Page 50 of The Great Pursuit
“You go first, Harrison,” Aerity told him. She wanted another moment with Paxton. But Harrison shook his head.
“You’re more important, Aer. If I break the rope, you’ll be stuck. You go.”
She wanted to argue, but the two of them were likely to haul her out the window if she tried. So she reached up to give Harrison a quick hug and then moved over to Paxton for a longer one. As they held each other, sudden sadness invaded, cold and disappointing.
“I had so much I wanted to say,” she whispered. Her face was buried in his hot neck and soft hair.
“Me too,” he whispered back.
“Please come with us,” she begged, not willing to let go. Paxton held her harder.
“I want to so badly you can’t imagine. But this is where I will do the greatest good.”
Aerity looked up at him. She knew she had no right to cling to this man. She was soon to be married to another. Paxton’s business was not hers. But part of her would always think of him as her own and wish for his well-being. The thought of Rozaria with her claws in him made her want to rage.
“Do you share a tent with her?” she asked.
His eyebrows pulled together. “Nay.”
Aerity exhaled raggedly. “Be careful, Pax. She wants you, and she’s not one to handle losing very well.”
“Noted.” He kissed her lips one last time, then led her to the window. “Don’t worry about me, Aer.”
Aerity climbed deftly to the edge, her legs dangling over. She turned back to look at Paxton one last time.
“I will always worry about you. All my days.”
His eyes softened with gratitude and something even deeper. “When it is safe, I will find a way to send news. Just know for now that Prince Vito is not to be trusted. I’m not certain of their plan, but when I find out I will alert Lochlanach straightaway.” Aerity nodded. That would have to be good enough.
The sleepy cub creature shuffled over and came up on its hind legs, its front paws on the window, watching Aerity. In the moonlight she could see its adorable face, in completecontrast to the oversized fangs protruding from its mouth. She remembered what Paxton said about Rozaria wanting to destroy it.
“Can I take him?”
Paxton rubbed the back of his neck and looked to Harrison, who shrugged noncommittally. “I don’t know about that, Aer.”
But the idea was in her mind now. She couldn’t let Rozaria kill him.
“He appears part bear,” she said. “Put him on my back and see if he holds on.” Again the men shared a look, as if it weren’t a good idea. “Just do it. Please.”
Paxton sighed and hoisted the creature to her back. It must have sensed the height because right away its arms went around her neck and its legs hitched under her arms, clinging tightly. A sort of nurturing pride filled Aerity and she gave Pax one last smile. He shook his head, but managed a tight smile in return.
She wound the fabric of the improvised rope around her feet and grabbed hold tightly with her hands, then lowered herself down, shifting her foothold as she went. It wasn’t nearly as stable as the silks she was accustomed to climbing, but it would do.
She moved cautiously but swiftly downward until she heard a stretching sound in the fabric and she stilled. When she didn’t hear it again, she moved down more slowly. At the bottom she released the rope with her feet and used her upperbody strength to climb down to the last knot. She eyed the dark ground but saw nothing in her way, so she dropped. Aerity landed on her toes, then heels, and bent her knees. Her palms hit the ground and she breathed a sigh of relief.
The cub clung so tightly that she had to pry him from her back and move him to her chest. She ran to Jude and pulled up onto his back one-handed, then watched the window where Harrison sat on the edge.C’mon, Harrison . . .
His descent was much less graceful. He didn’t know how to use his feet as effectively as Aerity, so he was putting the heels of his feet together, sliding them down to the next knot, and then the next. Aerity glanced up at the window. Paxton’s hands grasped the edge as he stared at her. She raised her hand in a weak good-bye. He nodded and turned, then was gone.
Harrison was three quarters of the way down—so close—when a ripping sound wrenched the air. It was the same spot where she had heard the fabric stretch. Harrison moved faster, and the fabric broke. He tried to land gracefully on his feet as she had, but his ankle seemed to give away and he toppled to the side. To his credit, he made not one sound. She was about to dismount, when Chun and his brother dismounted and ran out from the woods. The two of them got to Harrison and helped him to his feet.
“I have problems with this cursed ankle,” he muttered.
“Let’s get him on the horse,” Chun said. “I can heal him when we are safely away.”
Harrison used his arms and good leg, along with theirhelp, to get on his horse. Aerity peered around at the darkness, eager to be gone from there. They made their way slowly into the woods so as not to make a ruckus. Then as soon as they were out of sight from the camp, the seven horses blazed forward, the beast cub curled in her lap.
Aerity should have felt the rush of freedom in escaping her captors, but what she felt was just the opposite. A confining sense of loss all over again. Her love was now a captive of Rozaria, feigning his loyalty and interest in her. She couldn’t imagine a worse situation. Aerity vowed to send help to him as soon as she could. She only hoped it wouldn’t be too late.
