and just managed to flatten myself into an alcove at the top as servants rushed through the hallway below. My heart was thumping so loudly I was sure it was echoing off the walls.
‘Search the house! I want him found!’ Carlos bellowed. I could tell his temper had definitely not been improved by that bang to the nose.
Something warm and soft touched my hand. I jumped, barely suppressing a squeal. Dona Lúcia’s maid pressed her fingers to my lips. She peered cautiously over the rail of the stairs. I didn’t need to look. I could hear crashes and shouts as the slaves and servants searched every conceivable hiding place below, and the excited barks of that nasty little dog as it waddled round behind them.
The maid tugged urgently on my arm and pulled me across the passageway into a room, locking the door behind us. I found myself standing in a sumptuous bedchamber. The floor was tiled in a delicate mosaic of jewel-bright flowers, fish and frolicking dolphins. Images of saints and innumerable depictions of the Virgin Mary smiled serenely down at me from all the walls. A silk rug lay to one side of an enormous bed, which was piled high with cushions and draped in light gauze hangings, whilst on a carved black table a silver mirror was drowning beneath an ocean of delicate glass phials, gilded bottles, ivory combs and silver brushes.
‘The mistress’s bedchamber,’ the maid whispered, though I could see that plainly enough for myself. ‘Hers and that dog’s.’ She picked up one of the silver-backed hairbrushes. ‘That’s his, the spoilt little brute. She brushes him with this, but she won’t even give me so much as a wooden comb for my hair.’
‘I can’t hide in here,’ I said, aghast. ‘If I’m found in her bedchamber, that nephew of hers is going to run me through on the spot.’
She gave a little giggle. ‘I think he’s planning to do that anyway.’
‘I’m glad you find it amusing,’ I snapped. ‘But it’s my life hanging by a fingernail. How am I going to get out of here?’
Instead of answering, she moved closer and, standing on tiptoe, she slid her hand around my neck and pulled me down towards her, kissing me full and passionately. I put my arms around her, feeling the warmth of her hot little body against my legs. There was a familiar stirring in my groin and she nuzzled in to me. For a few blissful moments, I entirely forgot that I was being pursued and could think of nothing else except the delightful little creature in my arms. Well, to be more truthful I wasn’t actually capable of thinking at all, I had just given myself up to the thrill surging through me.
But my cock went as limp as a drowned kitten as soon as I heard the furious shouts outside the door of the chamber.
‘Quickly,’ the maid said, pulling me across the room. She thrust me out on to a narrow stone balcony. ‘You’ll have to climb. Go on,’ she urged.
I stared down into the courtyard below. ‘I can’t go down there.’
Several of the servants were peering hopefully behind the pots of the miniature orange and lemon trees as if I might somehow be concealed behind them.
‘Not down, stupid, up. You’ll have to get up on the roof. If you stand on the balustrade then you’ll be able to heave yourself up. Once you’re up there you can cross to one of the roofs of the other houses and climb down to the street.’
‘I’ll break my neck.’
The girl shrugged. ‘If he catches you, he’ll probably cut your head off anyway.’
‘There must be some other –’
I broke off as someone rattled the door of the bedchamber. Now here was an interesting choice – death by falling from a roof or death at the hands of an apoplectic, sword-wielding maniac. Which, I wondered, was the more attractive proposition?
I clambered on top of the balustrade, praying that none of the servants below would look up. I tried to swing myself up on to the roof above, but was fearful of bringing the tiles clattering down.
‘Wait, you’ll never do it like that,’ the maid whispered. She grasped the balustrade to steady herself. ‘Stand on my shoulder.’
I wasn’t at all sure she could bear my weight, but there wasn’t time to debate the matter. I placed one foot on her little shoulder and pushed hard. She gave a gasp, but managed to keep standing until I had pulled