Page 84 of The Uprising
They followed Edward out onto the upper floor, and stood in a huddle for a minute, listening keenly for any sounds of life. All was quiet and still, except for the distant echoes of the hypnotic chanting rising up from the spiritual heart of the abbey. Edward advanced towards the first door on the side of the building which overlooked the garden. He put his ear to the door, there was no sound of any movement. He signalled them to step back and stay out of the way, and he tentatively turned the door’s handle.
It swung open, and Cara held her breath as she watched him stick his head around the door and then slowly enter the room. Her heart thumped wildly and sounded so loud to her ears she wouldn’t have been surprised if Swifty could hear it.
Edward backed out into the hallway, shook his head, and held his palms upwards, before closing the door slowly behind him, and advancing with careful steps towards the second door. He repeated the process and was soon back out in the hallway again. He approached the third and final door in the row and clasped his hands together in a prayer symbol and shook them in Cara’s direction.
She stared at him, too rigid with fear to acknowledge his gesture. If George wasn’t in the next room, all was lost. She couldn’t see how they could break him out of Pontefract Castle, if they were still holding him there as it was now the chief command centre for therebel-pilgrimswho were preparing for all-out war.
Cara gulped, and waited. A few seconds later, she heard murmurings, and unable to hold herself back any longer, she dashed towards the room and shot inside. As she appeared around the door, her eyes beheld the beloved face she yearned to see, and Cara flew into George’s arms.
‘You are here,’ she said, trying to choke back the pent-up emotion in her tight throat, but failing as thick, heavy tears slid from her eyes.
Cara stared at George’s blackened eyes and bruised face. He’d taken a serious beating.
What have they done to you?
‘You came for me! I knew something was happening this morning. I dreamed of it,’ George squeezed her against his chest and held her tightly in his arms. This wasn’t the first time they had shared telepathic dreams; Sylvia explained that telepathy was an intrinsic part of the Twin Flame connection.
‘Much as I hate to come between you two; we have no time for this. We must flee if we want to be gone before mass ends and the place is overrun with monks and possibly even rebels too,’ said Edward.
Cara drew back and said, ‘Yes, of course. Let us make haste.’ She grabbed George’s cold hand, and pulled him towards the door, but then he turned back into the room. ‘Hold on, let’s take a quick look out of the window and see how many guards there are out there.’
‘Good idea,’ said Edward.
‘I’ve been watching them, waiting for my chance to try and get away, but there’s always been someone out there,’ said George.
George and Cara approached the window and peered out from a distance, so they could see but not be seen.
‘Oh shit, he’s here,’ said Cara, forgetting her modest Tudorville manners she was mindful to display at court.
‘Who’s here?’ asked George.
‘That blue-eyed man,’ she said.
‘He came to interrogate me. He’s a nasty character and asked lots of probing questions about you.’
‘Was it him who beat you so?’ asked Cara.
George didn’t reply.
‘We’ll have to reach the horses via a different route. Come on, there’s no time to waste. He could be up to look for George at any moment,’ said Edward.
They checked the hallway and slipped out of the room, one by one, and George quietly closed the door behind him, relieved to be on his way to freedom after being imprisoned in the dank cell.
Edward beckoned to them to follow him, and they crossed over to the opposite side of the upper floor. He opened a door and prepared to make a dash for it but immediately came nose-to-nose with a monk dressed in a black robe.
‘Oh shit,’ said Cara again, this time under her breath.
Rose Cottage, York - Present day
George was waiting for Cara at the door and swooped her up in his arms and kissed her on the lips. ‘Come in and tell me all of the news, my darling. I’m making us a fresh pot of coffee. Are you hungry?’
‘Coffee will be lovely. I think I’m too excited to eat.’
Cara placed the rusty, once silver key onto the kitchen table and looked at George.
‘You did it!’ he said.
‘We did it! You pulled it off in Victoriana.’
