Lady Pirate by Lynsay Sands Page B

out of the darkness.
    Her head jerking around, Valoree squinted at the bushes and trees that Henry had disappeared into several moments earlier. “Henry? Is that you?” she said in a hiss, then glanced nervously around the tree she was hiding behind. Thurborne had reached Beecham and the two men were now talking.
    â€œWell, who the hell else would it be hidin’ in the bushes hissin’ at ye?”
    Her quartermaster sounded cranky. She supposed she couldn’t blame him. It had been an awful evening. Casting a nervous glance toward the men on the balcony, Valoree took a deep breath, then skittered across the small open space. She dove into the bushes, crashing into Henry’s barrel-like chest. “Oh, there you are.”
    â€œAye, here I am,” Henry answered dryly, steadying her.
    â€œDid you find another way out?”
    â€œAye.” Turning, he began to push his way through the bushes. Then he stopped. “Well, it’s not an ideal exit,” he warned over his shoulder. “But a stone wall surrounds the town house gardens, and one side of it faces onto a street. I thought I could boost ye over the wall, then go fetch the carriage and bring it around to pick ye up.”
    â€œThat’ll do,” Valoree answered. Anything to escape.
    The two set off.
    â€œHere we are,” Henry announced a moment later, pausing under a tree and tipping his head back to consider the wall. “What do you think?”
    Valoree nodded as she looked at it. It was only a couple of inches taller than she. Were she not in such a clumsy, heavy dress, she would have managed it on her own. “All right. Give me a boost.”
    Henry locked his fingers and stooped to hold them at knee level. Rucking her skirts up, Valoree placed her booted foot in his hands, then reached out. Grasping the top of the stone wall, she launched herself upward as she pulled with her arms. Henry straightened and boosted her at the same time, and that lifted her high enough that she landed on the wall on her stomach. Quickly she swung one leg up to the side, catching at the wall with her foot and scrambling into asitting position. Once perched there, she squinted down at him.
    â€œI’ll go back through the party, fetch the carriage, and bring it around,” he told her.
    â€œWhy not just come this way? You can walk around to fetch it rather than go back through the party.”
    Henry shook his head. “I’m too old to be scrambling over walls,” he told her, turning away. “I won’t be a moment.”
    Valoree watched him disappear into the bushes again, then turned to glance at what lay on the other side of the wall. It was more an alley than a street—dark, narrow, and not well traveled. Unfortunately, though there was no one to see her, there was also nothing to see. She began to swing her legs on either side of the wall in boredom. Glancing back the way Henry had disappeared, she tried to calculate how far he might have gotten. He had probably reached the balcony.
    She had just decided that when, glancing idly down at the ground just inside the wall, she stiffened. Something metal was glinting in the moonlight. Tugging her skirts out of the way, Valoree felt along the top of her boot for the knife that always rested there, then cursed. It was gone, of course. Must have been bumped out of her boot top as she had struggled to mount the wall.
    Straightening, she peered down at it again. Short, sharp, and with a jeweled hilt, it had been passed down through the family for generations. It was almost all she had left of the family that had once been hers. That and Ainsley Castle. But Ainsley wasn’t yet hers, and wouldn’t be if she couldn’t find a husband and get with child.
    She couldn’t leave the dagger behind. Cursing under her breath, she swung her right leg back over the wall and launched herself off of it. She landed harder than she expected and stumbled to the