Rose nodded and copied his every movement. It was difficult to find her footing at first because her skirts got in the way. When her foot slipped, and she slammed against the hull of the boat, there was nothing she could do to stop her scream from escaping.
“Tug your skirts up so your feet are free. Drape your dress over your arm like you did before. There is nobody around to see your legs,” he urged, holding on to a handful of her cloak while she found her footing again.
Rose did as she was told. Her heart hammered. She didn’t want to slip again. For a moment there she thought she was going to fall into the sea and, as someone who couldn’t swim, that prospect was almost paralysing. Her knees began to shake so badly that she didn’t know how they were holding her up still. Aware that they weren’t going to keep her upright for much longer, she hurriedly began to descend the ladder. With each step she took she made sure her feet were securely on the ropes before she put her weight down. It took an age to reach the small boat. When she did, she hesitated and looked at Barnaby unsure how to get into the boat.
Barnaby dropped into the boat and lifted his arms up. Rather than wait for her to jump into them, his hands encompassed her waist and lifted her down.
“Hurry up and sit before you fall overboard,” he urged. He then waved to Reg and Ben who immediately began to clamber after them.
Nobody spoke as the men began to row toward shore. A nervous tension hung over everyone. Rose tried to see Chadwick’s ship but was unable to see anything past the huge hulk of the vessel they had just left. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not.
“It is going to get choppy when we approach the beach because of the waves. Noah says the tide is going in so it should carry us some of the way, but we are going to get wet,” Reg grunted.
Barnaby nodded and grimly continued to row. Every time he looked back, Noah was true to his world and blocked their view of the encroaching ship.
“Hang on,” he called above the crashing of the waves as the small boat was thrown relentlessly onto the beach.
Rose closed her eyes and forced herself not to cry out loud. The men cursed as they fought to stop the boat from turning sideways in the tide and being upended. Tension rose as the waves pounded them over and over, soaking them all through to the skin. Eventually, they jolted to
a stop on the beach.
“Stay there for a minute,” Barnaby ordered as he, Reg, and Ben, jumped out and hauled the boat higher onto the beach. “We need to get this out of sight.”
Rose was quickly lifted out of the boat and followed the men as they carried the little boat further up the beach and buried it in dense shrubbery.
“Keep your hood up,” Reg ordered as he brushed off his hands. “Let’s get off this beach.”
Rose dutifully tugged her hood higher. As she left the beach, she glanced back at the sea and gasped when she found the skyline empty.
“Where have they gone?” she cried in astonishment.
“Noah is going to lead them on a merry dance for a while. He is going to weigh anchor further up the coast so that Chadwick’s men search the docks miles away from here,” Barnaby explained.
Rose was amazed at how well the last few minutes had turned out. Although she had no particular yen to do anything like it again, she was pleased they had survived. It was the first time in her life she had actually challenged herself like that and it felt incredibly satisfying to succeed in her endeavours.
“Where is he going?” she asked when Ben suddenly vaulted over a fence lining the road and disappeared into the field beyond.
“He is going to go to the village over there.” Barnaby pointed to faintly flickering lights barely visible in the darkness. “We need a carriage.”
Barnaby glanced over at her and studied her pale and incredibly beautiful face in the night. She looked strangely ethereal as she glided down the country lane. He had expected her to object to disembarking from the ship the way they had. But, after only the slightest of hesitations, she had complied without a murmur. Her resilience never failed to amaze him. It left him inordinately humbled because he knew she was completely out of her element and experiencing vastly different situations that put her life in danger. Yet she managed to maintain her composure and remain logical and calm throughout it all. In contrast, he felt as though he was slowly unravelling from the inside out and it wasn’t just because of Chadwick being so close behind them.
It was because of the burgeoning feelings he now acknowledged were growing deep inside him. There was nothing he could do about them; they were an essential part of him now. She was an essential part of him and, now, there wasn’t a damned thing he wanted to do about it. He wasn’t sure whether he should be pleased or not.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Later that morning, Rose watched the streets of Edinburgh roll by the carriage window with trepidation. She had no idea where they were going, nobody seemed inclined to want to tell her, but she daren’t ask. The silence within the small carriage was tense as Barnaby and Reg looked out of the windows for Chadwick’s men, and she didn’t interrupt them.
“Here,” Reg murmured suddenly. “The bald man in the grubby shirt chewing on a twig is Myers’ relation.”
Barnaby sighed. “He won’t be alone.”
The stark disappointment in his voice made Rose looked at him warily. “You sound like you didn’t expect them to be here.”
“I was hoping they wouldn’t be here,” Barnaby replied darkly. He didn’t explain why, but traded a look with Reg that was wintry.
“Where are we going?” she asked finally. She had waited patiently for as long as she could but now that she knew Chadwick was around, refused to remain in ignorance. If their destination had anything to do with boats she wasn’t going, it was as simple as that.
“Somewhere they won’t expect us to be,” Barnaby murmured with a small smile. He looked at her. “We are going to be right under their noses.”