A slight cracking sound was the only warning Poppy received. She felt the ground beneath her feet shift just a bit…and then she was falling.
Chapter 14
As the ground gave way under her feet, Poppy didn’t even have time to scream. She slid down the muddy surface, clods of dirt, pebbles, and bits of grass tumbling along with her. When she reached the bottom of the slope a hundred feet below, she was momentarily stunned.
She didn’t know how long she lay there. Eventually, she heard her name…but who would know her out here?
A figure loomed over her, all details obscured by the sun, leaving just a shape. “Poppy! Are you hurt?”
Once she identified the person as Carlos, she smiled. “Oh, hello.”
He didn’t smile back. “Poppy, listen to me. Are you injured? You must be. You just fell off a cliff.”
“It was more of a slide down a slope.”
“Jesus. We have to get you away from here.” While he spoke, he was gently prodding at her limbs and checking for obvious wounds. He seemed both relieved and confused when nothing appeared to be broken. “Can you stand up, querida?”
“I think so.” She took his offered hands and shakily got to her feet. “How’d you get here in the first place?”
“Look me in the eyes,” he ordered, staring hard at her. “I was riding back from town when I saw you on the headland. Then you slipped. I had to come after you on foot, since the horse refused to go anywhere near the cliff. All right, your eyes are reacting to the sun just as they should. I don’t think you hit your head. Now come on.”
“Not yet,” she said, remembering why she’d slipped. “Just before I fell, I saw a ship! I think it's the same one that we saw on the beach two nights ago. It’s got the red and white flags. It’s called Seadragon.”
“Sálvame. I know there’s a ship, Poppy. That’s why we have to leave.” He glanced over his shoulder, and alarm covered his features. “It’s coming closer. The men aboard must have seen us. Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“To that grotto.” He pointed to a dark, cavernous space at one end of the beach.
“Why not go back up to the headland and your horse?”
“Because it would take too long and we’d be in plain sight the whole way. If someone wanted to shoot us, they’d have a clear shot.”
Poppy took a few steps but found herself stumbling a bit. Carlos took one look, and scooped her up.
“Excuse me, I can walk!”
“Then why didn’t you?” he muttered. “This is faster, anyway.”
“I’m too heavy for you to carry!”
“Not true, because I am carrying you. Holy Mother, why couldn’t you have been knocked unconscious?”
“Now that’s just rude.” Poppy would have continued to argue, but by then they had passed under the huge stone shell of the grotto’s ceiling.
Waves lapped at the shoreline, and Carlos set her down gently. “There should be entrances to caves in here. We need to find one deep enough that the crew won’t find us when they come looking.”
“Will they bother?”
“Considering they just saw two strangers enter their favorite hiding spot for illegal goods…yes, they’ll bother.”
“Very well then.” Poppy blinked several times, finally feeling more like herself and less like a spinning top. She put her hand on the rough walls of the grotto, which were pockmarked and pitted from eons of saltwater and wind.
“Wind…” she murmured. “We need to find one of those openings where we can feel a breeze!”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because that means the space beyond is deep enough to hold air of its own, and the wind comes in and out. Come on, follow me!”
