Algernon evidenced no reassurance at this, perhaps because one of the sparks had set a corner of the basket alight. Indeed, he began flailing his arms, creating more of a risk to their safety than the weather or the fire. Elodie nudged him aside, removed her coat, and beat it against the flames until they were snuffed.
“See,” she said soothingly. “We’re perfectly—”
Thud. As another gust rocked the basket, everyone stumbled.
“Just take us as low as you can,” Elodie told Bloyd even as Gabriel opened one of the ER kits and began pulling out ropes and a harness. “We’ll rappel the rest of the way.”
There followed a thorough explanation from Algernon as to why he could not agree with this proposed action, mainly consisting of the wordsnever,oh God, andMummy!Elodie ignoredit. Behind her, Gabriel was strapping on a harness, looking entirely calm, as if he were preparing to walk into a classroom. Elodie hastily stripped off her skirt and petticoat until she was left only in long drawers, thus enabling her to don a harness also. Then, taking coils of rope from her kit, she crammed as much of her personal luggage into the newly available space as she could, hoisted the kit onto her back, and set about securing the rope to one of the basket’s uprights while Gabriel did the same opposite her.
“Mr. Jennings, are you ready?” she asked as she tied a bowline knot.
“No!” he shouted, shaking his head with vigor.
“For goodness’ sake,” Gabriel snapped. “Go home, boy. And once there, try to locate your backbone.” He turned Elodie around and began tugging on the buckles and straps of her harness to check their security, causing her own backbone to feel like it was melting. Memories of him undressing her on their wedding night skittered over her skin, making her tingle and blush. Forcibly repressing them, she checked his harness in turn, like the sensible professional that she was, then they stepped apart, neither of them meeting the other’s eye.
“Ready?” Gabriel asked.
“Of course,” Elodie replied.
Without another word, they tossed their ropes over the edge of the basket.
“Oh God, you’re insane!” Algernon wailed. “You’re going to diiiiie!”
Clipping her harness buckle onto the rope, Elodie hauled herself over the basket’s edge with the ease of someone whose job involved climbing rocks (and occasionally outrunningthem), then paused with her bootheels propped against the woven cane until Gabriel was in the same position on the other side. He looked across at her with solemn steadiness. She grinned in return.
“Race you.”
Gabriel frowned. “Certainly not. Safety regulations state—”
With a laugh, Elodie pushed herself off into the sky. Half a second later, Gabriel followed.
Elodie’s stomach swooped with exhilaration as she rappelled down. Wind-shredded light flickered across her face like the bright memory of birds. Magic kissed her skin, warm and sweet. Bloyd had managed to bring them directly above Dôlylleuad, and as Elodie descended toward it, she admired the picturesque cluster of white-washed cottages, tucked among lush meadows that lay between low, wooded hills. The Ystwyth River wound a placid course nearby like a glinting dream of the sea. Autumn brightness flared among the greenery as if ancient, mythical gods had scattered copper, gold, and rubies when they stalked the land. Elodie was just beginning on a simile involving sheep and pearls when she came to the village’s cobblestone street and the end of her descent. Her feet hit the ground with a jolt; at the same moment, Gabriel landed.
“It’s a tie,” she told him, giddy with adrenaline.
“It wasn’t a race,” he replied punctiliously. “But just for the record, my left foot touched down half a second before either of yours.”
Elodie scoffed. They unclipped themselves, and Gabriel waved to Bloyd, who immediately accelerated the balloon away. Closing her eyes, Elodie inhaled a scent of old leaves, chimney smoke, and shimmery magic. A bewitching thrilltingled through her as it always did at the start of an assignment, when everything was wild, unknown, and free from students begging wretchedly for deadline extensions.
“Hell’s bells, what a bricky sensagger!”
Instantly, her tingles turned to ashes. She knew that dialect, and it was not Welsh. Opening her eyes, she turned to discover that she’d been so busy enjoying the landscape during her descent, she’d entirely missed the people within it. Two young ladies in white lace dresses beneath white lace parasols, alongside a trio of young gentlemen with beige boater hats, beige suits, and thin beige mustaches, stared at her amazedly. All that was missing to complete the picture was a tea service, someone holding a cricket bat, and an emphysemic bulldog.
“I say, that was bang up to the elephant, what!” one of the gentlemen declared.
“Balmy on the crumpet,” said another excitedly.
“Dimber-damber ekker, sure puts footer in the wagger pagger bagger!” contributed the third.
Elodie was aghast. Only one species talked so incomprehensibly: the well-educated man. She leaned a little toward Gabriel. “Did we somehow get turned around and end up back in Oxford?”
“Hm,” he replied, which Elodie understood to meanunless they are landforms that happen to resemble people, I’m not interested. Setting down his ER kit, he began unbuckling his harness, ruthlessly leaving Elodie to deal with the human geography aspect of the job. Repressing a sigh, she put on her best professional countenance and moved forward, hand extended…
Then stopped and looked over her shoulder as something bashed against her thighs. Seeing a loose strap of her harness,she tried to reach it, then concluded she’d be better off just removing the whole thing, whereupon…
—
“Good afternoon,” Gabrielsaid, stepping forward in the bewildered silence to shake first one man’s hand and then another while Elodie muttered under her breath, wrestling with her harness. “The name’s Tarrant.”
