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“Bloody hell! Run!”
They started back toward the gardens, but had taken no more than a few steps when they heard clanging and the shouts of men.
“They’re coming,” she said, unnecessarily. He could hear them coming, and his belly roiled with nervous nausea. Even reaching the gardens didn’t make him feel relieved. The guard would follow, and there were more of them.
“Not that way.” Alexandra grasped his arm and pulled him toward her.
“But this is the way to my apartments.”
“And if we lead them that way, we’ll never make it. We lead them away, then double back.”
“That’s if we manage to evade them.”
“We’ll evade them,” she said moving into thicker brush and shadows. “We have to. At least you have to.”
Tristan took her hand. “I know what you’re thinking, and I won’t allow it.”
“If I go back—”
“No. The king needs you just as much as he needs me. We both escape.”
“Fine.”
He could still hear the guards behind them, but he and Alexandra had enough of a lead that the guards couldn’t be certain they weren’t hiding in the gardens. They had to move slowly, checking under benches and behind trees.
Tristan emerged from the gardens, still holding Alexandra’s hand, and the two ran toward a cluster of buildings. “We have to find a way to access the roofs,” she said.
“Not the roofs again.”
“If we stay down here, they’ll find us. No one else is out after curfew.” She tried a door, found it locked, and moved to the next. Tristan tried one and then another. The third opened.
“Alexandra.”
“Good!” She looked over her shoulder before moving inside the building. “I don’t think we were spotted.”
The building they’d entered had once been the home of a wealthy family. Tristan assumed it would have been someone who often wanted to curry favor with the Bourbon family, as this was an ideal location if one wanted access to the royals when they visited Paris. It appeared to be empty now, all the valuable items looted. Alexandra pointed to a staircase, and they ran up it, then up again, finally taking a small attic door out onto the roof. She closed the door after him, then went to the edge and looked down.
“They’re searching one street over,” she said, moving back again. “But they won’t think to look up here.” She sat, then lay down, her chest heaving as she gulped in breaths.
“Now what?” he asked, sitting beside her. “This roof doesn’t appear to connect to any others.”
She pointed toward the neighboring building. “It’s close to that one.”
“Not close enough that we can jump.”
“Once the guard moves away, we can go back inside and look for something to bridge the gap.”
Wonderful. They stared up at the stars for a few minutes, then he said, “Did you get it?”
She turned her head and smiled. “It was right where you said it would be.” She patted her pocket.
“I hope this is worth it,” he grumbled.
“It’s already been worth it to me, just to hear you call Louis Charles the king.”
“I did not.”
“Yes, you did. You said,the king needs you just as much as he needs me.” She sat and placed a hand on his cheek. “A lovely sentiment by the way, even if it’s not true.” Her hand dropped. “And don’t think it means that I’m not angry with you for disobeying my orders.”
