Chapter 56 Livy
Livy
“I think that’s everything!” Aunt Mellie’s voice echoed through the sitting room they were using to temporarily store all the items from the night’s auction.
Livy finished—very carefully—leaning a covered painting against the far wall of the chamber.
Tonight had been…it had been a crush, and an incredible success.
Franny and Lord Rutledge had just left with the ledger of winning bids.
They’d not only raised enough funding for the foundling home, they’d exceeded the fifteen thousand pounds they’d needed.
Her eyes sank shut, her heart beating a rapid staccato against her breastbone.
They’d done it. Nothing standing in her and Derek’s way.
The construction could begin, and soon, hundreds of children would have a roof over their heads, and hot meals in their bellies.
She couldn’t wait to get home and tell Derek.
Her pulse faltered. There was still the Duke.
Livy wasn’t usually a bitter person. She always tried to look at life with a positive outlook.
But for goodness’ sake, the man deserved a break.
Why did the world have to be so cruel? Hadn’t he suffered enough?
It made her abnormally and exceptionally angry.
Furious. It made her want to do something irrational.
She’d…she’d scorch the earth, watch it all go up in flames, to end his suffering.
Oh dear. Derek’s melodramatic nature was rubbing off on her.
A hand landed on her shoulder. “Ready, Olivia?”
She smiled at Aunt Mellie. “Yes.”
Her aunt’s light blue eyes softened. “I’m so proud of you, Olivia.
Not just for tonight, but for everything you’ve accomplished and overcome since coming to London.
I always knew you’d grow into a woman to be reckoned with, but the woman I see before me…
” Aunt Mellie blinked rapidly, forcing the tears beginning to pool back.
“Dear, she’s a woman I look up to and admire deeply.
One I know will go on to do a great many things—who will change this world for the better. ”
Shattering glass echoed through the chamber, and they both jumped.
“What on earth?” Aunt Mellie breathed, hand on her chest.
Livy turned toward the sound, eyes scanning the room. Her heartbeat skittered through her veins. “Perhaps we placed something too close to the edge of a table…” That was when she saw it. The flames. “That was one of the oil lamps, Aunt Mellie!”
She ran for the door. “Come on, we need to get out of here immediately.” And they needed to find help and get this fire out with haste.
She glanced behind her, her aunt on her heels, scanning all the items tucked away from the auction.
Oh no no no. They needed to put this out before all of these items went up in flames.
Livy gripped the doorknob and—it was locked. She twisted and pulled frantically. “It’s locked, Aunt Mellie.” Oh my god! What was happening? They were locked in?
“What do you mean it’s locked?” her aunt said, her words tight and high-pitched. She shouldered Livy out of the way and tried the door herself. “How could it be locked?”
“I don’t know! It locks from the outside, and you need a key.” She patted her person, even though she knew she’d left the keys outside the room intending to lock up once everything was sorted away in the room.
Livy glanced at the fire, the fire that was already eating its way through the tablecloth of the table the lamp had been sitting on. “Can we put it out?”
“We’ll have to try. Let’s try to smother it.”
They rushed forward and pushed all the items from the table. They took the end of the tablecloth farthest away from the fire and threw it over the flames. But the flames only burned through the cloth. They had nothing to beat it out with. Nothing to douse it with.
“All right. That isn’t going to work,” Livy said through heavy breaths. “We need to get out of here.”
They turned toward the door, the door that was very close to the rapidly growing flames.
“How on earth are we going to manage that?”
That was a very excellent question. Livy closed her eyes.
She tried to calm the panicked buzzing in her head, tried to get her brain to work.
They would get out of here. They just needed to not lose their heads.
She turned toward her aunt. “We need to break out of here. It’s just a matter of how.
That is our only option. There are no windows.
We can’t put it out.” They both glanced toward the fire, smoke already forming at the ceiling of the room.
“We need to do this fast, Olivia.” Aunt Mellie coughed. “This isn’t a large room.”
“Let’s charge the door.” Livy wasn’t hopeful, but it was worth a try. “We’ll run together, try to use our combined weight.”
Aunt Mellie’s eyes glinted back, and she nodded sharply.
They lined up next to each other. “On three.” Livy counted them down, and they charged, shoulders slamming into the door in unison. It shook but didn’t budge. Livy rubbed her smarting shoulder. She barely even registered the pain over the increasing alarm thrumming through her.
“It’s too sturdy.” Aunt Mellie’s voice shook.
Livy spun, planting her hands on her hips.
There had to be a way for them to escape.
She was getting out of here. She’d promised Derek she wouldn’t leave him.
She refused to go back on her promise. She glared up at the heavens.
You won’t succeed at taking me down. I am making it out of here and back to him.
She scanned the room. There had to be something in here that they could use to try to break down the door.
Paintings, jewelry, marble busts, ornate grandfather clocks.
The marble bust was the closest thing, but there was no way she could lift that.
Maybe if she and Aunt Mellie heaved it together?
Her eyes landed on a gilded bronze candlestick. It was their only option.
Livy rushed over and pinched the candle’s flame out and tossed the taper. She marched up to the door. “All right. Weakest point.” She scanned the door.
“Perhaps the hinges?”
Livy had been thinking that too. There was no way she’d be able to dislodge the door handle. And even then, the door would still be locked. She paused, attention falling on where she knew the lock hid behind the wood. Perhaps…
“Stand back, Aunt Mellie.” Livy broke out in a fit of coughing. They were running out of time. She set herself before where the door met the wall, lifted the candlestick and slammed it down.
Wood splintering echoed around them amidst the crackling and hiss of the fire.
Livy lifted the candlestick again and brought it down in the same spot on the wall. She hadn’t any idea if this was going to work, but it was their best bet. Their only one.
The wood splintered further, denting. She could just make out the glint of the lock plate behind the wall.
She went to lift the candlestick again but broke out into another fit of coughing. Tearing fabric reached her ears, and she glanced over to see her aunt ripping off a section of the bottom of her petticoat.
Aunt Mellie hurried up to Livy, waving the fabric. “To cover your mouth and nose, Olivia. And we’ll take turns.” Her aunt’s blue eyes were wide with fear, but the same determination flowing through Livy reflected back at her. She nodded and turned so Aunt Mellie could secure the fabric around her.
Then she stepped back up to the wall and raised the candlestick.
They would get out of here.
She slammed it down.
There could be no other outcome.
She raised it again.
Smoke clawed at her vision, the acrid taste searing her tongue even through the cloth covering her mouth.
Livy brought it down hard, the impact reverberating through her arms.
Sweat stung her eyes.
Again.
Her muscles screamed. Her skin blistered from the rising heat.
Again.
I will not fail.