One Night with a Spy by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub

12

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I long for a strong hand to lift me from the darkness of my melancholy.

The yard was deserted and everything seemed perfectly normal… but there was one thing out of place.

Marcus bent swiftly to retrieve something from the ground. "This is the mallet Meg used to pound together the sieve box."

Julia leaned over to peer at it. "Don't be silly. My staff never leaves valuable tools lying about." Then she gasped. "Is that—"

Marcus touched the head of the mallet. His hand came away with a smear of blood on one fingertip. "It is. It seems our prankster has just graduated to attempted murderer."

She caught her breath. "Murder?"

"There's no sign of struggle. He must have been knocked unconscious immediately." He straightened and looked all about them. "Look for marks where someone might have dragged a bod—Elliot."

They circled urgently but carefully, desperate for some sign of where Elliot had been taken. They met on the other side of the cistern.

"There is no sign of anything of the sort," Julia said, her voice tight. "There is a great deal of ash on the cobbles. You would think we'd be able to detect something."

Marcus worked his jaw, frustrated. "Elliot is not a small man. I'm not sure I could carry him off that neatly."

"But if he wasn't carried off, then he would still be here—"

As one, their gazes shot to the neatly covered cistern.

"Oh, no."

Horror shuddered through Julia. Marcus didn't bother with a reaction. He simply acted, flinging himself at the cistern cover and dragging at it with all his might.

"Beppo! Meg! Igby!" Julia ran to pull at the other iron ring.

The Barrowby staff piled out through the kitchen door and came at a run. "My lady?"

"Get a strong rope, quickly!" Julia gasped. Meg took over at her ring and the cistern cover was lifted and dragged aside.

Julia flung herself down on the edge. "Elliot? Elliot?" She looked up. "We need lanterns. I cannot s—"

"Well, I… can't either," a rasping voice echoed from the darkness. "You just… bloody blinded me."

Igby came running with a lantern. They lowered it quickly down. Finally they saw him, clinging to the slippery side of the well, only his gray exhausted face above water.

"Oh, thank God!" Julia brushed away the blurring in her eyes. "Elliot, dear, are you injured?"

"My… head hurts… and I'm cold… and I'd sell Marcus's soul for a hot toddy… but I'm well enough."

Beppo came running with a length of sturdy rope. Marcus threw one end down the shaft. "Elliot, tie it about your chest!"

Julia watched as Elliot made a grab for the rope—and slipped completely under the water. She held her breath for him, but he did not reappear for a long moment.

Then his head broke water, but he seemed disoriented. He fumbled weakly with the rope for a long moment.

"Do you have it?" Marcus called.

Elliot seemed to be fading before their eyes. "Hands… can't seem to…" He slipped beneath the surface once more.

Julia looked up at Marcus in a panic. "We're losing him!"

"No we're not.

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