Page 97 of The Uprising
‘I wondered how you got here but there was a part of me that knew you were on your way; I can always sense when you’re near. You wear it, my love. It’s freezing down here.’ He pulled the fur-trimmed hood over her head and touched her cheek. ‘My page boy wife,’ he said, his voice catching.
They moved quickly through the dimly lit passage; there was nowhere to go but forward.
‘How clever of the monks to connect that room up with a passage to jump down for a quick escape. The poor things must have been living in terror since the beginning of the Dissolution of the Monasteries,’ said Cara.
‘Where did you leave the horses?’ asked George.
‘We tethered them in a hidden clearing by the river to disguise their noise in case they should become restless,’ Cara whispered.
Even a loud whisper echoed around the underground tunnel and she was wary of their chatter being overheard. She estimated they must already be out from beneath the abbey and on their way into the forest.
Several minutes passed as they walked through an unlit portion of the passage, Cara stumbled and felt George’s hands steady her from behind. He was slow bringing up the rear and she kept turning to check on him. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked.
He reached for her hand and squeezed it as he said, ‘I’m fine. I’m overjoyed to be getting away though.’
Swifty turned and whispered, ‘I think we’re nearing the end of the passage. Here’s the door.’
‘Brother Grayson said there’s some kind of secret tunnel we need to crawl through,’ said Edward.
They fumbled around searching for the hidden exit until Edward said, ‘I think this is it. We’ll need to get on our knees to enter by the looks of it.’
One-by-one, Edward leading, Swifty behind him and Cara and George following, they entered the confined space and began crawling through it.
Cara held back a scream, and let out a low whimper, as something brushed against her ankle.
‘All right?’ whispered George near Cara’s ear.
‘I think a rat just ran over my ankle.’
‘Let’s go as quickly as we can, and we’ll soon be out of here,’ he said.
A few minutes later, they saw a stream of light drifting into the gloomy, damp tunnel, and Edward whispered, ‘Right, we’re near the exit point. Are you ready to make a run for it through the forest?’
Cara longed to be back in the fresh air, but she stiffened as they heard voices.
A commanding voice said, ‘You go that way, and I’ll look around here. He can’t have gone far.’
‘Yes, Sir.’
George whispered, ‘Sounds like they don’t know the rest of us are here, so Brother Grayson must have managed to get back downstairs without giving us away.’
‘What shall we do?’ asked Edward.
‘I think we’d better wait for him to check the area and move on.’ George raised his finger to his lips, and they huddled in the cramped space.
‘There’s not much air,’ said Cara. ‘We need to get out of here soon.’
George reached for her hand. ‘We will. Let’s give him a few minutes and then we’ll make a run for it.’
Cara’s heartbeat still raced erratically, and she struggled to breathe as feelings of panic overcame her. She took some deep breaths of the thin cold air and rested her head against George’s shoulder and closed her eyes to try and calm herself.
The four of them were wedged beside one another, and they stopped talking and tried not to move. They didn’t want to risk attracting attention now when they were so close to freedom.
The seconds and minutes felt like hours as they passed by, until George said, ‘It’s been quiet for a while. Let’s make a dash for it; where’s the exit?’
Swifty said, ‘I can see it up there, there’s some kind of covering we need to move. Shall I climb up and do it?’
‘Thank you, Swifty, yes, please go carefully.’
