“'Tis safe,” Sawny reassured with a quick bob of his head. “Me and Tom tried it to be sure.” He shuffled in place and gave a weak shrug of one shoulder. “We were looking for a quick way to get out and hide in case your brother…” his voice trailed off as he swallowed hard and shrugged again. “The servants he takes a liking to dinna always come back, so we wanted to make certain we had a way to escape.”
So Calum had become just as vile as the monster who had created him. She’d known he was cruel and manipulative but, without a doubt, he’d reached levels she’d never imagined—nor did she wish to imagine such evil. Catriona pulled Sawny into a hug. “The both of ye, you and Tom, need to come with me. 'Tis wicked dangerous here and will be so until I rid the place of Calum.”
Sawny smiled and his cheeks flamed red again but this time not from anger. “We have to get yourself safe first, m’lady.” He held the lantern over the chute and held out his hand. “Keep your feet and your hands on the walls to slow your way down through the tunnel or ye’ll end up rolling out arse over teakettle.”
Catriona peered down the hole again and tried not to think about all the things that had touched those walls over the years.I wanted a plan. I got a plan. Time to move.She grabbed up her skirts and clambered into the hole, sitting on the edge of the great stone refuse tunnel. She swallowed hard and focused on Sawny as she wedged her hands against the opposite sides of the opening then did the same with her feet inside the tunnel on the walls. With her arms locked, she held herself secure and in place until time to begin her descent.
“'Twill be fine, Mistress,” Sawny encouraged. “I’d never do anything to harm ye.”
“I ken ye well to be loyal and true, dear lad, and for that ye have my gratitude.” She looked down between her feet, said a silent prayer, then began her descent, inching herself from side to side with slow, calculated concentration. She glanced back up at Sawny peering down at her over the lip of the chute. “I’ll see ye at the end of the tunnel, aye?”
“Aye,” Sawny promised. “I’ll be waiting there for ye to lead ye to the caves.”
Then he replaced the board atop the hole and disappeared.
“I can do this,” she repeated under her breath as she descended deeper into the darkness.
