Anthony rolled his eyes, “All right, then I will!” He strode towards the door. “I’m only doing this to prove you wrong.”
Ever since his mother passed away, he had no real reason to visit the room anymore. Besides the expensive furniture—which they had immediately covered with sheets—there was nothing of value or interest in the room. It used to be his parents’ room, and without his parents, it was now just a room.
He brushed past Colin and pushed the door open. He stepped into the room and was greeted by a sight he had expected, the white sheets protecting the furniture. However, he hadn’t expected to see that the curtains had been drawn open to let the afternoon sunlight in.
There was another thing he didn’t quite expect either.
“Mr. Tulk, what are you doing here?”
Anthony heard the sound of the door gently closing behind him, which was shortly followed by a loud click. It was not the sound of the door’s mechanism. Anthony cautiously turned around.
“Colin, why are you aiming a pistol at me?”
* * *
Meredith regained consciousness to the sound of men’s voices. As she came to, she gradually became aware of more and more things. The first blindingly obvious fact she was made aware of was the throbbing pain at the upper left side of her head. Before her vision completely cleared, Meredith briefly entertained the thought that she had died and gone to heaven, for she could make out blurry white shapes.
I’ve either been brought to heaven or to a farm of exceptionally clean sheep.
But her blissful ignorance of her precarious situation completely evaporated as she regained full function of her senses and saw that what she had initially deduced to be clouds were, in fact, white sheets covering furniture. Also, she was tied to a chair.
Honestly, I would have preferred the sheep to this. Also, why is my mouth so incredibly dry?
She looked down and realized that someone had gone through the trouble of gagging her. A new, sudden wave of pain originating from her head caused her to groan.
“Meredith?”
She looked around.
For a second there, I thought I heard Anthony’s voice.
“Ah, so you’ve only just now spotted her.”
Meredith swiveled her head in the general direction she thought the voices were coming from. The very last traces of her drowsiness dissipated and she suddenly found herself wide awake as she stared in horror at Lord Gillinghamshire pointing a pistol at Anthony—who in turn was staring in horror at her—most likely because she was tied to a chair.
Lord Gillinghamshire gestured confidently with the weapon.
“Mr. Tulk, if you don’t mind, please stand guard outside.”
Mr. Tulk gave a low grunt of acknowledgment and promptly did as he was told. If silence was a reliable technique of measuring peace, then this would have been the most peaceful of rooms.
Could it be that all three of us are simultaneously holding our breaths?
But the silence was driven away by a deceptively small word uttered by Anthony. Of all the various kinds of words, it was the most interesting, important, and infinite of them all.
“Why?”
* * *
“Why?” echoed Colin. “That’s such a broad question, old boy. Could you perhaps be more specific? Are you referring to why I have a pistol pointed at you? If so, it’s because I don’t want you making this more difficult than it needs to be.”
“If you’re asking why Miss Meyer is tied up, it’s because I don’t wantherto make things more difficult than they need to be. And if you’re asking why Mr. Tulk is outside, well, naturally so that if anyone else is thinking of adding difficulty to this already tedious situation, then he’ll do everything at his disposal to change their minds.”
Following his late father’s advice, Anthony did his best to not appear vulnerable, by displaying as little emotion as possible.
“There’s no need to be facetious, Colin. I asked a broad question because I want a broad answer. But if you require more detail, then here it is: why are you doing all of this?”
The sickening glint in Colin’s eye proved to him that, in fact, not only was he anticipating this question, but was delighted to hear it asked.
