Page 111 of A Fearless Heart
Bond nudged the rubble with her foot, setting off a small avalanche. “That means you’re right—someone has caused this to happen. My lord, go find Rundle and ask him for more shovels. We need to clear this enough to crawl through.”
“Crawl?” he asked, looking down at his outfit.
“Trevor! Go!” Cady shouted. Her brother fled.
While they waited for his return, Cady remembered that she had a shovel and trowel in her little work shed and the women quickly retrieved them. Trevor returned soon afterward with additional tools and added to the army. They set to work, kicking up clouds of dust and sending pebbles flying in all directions. At one point, Trevor sacrificed his cravat, tying it over his mouth and nose as a mask.
No matter how hard they worked, the wall of debris didn’t seem to give way.
Cady took a breather, setting down her shovel as she gulped in air. She looked around, and realized her party had dwindled.
“Where is Trevor?”
“I don’t know, my lady,” Bond said. “He was here and then when I turned around he was gone. Maybe he got ill from all this noxious air and had to get back outside.”
Cady frowned, disquieted by her brother’s disappearance. She needed all the help she could get right now, and her allies were dropping like flies.
“Will you go out and around to check on Jem and his team? Maybe they’ve got through by now.”
Bond nodded, promising to be back as soon as she knew what was happening.
But she did not come back.
Cady continued to claw at the rocks and dirt until she was able to clamber up to near the ceiling, where a faint push of air suggested a clearing. She held the lantern up and looked over. Cady saw some shadows moving against the light, and knew there were rats all through the passage.
“I can’t, I can’t,” she whispered.
But if she didn’t go now, and if Gabe was trapped down there, then he’d die.
She called out both ahead and behind, hoping someone, anyone would answer. Nothing.
She climbed over and pushed at the loose dirt, forcing her way through. On the other side, she crouched down, holding the lantern as if it were as precious as gold.
“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.”
But there was no one else to do it.
Cady gripped the lantern tight in one hand, then stooped to grab a chunk of old masonry in the other. She took a breath, and stepped forward.
One step. Another. Another.
A rat burst out from cover and ran across the passageway, squeaking. Cady hurled the chunk at the rat. Naturally, she missed completely, but there was something helpful about taking action. And here she was, still alive. She picked up another rock and continued on, holding the lantern as far out in front of her as she could manage.
Cady kept going, sneaking around piles of rubble and once hitching up her skirts to climb over a spill of dirt from a wall collapsing in. She ran into a cobweb that covered her whole face like a veil. She swiped it away angrily before she even registered what it was. When she paused afterward to look for spiders, she realized she didn’t care. Spiders, no matter how venomous or disgusting they might be, were not important right now. Only one thing mattered, and that was finding Gabe.
She turned a corner and almost ran into another rockfall, leaving only a narrow gap at the left side. Cady couldn’t possibly get through the narrow gap while holding the lantern. She put it down on the floor of the passage and squeezed through the gap.
Darkness. Light oozed from the gap, but only fitfully, and after several paces, the gloom took over.
Biting back tears, Cady put her hand on the cold, damp wall and stepped forward. What had Trevor said back in London?He can live down at the bottom of a well for all I care. A cold, damp well.
And here she was.
Just as Cady had that thought, she felt something move ahead of her. She stopped, inhaling as she did.
The other thing stopped too, waiting, watchful. A rat? Something worse?
Or perhaps her only chance to find what she was looking for. Cady held her breath, and strained her ears as much as she could.
