“Diah,” Hugh groaned. “Miss Addison?”
“Aye. Do ye recall the hidden wall space Dudley discovered? I put her there when we heard Miss Brody’s shouts.”
Another muffled cry, which both men ignored. “Send her home, then,” Hugh said.
“What? To certain ruin? No.”
“Ach, Lockhart!” Hugh exclaimed, narrowing his gaze. “What do ye think to do? Ye canna take her to Scotland, of all places! That’d be kidnapping.”
“I bloody well know what it’d be, thank ye,” Grif muttered.
Another muffled shout was accompanied by some sort of scratching noise, which Grif assumed was a bit of kicking.
“Ye canna think to do so!” Hugh continued heatedly. “We must run for our lives now, do ye no’ realize that? We’ve already done enough to be hanged, and the English will certainly hang us if ye add kidnapping a lord’s daughter to our crimes. Do ye think yer cousin willna make good on his threat to see us in Newgate Prison? Ye canna bring her along, for we’d no’ go as far as Charing Cross before they were upon us!”
“But I canna leave her!” Grif exploded. “Lady Worthall has told this man that she’s come here many times without escort! Do ye know what life will be left to her once the whole bloody ton knows she’s called on me, a thief and a scoundrel, without chaperone or escort? She’ll be labeled a whore!”
“Ach!” Hugh cried, throwing his hands up in anger. “She brought it on her own head! She came here seeking ye, Grif, no’ the other way around!”
Another loud bump and scratch, and both men looked at the bookcase.
“I willna ruin her,” Grif said again.
“For the love of Criosd!” Hugh roared to the ceiling, then dropped his head and his shoulders and sighed. “Ach, love! It makes a grown man as barmy as a bloody bean!”
“We’ll split apart,” Grif suggested, ignoring him. “They’ll be looking for two men. Take one of the horses, and I’ll take Anna in the coach. We’ll meet in Scotland in a fortnight.”
“What, you think to arrive on yer mother’s doorstep with the woman ye stole from England? If ye love her, lad, at least do what ye must!”
Grif nodded, considering that. “We’ll meet in Gretna Green, then, in a fortnight. And if, for whatever reason, one of us doesna arrive in a forthnight, the other will wait a week, no more, then carry on, to Talla Dileas. Can ye do it, then?”
“Me?” Hugh cried, as the scratching and shouting got louder. “Ye are the one to contend with that!” he said, pointing impatiently at the bookcase. “I’ll be waiting for ye in Gretna Green, I will. But I’ll need a wee bit of coin.”
Grif strode to a small table at the end of the room, pulled open a drawer, and withdrew a leather pouch, from which he fished out several banknotes. “There ye are—half of what we’ve got left, then. What of Miss Brody?”
“I’ll give her a week’s wages,” he said, extending his hand for more money, “and send the lass home.” Grif looked skeptically at Hugh. Hugh gestured impatiently. “I’ve no’ lost me fool mind, lad. Only ye can claim that. I’ll send the lass home.”
Grif pulled a few more banknotes from the pouch; Hugh took the money and pocketed it. “Where is it, then?” he asked, looking around. “I’d have a look at the thing that will see me hanged.”
Grif walked across the room, picked up the satchel. “They say the beastie is cursed, that she’ll slip through the fingers of any Scot who tries to possess her, for she’s truly English at heart.”
A sharp crack on the other side of the bookcase startled them both. Grif quickly removed the beastie from the satchel and held it up. Hugh recoiled. “I’d leave it to the bloody English were I ye. She’s hideous.”
Grif nodded and quickly wrapped it again, stuffed it in the satchel, and put it aside. “I’ll meet ye in Gretna Green in a fortnight. Godspeed to ye, lad.”
Another muffled scream and Hugh shook his head. “I wish ye Godspeed and the protection of the saints, for ye’ll need it all yer days.”
“Aye, that,” Grif sighed, and looked at the wall. “Ere ye go, would ye lend a hand?” he asked, nodding at the wall.
Hugh snorted.
Grif removed his neckcloth, frowning at the sound of her muffled shouts. “God in heaven, have mercy on me soul,” he muttered, “and forgive me for what I am about to do.” With a look at Hugh, he walked across the room, pushed the panel that sprung the bookcase.
As it swung open, Anna came tumbling out of the old wall safe, her pretty gown mussed with dust in a few places, a cobweb in her hair. But her eyes were on fire, and she whirled around, glaring at the two of them. “I beg your pardon, but it was rather close in there! Nevertheless, I am certain I heard you say you intend to kidnap me! Did you say as much?”