Chapter Eleven
Isabella rose to her feet and decided it was time to do something other than lament her own existence. So she got dressed and went to check in on Claudia. When she was confident that her ladies’ maid was sleeping easily, she headed outside to take a walk. She found thatstrolling out of doorsalways went far to restore any laggingspiritsshe might otherwise have.
She headed for the top of the keep where she could look out at the sea, where the salty scent of the water was the strongest. The gray clouds from the day before were still heavy with the threat of rain, but it hadn’t dared to do so yet.
As she stood there, an unexpectedorange glow caught Isabella’s attention. It was a barely perceptible glint on the water from time to time, and she frowned, wondering what it could be. She glanced all around the shoreline and saw nothing, so she made her way around the circular roof, looking for the unusual source.
It wasn’t until she reached the opposite end of the keep that her heart lodged into her throat. One of the outbuildings of the castle was lit up in flames.
Fire!
With her heart pounding in her throat, Isabella sprinted toward the staircase and flew down to thelower level. She came to a halt in front of Ridge’s chamber door, praying he was within as shepoundedfervently. She heard a slight curse and then something crashed to the floor as he finally wrenched the door open. He had a pair of trousers held up to shield the lower half of his body, but the top half was bare.
For a moment, shealmostforgot the impending threat, as her gaze was riveted to those muscles that she remembered all too well from theirlate night swim. Butthen hegrowled impatiently, “What is it?”
She abruptly remembered her purpose for being there.“There’s a fire,” she saidstill out of breath from herrun. “In one of the outbuildings.”
His face hardened,andhe bit out another curse, this one even more foul. “Let me get dressed. Donotmove from that spot.”
He slammed the door,andIsabella paced in front of it, knowing that every minute was precious, and the more severe the issue could get.
By the time Ridge reappeared, his trousers and boots in place, a shirt on but lefthanging loose, Mr. and Mrs. Hopper were rushing toward them. “Fire, Mr. Claymoore! In the storage shed!”
“Lady Isabella just informed me of that fact,” he said curtly. As he walked briskly forward,tucking inhis shirt as he went, Isabella, along with the porter and his wife, rushed to keep up with him. “Mrs. Hopper, you might want to stay with Claudia to make sure she doesn’t become alarmed.”
“Of course.” Ethel bobbed her head and rushed back toward the maid’s quarters.
Isabella wasn’t certain what to do, so she asked, “Should I also stay—?”
“You are to remain by my side atalltimes,” Ridge returned firmly. He turned to Mr. Hopper. “Where are Isaac and Ian?”
“They went home. I didn’t think we needed their services any longer since you had returned.”
Ridge shoved a hand through his hair as they headed downstairs and outside the castle, toward where impending danger lurked. “It’s best to retrieve themnow, don’t you think?”
“Yes, sir.” Herb rushed off in the opposite direction.
From here, it wasn’t difficult to ascertain where the mysterious glow of earlier was coming from, for the fire wasalreadylicking upward toward the heavens, the heat and smoke from the flames as it devoured its prey starting to clog the aromatic gardens.
Ridge, in turn, led Isabella over to the outsidespigotand began pumping water into buckets. “For the moment we’re not going near that shed,” he instructed. “Our efforts would be for naught against that blaze. What we need to do is make sure that it doesn’t spread.”
Isabella nodded her head. “I understand.”
“Good.” Once their buckets were full, they each hoisted one. “Let’s just hope that the villagers have something a bit more usefulthan a handful of buckets, so that we can ensure the castle is free from danger.”
Isabella followed Ridge to the edge of the inferno where he began to spread the water in a semi-circle a short distance from the fire. He pointed toward the opposite end, where she began to throw it on the ground in a similar fashion.
They made several trips like this, back and forth, until Mr. Hopper and the brothers returned, driving a wagon pulled by two horses. Herb rushed over and said, “They have a hose with a portable water cistern that we can spray directly on the fire.”
Ridge nodded, as he waved the brothers forward. One of them pumped water into the hose, while the other pointed it toward the blaze. However, while the fire sizzled and sputtered when the water hit it,their efforts were notdoing enough to contain the problem. Soon enough it would become a big pile of rubble, so Ridge instructed them to continue with his original plan of making a break around the perimeter of the burning shed sothe firewouldn’tspreadtoanything else. While that meant what was inside would be a total loss, at least he wouldbe making his bestattemptsto save everything else around it.
Isabella watched it all in tense fear, her hands clasped before her as she silently prayed for a positive outcome. But then something caught her attention, a slight movement from behind the inferno. “Ridge!” She pointed toward the shadow. “Someone’s there!”
Ridgejerked his gaze towhere she pointed,and she saw the figure take off. He gave chase, disappearing behind the flaming shed.
Isabella was torn, wondering if she should follow, but then she decided she wouldn’t do any good if she got in the way, so she remained where she was, in case she might be of any help to Isaac, Ian, or Mr. Hopper, who was standing to the side and keeping the horsessettledwhile they continued to fight the blaze.
At long last,asthe sun was starting to set,the fire was reduced to crackling wood and crumbling stone, the water they’d spread around the shedhavingbeencontained to one area.But even then, Isabella knew that ifwasn’tfor the downpour the day before, this might have become a rather dangerous and unforgiveable situation.
