Carla Kelly Read Online Free PDF Page A

grinning face of Timothy
Platter. Beyond him, his hands tied together, was Jamie Clevenden,
his eyes red from weeping.
    Platter held out
his hand for her. Wordlessly she took it and he hauled her up into
the hayloft. In silence she dusted off her dress and knelt by
Jamie.
    “ Are
you all right?” she asked, and brushed the tangle of hair back from
his forehead.
    The boy nodded.
His lips were set in a firm line that again made her think she had
seen him before.
    “ Sit
down, Miss Chartley,” said Timothy Platter. “You are not quite
ready to take on Bow Street.”
    She couldn’t
disagree with him. She sat down.
    “ I
could have you arrested, you know,” he continued, “for interfering
with the law.” He took a deep breath, warming himself to the task.
“You knew he was here, didn’t you? And still you marched me
all around Robin Hood’s barn!”
    Again Omega could
not disagree with him.
    Platter permitted
himself a smile. He took out a cigar and stuck it, unlit, between
his teeth. “I have the boy, and that’s all I want. You can go now;
I am prepared to be generous.”
    Jamie Clevenden
began to cry, great gulping sobs that went right to her heart.
Omega rose to her knees and turned toward him, taking him in her
arms. She patted him, looking beyond him to the ladder, wondering
how she could get them both away, when she noticed the ladder
moving. Someone else was climbing up.
    Omega prayed that
it was the yard boy, and burst into noisy tears of her own. Out of
the corner of her eye she watched Platter rise to his feet, shift
the cigar from one corner of his mouth to the other, and come
toward them. Omega cried louder as he approached, masking the creak
of the ladder.
    The yard boy
moved fast. Before the Bow Street runner could even turn around,
the boy had brought down the muck-rake handle on his head. The
cigar flew from Timothy Platter’s mouth and he dropped to the hay
with a thud.
    “ Here,
untie the lad,” said the boy, handing Omega a knife.
    She did as he
said, and in a second Jamie sat rubbing his wrists. The boy grabbed
him by the arm and tugged him to his feet. “I hit that cove
smartly, but he won’t stay down,” he said. “Hurry up!”
    Jamie scrambled
down the ladder, followed by Omega and the yard boy. Omega thrust
Jamie at the boy. “Keep him close a moment more,” she said, taking
a swipe at the hay on her dress. “My money is with my
baggage.”
    She forced
herself to walk into the inn, sighing with relief to see the
taproom empty. She walked quietly up the stairs, alert for every
squeak and protest of the wood. Her key seemed to scream in the
lock as she let herself into the room.
    Her luggage was
gone. She uttered a cry of dismay and whirled to the door
again.
    The landlord
stood there, his eyes wide. “Mr. Platter ordered us to put your
luggage on the noon mail coach that just left,” he said. “He told
us to address it to Bow Street.”
    She could only
stare at him as her face drained of all color. “But everything I
own is in those bags,” she stammered.
    “ He
said he was ‘authorized,’ ” explained the landlord. “I’m sure
if you explain it to him ...”
    Omega brushed
past him. For all she knew, Mr. Platter was even now sitting up in
the hayloft with an aching head. She ran down the stairs and into
the yard again, grabbing Jamie Clevenden by the hand. She waved her
thanks to the yard boy, who was again raking muck from the open
stalls, the portrait of innocence.
    Jamie needed no
urging to keep up with her. Omega gathered up her skirts and ran
for the woods, Jamie right next to her, matching her stride for
stride.
    She ran until her
side ached. She stopped and sank to the ground, pulling Jamie with
her. He made no objection. The only sound was their breathing.
Jamie stretched himself out on the grass and stared up at the sky.
He turned to look at Omega, a hint of brightness in his
eyes.
    “ Oh,
did you see how his cigar flew across the room?”
    She nodded