Page 40 of Black Widow

Oh, dear Lord,no.

It was probably the only thing that could have roused her. She couldn’t lose Crispin.Pins and needles pricked as she got to her feet, wincing as her sore limbs were forced to support her. She rounded the damaged parts of the floor slowly, surprised at how much they creaked under her weight. When she reached Gideon, he grabbed her, pulling her into a crushingembrace.

“Crispin,” she reminded him sharply when he didn’t letgo.

With a show of great reluctance, he released her and she started down thestairs.

“No.” He pulled her back. “Let me go first and you’ll follow. Here, take myhand.”

Amelia rolled her eyes and swept past him. At the gap, she peered down. A sweaty and shaken Crispin waved back at her. Both his legs had gone through the floor, and he appeared to be trapped. With a cluck of her tongue at him, she reached for the railing, sliding along the wide supporting board at the bottom the same way she did as achild.

“Amelia!” Gideonyelled

“Do try and not use my name as a swear word,” she snapped, rounding the bottom of the stairs and making her way to Crispin, testing the integrity of the floor with eachstep.

“I’ll get him out; get away from there,” Gideon said, edging around the open space with a fluid motion. He was down in a heartbeat with almost no noise. It was almost as if he was accustomed to scaling treacherous ruins on a regularbasis.

When he tried to approach, she stayed him with a hand. “I told you, you aretooheavy,” she said, over-enunciating her words. “This whole house is built over the ruins of an ancient abbey, and the fire has weakened the floors. It’s what gave the house its name. There are numerous chambers below. My father said they were used for storage. I imagine it’s a very long drop if you fallthrough.”

“Um, Flint, she may be right,” Crispin gasped, almost tripping over his words as he tried to brace himself. His sweaty hands slipped a little on the wood. “Feels as if I’m over the pit of hellitself.”

Gideon held up his hands and glowered at them both. “I’m going to run and get some rope.Do not move–either ofyou.”

He ran out of the house. Amelia looked down at Crispin with a scowl. “How could you bring himhere?”

“The earl was concerned. So was I when I realized you’d come here toDevon.”

“So you knew as well, about the fire?” she said, bending and lyingflat.

“Yes, I’m sorry, love. Martin was hoping to rebuild before you found out, but he didn’t want to ask you for the funds. I offered him the money, but he insisted on using his allowance… Er, darling, what are youdoing?”

“Spreading my weight over a larger portion of the floor. I suggest you do thesame.”

Crispin lay back awkwardly. Pushing herself with her hands, she helped him adjust and then got to work trying to free one of his legs. The first came out with relative ease, but he cried out in pain when she attempted to dislodge the second. A shard of wood the length of her thumb had pierced him in the fleshy muscle under theknee.

“Talk to me, Crispin,” she said, trying to distract him. “How could Martin believe he could hide something like this? He had to have known it would take far more than his allowance to rebuild thisplace.”

Crispin winced as her movements jostled his leg. “I believe he was hoping to have most of the work done on credit. He was going to apply to you for funds if some of the small investments he made did not bearfruit.”

“He should have told me,” she said, a wealth of pain in hervoice.

Bloody hell, she would not cry. Not with Gideon nearby. She focused on working the shard of wood free, trying to break off theend.

“Don’t take it out! If he’s punctured a vein, he’ll bleed to death.” Gideon hadreturned.

“What?” Crispin’s eye’s dilated. His pulse throbbed visibly in his neck. Amelia worried he was about tofaint.

“Believe it or not, I know that,” she snapped at theearl.

She had some experience with injuries and illness. Isobel had been kind enough to teach her how to treat them during their stay in Italy. “Do you have aknife?”

Gideon crouched down a few feet away and slid something to her. The blade was impressively sharp and had a nice heft, although it was a bit heavy for her. Working quickly, she started to saw the shard of wood at thebase.

Despite the fact the knife had no teeth, it cut through the thick wood with littleeffort.

She would have to remember to ask the earl why he carried such a wickedly sharp instrument on hisperson.

The sound of timber creaking signaled Gideon moving closer. She raised her head to glare at him. “Stay away, my lord,” she ordered from between grittedteeth.

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