Free Fenella J. Miller by A Dangerous Deception

Every few minutes it lurched and bumped as it hit a rut or pothole in the road. She doubted if they were using the toll route, more likely a back lane where the coach wouldn’t be seen, which would account for their unstable progress.
     Of one thing she was certain, her incarceration had been the work of Sir John. Somehow he had persuaded Ann to write the letter that drew her out of the house and allowed his men to abduct her. She was about to attempt to sit up, demand to have to her hands released when something awful occurred to her.
    She had supposed that Sir John was having her transported back to Upton Manor in order to force her to marry her cousin. Now she understood she was wrong, if she died he was her only surviving relative and would inherit her fortune.
    Although it was her aunt who was her blood relative by law everything belonged to her husband. She had never believed he could stoop to murder. Was he so desperate for money that he would risk his own life to obtain it?
    The way she had been treated, tied up and tossed on to the floor, made her believe she was not intended to survive the ordeal. These men were evil villains, taking her somewhere lonely where she could be dispatched and buried and no one the wiser.
    Her head hurt, making it difficult to think, to plan how she might escape when the men were least expecting it. If she lay still they would think her still unconscious; her legs were free so when they tried to move her from the coach, that might be her opportunity. She would lash out, and if God was with her, she would be able to run and hide until help arrived.
    Cassie had little knowledge of the area she had been living in these past weeks, but she was aware it was about an hour’s ride from Martlesham Hall to the bleak Suffolk coast, an area frequented mainly by smugglers and occasionally by intrepid fishermen. She knew that must be where they were heading, it was the obvious place to dispose of an unwanted female. They wouldn’t even have to kill her, merely throw her into the sea and the water would do the rest.
    This time of year she was certain the temperature of the sea was so low it would kill her long before she drowned. Then her uncle could claim innocence and her death be considered a tragic accident. Of course they would have to untie her arms before they threw her in, would that be her best chance of escape? How had things come to this? Her life had been miserable since her parents died, but she had never felt herself to be in any danger, now she knew she was fighting to stay alive.
    The smell of the man sitting inside her made her gag, his rank breath and unwashed body permeated the air. He would not hesitate to knock her unconscious again if she made the slightest move. She thought about the time just before she had been taken, had she not told the young groom to meet her after one hour at the large five barred gate that led out from Home Woods?
    If he had done so and she didn’t appear, surely he would have raised the alarm by now? A flash of hope made her pulse jump as something significant occurred to her.
     Mr Anderson was intending to return to the Hall before he set off for Kent to rescue Ann, he would see the note she has left and receive her message, she was sure he would check at The Black Sheep and discover there was no one staying there and understand that something dire had taken place. He would come in search of her, he would not let her be carried away by these rough men.
    For a few moments she rejoiced in her imminent rescue, then her spirits sunk to their lowest point. How would he know which direction they’d taken? He would be expecting her to be returned to Kent, would never for a moment suspect that her uncle might wish to dispose of her permanently, that he had abandoned any hope of persuading her to marry his son and intended to gain access to her inheritance in the cruellest way.
    The rocking and bumping was beginning to make her feel nauseous and she feared