Rauf was at their side in an instant, working the bolt from the iron around Malcolm’s wrist.
When the chains came off, it was as if his arms had forgotten how to lie properly at his sides where they belonged, the joints and muscles aching with what had been demanded of them. Malcolm was forced to bite back a groan of agony when Rauf once again lifted his arm to take the burden of Malcolm’s weight on his shoulders.
“I can walk on my own,” he managed. “Where do we go?”
“The tunnels,” Christiana responded, rising to her feet after having tied the guard’s hands and feet.
“Torquil kens the way to the water’s edge. It’s no safe to use that passage.” As he’d learned the hard way.
“I’d no intent to use that way.” Christiana’s grin lit her face. “You traveled the tunnels with Father, but I had the advantage of learning from a servant. We’ll exit near the kitchens, where we’ll stuff you into a barrel and cover you with flour.”
Dani’s fingers fluttered over his face once more before she grabbed his hand and lifted it to her lips. “For luck.”
He was about to embark on an escape where he’d likely be suffocated in flour or captured and skewered on the spot.
Luck was exactly what he needed.
Thirty-six
THE BACK OFMalcolm’s hand was hardly what she’d wanted to wrap her lips around, but it would have to do for the time being, in front of all these people.
Dani held tightly onto that hand as they followed behind Christiana through the endless maze of steps and slanting twists and turns until once again a sliver of light appeared ahead of her.
A sliver that grew into a chunk.
She hung back, allowing Rauf and Christiana to exit first this time. No more surprises for her. Popping out of that last tunnel to find Rauf waiting had given her more than enough fright to last a lifetime.
“Hurry!” Christiana hissed, urging her brother up into the back of a wagon where three barrels already stood.
Dani squeezed his hand once more and he bent to kiss her lips.
“Wife, is it? We’ll be talking about that one,” he whispered in her ear before climbing into the wagon and pretzeling himself into the barrel Rauf indicated.
One soft, sweet touch to her flesh that would have to hold her until they were free of this awful place. One cryptic question to set her mind worrying.
“Hold the mug over yer mouth and nose with the broken end to the hole as we cover you.” Rauf emptied the first of the flour down over Malcolm as he spoke. “We’ll have to put the plug in the hole until after the guards have inspected, but we’ll take it out as soon as we can. You should have enough air to keep you going until then.”
Should havebeing the operative words as far as Dani was concerned. The idea that they’d managed to rescue him from that horrible dungeon only to suffocate him under pounds of flour haunted the back of her mind.
Not that she needed to make up things to worry about. There were plenty of those already. Still, the plan seemed weak enough that she felt the need to voice an opinion.
“I don’t like this. It’s too dangerous for Malcolm to be confined in that barrel. He has no way to protect himself. Or even to breathe, for that matter, if we don’t get that plug out in time.”
For the first time, she saw something approaching anger in Christiana’s expression.
“And what would you have us do? Dangerous?Pah!” The dark-haired woman smacked one fist against her other hand, her eyes flashing. “Where we just liberated him from, that was dangerous. Did you no see for yerself what they did to him in there? Or did you no recognize the stain on his shirt as his own blood? This is our only course, unless you have a better idea for getting him away from here?”
Dani felt as if she’d taken a slap to the face. She’d been so busy making sure Malcolm was unharmed that she’d barely noticed the stain on his shirt. Not that it would have made a difference. Stain or no, she understood all too well that staying where they were was tantamount to a death sentence. And, realistically, she also understood that there was no such thing as a safe way to escape.
“No, sorry. I know you’re right. It’s just . . . I’ve never dealt with anything like this at all before.” And it was taking everything she had to deal with it now.
Christiana leaned in to put her arms around Dani, patting her back as she gave a little squeeze. “I doubt that any of us have. For now, let’s concentrate on what we do once we’re on the road.”
Exactly. The plan might be scary as all get-out, but knowing what to expect was her best hope.
“How is Rauf going to be able to deal with the guards on his own?”
Though the groomsman had overpowered her when she’d come out of the tunnel, it hadn’t been by much. Certainly not by enough to inspire her to think he could deal with the group of men who would be escorting them on this little jaunt.
