Resisting Miss Merryweather by Emily Larkin

Author:Emily Larkin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Emily Larkin
Published: 2016-12-04T18:00:00+00:00

* * *

BY THE TIME Marcus returned, Barnaby and Sawyer had enlarged the gap as much as they dared. With every movement they made, rubble shifted beneath them. Twice, large chunks tobogganed to the floor, striking with great cracks of sound. The second time this happened, a shower of stones fell from the ceiling, making them both duck. The clatter from that was just dying—and Barnaby’s heartbeat returning to something approaching normal—when Marcus arrived. He brought three gardeners and two stablemen with him, and shovels, ropes, and a rope ladder that had been hastily cobbled together.

Barnaby and Sawyer scrambled down to meet them.

“How are they?” Marcus asked, his eyes fierce with anxiety.

“In good spirits. That roof’s damned fragile, though.”

They attached a rope to one end of the ladder and looped it around a stalagmite. “I’ll go through and help them climb,” Barnaby said. “We need a man at the top, to help them, and one about halfway down. Not your biggest men; the ones who can move the most stealthily.”

Marcus ran his eye over the assembled men, and selected a gardener and one of the grooms. “Noake . . . and Rudkin.” Both men were young and wiry.

“Everyone else needs to stay well back.”

Marcus nodded.

Barnaby turned to Sawyer. “Sawyer, if that roof does come down, get him out of here—even if you have to put him in a headlock to do it—and don’t let him back in.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Damn it, Bee—”

“Think about Charles.”

“I am thinking about Charles,” Marcus snarled. “Or it would be me climbing through, not you!”

Barnaby met his eyes, and nodded. He picked up the rope ladder and turned away. Marcus followed. “For God’s sake, Bee, be careful.”

“I will.”

Marcus caught his arm, and said in a whisper, “Tell Charlotte to use her gift if she thinks it will help.”

“What?”

“She’ll understand.” Marcus released his arm. “Be careful.”

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