Felix stepped back. “Hey! We’re in here. The earl and countess are here!”
When no reply came, Felix yelled, “What the devil do you think you’re playing at?”
Silence stretched.
With the door closed, the barn was gloomy, lit only by the thin beams that managed to seep between the old boards and around the edges of the door. Julian reached the edge of the bales and scrambled off. When, clutching the ecstatic puppy to her chest, Melissa reached him, he lifted her, puppy and all, to the ground. Then he took her free hand, and they walked to where Felix was examining the door’s hinges.
As they joined him, he shook his head. “I can’t see any way to open the doors.” He glanced around. “And there’s nothing here we can use to break through them.”
Julian huffed. “You know what they say—they don’t build things like they used to. This place is old, well-seasoned, sound, and solid. The only way to get through the door is to have someone open it.”
Felix frowned. “We’re a fair way from the stable or even the horse paddocks. If we yell, do you think they’ll hear us?”
Julian was about to reply when he smelled smoke. He looked down and saw tendrils start to waft beneath the door.
He felt his face turn to stone. “Don’t waste your breath.” He gripped Felix’s arm and, as his brother stared at him, nodded at the smoke. “They’re firing the barn.”
Felix looked down and goggled at the smoke. “For God’s sake!”
Julian slashed a hand through the air, and Felix shut his lips and looked at him questioningly. Julian turned to Melissa and put a finger to his lips, then retook her hand. Tugging Felix along as well, he drew them deeper into the barn. When they were some way from the door, he released Felix and murmured to them both, “There is another way out, as long as whoever it is hasn’t realized it’s there. If they do know of it, we’ll be sitting ducks as we leave, but it is our only way out of here.”
Felix’s expression cleared as he realized what Julian meant. He waved Julian on.
Julian met Melissa’s eyes, then closed his hand more firmly about hers and quickly walked on. He led them around a dividing wall to where a wooden ladder stood anchored on the ground, giving access to the barn’s loft.
From around the door, flames were starting to spread across the ground, leaping from wisps of straw to the stacked bales. Denser smoke wafted to them, and Felix coughed. “This place is going to go up like a bonfire.”
Julian halted at the base of the ladder and turned to Melissa. “I’ll take the pup.”
Apparently exhausted by his ordeal, the puppy had fallen asleep in Melissa’s arms. Gently, she transferred the sleepy bundle to Julian, and he cradled the small beast against his chest.
“Wait.” Melissa stripped off the sash that circled her raised waistline. “Do up your jacket and sit Ulysses inside.”
Felix helped, then Melissa wound the sash about Julian’s chest, cinching it tight over Ulysses, holding him firmly in place.
Satisfied, she stepped back. “Now we’ve all got two hands for climbing.”
Trying to breathe shallowly, Julian waved her up the ladder. She hiked up her skirt and petticoat at the front and, holding the muslin in her teeth, quickly climbed up.
“You next,” Felix gasped through the neckerchief he was knotting about his face.
Julian didn’t wait to be told twice. He went up as fast as he dared, careful not to jar Ulysses, who thankfully remained asleep.
Julian stepped off the top of the ladder, relieved to see the loft much as he remembered it. He glanced back down, confirming that Felix was on his way up, then waved Melissa before him to the end of the loft, where the hay doors were closed tight.
He worked quickly to release the latch, then warily eased one door open and peered through the gap. The doors were set high in the back wall of the barn. Unless their would-be murderer had studied the barn, there was no reason he would have known they were there. Julian carefully scanned, but on seeing no one, eased the door wider.
Felix and Melissa joined him as he pushed both doors wide. “I don’t think our attacker knows of this, but let’s keep as quiet as possible.”
Felix nodded and helped ready the winch used to move hay bales up and down. “You two go first. I’ll follow,” Felix whispered, struggling not to cough as more smoke billowed up from below. The insidiouswhooshof hungry flames swelled, punctuated by loud cracks and pops.
Julian nodded. After checking that Ulysses, who had woken, was still secure, he stepped onto the plate above the winch’s hook, took a firm grip on the rope, and beckoned Melissa to him. “Stand on my boots and hold on to the rope.”
She did, and he wrapped one arm around her waist, locking her against him. As soon as he judged she was steady, he nodded to Felix, and his brother used the winch’s arm to swing them out into the open air.
Melissa smothered a shriek, but hung on and kept her feet planted on his as Felix rapidly wound out the rope, and they sailed down.
The winch’s hook thudded into the ground and tipped them off, but Julian had been ready for that and leapt clear, taking Melissa with him. They staggered, then straightened.
