Page 224 of Ten Lords for the Holidays

Eliana glanced about, her eyes wide as the sleigh careened forward. “We are the nearest help, by far.”

“How will we rescue him?” Hetty asked.

“I… I will go out on the ice to reach him.” Eliana’s voice shook. “Hetty, give me your cloak, and I’ll throw it to the boy when I get close.”

“No.” Sebastian reined in the mare as they reached the distraught woman. “I’ll go out.”

“You can’t.” Eliana’s face was very pale. “You’re too heavy and will only break the ice further. I’m the lightest one of all of us. I must be the one to go out.”

“Please, please save him,” the woman said, tears glazing her face. “I told Theo not to go on the ice, but he’s a willful boy.”

“Don’t fear,” Sebastian said as he leaped from the sleigh. “We’ll save him.”

He turned to help Eliana, but she’d jumped out right behind him, Hetty’s cloak bundled under one arm. Together they raced to the edge of the Serpentine, snow flying beneath their feet.

The boy was several yards out, his struggles growing feebler.

“We’re coming!” Eliana called. “Keep your head above the water.”

“Miss Eliana,” Sebastian said, “I can’t let you—”

“You must.” Despite the terror in her eyes, she went to her knees and slowly began crawling out over the ice.

Damnation!

“Let me try.” He took a step onto the frozen surface. It creaked menacingly, promising to plunge them both into the frigid water.

“No!” Eliana turned to him. “Please, Sebastian. I must go.”

“Wait.” He unwound the woolen muffler from about his neck. Disguise be damned. “I’ll tie the end about your ankle, so that I can pull you back.”

“Quickly.” She scooted back onto the snow, casting an anguished look at the boy flailing in the small pool edged with broken ice. “We can’t let him drown.”

Part of him wanted to let the boy go, to selfishly hold her back and protect her from the dark, hungry water beneath the ice—but his better nature won out. Sebastian knotted the scarf around her boot, and a moment later she was crawling over the ice. He knelt, the end of the muffler wrapped about his fist. It went taut.

“I must go further,” Eliana called back to him in a voice thick with fear. She was still at least two yards from the boy, who was gasping and whimpering.

“A moment.” Grimly, Sebastian stripped out of his greatcoat and tied one sleeve to the end of the muffler. “You’ve more length now. Lie flat.”

He took his own advice, carefully levering himself down and stretching forward on the ice. It was bitterly cold through the layers of his waistcoat and shirt. His chilled fingers clenched the tail of his coat.

Eliana scooted forward another yard, then lay down and slung Hetty’s cloak out in front of her. It reached the jagged edge of the pool but was too far away for the boy to grasp.

Sebastian imagined he could feel the ice shivering with the strain of bearing their bodies. They did not have much time.

“Hurry,” he said under his breath.

“I can’t reach him,” Eliana cried, panic in her voice. She shook her foot, where it was tethered to him by his clothing. “You must let me go.”

Never.

If the ice broke, the water here was not impossibly deep. He’d have a few moments before the cold sapped his strength—enough time to haul Eliana back and throw her to safety. The boy too, fates willing.

His heart pounding with fear—not for himself, but for her—he slid out further over the frozen lake. She was so very brave.

“Here!” she cried, flinging the cloak forward again. “Yes, that’s it! Hold tightly, Theo.”

She began edging back, and Sebastian tugged his coat, trying to help speed her progress. They’d been on the ice too long, and it creaked loudly in warning. The boy slid free of the water, gasping.

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