فصل 25

A Night in Terror Tower - Chapter 25

I let out a long sigh, a sigh of defeat. I knew I couldn’t run any further.

I knew the caped man would capture me easily.

The woman pressed the baby against the front of her black dress and turned to watch the man run toward us.

“I—I’ll pay you!” I blurted out.

I suddenly remembered the coins in my pocket. The coins the taxi driver refused to take.

Would the woman take them now?

I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out the coins. “Here!” I cried. “Take them! Take them all! Just hide me—please!” I jammed the coins into the woman’s free hand.

As she raised her hand to examine them, her eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open.

She isn’t going to take them, either, I thought. She’s going to throw them back at me as the taxi driver did.

But I was wrong.

“Gold sovereigns!” she exclaimed in a hushed voice. “Gold sovereigns. I saw one once when I was a little lass.” “Will you take them? Will you hide me?” I pleaded.

She dropped the coins into her dress. Then she shoved me through the open doorway of her little cottage.

It smelled of fish inside. I saw three cots on the floor beside a bare hearth.

“Quick—into the kindling basket,” the woman instructed. “It’s empty.” She pushed me again, toward a large straw box with a lid.

My heart pounding, I pushed up the lid and scrambled inside. The lid dropped back down, covering me in darkness.

On my hands and knees, I crouched on the rough straw bottom of the box. I struggled to stop panting, to stop my heart from thudding in my chest.

The woman had taken the coins gladly, I realized. She didn’t think they were play money, as the taxi driver had said.

The coins are very old, I decided.

And then a chill ran down my trembling body. I suddenly knew why everything looked so different—so old. We really have gone back in time, I told myself.

We are back in London hundreds of years ago.

The caped man brought us back here with those white stones. He thinks I am someone else. He has been chasing me because he has mistaken me for someone else.

How do I make him see the truth? I wondered.

And how do I get out of the past, back to my real time?

I forced the questions from my mind—and listened.

I could hear voices outside the cottage. The woman’s voice. And then the booming, deep voice of the black-caped man.

I held my breath so I could hear their words over the loud beating of my heart.

“She is right in here, sire,” the woman said. I heard footsteps. And then their voices became louder. Closer. They were standing beside my basket.

“Where is she?” the caped man demanded.

“I put her in this box for you, sire,” the woman replied. “She’s all wrapped up for you. Ready for you to take her away.”