Black Richard's Heart (The MacCulloughs #1) - Suzan Tisdale Page 0,40
throw a rope around ye, around yer waist. Dunnae move now, aye? Just let me toss the rope around ye.”
There was something in his voice that comforted her. There was no way to explain it in any logical sounding manner. She knew then, in that moment, that all would be well. Her husband was going to toss a rope around her, then he would walk out on the plank and whisk her safely to the other side. Giving a slight, gentle nod of her head, she said, “I am ready.”
A few frantic heartbeats later, she heard the sound of the rope whooshing in circles several times before it went sailing through the air. Relief settled in when she felt it wrapping around her arms. A collective sigh of relief from those people watching her rent the air around her. Carefully, she wriggled her arms free, settling the rope around her waist. A moment later Richard tugged gently on the rope once, then again, to tighten the hold. She held her breath and the end of the rope with a death like grip.
“Lass, I need ye to listen verra carefully to me,” Black Richard said as he gave another gentle tug on the rope. “Ye need to slowly put one foot in front of the other and walk toward the sound of me voice.”
Was he completely mad?
“Can ye do that for me?”
Aye, he was mad. Insane. Devoid of any common sense. “Nay,” she whispered.
A burst of a frustrated breath before he said, “Lass, I need ye to do this. Ye are about ten steps away from me. I promise, I will not let ye fall.”
There was something he wasn’t telling her. “Why can ye not come out here and help me? Take me hand?”
His silent pause was all the proof she needed that there was something he truly did not wish to tell her. She could hear the men whispering, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. However, there was a succinct tone of worry to their murmurs.
“Lass, the plank, it is not wide enough for the two of us.”
He was lying to her and she knew it. He was trying hard not to make her more afraid than she already was. While commendable, it might not be practical. Marisse’s eerie silence was foreboding.
“Ye promise ye will not let me fall to me death?” she asked him.
He chuckled nervously before answering. “Aye, I promise.”
Drawing comfort from the sound of his nervous laughter, she took in a deep breath. “I be ready.”
“Ye be just an inch from the edge of the plank,” he told her.
“Left or right?” she asked him.
“Left,” he said, before quickly righting himself. “Yer right!”
Aeschene nodded. “My right, yer left, aye?”
“Aye,” he replied.
Carefully, she took a small step forward, starting with her left foot. Hopefully she was not over correcting. She could feel the plank wobble ever so slightly.
“Good, lass, that be good,” he encouraged her.
If she could see him right now, she imagined he had probably broken out in a cold sweat. She really must apologize to him as soon as she was off this bloody plank.
“Yer almost there,” he told her. “Come back to yer right just a bit more.”
Inch by slow inch, she was reaching the other side. Though he was not more than a gray blob with a bit of black at the top, that blob was growing closer.
Holding her breath, she slowly crept along the wobbly plank. Oh, that cannae be good.
Richard continued to encourage her with a firm yet warm voice. “Just a few feet more,” he told her.
Feet? She had thoroughly believed she was only inches from safety. Continuing with her deathlike grip, she took another tentative step forward.
The plank wobbled again, this time it didn’t right itself.
She was too far away for Richard to grab and too far away to jump to safety.
The plank wobbled back and forth before the end nearest Lachlan twisted away from the stone ledge. The plank fell, taking Aeschene with it. She closed her eyes, her fear jolting through her veins so much so that even her fingertips and toes ached with it.
A great gasp went out from everyone; she heard several people cry out her name. A moment later, she was falling through the air.
The force of her fall was so intense, it slammed her against the side of the keep, scraping the skin on her arm. She bounced away and back twice, before she ended up swinging to and fro like a pendulum