Page 225 of Ten Lords for the Holidays

Sebastian’s boots slipped over the frozen surface as he tried to find enough leverage to pull them all back. His heart pumped frantically. A widening crack had formed from the hole Theo had made. It raced after the boy, as if the water would not let him escape.

Then someone caught his ankle and yanked, and he slid back far enough to get a toehold in the snow.

“Pull,” Mistress Hetty said, yanking on his boot once more.

He did, scrambling backward and hauling on his coat sleeve. He prayed the muffler knotted around Eliana’s ankle would hold.

It did, and she came sliding toward him, her hands clenched in Hetty’s cloak. The boy clung to it, sodden and sobbing, but blessedly free.

The place she’d lain cracked into pieces, ice floating in the dark water. Sebastian caught Eliana about the waist, yanking both her and the boy to shore. Arms around her, he let them fall backward into the snow and held her tightly against him, trying to catch his breath, to calm his speeding pulse.

Mistress Hetty and the other woman grabbed Theo, and Hetty bundled him into her cloak. It was damp, but not as sodden as the boy himself.

Another hunk of ice shuddered free, licked by the cold waves of the Serpentine, but they were, all of them, safe.

Eliana shivered in Sebastian’s arms, her face buried against his chest, her breath coming in short gasps. His heart was stunned with admiration at the courage it must have taken to face her fear and go to the boy’s rescue.

And he had thought her flighty and vain.

“I’ve got you,” he said softly into her hair. “It’s all right.”

“Oh, Master Theo,” the boy’s companion sobbed. “We nearly lost you. Whatever would your parents have said…”

“Hush now.” Hetty patted the woman’s shoulder. “We must get everyone warm. Prince Sebastian?”

He reluctantly let go of Eliana, whose breath was coming more easily now despite her shivers. Hetty helped her to her feet, and then he stood, brushing the snow from his sleeves and ignoring the murmurs from the crowd of bystanders who had gathered during the rescue.

If they recognized him, he no longer much cared on his own account. But he did for Eliana. They should be off as soon as possible, and not just because the lot of them were half frozen.

“Thank you.” Eliana turned to him. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Tears glinted in her blue eyes, and he wanted to pull her close again. But now was not the time.

“You deserve all the credit,” he said. “But we must get everyone inside. We could go to my mother’s—it’s closer than Banning House.”

“My sister’s is closer still,” Eliana said. “Just off Hertford Street.”

“We won’t all fit in the sleigh,” Hetty said. “I’ll walk.”

“You don’t even have your cloak,” Eliana said. “I will follow on foot.”

“Everyone, to the sleigh,” Sebastian said, glad to see that the mare had stood quietly through all the commotion. “No one is staying behind.”

He caught up the cloak-wrapped boy, whose teeth were chattering so loudly that Sebastian could hear them clacking, and strode to the vehicle.

“Mistress Hetty, Eliana must perch on your knees,” he said. “In you go. And then Theo’s governess. What is your name?”

“Mrs. Pare,” she said, sniffling. “My lord, my lady, thank you so much for rescuing him.”

“He’s not completely safe yet.” Eliana climbed up to sit with Hetty. “We must ensure he doesn’t catch a chill.”

“All of us must take care,” Mistress Hetty said. “Why, the prince is coatless, you were lying on the ice, I don’t have my cloak, the poor boy is nearly frozen through… What a mess we’re in.”

Sebastian handed Theo up to his governess, then leaped into the driver’s side and took the reins. He had no notion how the Duchess of Ashford would take their arrival, but that didn’t matter. Nothing did except getting the lot of them inside and next to a warm fire.

CHAPTER NINE

Eliana triedto control her shivering as the sleigh swept out of Hyde Park. The aftermath of the rescue, and the danger she’d put herself in, made her feel light headed.

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