Page 47 of The Housebreaker's Assistant
Worse still, as they crept along the upstairs hallway, Greer could tell Penny was laughing. If not outwardly, the man was roaring on the inside. He was laughing at him, laughing because Greer couldn’t stop the tingling feeling of Penny’s lips against his at the most inopportune time. Laughing because a part of him was melting and wanted nothing more than to pour himself at Penny’s feet.
Taking the keys had been a damn clever move.
Whatever temptation Greer had to forgive Penny for his wildly hazardous actions stopped abruptly when a sharp hiss sounded from the far end of the hallway just as they reached the top of the stairs. It was followed by a black blur as a cat bolted from the doorway at the end of the hall toward them, and then raced down the stairs in front of them.
“Jesus!” Penny gasped, swaying to the side and grabbing the railing near the top of the stairs.
Greer clenched his teeth. He wanted to snap at Penny to be quiet, but that would have defeated the purpose of his admonishment.
A moment later, when they were halfway down the stairs, a bump sounded from farther down the hall below them.
“Damn cat,” someone muttered.
The hair on the back of Greer’s neck stood up. The voice was so far away that the words were almost indistinct, but there was no mistaking it, someone else in the house was awake.
They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Greer strode ahead of Penny. If he had his way, he would continue to move slowly and silently, but time had just become their top priority. A few groans from the floorboards were nothing if it meant they got out of the castle before someone came in search of the cat.
Penny must have felt the same. He picked up his pace, overtaking Greer when they reached the study where they’d climbed into the castle. The window was still open, the salt breeze still wafting into the room, ruffling a few papers on the desk, and Penny marched right up to it and looked out.
Greer caught up with him, clapped a hand on his shoulder, and yanked him back, spinning him so they were face to furious face.
Penny’s glib grin turned into a far more challenging look. “Did you have a better idea?” he whispered.
“Shh!” Greer silenced him. He didn’t know whether he wanted to punch the bastard or kiss him into eternal silence.
He did neither. With a firm, sideways look, he nudged past Penny and threw a leg out over the windowsill. Let Penny be the one to face danger if someone decided to come after them to investigate the sounds in the house. It would serve him right if he was captured and hauled off to jail.
No, that wasn’t true. As Greer lowered himself out the window until his feet found purchase in the stones of the wall, he admitted to himself that he would be devastated if Penny was caught. But just because he didn’t want the local constable to nab the red-headed fool didn’t mean he wouldn’t give him what was coming to him personally.
As soon as Greer’s feet hit the grass outside of the castle, he turned and pressed his back against the wall, panting and looking around. Part of him marveled at Dalhurst’s stupidity to keep Trebarral Castle so open and vulnerable when he had a prisoner the like of Lord Fabian inside. Another part of him understood just how confident Dalhurst and Hammond must have felt in the remoteness of the castle if they behaved as though nothing could touch them.
Besides which, the armed guard at the top of the tower stairs was enough of a problem for their rescue plans all on his own.
Penny thumped to the ground beside Greer, then straightened and grinned right at him, teeth and eyes shining in the moonlight. Greer had more than a few things to say to the cocky bastard, but he wasn’t about to let loose until they were well away from the castle.
He didn’t push away from the wall immediately, though. For a minute at least, he leaned back against the wall, head tipped to one side, and listened. Penny leaned back against the wall with him.
The night was quiet. They could hear the whipping of the wind across the grass, the roll of the sea beyond the castle, and the occasional cry of night birds. At one point, they even heard the damn cat scream at something on the other side of the castle. What they did not hear was a single other human sound.
With a nod, Greer pushed away from the wall, striding forward as fast as he dared in the night. He didn’t look back to see if Penny followed. He knew the younger man was there,he could feel his presence. He was relieved that Penny’s antics hadn’t gotten them killed, but equally as determined to strangle the man to death with his own hands once they were far enough away from the castle.
“That was a lark and a half,” Penny laughed once they were at least half a mile along the road leading away from the castle.
Greer stopped abruptly and jerked to face him. “What the bloody hell did you think you were doing?” he hissed.
Penny reeled back, his eyes going wide in the moonlight. “Doing us both a favor and making things easier for when we go back to rescue Lord Fabian,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Easier?” Greer demanded. “By waking an armed guard and getting yourself captured or worse?”
Penny looked twice as incredulous. “I didn’t wake him,” he insisted, his mirth turning to frustration. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, neither of us were captured either. And I have these.” He withdrew the keys from his pocket and dangled them in the air.
“But we could have been taken,” Greer said, leaning in closer to Penny. He wanted to grab a fistful of the rascal’s shirt and shake sense into him. “We both could have been captured and killed.”
“But we weren’t,” Penny said, his voice suddenly softer. He put the keys away and raised a hand to rest it on the side of Greer’s face. “I’m right here, Greer. I wasn’t captured or hurt or anything. And we now have a very important set of keys.”
For a few, blissful seconds, Greer pressed his cheek into Penny’s palm. He was here. He hadn’t been captured. But the possibility of things turning out differently was so real that Greer had to squeeze his eyes shut to block out the tremor in his heart.
And that made him sick in an entirely different way.
