The Charmer by Celeste Bradley

Author:Celeste Bradley [Bradley, Celeste]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, General, Historical, Regency, Espionage
ISBN: 9780312381592
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2004-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

The Prince's vow to "duck back down through the tunnels back to the palace" was an understatement. St. James's Palace was far from the Tower and would take much longer to traverse than their previous journey.

"I know a shortcut," George assured them, and led the way once more.

The carved designations to the tunnels made no sense to Collis, and he worried. "But they aren't supposed to," claimed George, "or just anyone could find their way into the palace! If you don't know the code, you'll just wander around down here until you die."

That was just what Collis was afraid of.

Rose set an exhausting pace. "Louis knows we have the plans," she insisted. "We need to get His Highness to safety and turn the Liars loose on Louis's factory." She'd taken Collis's hand, his left one, for a moment and gazed into his eyes. "I don't want those guns to reach our soldiers' hands, do you?"

So Collis followed. And he worried.

Especially when he saw George's "shortcut." They were stopped at a gaping break in the tunnel, their toes hanging off a ledge that dropped to darkness. Collis heard water running—nay, rushing—below them. He gritted his teeth. "What. Is. This?"

"The Tyburn," George said airily.

"There is no Tyburn any longer," Rose pointed out.

"Oh, it's here. It's merely been paved over, like the Fleet River turned to Fleet Street." George leaned out to hold the lantern over the water. Rose made a protesting noise and Collis grabbed the royal coattails before the royal drowning took place.

"See?" George held the lantern to one side. Collis and Rose could see large, heavy iron rings the size of dinner plates set horizontally into the stone, only a crescent remaining exposed like the rungs of a ladder. The whole thing reminded Collis of the bare ribs of some serpentine beast.

"You hold on, and step on them," George told them. "There's a ledge that runs alongside the water. We can travel due south, right to the palace." He sounded sublimely confident.

Collis wasn't so sure. "Why not stay in the tunnel?"

George handed the lantern to him and swung out into the river tunnel, his chubby fists clinging to the rusting rings. "Can't get there from here," he chuckled, and began to grunt his way down the line of rings.

They had no choice but to follow. "Can you manage?" Collis asked Rose.

She nodded wearily. "Just don't drop the bloomin' light."

Collis obediently hooked the wire handle of the lantern to his waist. Then he moved it slightly to the right—away from the "Etheridge jewels" as Rose called it. Despite his worry, he grinned at the memory.

At the bottom of the rings, there was indeed a ledge running alongside the water. It was raised not quite a foot above the waterline. George frowned. "I don't remember the river being so high before." He straightened his cuffs. "Oh, well, only a few more miles to go." He took the lantern from Collis and took the lead.

It may have been only a few miles, but to Rose it felt endless.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.