“Ester?”
Dismounting, Julian swiftly searched the gutted building. His heart sank as he found it empty. It offered no clue, no sign that anyone had recently sought refuge within its crumbling walls or even walked around the area to disturb its natural surroundings. The disappointment cut through him with cold clarity. But he shook it off, tightening his resolve to press on.
Deciding to proceed on foot, he used a fallen branch which he had stripped of its leaves to batter aside tall nettles and brambles, heading for the next building in the complex. Rufus followed, grazing by his master’s heels.
The next edifice loomed larger, a two-story structure with an intact roof and the ghostly remnants of broken glass in the upper-story windows. As Julian neared, he thought he caught a fleeting glimpse of movement behind one of those windows.
“Ester!” he called out, his voice echoing in the dense woodland.
Silence was his only answer.
“Ester! It is me, Julian! You have nothing to fear from me. Please, come out if you are there.”
Again, only the sounds of the forest responded—rustling leaves, the chill breeze, and the distant calls of a bird. No further movement at any of the windows or signs from within that there was anything capable of hearing or understanding his words.
Rubbing his gloved hands together, and breathing into them—rather futilely—for warmth, Julian carefully made his way to the door, which was barely hanging on its rusty hinges. He wrestled it aside, the metal screeching in protest.
Inside lay a dark hallway, its air thick with the must of decay. Stairs led upward to derelict floors, many of their treads rotted through. Julian was certain the movement had originated from up there somewhere.
Muttering an empty prayer, he placed a foot cautiously on the first step—it creaked but held his weight. He climbed to the next, and then leaped across a yawning gap that spanned three risers. Landing on the next intact stair, he heard an ominous crack… then the stairs beneath him gave way.
He flailed for something to arrest his fall, missed with one hand, and miraculously caught the edge of a broken stair with the fingertips of the other. Splinters pierced through his gloves, drawing blood. His fall was momentarily halted, but now, the stair began to bend under his weight. His legs dangled in dark space. The clatter of broken and rotting wood hitting the floor was disturbingly distant. There must be a cellar level beneath the stairs, with no floor to separate it from the ground floor.
Above, just then, a silhouette emerged against the dim light filtering through the broken roof.
It was Ester.
Their eyes locked across the perilous gap, as she peered down at him from the summit of the staircase.
Julian gritted through clenched teeth, his voice straining with urgency, “I—I came to find you.”
“To have me arrested,” Ester countered accusingly, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
“No!” His protest came in a breathless rush, his fingers slipping slightly as panic took hold. “To help you!”
Ester's gaze flickered with uncertainty, and then she disappeared for a moment. When she returned, her arms strained under the weight of a salvaged plank. It trembled in her grip, its heft perceptibly beyond her strength to carry. With a resolute grunt, she extended the plank across the gap, anchoring it firmly against the wall, and then held on to its end, bracing her feet against the banister.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold this,” she called down to him, her voice trembling as much as the makeshift bridge she had created. “Hurry, before that step fails you!”
The stair in question was distinctly U-shaped now and giving protesting creaks. Julian’s grip, however, had slipped to the tips of his fingers—already slick with sweat and blood. He would lose that grip before the wood broke in all likelihood. He could not hesitate.
With a surge of adrenaline, Julian flung his hand upward, seizing the rough edge of the plank. Straining his every muscle, he abandoned the crumbling stair, then with the hand that had held him dangling over the drop, grabbed the plank higher up. Ester, bracing hard against the banister, her feet dug into the wood, fought to keep the plank stable as Julian’s weight shifted its balance. He climbed feverishly, hand over agonizing hand, until at last he could swing a leg over the top stair and propel himself onto the solid floor—just as a loud snap whipped through the hollow stairwell. The broken stair gave way completely, and Ester, too, let go of the plank as it slid away before landing below with a crashing cacophony.
“Thank you,” Julian gasped, collapsing on his back onto the dusty floorboards in exhaustion. His chest heaved as he lay there, the coolness of the floor seeping into his bones.
Ester, her own breathing heavy, moved away from the perilous edge and crossed her legs as she sat down a safe distance away. Julian craned his head to see her clutching a worn satchel, protectively. His gaze quickly flickered away from it, but she caught the brief look.
“It is mine,” she stated plainly, an edge of defensiveness in her tone.
“It is. I will not question it,” Julian responded between labored breaths. He paused, gathering strength to speak again, “Did you also take the cameo?”
“No!” The denial burst from Ester with sharp intensity. “That was yourgood friendthe Viscount Kingsley.”
Julian sighed heavily, shifting onto his side, his lean, muscular form sprawled a few feet away from her smaller one on the dusty floor. It was an easy ploy. To deny guilt and cast it upon another. He watched her rise elegantly, the satchel clutched closed to the delicate curve of her waist.
“Are you going to hand me over to the magistrate?” Ester’s voice broke through the tension, her eyes widening.
She stood before him, her gown sullied from where she had knelt on the floor to reach Julian with the makeshift ladder. There was a tear at her left hip and a wisp of fabric on a nail that jutted from one wall. Her beauty shone through the streak of grim on her forehead where she had wiped away sweat with the back of a hand made dirty by the piece of wood she had carried to the stairs. Yet, she faced him with head held high and eyes blazing.
