Page 56 of The Housebreaker's Assistant
“I can’t,” the poor young man sobbed. “Please. I don’t want to anymore.”
Greer’s heart dropped hard into his gut. The one thing he and Penny hadn’t planned for stared him harshly in the face. They’d been sent to rescue the young nobleman and to bring him to safety. The castle was only lightly guarded and the windows were all open. Only one, sleepy guard had been set to guard Lord Fabian, and now Greer knew why.
Because the young man was in no condition to participate in any way in his own salvation. He couldn’t even walk away on his own.
“Shit,” Greer growled again, helping Lord Fabian to lie on the bed again.
This was why Brutus and Titus had insisted Greer bring Penny along for the rescue. It would require two of them to carry Lord Fabian out of the castle.
And now Penny was trapped somewhere downstairs with the guard, Dalhurst, and whoever Dalhurst’s guest was. He wouldn’t have been able to bring himself to leave Trebarral without Penny anyhow, but now he realized he needed to save Penny first before he could hope to fulfill his mission of rescuing Lord Fabian.
Chapter Seventeen
Let it never be said that Penny Frey was unwilling to sacrifice himself for his friends.
That silly thought rattled through Penny’s brain as the guard shoved and manhandled him down the stairs.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” the oaf grunted, grasping Penny’s arm when he tried to make a break for it and yanking him down the hallway.
The man must have been prodigiously stupid to say something as obvious as “You’re not supposed to be here”. If he was that thick, then perhaps Penny might be able to talk his way out of the situation.
“I meant no harm,” he said. “They thought you might want a distraction.”
He winced as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Pretending he wasn’t alone had always been a good ploy to make street bullies and other grunts think twice about taking him on, but in Trebarral Castle, that ploy might land more people than just him in trouble.
As it turned out, he didn’t need to worry about anyone other than himself for the moment.
“What is all this noise?” the man who had been pointed out to him as Dalhurst the day before demanded, stepping into the hall from the very room that the guard was dragging Penny toward.
Dalhurst wasn’t alone. A second man who looked equally rankled and angry stepped out into the hall with him. “Is he one of the servants?” he asked.
“No,” Dalhurst answered at once, then moved closer to scrutinize him in the dim hallway. “I’ve never seen this man in my life.” He stopped in front of Penny, narrowed his eyes, then said, “No, wait, I have seen him. He’s that blasted tinker who came to the house the other day to disrupt things.”
“A tinker?” The second man made a disgusted face.
Penny’s heart raced. He was in a horrific situation, but so far, Dalhurst and his friend didn’t suspect why he was really there. That meant he could protect Greer and give him the chance he needed to rescue Lord Fabian.
“Finest wares this side of London,” Penny said, breaking into a ridiculous smile.
Dalhurst’s and his friend’s answering glares were enough to wipe the smile from Penny’s face. More than that, his heart sank straight into his gut like a rock dropped from a cliff as Dalhurst’s friend’s expression turned thoughtful.
“He’s a pretty one,” he said, reaching a hand toward Penny, “if a bit scruffy.”
Penny jerked away from the man’s touch, old memories resurfacing so fast and hard they made him dizzy. “Let me go,” he said, voice hoarse and humor completely gone, knowing that wasn’t about to happen. “I’ll leave right quick, and we can pretend none of this happened.”
He’d miscalculated everything. He would not allow himself to be lost to the nightmare that almost swallowed him once before. More than anything, he wanted to cry out for Greer, for his help and his love, but if he did, Greer might be captured, too.
“He asked me if I wanted company,” the guard said with a sniff, oblivious to Penny’s growing panic.
“It was all in good fun,” Penny said, twisting in an attempt to free himself from the guard’s grip, now that the man was distracted. He would do anything to avoid being taken.
“How did you get into the castle?” Dalhurst asked, looking like he would rather slit Penny’s throat than toy with him.
“Oh, you know,” Penny said, fighting to continue to seem like a lovable scamp and not a serious threat as his panic made it difficult to think. “As one does.”
“Did any of the servants let him in?” Dalhurst’s friend asked. “You said they were loyal and discreet.”
“They are,” Dalhurst told him. “I pay them well enough. None of them know the truth about Lord Fabian in any case. They think I’m harboring a sick friend.”
