Mayhap, he should start boxing as his brother did every week at the gentlemen’s club. It would improve his physical strength to trek through the Amazonian Forest.
He pulled himself up again. His arms quivered with the effort. Definitely, he’d underestimated the difficulty of the climb and overestimated his strength. At least the light from the window gave him a good view of where he put his hands. He had to reach the plant’s root to take a sample that wouldn’t wilt and die in an hour, which meant climbing all the way up to the gutter. Not an easy task, but he was up to it.
Moving to the right, lest the lady see him and start shouting, he advanced up one inch at a time. Sweat dampened his neck, and his legs shook so hard he feared he might fall at any moment. Another inch up. More sweat. Hellfire. His knees almost buckled.
He let out a growl. And there it was. The golden pimpernel. His breath came out in quick pants both from the exertion and the excitement. The delicate petals were wrapped tightly around themselves against the night’s chill. From the bedroom, muffled, angry mutters came. The lady argued about something.
Holding himself with one hand, he slid the other into his satchel to take the knife. He smiled. Another minute or two and he would have his fresh sample of golden pimpernel. Glory was a few inches away.
Everything was going according to plan.
three
THE INSISTENT, SCRAPING noise coming from the window made Maddie pause mid-stroke with the paintbrush. Was a rat climbing the wall? Who knew what creatures might be nestled in the plant? Perhaps she should cut it or move it away from the window. She waited. No noise came.
The good light had disappeared with the sunset, but she’d almost finished for today. She took a step away from the canvas and admired her work. Her heavy eyelids seemed to drop against her will, but she couldn’t stop smiling. The painting needed a few final touches. A brighter colour there, a few black lines here. But the view was there. The gentle hills, the mist, and the river created a pleasant but unobtrusive background. The focus remained on the couple dancing among the flowers. The lady’s dress was caught in the middle of twirling around her legs, and the gentleman’s jacket was fluttering up.
Maddie’s first idea had been to draw them naked in a Hades and Persephone’s depiction. But alas, Mother would have never allowed her that.
What would Mrs. Blanchet say? Hopefully, she’d see the passion Maddie felt every time she picked up a paintbrush and—what was that noise again? It came from above the window while earlier it’d come from below it. The scratching sound sent a chill down her back. It had to be an intruder. A rat couldn’t make so much noise. Unless it was a very large rat. She almost preferred an intruder to a giant rat. Some said the rats along the Thames grew bigger than the normal urban rats and that they were spreading throughout the city. She didn’t want to be the one to prove the rumour right.
Another loud screech jolted her. Blimey. What was it?
She stretched out an arm towards the window but didn’t have time to open it before the deafening sound of glass shattering came. The window exploded. Something large and dark smashed through it and shoved her back with the strength of a rugby player tackling an adversary. She cried out as her back hit the floor hard and a searing pain slashed through her hand. The agony cut off her breath and the scream about to burst out of her mouth. On top of that, some type of fabric, a jacket perhaps, covered her face. She couldn’t see anything.
“I’m sorry,” a masculine voice said close to her ear.
The man scrambled to his feet amid the noise of glass shards being smashed under his weight. The moment he rose, the thing covering her face lifted too, revealing the disaster in front of her. Wood splinters, broken glass, and leaves littered her room. Debris covered even her vanity and bed.
Maddie grovelled on the floor, unable to speak. What had happened?
“I...I didn’t mean to hurt you. Miss?” The tall blond man crouched next to her. His blue eyes flared wide as he stared at her. “Are you all right? Oh, God. You’re bleeding.”
She closed her eyes and kept down the wave of nausea threatening to overcome her. When her mind calmed, she sat upright but in doing so, she put her right hand down on the floor and a new shot of pain made her whimper. A sharp piece of glass was buried deep in her palm. A shock of stillness went through her. The shard caught the light, enhancing the ruby drops of blood on the glass.
“Let me help.” Strands of blond hair tumbled down the man’s sharp cheeks when he removed his flat hat. He reached out for her injured hand.
“Don’t touch me!” Maddie scurried away from him, smashing more glass underneath her.
He held up his hands. “I mean no harm.”
“You mean no harm? Look at me!” She raised her injured hand that throbbed and swelled. A hysterical laugh shook through her.
He rubbed his forehead, paling. “It was an accident.”
The door to her bedroom was flung open, and footsteps thudded from behind her.
“Maddie, what happened?” Verity crouched next to her sister, her long braid falling over her shoulder. “Maddie!”
“What is the meaning of this?” Father said at the same time as Mother screamed, clutching her shawl around her shoulders.
The man kept his hands up, gazing away from Verity and Mother in their nightgowns. “I’m not a thief. It was an accident.”
As he stepped away from Maddie, she had a full view of her bedroom and understood the extension of the disaster. She forgot about the pain in her hand and about the fright. Even her father’s rant and her mother’s complaints became a muffled, distant noise. All the air was punched out of her lungs with a single sharp breath.
Her painting had been slashed by the glass and the broken wooden frame of the window. The river had been cut in two by a splinter, and the dancing couple had been ripped apart. The gentleman didn’t hold the lady’s hand any longer. Even worse, the turpentine must have dropped on the canvas because a corner of the painting melted like tears from a rainbow.
Weeks of work. All her dreams. All her plans. Gone. Vanished. Destroyed.
