Page 12 of To Tame the Wild Rake
Soon, they were following Bets up a flight of stairs, along a passage, and then up another flight of stairs. “The Beast has his rooms in the next building. There’s a way through from Heaven, but we’re taking the bridge from the attics. All the workers are downstairs. It should be safe enough.”
In the attics, Bets lit a candle and led them past a series of small rooms, with side passages running off at intervals. “We girls sleep up here,” Sukie explained. “The men sleep across the bridge in the other attic. The Beast is on the floor below, and he keeps his pets close. If he has the boy you’re looking for, it’ll be there.”
Bets hesitated at an intersection “Can we stop and get our stuff?”
“One small bag,” Wakefield replied. “Something you can carry while running.”
“Better get changed,” Aldridge suggested, “into something you can wear in the street.”
Wakefield agreed. “You’ll not only attract the wrong kind of attention dressed like that; you’ll freeze. Be quick. We don’t know how long until they raise the alarm.”
Bets led them down the next side passage, and handed Aldridge the candle. Both women fetched stubs of candles to light, and disappeared into their rooms.
Listen as he could, Aldridge could hear no sound of alarm, but that didn’t mean their absence hadn’t been discovered. For one thing, they were now in another building. For another, Wharton and his minions would keep any pursuit as quiet as possible, so customers were not alarmed.
He frowned at the door behind which Bets was presumably changing and packing a bag. What was taking so long? Even as he had the thought, Sukie let herself back out into the passage, and Bets was only a few seconds behind.
From the bulky look of them, both of them had decided to wear as much of their wardrobe as they could, layer on layer. All to the good. It wouldn't slow them down, and they'd be all the warmer.
Again, Bets took the lead. Aldridge followed, with Sukie behind him and Wakefield bringing up the rear.
Along the narrow passage, down a few steps, and on to a broader passage that led to double doors. Bets eased one of them open, and shielded the flame of her candle with her palm. This must be the enclosed bridge that led to the other building. No windows, but Aldridge could feel the wind whistling in from outside through gaps in the floor and walls.
Betts saw his hesitation. "It's solid enough." She slipped through the door and Aldridge followed, then the other two.
A few paces brought them to another pair of doors. Aldridge opened one enough that Bets could lead them into another warren of rooms and then down another staircase, this one a single flight ending at a panel that opened into a far more opulent passage.
"There will be guards," Betts whispered. "The Beast always has guards."
There were, but they did not expect an invasion from the servants’ quarters. Two men stood within view of the main staircase, discussing a prize fight while watching over the apartment's main entrance. Aldridge and Wakefield studied them from the shadows. Several minutes passed and they heard no one else. They withdrew around the corner to where they left the two women sitting in darkness, and decided their strategy in whispers.
Aldridge was the better bowler, and a small stone carving on a side table made a suitable projectile. As planned, it sailed silently over the heads of the sentries, hit the wall of a cross passage with a thud, then clattered on its way until it ran out of momentum. It worked even better than they planned. Both men ran after it, and by the time they re-emerged from the passage, Aldridge and Wakefield were one either side of the egress ready to fell them, one with the cosh Wakefield pulled from his pocket, the other with a twin to the impromptu cricket ball in a stocking donated by Bets.
They were checking their victims when a voice called, "What was that?" They had only enough time to tug the first two men out of the way before a third rushed through the doorway and met the same fate.
With help from Bets and Sukie, they bundled all three into a linen room which handily provided sheets to tear up for bindings and gags.
"This way," Wakefield suggested, leading them into the cross passage from which the third guard had emerged. It continued the opulent theme of the foyer, and was lit by glass-shielded candles in wall sconces.
Sure enough, halfway along, a chair sat in front of a door, a half-eaten meal on the floor beside it.
The door was locked.
Wakefield went back to search the sentries for keys, while Aldridge tried the other doors. The rest—all empty bedchambers—opened easily. Each had two single beds, a washstand, and a tiny mirror on the wall. None of the others had been locked and guarded.
"No keys," Wakefield said. "I'd be prepared to bet that Wharton keeps them."
"Don't know this Wharton," Sukie commented, "but the Beast and La Reine carry all the keys."
At that moment, they heard breaking glass from within the room. Wakefield knelt, pulled a kit from his pocket, and began an attempt to pick the lock. Aldridge ran into the next-door room and pulled open the window, to see a slender fair-haired boy climbing the sheer and near-smooth wall.
"Tony," he hissed.
The boy looked down in alarm and lost his grip with one hand. Aldridge held his breath as the climber recovered and shimmied another couple of feet until he could reach over the top of the façade. A quick scramble, and he was gone. Aldridge returned to Wakefield.
"Our boy was here," he said. "He has gone out of the window and over the roof. Can we set up a diversion, do you think?"
"You are sure it was him?" Wakefield asked.
