Chapter 222: Hunters, Part 5

Richard

“Where to?” asks the uniform driving us back to the City.

“My offices, thank you.”

“The offices?” murmurs Elizabeth from her place in my embrace.

“We’ll stay in one of the guest apartments. I’ll feel better knowing I have you close at hand and it means we have James and Michael close by too.”

All the drive back, I cradle her in my arms. She doesn’t speak, simply resting her face against my chest. And desperate though I was to have my Elizabeth returned to me, I can’t forget that I have left behind James and Michael, their Charlotte still lost.

And I’m uneasy.

Will they think I’ve abandoned them?

Surely not…. not under these conditions….

Elizabeth….

Back in the apartment, at last with privacy to speak properly, I almost crush her as I hold her to me, and she bursts into tears again, her shoulders shaking as I rock her. “Oh, Master, I thought I was never going to see you again.”