Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Greer prepared himself to die. He didn’t see any way that he and Penny would be able to rescue Lord Fabian from the tower and make it to their waiting boat.
Even if they were lucky enough to reach the boat, he was not as confident in the abilities of two Londoners to row a nearly insensible man to safety, then to find their way to a train station so that they could flee to London.
Everything beyond the tower was too far into the future for him to concern himself with in the moment, however. He could only manage one step to freedom at a time.
“Is he secure?” he asked Penny once the two of them finished wrapping sheets around Lord Fabian.
Penny shrugged and sighed as he studied their work with wary eyes. “I’ve no idea,” he said honestly, glancing up to meet Greer’s eyes. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Greer grunted. One way indeed. The way that might end with them all plunging to their deaths on the rocks below the tower window.
Renewed shouting from one floor below and the distinct shuffle of a house that had been awakened kept Greer from falling into his thoughts or rechecking the knots they’d tied in the sheets encompassing the treasure they’d broken into the castle to retrieve.
“Fasten him to my back,” he said, turning his back to Penny and gesturing for him to hurry up.
“Right,” Penny said, a lightness to his tone that baffled Greer, given their proximity to death. “Lord Fabian, I’m going to strap you to Greer’s back,” he announced to the weeping young man. “I need you to hold onto him as tightly as you can, regardless of what happens.”
“Yes. Help me,” the pitiful young man sobbed.
“We are helping you, my lord,” Greer said, crouching slightly so the man could fling his rail-thin arms over Greer’s shoulders.
Dalhurst and the other men who had kept the poor lad prisoner for so long now had not only beaten and drugged him, they must had starved him as well.
He was lighter than a feather as Greer stood, hoisting him into a more comfortable position.
Lord Fabian was weak as well, which was more of a problem.
Greer doubted the lad would be able to cling to him as tightly as was needed.
“Is there spare sheet to tie around my waist?” he asked Penny pivoting to face him. “I’m not sure his strength will hold.”
Penny nodded, grasping the situation at once. “I know just the thing.”
As mad as it was, in the middle of their predicament, as Penny darted back to the bed to untangle a light blanket from what remained of the bedding, Greer felt a rush of warmth.
Love and pride filled him, side by side with urgency and barely contained fear.
He’d never known a man like Penny. He never could have imagined anyone as clever and valiant as his red-headed street thief.
“This will have to do,” Penny said, racing back to Greer and wrapping the thin blanket fully around both Greer and Lord Fabian.
It was like some sort of reverse sling of the sort women used to carry babies. The whole thing was bulky and Greer was overly hot within seconds, but comfort was a luxury they couldn’t afford at present.
“I’ll go first,” Penny said as they walked to the window. “Then maybe, if either of you loses your grip or Lord Fabian slips at all, I’ll be able to catch you.”
Greer arched an eyebrow at Penny. More likely, if Greer slipped or Lord Fabian fell, they’d crash into Penny and take him down with them.
At least they would all die together, which was, perhaps, Penny’s intent.
There was no further time to think about it. The noise from the floor below grew louder. It might have been Greer’s imagination, but he thought he heard footfalls on the stairs.
“Go, go!” he urged Penny as the man flung his leg out the window, then pivoted to push the rest of his body out.
“If this is the end,” Penny said, looking at Greer for a moment from the other side of the window, “then know that these last few days with you have been the best of my life. If we go to our graves, I want you to go knowing I love you.”
Greer gaped at the soft-hearted fool, his whole body and soul filling with untimely affection. “You daft fool,” he hissed, smiling all the same. “Now is not the time for confessions of love. Save yourself, as I will save myself, so we can laugh about this years from now.”
Penny grinned. “So you think we’ll be together years from now?”
“Go! Idiot!” Greer shouted at him.
He leaned down, adjusting Lord Fabian’s weight on his back, and kissed Penny squarely. He would have then pushed him to get him to move if he didn’t think it would cause the imp to fall.
Penny made a sound that was far too close to a giggle and started down the side of the tower, searching for gaps to place his feet and handholds as he went.
