Page 9 of Lady Elizabeth's Winter Stranger
Cyril made a jerky movement and suddenly slipped from the branch.For a giddy moment, he plummeted through midair.Elizabeth muffled a horrified gasp, not wanting to distract them.
Tom lunged as far as he could and caught the boy before he lost his balance entirely.Cyril’s feet struck the branch Tom stood on and for a sickening moment, Elizabeth feared that the lad might slip, taking his rescuer with him.
But Tom managed to bring the boy close.When Cyril’s arms wrapped around the man, she heard him sob.She felt rather like crying herself.
“We’ll get him safely down now.”Tom smiled down at her with unconcealed relief.
“Thank heaven.”She clasped her hands in front of her chest.“Thankyou.”
Tom turned his attention to Cyril.“Let me go now and hold onto this branch.I’ll turn around and get you down.If you climb onto my back, we’ll get to the ground as easy as can be.”
It took a little while for Cyril to obey the instructions, but eventually he clambered around to find a safe perch on Tom’s back.The two came down the tree as effortlessly as Tom had scaled it in the first place.
On the bottom branch, Tom paused to let Cyril climb off his back.“I’ll let you down from here.It’s a bit of a drop.”
Elizabeth stepped up to stand below them.“I can take him.”
“Thank you,” Tom said.
She reached out and accepted Cyril’s weight, when Tom lowered him toward the ground.As she staggered, Tom jumped down beside her.
The lad was cold and shivering with fear as well.No doubt his arsehadbeen freezing up there.
“Cyril Polkinghorne, I’ll tan your hide when we get home, you imp of Satan!”A stout woman in a red and green striped pelisse bustled up toward them.“Your mother will have my guts for garters if she finds out you ran away from me like that.I’ve got a good mind to send you back to Slough with no Christmas dinner at all.”
Cyril struggled out of Elizabeth’s arms and regarded the middle-aged lady with a gleeful smile.The moments of appealing vulnerability hadn’t lasted long.“Grandmamma, I’ve been having adventures.It’s been ever so exciting.I climbed the tree and—”
“And needed this kind gentleman and lady to help you down.Lawks a-mercy, I nearly had kittens when I saw you stuck up there.”
“I wasn’t in any trouble,” Cyril said with a worrying disregard for the truth.
His grandmother eyed him without favor.“That’s what you think, young man.”She opened her arms.“Now give me a hug.You’ve given your old gran a nasty fright.”
Cyril went readily into her arms and suffered through a suffocating cuddle with reasonably good grace.Behind them, Tom stepped aside to pull both his coats back on.He finished by putting on his hat and gloves.He must be freezing.The sun struggling to shine through the clouds shed no warmth.
“I’m Dora Polkinghorne.Thank you for your kindness in saving Cyril.He’s a young devil, but I’d hate him to break his neck.”
Tom smiled and took Elizabeth’s arm with a proprietary air that would have annoyed her in any other man, particularly one she hardly knew.She was perturbed that right now, all she felt was pleasure in the contact.“My wife and I were happy to help.”
Wife?Elizabeth cast him a quick, questioning glance, but he was smiling at Mrs.Polkinghorne with more of the easy charm that had already beguiled Elizabeth.
“I’m just so glad you were here.The park is nearly empty.”Mrs.Polkinghorne released a ruffled Cyril from the enthusiastic hug and regarded him with a frown.“If he’d fallen and hurt himself, my daughter-in-law would never forgive me.He’s her only child, and I’m afraid she spoils him.”
“Not to mention that if something had happened to him, it would ruin Christmas,” Elizabeth said lightly.
“I could have got down,” Cyril said belligerently.
“No, you could not,” his grandmother said.“Now thank this nice gentleman and his lady for helping you and I’ll take you home.Mary’s got dinner nearly ready and she’ll sulk for a month if it’s burned.”
Cyril turned to Tom and Elizabeth.“Thank you for getting me down out of the tree.”
“You’re welcome, Cyril.”Tom reached forward and shook his hand.
“And thank you for catching me,” he said to Elizabeth with a surprisingly deft bow.
“That was very neatly done,” Mrs.Polkinghorne said.“Now, let’s get you back to Paddington.I’m too old for all this excitement and it’s too cold to stand around in the snow.”
“I know.When I was up the tree, my arse nearly froze off.”
