Page 95 of A Relentless Rake

“Henry!” Olivia screamed and grabbed for him, but he had disappeared into the darkness.

Seconds later, he thrust the small girl up toward her. “Take her!”

The steps groaned and creaked angrily, threatening at any moment to give way completely and tumble him down into the flames.

Olivia reached for Cora—

“I’ve got her!” Large male hands reached past Olivia as Clayton Elliott scooped the frightened girl into his arms.

“Take her out of here, please!” Olivia choked out.

He nodded, and Cora wrapped her arms around his neck. He ran with the little girl down the hallway as fast he could in the suffocating smoke, toward the main stairs and the only way of escape.

As Henry tried to lift himself out of the stairwell and back into the hallway, the stairs groaned and shifted beneath him. They crumbled away into the flames below, bringing the doorway down with them. It collapsed, and the fallen timbers pinned him across his legs. He was trapped.

“Go!” he yelled at her between gasps of pain. “Leave!”

“I am not leaving you.” She dropped to the floor at his side and pushed frantically at the beams, but they were too heavy to lift. She couldn’t free him, while around them, the fires grew closer and the smoke thicker.

“Olivia, I’m so sorry for what I did,” he told her through a coughing fit as the smoke pressed in upon them. “Please forgive me before I die.”

“Stop talking like that! You arenotdying. I’m not leaving you here.” She pulled in futile frustration at his legs but couldn’t move him. Not an inch. “I will get you out. Iwill—”

“It happened without me realizing, and once I was swept up into it—” He broke off as the building shifted around them again and prepared to collapse in upon itself at any moment. Then he rushed out the confession. “It wasn’t the school. It was me—I was gambling, running up debts and bills… I couldn’t pay them. Lady Rowland bought them and demanded repayment. She threatened to have me placed into debtors’ prison!”

“I know.” Despite her stinging tears and growing terror, she soothed him. “It doesn’t matt—”

“When I was approached to do the calculations for the Admiralty Club, I couldn’t pass up the money. But I had no idea what those plans would be used for. When I found out—that’s why I disappeared for those two days. I was hiding, afraid I’d be arrested. Then they wanted the plans for Waterloo Bridge, and I couldn’t refuse or—” Guilt filled his voice. “Now you know the truth. Forgive me.”

Stunned, Olivia stared at him, unable to fathom all that he was telling her. Yet compassion rose inside her, and she whispered, “I forgive you.”

“Olivia!” Alec emerged from the black smoke.

She turned toward his approaching figure in the darkness and grabbed at her brother’s shoulders, refusing to let go of him. “Help him! Please—don’t let him die!”

Alec bent down to lift the heavy beam from Henry’s legs. With Olivia pulling at his arms, Henry scrambled forward until he was free, then collapsed onto the floor. He panted hard to breathe in the smoke-filled air, only to collapse in fierce coughs.

“Can you walk?” Alec demanded.

Henry shook his head.

Alec yanked him to his feet and tossed him over his shoulder like a sack to carry him to safety.

“Come on!” Alec’s free hand grabbed hold around her wrist and pulled her with him down the hall toward the front stairs.

Her legs stumbled to keep up with his long strides as they hurried through the blinding smoke and heat.

Clayton Elliott waited for them at the bottom of the stairs, risking his own life for a return trip into the burning building to help them. He took Henry from Alec and carried him outside.

Around them, the building groaned and growled as the fire devoured it. The ceiling above them gave way, and it fell in a shower of sparks and cinders. One of the beams broke free from the floor above and dropped toward them.

“Look out!” Alec shoved her away.

But he wasn’t fast enough himself. The end of the board caught him across the shoulder and sliced down his arm with a sickening rip of clothes and skin.

“Alec!” she screamed.

He fell to his knees beneath the force of the blow. Olivia rushed to his side, to slip her arm under his shoulder and lever him to his feet. With a painful curse, he gritted his teeth as he leaned against her and staggered through the door and into the cool night air.