“Well, you didn’t seem impressed with it, so I thought to emphasize the point.” Beth shivered and pulled the edges of her coat tighter. It was damp, but still warmer than being without it.
She thought the boy, Gil, sighed, but she couldn’t be sure.
…
“Find her, Walter. Find Beth!”
The stench bit into the back of his throat, but he did not stop.
Nathan ran through the filthy sewer, knowing that finding Beth would not be easy. They worked with boys and men who foraged down here. Some died and were never found. This was a place someone like Beth could be lost and never seen again.
Unscrupulous, unsavory criminals operated out of these sewers. He had to find her.
He didn’t stop to listen; he knew his brothers would be following.
“Beth!” He roared her name as he followed the dog. His feet and legs were soon soaked in black sludge. His lungs began to heave, but he kept moving, following Walter’s lead.
Did the dog even know where he was going? It certainly seemed that way. Perhaps he’d lived down here in a previous life?
The woman he loved was down here somewhere and had been for some time. What had that man done to her? Was she alive?
“God, please be alive,” he whispered. “Beth!” He kept roaring her name. Walter veered left, and Nathan nearly overran the turn. Hurrying to keep up, he heard the sound of water running.
“You better be going somewhere, Walter!”
Continuing to call her name, he reached the end of the tunnel, then the dog stopped.
“Beth!”
He heard the sound of running feet up ahead.
“Beth!”
“Nathan!” He saw movement off to the right, then there she was standing before him in the tunnel. The relief had his knees buckling.
“Thank god.” His voice was hoarse as he ran to her. Pulling her into his arms, he held her tight. Possibly too tight, but right in that moment he couldn’t make himself release her.
“Nathan,” she sighed into his chest.
“I have you, sweetheart.”
“I want to go home, Nathan.”
“I know, love, and I’ll take you there.”
Easing her away from him he stripped off his cloak and wrapped her in it as she was wet and shivering.
“Oh, they’re gone,” Beth said looking behind her. Her voice sounded different. Raspy.
“Who has gone?”
“The boys who looked after me. Gil and the others. They were leading me out.”
Closing his eyes, he imagined her in the hands of anyone who was forced to make a living in these sewers.
“I wanted to give them money, Nathan.”
She sounded dazed, her words almost slurred.
