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“Those beams are over a hundred years old. They won’t hold our weight,” Wally warned.
“We need bigger planks,” Simon growled.
“We don’t have any now. The bastards cut the only ones we have.” Wally stomped out of the barn and studied the courtyard.
“Charlie!” Simon called moments later.
“What?”
“Come and help me.”
“What are we doing?” Charlie asked as he followed Simon across the courtyard.
“The barn doors should just about do it. I will loosen the hinges. You get the horses out of the way so they don’t get hit when this thing falls. We need to break the wooden planks off. They should be long enough. We need help.”
Before he could say anything else, several of the men appeared and began to lead the horses away.
Moments later, the sound of the heavy door hitting the ground reverberated through the silence of the night, but nobody paid it any attention. No sooner had it hit the ground than the men began to hammer, tug, and pull two of the long planks off the main framework.
“Got one,” Marcus cried.
He carried it with Charlie into the grain barn. Thankfully, it was long enough. They slid it carefully over the grain pit, directly behind Hetty, and waited while Wally and Simon slid a second one directly beneath her feet.
Once in place, Charlie began to sidle across the coarse planks toward her.
“I’ll go too. I am a bit lighter than everyone else,” Marcus suggested.
He copied Charlie’s side-steps, and began to sidle across the planks. They bowed dangerously low beneath the weight of both men, but mercifully didn’t break while the men crept toward her.
“Stay still for me, darling,” Charlie murmured gently once he reached her. Sweat popped out on his brow as he stood on tip-toe, and balanced his weight so that he didn’t fall off the plank into the grain, and inadvertently kill her himself.
He looked at Marcus. “I’ll hold her so that she won’t fall any further if the grain slips again. Can you reach the rope?”
Marcus shook his head. “Not above her head. Lift her weight a little. I can cut the rope at the back of her neck. Just keep her still so I don’t cut her.”
Hetty had never been so glad to see anyone before in her entire life. She looked deeply into Charlie’s eyes, and saw all of the raw emotion there that words couldn’t convey.
She was cold, hungry and tired, but nothing was important beyond the fact that Charlie was alive, and unharmed, and there to save her.
“Keep looking at me,” he murmured as he lifted her weight, and held her tightly against his chest to steady her.
“I love you,” she whispered.
She just had to say the words. Now that he was there before her, nothing could hold them back. She wanted him to understand just how important he was to her.
“Hold that thought for me, darling,” Charlie replied, but didn’t get the chance to say anything else because the ropes suddenly became loose, and she was free.
“Come on, this way,” he murmured. He held her hand and guided her toward safety.
Hetty copied his movements, and side-stepped along the plank. No sooner had her feet hit the ground than Wally and Simon were there to sweep her into huge hugs amidst many prayers of thanks for her safety.
“Come here,” Charlie growled when she was finally released.
He held her tightly against him while everyone else removed the remains of the door, and set to work securing the barn.
The most he allowed Hetty to move was to one side of the grain store so that they were out of the way of the ebb and flow of the men. Then, he couldn’t deny either of them a moment longer. In spite of the watchful gazes of her brothers, he captured her lips in a kiss that left her breathless.
“I love you, Hetty,” he murmured.
