Page 61 of The Housebreaker's Assistant
“It’s too late for that,” Hammond argued in return. A door deeper in the room slammed. “Your staff has already seen them. God only knows what tales will be told in the village before noon tomorrow.”
“Are you suggesting I murder my entire complement of servants to keep them quiet as well?” Dalhurst demanded.
“If that is what is necessary,” Hammond replied.
Greer had managed to lower himself and Lord Fabian to the side of the window, and as Hammond spat those words, Lord Fabian moaned and shivered.
Greer tensed and pressed himself against the wall as best he could. They were so close to the open window that he was certain Dalhurst and Hammond would hear them, but for that exact reason, he couldn’t hush Lord Fabian. It was a wonder Penny had been able to call up to him at all, though he must have done so before Dalhurst and Hammond entered the room. All Greer could do was concentrate on places to put his hands and feet as he continued their descent.
“This entire thing was a mistake,” Hammond went on. “Underhill be damned, I should have sold the whelp to someone else, or better still, snapped his neck to rid us of this problem forever.”
Greer bared his teeth, partially in hatred for Hammond and partially out of fear Lord Fabian would make another noise and give them away.
The young man clung tighter to him with what little strength he had left, but he did not make a sound.
Greer swallowed hard and put everything he had into descending even more. Below him, he heard a slight scrabble and the scattering of stones and hoped it meant Penny had reached the top of the old wall.
Half a minute later, when he felt Penny’s hand on his leg, guiding him down the last few feet to the wall, a burst of relief hit him. They were so far from safety, but at least his beloved wasn’t dead yet.
“This wall isn’t as stable as I thought,” Penny whispered once Greer had two feet firmly planted on the crumbling structure. “We’ll have to be careful.”
Greer nodded, lowering himself to a crouch, as Penny did, and feeling along the surface of the wall. The moon had gone behind a cloud, leaving them with very little light to see how they would be able to climb down to the dry trough of the ancient moat.
That was, perhaps, another stroke of luck.
“Hammond!” Dalhurst’s shout sounded from above them. Far above them. The man was no longer in the room below the tower, he’d climbed up into the tower room itself. “They’re gone!”
Penny gestured wildly, slamming a hand against Greer and pushing him back into the castle wall. Greer flattened himself as best he could as Lord Fabian cowered and huddled against him.
“They must have climbed out the window!” Dalhurst shouted from above.
Greer didn’t dare look, but judging by the clearer sound of the man’s voice, he had stuck his head out the window. He could only pray that the shadows were enough to conceal them.
“Dammit!” Dalhurst shouted again. Then there was silence.
For a handful of terrifying seconds, the three of them remained perfectly still, pressed against the wall. Then Penny moved slightly. A second later, he said, “He’s gone. We’ve probably got minutes at best.”
Greer nodded, heart pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears. They couldn’t wait for the moon to come out from behind the clouds or for any sort of reassurance that the way was clear. All they could do was move.
The tower was directly adjacent to the wall that wrapped around the inner part of the castle. As Greer and Penny worked their way blindly down the side, stones slid out of place,tumbling to the ground beneath, and footholds that seemed certain on first touch gave way in a cascade of rocks. Greer’s hands were cut and bloody in no time, and as much as it sickened him, he feared Lord Fabian took a few blows as they fumbled their way down to the grass as well.
Reaching solid ground was only part of their battle, however. As it turned out, the bottom of the old moat wasn’t as dry as Greer had hoped it was. His boots sank into marshy ground that stank as it was stirred up and that pulled at him as he tried to follow Penny across the space to the slope on the other side.
“I’m never coming to Cornwall again,” Penny complained as he reached the other side and crawled up the opposing slope on his hands and knees.
Greer grunted in reply. He wouldn’t worry about returning to Cornwall until they’d made it out alive first.
That was certainly not a guarantee, particularly when the glow of torches from one side of the castle indicated a search for them had been mounted.
“They can’t have gone far,” someone called out in the night. “There are no places for them to hide in the meadow.”
“They might be hiding in the grass,” Someone else called back. The voice was younger, which made Greer think it was a footman. The whole house must be searching for them.
“Check the beach,” someone else called out. “They could be in one of the caves.”
Greer swore under his breath. If they searched the beach, they’d find the boat with their cases in it. Their only means of escape could be cut off.
“Move,” Penny whispered by Greer’s side. He grabbed Greer’s shirt and tugged for good measure.
