Charlie thanked each of his other colleagues; Joshua, Marcus, Joseph and Brendan, with hugs and murmurs of relief before he introduced them to Hetty’s brothers.
“We have met,” Wally announced ruefully.
“How?” Charlie asked curiously. “I mean, I didn’t think that there would be time for any of you to reach us.”
“Long story,” Barnaby warned him. “I will tell you later. We need to look at getting you two out of here.”
“I thought I saw Barnaby for a moment back there, but didn’t know if I was going out of my mind,” Charlie declared quietly as he watched Luke remove the ropes from his wrists.
“Understandable,” Barnaby assured him as he looked down at his clothing. “Hetty looked a bit shocked too.”
“We need to get Hetty,” Charlie sighed. “She -”
“We will find her,” Joshua assured him. “Right now, half of Derby is likely to be looking for you two. We need to get moving.”
“We were going out of our minds,” Luke warned with a rueful shake of his head. “That has to have been the worst operation I think I have ever taken part in.”
“The executioner?” Charlie asked cautiously.
“Real,” Marcus sighed. “We only arrived late last night, and didn’t get the time to get a man inside.”
“I wanted you to see me so you knew that we were here, and to expect the unexpected,” Barnaby explained. “I tried not to venture too far away from Hetty, but the crowd just carried me away.”
“God that was fierce,” Joseph sighed. “We struggled to get to you,” he admitted wryly.
“We had to damned well fight our way back to the gallows to get you down,” Brendan snorted in disgust.
“How did you know?” Charlie asked with a frown.
“A rider reached us yesterday lunchtime. We were in Staffordshire, and were the closest. Sir Hugo is on his way, but is going to be a day or so late. We have a safe house lined up. Lord Afferley is a good friend of Sir Hugo’s, and has said we can use it while he is in London. He works with Sir Hugo apparently. It is far enough away for us to be out of Meldrew’s reach. We need to get you there as quickly as possible,” Barnaby growled.
Joshua motioned to the cart. “Look, we can talk about this some more once we are at the safe house. We have to get out of here. I know that we have enough men here to fight out way out, but Meldrew is a rule to himself by the sound of it. We cannot risk all of us ending up behind bars, or being hung before Sir Hugo can get us released. Let’s get going.”
“What about Hetty?” Charlie argued. “We can’t just leave her back there.”
“She knows what to do,” Wally growled. “She has a friend with her.”
He didn’t tell Charlie that they didn’t know if Mabel would have been able to stay close to Hetty in that chaos, but sensed that Charlie already suspected something had gone wrong.
“Before we go any further, we have to get you two changed. We will meet back up at the safe house, but it is going to take an hour to get to,” Wally explained as he handed each man a pile of clothing. “Leave Hetty to us. We have men in the town who are on the look-out for her and will keep her safe once they find her. Get these on.”
“You work with the Star Elite now?” Charlie asked in surprise.
“I will work with Satan himself if it stops that bastard from hanging innocent people,” Wally growled fiercely.
Momentarily lost for words, Charlie watched as Simon ducked when something dark and cloying was rubbed over his hair by Wally.
“What is that?” He growled with a dark scowl at the offending gloop.
Wally showed him the small pot. “It’s goose grease and soot. We have to change your hair colou
r,” he warned. “Just keep your bloody hat on and hope it doesn’t rain.”
In spite of the dangers of the situation, Charlie grinned and watched Simon rub the sticky gloop into his tell-tale red hair before he wiped them on the straw Luke handed him.
Both Simon and Charlie then changed clothes. Charlie stood back to watch the bundle of their old clothing being scrunched into a tight ball before Barnaby moved to the ditch that ran alongside the road. Once the clothing had been buried in the small hole he dug, he covered the pile over with sheep dung out of the field, and then hurried back to the cart.
“Split the horses up and put the cart back,” Marcus ordered Joseph while he started to check the girths on the horses.