Page 70 of For the Love of the Quest

Thomasin tamped down the fondness in her chest and rolled her eyes. “Keep cutting, Edith.”

“Oh, right.”

The sawing resumed, and Thomasin tugged at the ropes, waiting for the moment when they would snap free. But after a few moments, she felt Edith still behind her once again. Thomasin craned her neck to look over her shoulder, but the pillar was too wide to see past. She opened her mouth to ask Edith what was wrong only to be cut off by the click of a gun cocking.

Thomasin heard Worthing’s voice next. “Well, this is cozy.” At her back, she felt Edith move. There was a cry of pain, and then the sound of a knife clattering to the ground. Something slammed into the pillar, pitching Thomasin forward. Every bruised and broken part of her screamed. Then, there was another scream: Edith’s. Thomasin tried desperately to get to her feet, but her heels couldn’t find purchase on the blood-slicked floorboards. Her arms strained as she tried to wiggle free of the ropes.

“Leave her alone!” she shouted. “Her father won’t pay if you harm her.”

Worthing dragged Edith into Thomasin’s line of sight. He had one hand fisted in her hair, and the other wrenched her arm behind her back. “The deal was to take the man to his daughter. I did that, and I got paid.” Worthing sneered down at Edith. “It’s not my fault you were stupid enough to run away again. In my books, you’re now just the fool who was caught aiding a convicted criminal. Isn’t that right, Chief?” he called out into the darkness of the pews.

The chief’s footsteps crunched on the glass as he made his way over to them. “Sounds about right to me.”

Fear flashed in Edith’s eyes, and Thomasin hated the way that she wanted nothing more than to make it go away. She would help Edith get out of this. But she wasn’t doing it for her. Thomasin needed to work with Edith so they could both make it out of this alive. After they were free, Thomasin could go back to hating Edith.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as Worthing tied Edith to the same pillar so they were bound back-to-back. Once he was done, he sneered down at the both of them, then looked up to meet the chief’s gaze. He jerked his head at Edith. “You know, I think Lord Darling might be quite generous if we were to offer to wipe her slate clean.”

The chief gave a short chuckle. “I think you’re right. What say we pay him a visit?”

Worthing nodded, then the two men sauntered away. Their footsteps echoed through the church before fading completely. Of course, the promise of even more bribe money from Edith’s father would have them feeling all chummy again. Either way, Thomasin knew that the men’s absence was their chance to escape. The problem was that her head was fuzzy and heavy, her thoughts circlinguselessly. She tried to break her wrist to slip out, but the ropes were too tight and the angle wasn’t right.

Hours or maybe minutes later—she couldn’t tell because the sky was still pitch-black—Thomasin leaned her head back against the pillar and said, “Your plan went really well.” The bruises across her face stretched painfully. “Consider me rescued.” Edith’s hands were tied just above her own. Thomasin could feel Edith’s knuckles bumping into her lower back. “You’re not going to be able to wiggle out. Worthing is good at what he does.”

“I’m not going to just give up and sit here like you.”

“No,” Thomasin remarked bitterly, “you’ll just run away and leave me.” Edith’s hands stilled.

“I’ll never leave you again,” she said.

Thomasin clenched her jaw, then winced as the movement sent shockwaves through her teeth. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

“That’s okay. You don’t need to believe me. I’ll prove it to you.”

The emotion in her voice made Thomasin squirm. In a desperate attempt to diffuse the tension that was rising in her chest, she said, “Well as it is, we’ll die together very shortly, and you’ll be proven right.”

“Always the pessimist,” Edith said as she resumed her wriggling.

Thomasin’s frustration finally snapped. “What on earth are you doing back there?”

“I have a knife tucked into my belt. I’m trying to reach it,” Edith said. Thomasin could tell that Edith was carefully modulating the condescension that she would usually infuse into a statement like that. “I can’t quite bend that way though. Do you think you could reach it?”

“I can certainly try.” Thomasin marveled at Worthing’s oversight. It was absurd that he wouldn’t have checked her for weapons.Underestimating Edith would be his downfall.As it should be,Thomasin thought proudly. And then she mentally slapped herself for thinking something so sentimental about Edith. She cleared her throat and asked, “Which side?”

“My left.”

Thomasin twisted her wrists, stretching her right hand as far as it would go. She was just able to get a grip on the leather of Edith’s belt. Tracing her fingers along the leather, she searched for the knife.

“Thomasin!” Edith gasped, her voice tight.

Thomasin froze. “Did I hurt you?” Despite everything, guilt bloomed in her chest. But then she realized Edith was laughing quietly.

“No, it just tickles,” she mumbled.

Thomasin resumed her search without mercy. “You’ll live.” Angling her shoulder down to lengthen her reach, her fingertips finally brushed up against something hard. But she couldn’t quite get a grip on it. “Can you scoot any closer?” she asked Edith, who then shifted back and forth, trying to get into a better position. She jutted her hip out, and Thomasin’s quick fingers latched onto the knife, pulling it from the belt. “Got it.”

They breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief as Thomasin flipped the knife in her hand and got to work cutting the rope. Her shoulders and forearms ached terribly, but she kept going until her ropes finally fell away. The world spun as she rose to her knees and turned to start cutting Edith’s ropes. She took a mental inventory of her injuries as she worked. Heavily bruised jaw and cheekbone. Swollen lip. Likely broken nose. Maybe a broken rib. Her vision was a little dim in her right eye, but she could still blink normally. She’d had worse and kept going.

With a final snick, Edith was free. She bolted to her feet, pulling Thomasin along with her at a dizzying speed. When shestumbled, Edith took her shoulders, holding her in place until she found stable footing again. The second Thomasin was sure she wouldn’t fall over, she shrugged out from Edith’s touch.