While he was distracted with tying her hands, Lisa tried to work the gag out of her mouth. All it would take was one good shout and help would be there in an instant. She almost managed it, but just as Lisa was about to spit the last of it out and give that shout, Charles finished with her hands and returned his attention to her gag, pushing it back into her mouth to the point where she thought she might choke on it. He then produced another strip of cloth and placed it over her mouth, forcing it between her lips and then tying it around behind her head.

“Now,” he said pleasantly once he’d finished. “This is going to be tricky, but we are going out the window and down the tree. You, of course, don’t have your hands to help you so will have to depend on me to keep you from falling. I will keep you safe . . . unless you try to escape. If you try to escape, I will let you fall. Do we understand each other?”

When Lisa hesitated, he squeezed her bound wrists together painfully. “Do we understand each other?”

She nodded abruptly.

“Good.” Charles smiled.

Lisa eyed him warily, and then gasped into her gag when he suddenly turned her to face the window.

“Here we go,” he murmured by her ear.

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

It was the constant, unbearable pounding in his head that roused Robert. Groaning, he opened his eyes and blinked when he found himself peering into Lisa’s blurry face, her hair a golden halo around her head. He didn’t even think, just reached for her and began to drag her down, intent on kissing her silly in his relief that she was all right.

“Robert, if you don’t unhand my wife I will be very annoyed. I may even forget you are suffering a head wound, and give you another.”

“Richard?” he said uncertainly, freezing at the words even as he recognized the voice. Releasing who he realized must be Christiana, Robert glanced about and immediately spotted the man approaching the bed from the general direction of the window where Daniel now stood next to Suzette, grinning with amusement.

Sighing, he glanced back to Christiana, able to see her more clearly as his vision improved.

“Sorry, Chrissy,” he muttered with chagrin. “I thought you were—”

“Lisa,” she finished for him with an amused smile. “I sorted that out pretty quickly.”

Grunting, he glanced around the room again, but Lisa didn’t suddenly appear and rush forward to apologize for knocking him silly when all he’d been doing was rescuing her.

“I sent her to lie down,” Christiana said quietly, guessing who he was looking for. “She had a stressful day. Besides, you know how she reacts to the sight of blood.”