Saving The Pirate (Book Two)

68. Outings

I followed Christopher to his room in a daze. The type of daze you get when you were sure you weren't going to do something illegal only to do just that because you're forced to by the boss that you thought was drunk when he said it. Oh, how wrong I was.

When the door was safely closed behind us, Christopher put down the lantern and walked over to his wardrobe, opening it up and grabbing a pair of trousers and a tunic and tossing it in my direction. Unfortunately, I was rubbing my eyes at the time, so I missed them both, and they hit the floor instead. I bent down to pick them up. Only then did Christopher comment, "Your hair's short."

He said it casually, not surprised, nor with any feeling behind it. It was as if he were pointing to a sheet and saying it was white. I touched my hair out of instinct and ran my fingers through it. "Yeah, it is," I said with the same casualty. "Diane cut it for me."

In the room lit by the small lantern, I caught the tightening of Christopher's lips. "It looks nice."

"Thank you."

That was the end of the conversation. I left to change in the bathroom, coming out to find Christopher leaning against the bed, deep in thought and holding a pair of boots. He stood when he saw me, walking over and handing me the boots. I took them and put them on, feeling his eyes on me as I did so. I ignored them.

"Ready to go?" He asked, at last, lighting another lantern for me to hold. I only nodded, grabbing the lantern. Christopher cracked open the door and peeked outside before looking at me and nodding, indicating that it was safe. I followed him once again out the door and into the dark hallway with the light of our lanterns, and the few hung on the walls.

We stayed close to the wall, making sure to look around the corner before going down another hallway. "The guards usually are on break at this time before switching out," Christopher whispered to me. I looked at him, biting the inside of my cheek. Not a few hours ago, this man was delirious, under the same impression that we were somehow old friends catching up, and here we were sneaking out after being told not to.

I tugged at his sleeve. "We'll get caught," I murmured, "We'll get arrested this time. So we should turn back."

There was something dangerous in the way his lips curved. "Not if we get caught." I tried again to get him to turn back and forget this awful night, but he only brushed me off. "We're almost there. Don't worry."

It wasn't three minutes after that did we heard footsteps coming from behind us. At that moment, Christopher grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hall, forcing me to break out in a small jog until we turned another corner and hid with our back up against a wall. I had to catch my breath, looking at him with a worried expression. He only replied with a small chuckle/.

When the footsteps disappeared, we resumed our journey, coming down the stairs and down the hall that led into the back where the laundry was done. I didn't realize until the humidity hit my face that I was holding my breath.

"This way," Christopher said, walking to the stone wall. He touched it and used it as a guide to lead him to a few bushes sitting in a back corner. He put down his lantern and began his work identifying the loose stones before picking them up and placing them down. I watched him for a moment until I was instructed to help him. At last, we created a big enough space in the corner to squeeze by onto the other side, where a cluster of trees surrounded us.

"Our work's not done here. We need to patch it up again." And so began our tiresome work of putting the stones back again. I didn't think I had the strength to continue onward, but Christopher did. He picked his lantern up like it was nothing and marched on forward.

"There's a trail up here," he said, a bit louder than a whisper now that we were safe from any listening ears. I sighed to myself and picked up my lantern, meeting up to where he stood gazing down at a man (woman) made trail that was outlined by stray rocks for guidance.