Greer leaned out the window and watched him, but looking down at the rocky top of the old wall below, combined with the movement of the sea in his periphery, had his stomach turning somersaults.
He waited until Penny was a full ten feet below before puzzling out how to thrust himself through the window with Lord Fabian on his back. To his credit, Lord Fabian must have been aware enough of what was transpiring to cling to Greer as if his life depended on it. Because it did.
“Hold tight,” Greer tried to reassure the young man as he maneuvered the two of them through the narrow space of the window and out into the cool night air.
It was the most harrowing thing Greer had ever done.
He’d climbed a dozen walls and broken into houses on the first floor once or twice, but that was nothing to scaling down a wall in the dead of night with a frail nobleman strapped to his back.
The only blessing they had was the condition of the wall and the abundance of shelves and nooks they could use to climb down.
“Move clear of the window,” Penny hissed up at him from slightly to the right.
Greer gulped, then peeked down to see that Penny had shifted to avoid the window that stood open directly beneath where Greer clung to the wall.
“I don’t care how much you think you can fetch for the man,” Dalhurst could be heard shouting as he entered the room. “He’s dangerous. We do not know who he is or who the other one is. They should be killed at once.”
“It’s too late for that,” Hammond argued in return. A door deeper in the room slammed. “Your staff has already seen them. God only knows what tales will be told in the village before noon tomorrow.”
“Are you suggesting I murder my entire complement of servants to keep them quiet as well?” Dalhurst demanded.
“If that is what is necessary,” Hammond replied.
Greer had managed to lower himself and Lord Fabian to the side of the window, and as Hammond spat those words, Lord Fabian moaned and shivered.
Greer tensed and pressed himself against the wall as best he could.
They were so close to the open window that he was certain Dalhurst and Hammond would hear them, but for that exact reason, he couldn’t hush Lord Fabian.
It was a wonder Penny had been able to call up to him at all, though he must have done so before Dalhurst and Hammond entered the room.
All Greer could do was concentrate on places to put his hands and feet as he continued their descent.
“This entire thing was a mistake,” Hammond went on. “Underhill be damned, I should have sold the whelp to someone else, or better still, snapped his neck to rid us of this problem forever.”
Greer bared his teeth, partially in hatred for Hammond and partially out of fear Lord Fabian would make another noise and give them away.
The young man clung tighter to him with what little strength he had left, but he did not make a sound.
Greer swallowed hard and put everything he had into descending even more. Below him, he heard a slight scrabble and the scattering of stones and hoped it meant Penny had reached the top of the old wall.
Half a minute later, when he felt Penny’s hand on his leg, guiding him down the last few feet to the wall, a burst of relief hit him. They were so far from safety, but at least his beloved wasn’t dead yet.
“This wall isn’t as stable as I thought,” Penny whispered once Greer had two feet firmly planted on the crumbling structure. “We’ll have to be careful.”
Greer nodded, lowering himself to a crouch, as Penny did, and feeling along the surface of the wall. The moon had gone behind a cloud, leaving them with very little light to see how they would be able to climb down to the dry trough of the ancient moat.
That was, perhaps, another stroke of luck.
“Hammond!” Dalhurst’s shout sounded from above them. Far above them. The man was no longer in the room below the tower, he’d climbed up into the tower room itself. “They’re gone!”
Penny gestured wildly, slamming a hand against Greer and pushing him back into the castle wall. Greer flattened himself as best he could as Lord Fabian cowered and huddled against him.
“They must have climbed out the window!” Dalhurst shouted from above.
Greer didn’t dare look, but judging by the clearer sound of the man’s voice, he had stuck his head out the window. He could only pray that the shadows were enough to conceal them.
“Dammit!” Dalhurst shouted again. Then there was silence.
For a handful of terrifying seconds, the three of them remained perfectly still, pressed against the wall. Then Penny moved slightly. A second later, he said, “He’s gone. We’ve probably got minutes at best.”
Greer nodded, heart pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears. They couldn’t wait for the moon to come out from behind the clouds or for any sort of reassurance that the way was clear. All they could do was move.