’t like how it feels?” Poppy asked. “Fancy that!” There was an angry murmur from the former captives.
“Joe feeds them,” said the woman quickly.
“Joe would be the groom?”
He received an affirmative grunt in reply. “Ye’ll never get away from here,” she added.
Lord Macklin replaced the gag. He rechecked the bindings before leaving her on the narrow bed. Teresa locked her in. “We should secure the doors that were locked as well,” he said. “In case anyone does come to check.”
Teresa did so.
“You will all wait here,” he began then.
But this drew a chorus of protest that made Teresa’s heart leap with apprehension. “Quiet,” she hissed.
They obeyed, but none of the girls would agree to stay in the house. Freed from their prisons, they wanted to run. Nothing else would do.
“We are trying to get away,” Teresa told them softly.
“You didn’t have no plan how to get out?” asked Poppy.
“If you don’t like it, then you can stay behind, puta!” said Sonia.
“We will bring everyone,” said Teresa, glad Poppy knew no Spanish. “It was difficult to make a plan when we knew nothing of this place.”
“A moment,” said the earl. He disappeared into one of the rear bedchambers down the hall. After a short time, he came back. “All right, the stables are within the inner fence,” he said. “Away from the dogs. A fortunate thing for us. We will all go out there together. The garden is overgrown. There is a row of yews we can use as concealment.”
“This ‘concealment’ is what, please?” asked Jeanne.
“Something to hide us from the house,” replied Teresa. She turned to the earl. “We should find one guard, possibly sleeping, and the groom Joe in the stable.”
“Yes.”
“Unless that creature lied to us.”
“She named all the people I’ve seen,” said Poppy. “I watch…watched out the window.”
Lord Macklin nodded. “Let us go. Carefully and quietly.”
Leading them down the first flight of stairs, Arthur winced at the noise they made. No one was talking. All were trying to be quiet. But eight people simply could not move silently.
The corridor on the next floor remained empty. Arthur pointed at the door of the chamber they had been given originally, and Señora Alvarez nodded. They had agreed that she would leave it locked to throw off pursuit.
He didn’t bother to look for a back stair. It would likely end near the kitchen, which they had to avoid. He would have to find another way to the rear of the house.
They edged down the stairway to the entry hall, also empty, and into a reception room on the right. This opened into a second large chamber behind and then another, smaller parlor, which had two windows looking out to the back.
There was a low fire burning here and signs of occupancy. Possibly it was the proprietress’s sitting room. Arthur crossed to the rear and tried one of the windows. It opened without difficulty. The ground was not far off. He mimed climbing out and extended a hand. One of the opera dancers took it, and he helped her over the sill. He gestured for her to crouch down beside a shrub border, and she did so. Another followed her out, and another.
All was going smoothly until the girl called Poppy darted over and pushed aside the fire screen. Moving with startling speed, she raked the coals of the fire out onto the carpet, then threw a pile of papers from the writing desk over them. As flames licked up, she added the contents of the woodbin. She kicked glowing embers under the draperies of the other window. Fringe at the bottom caught fire, and more flames licked up toward the old, dry wood paneling. “That’ll keep ’em busy,” Poppy murmured with vindictive pleasure.
It was all over before Arthur could protest, so he didn’t bother. He handed Señora Alvarez over the sill, signaled for Poppy to follow, and slipped out himself, closing the window behind them. Perhaps the fire would be an effective diversion, and not a pointer to their escape.
The señora, whose courage and resourcefulness seemed boundless, had spotted the row of yews that marched toward the wrought-iron fence at the back. She pointed to it, and he nodded. Crouching low, the group ran into its shadow.
The gardens were as oddly untenanted as the house. Certainly they looked as if no gardener had tended them for years. They moved quickly down the row of yews, keeping close to the drooping branches. Arthur didn’t think they could be visible from the lower regions of the house, and indeed there was no outcry.
When the trees ended, they were not far from the stables. But a graveled yard stretched between them and the building. Arthur could see his curricle drawn up at the far side. Anyone walking across to it would be exposed. There was no choice from here.
He managed to convince his charges to wait in the shelter of the last yew tree. They were less anxious now that they were outside. Then he strode across the yard, the crunch of his boots on the gravel seeming very loud.
There was a back gate in the wrought-iron fence, he noted. Was it best to use that and not drive around to the front? It might be locked, however, and he didn’t know where the lane that ran away from it led. It would have to be the front. He stopped beside his curricle. “Hello,” he called.
After a moment, the groom who had taken charge of his vehicle appeared in the stable doorway.