“I think I’ve got this one,” she said, yanking hard at the rope. “Hold on, hold on . . . There!”

“One quarter of the way,” he said, trying to sound jolly and failing wretchedly.

“Hugh,” she said, and he could not tell if this was the precursor to a statement or a question.

And he never found out. There was a terrific commotion in the hall, followed by a grunt of pain and a loud string of expletives.

“Daniel,” Sarah said, wincing slightly.

And here I am, Hugh thought miserably, still tied to the damned bed.

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Sarah barely had time to look up before the door flew open and the air was rent by the sound of wood ripping and splintering around the useless lock. “Daniel!” she shrieked, and for the life of her, she did not know why she sounded surprised.

“What the hell—”

But Daniel’s shout was cut off by the Marquess of Ramsgate, who ran in from the hall, hurling himself through the doorway and onto Daniel’s back.

“Get off me, you bloody—”

Sarah tried to jump into the fray, but Hugh yanked her back with the hand she had so recently freed. She shook him loose and ran toward her cousin, only to be knocked down by Lord Ramsgate’s shoulder as Daniel spun him around, trying to dislodge him from his back.

“Sarah!” Hugh cried out. He was pulling so hard at his remaining bindings that the bed started scooting across the floor.

Sarah scrambled to her feet, but Hugh swung his arm out in a wild arc and caught a fistful of her sodden skirt.

“Let go of me,” she ground out, tumbling back onto the bed.

He wrapped his arm around her, his fingers still holding her skirt in a death grip. “Not on your bloody life.”

Daniel, meanwhile, had been unable to get Lord Ramsgate off his back and was now slamming him into the wall. “You bloody madman,” he grunted. “Get off me.”

Sarah grabbed a chunk of her skirt and started pulling in the opposite direction. “He’s going to kill your father.”

Hugh’s eyes met hers with steely disdain. “Let him.”

“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? He’d be hanged!”

“Not with only us as witnesses,” Hugh shot back.

Sarah gasped and gave her skirt another yank, but Hugh had her in an astonishingly firm grip. She tried to twist out of his grasp, and that was when she saw Daniel’s face going terrifyingly periwinkle. “He’s choking him!” she screamed, and Hugh must have looked up, because he let go of her skirt so abruptly that Sarah went skidding across the room, barely able to maintain her balance.