“You can reach my hand, Jule,” he was saying. “I’ll help you. Trust me.”
“But I have no grip with these slippers, Gussie,” she said. “It was all right on the way up but not on the waydown. And if I take your hand, I will come down with arush and bowl us both over. I may just be stranded here forlife. You will have to toss food up to me. I will become alegend.” She giggled.
“What is the problem?” the earl asked, though he could see very well what the problem was. Julia had frozen withterror and Gussie was not up to talking her down.
“Oh, dear,” she said and giggled again. “Here comes Daniel. Now I really feel six inches tall. I am stranded, thatis what the problem is. My slippers are too smooth to gripthese loose stones and I can hardly take a run at them withat least fifty more stairs spiraling away below them. CanI?” Another giggle.
“Give me your hand, Jule,” Augustus said, his voice a trifle impatient. “You can’t stay up there forever.”
“Oh, goodness,” she said. “I feel remarkably stupid. Go away, Daniel, do.”
“Sit down,” the earl said. “Sit down on the step behind you, Julia.”
“What?” she said. “Time for a rest? I suppose it makes as much sense as standing here.” She sat.
“I can’t pass you, Gussie,” the earl said. “The stairs are too narrow. How far apart can you set your feet and stillmaintain good balance?”
“Eh?’ Augustus said.
“Try it,” the earl said, “Can you reach up and grasp Julia’s waist? You are going to have to slide down, Julia,using your bottom and the flat of your feet.”
“I don’t think so,” she said. Her voice did not sound quite steady. Her giggle sounded a little hysterical.
“Gussie is going to guide you,” he said, “and keep a firm hold of your waist. He is going to pass you between hislegs. I’ll be here to catch you on the other side. I am notgoing to miss you and I am not going to be bowled over.You are quite safe. Ready, Gus?”
“Oh, dear,” Julia said. “Whose idea was it to climb up to the parapets anyway? Yours, Gussie? You deserve to behanged, drawn, and quartered. I’ll not be able to look anyone in the eye when this is all over. I will be mortified inthe extreme. That is if I am still in one piece to not lookanyone in the eye. But if I take the two of you down withme, no one will ever know exactly what happened, willthey? I might be seen as a martyr who died trying to rescueyou both.”
“Julia,” the earl said, keeping his voice firm, “stop babbling. Edge down onto the step where you have your feet. Wait until Gussie’s hands grip you and then move, slowlybut steadily.”
“I am not going to look very elegant, am I?” she said. “And my dress is going to be horribly covered with dustand rubble.”
She was still babbling, but she was doing as she had been told, and Augustus was doing his part, saying nothing, butlooking as solid as a rock.
She moved slowly for as long as she could brace herself with her elbows on the upper step. But when she had tomove them too down onto the rubble, she came sliding in arush that Augustus could barely control and with a littleshriek.
The earl grasped her ankles and let his hands slide up her legs to her knees. Her dress, it seemed, was not moving asfast as the rest of her body. And then she was sitting on thestep below Augustus, looking decidedly shaky and gigglingagain.
“Oh, dear,” she said. “Oh, dear.”
The earl acted without thinking. He took her by the upper arms and brought her to her feet and against him,bracing himself against the outer wall. “You are all rightnow, Julia,” he said against her hair. “Quite safe. I haveyou quite safe.” He wrapped his arms right about her.
“Yes,” she said, her face pressed against his neckcloth. Her teeth were chattering and she was shaking badly. Heknew that for the moment at least she would be incapableof standing alone. “How many more s-stairs are there, D-Daniel? Did you count?”
“Thirty-eight,” he said. “Not too many. Do you want me to carry you down?”
“No,” she said, sounding more like her usual indignant self for a moment. “Absolutely n-not. I can go d-down on my own, thank you.”
“In a few moments, then,” he said. “When you have found your legs again, Julia.” He glanced up at Augustus.
“We might have been here all day,” Augustus said in disgust. “She got the giggles.”
The earl was very glad suddenly that Gussie was there. Julia’s tremblings were making him very aware of theshapeliness of her body pressed against his own. And thewarmth and the softness of her. And there was the emotional relief they both felt after a few minutes of tensionand danger. He began to feel hot despite the coldness of theinside of the tower. He was very glad indeed of Gussie’spresence.
“Oh,” Julia said, raising her face from his neckcloth at last and looking up accusingly into his face, “you will telleveryone, won’t you, Daniel? It would be just like you totell. And this is your perfect opportunity, is it not? I’ll haveno defense against you whatsoever.”
Lord. Those full breasts of hers were heaving against his chest. He could not move her away. As it was she was balanced on the narrower part of the stair they were sharing.
“I’ll not breathe a word,” he told her coldly. “And I am sure Gussie will not either. It would be an embarrassmentto admit to having such a shatterbrained relative.”
