Chapter 54: The Aristocratic Brawl
The frozen garden shed at the rear of the service courtyard offered barely three feet of shelter from the gale, its wooden eaves groaning under the weight of accumulated snowdrifts. Genevieve collapsed onto her knees in the hard crust, her breath coming in ragged, whistling gasps that clouded the narrow space beneath the overhang. Beside her, Harlan dropped heavily into the drift, his broad frame trembling with exhaustion while his swollen hands clutched a sharp, jagged piece of gray foundation stone he had wrenched from the garden border.
Genevieve pulled the heavy tin from beneath the satin lapels of her mink coat, setting the frozen cylinder upright on the flat surface of a cedar stepping stone.
The tin was locked solid by cold, the steel pull ring
