Wormwood Abbey by Christina Baehr

Author:Christina Baehr [Baehr, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Christina Baehr

CHAPTER ELEVEN

At this terrifying moment, I heard the most welcome sound in the world: a human voice, from further off in the cavern.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” It was George, sounding terribly small and uncertain.

“George! George!” I cried out, and at the same time I knew Pilot had found him and was barking joyfully and panting and slobbering all over him. I stumbled towards them, tears hot on my face. The shingle underfoot was very flat and slippery here and with my wet skirts and uncertain footing it took me a moment to find them. I had abandoned all caution and would have certainly plummeted to my death if there had been any crevasses in the chamber.

“Eddie? Is that you?” I could tell from his voice that George was crying too. “I’m ever so sorry, Eddie, really I am…”

“Don’t be an idiot!” I was holding him in my arms now. How small he was. Why had I never noticed how small he still was?

After a time I sat back on my heels. My hands were cramping horribly but I wrapped Pilot’s rope around my wrist securely. I found my handkerchief and offered it to George.

“Now George, you will tell me all about this later. I’m going to ask Pilot to take us home now. But first, are you hurt? Can you walk?”

“I’m all right. I just lay down because I was so tired, and I knew when you’re lost you’re supposed to stay where you are until someone finds you.”

“Quite right, old fellow.”

“I must have fallen asleep. But Eddie, what about Mr. Rivers?”

I swallowed. I didn’t know what George had been through. I simply didn’t have the heart to say to him in the blackness, “The man who brought you in here is lying dead over there.” I was ashamed of my momentary panic a few moments earlier. But still I had no idea how Rivers had died and how long his body had lain there near my brother in the dark.

“How did you get separated?” I asked instead.

“He told me to wait here. He…he took the candles I’d brought.”

“What!”

“I asked him not to leave me but he said I was being a coward. He said he would come back at once. But he didn’t come back. It was ever so long.”

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been angry with a man whose body was hardly cold, but I was. I was also very keen to get George safely out of this place where people died mysteriously for no apparent reason. Wasn’t there something about poisonous gases underground that killed unwary explorers now and then?

I briefly thought of going through the man’s pockets to find the candles he’d taken from my brother, but now that I had my hands on both Pilot and George, I couldn’t bear to let go of either of them.

“We can’t help him by staying here in the dark, George.”

That was true enough. The man was entirely past helping. I made my voice cheerier.

“Right. Just hold on to Pilot’s rope, it’s here.

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