A Thief for a Bride

Thief for a Bride (chapter sixteen - The Escape)

Stephan watched Clare and Caroline waltz up to the guards outside the prison and begin to flirt with them. The one Caroline had picked was wrapped around her finger from the moment he saw her. Stephan had to hold Paul back when the guard took the liberty to place his hand on Caroline’s rear.

“Easy, son,” Stephan told him. “Think about what you’re doing.” Paul relaxed slightly but still felt uneasy when he noticed Clare having trouble distracting the other guard who was older and seemed to be more disciplined. He pushed her away and she slapped him without thinking. Crispin jumped in to assist when the guard drew his sword and knocked the guard to the ground before he could turn to face him. He landed a solid punch to the guard’s face and knocked him out cold. Clare and Caroline had subdued the younger guard by the time he looked up.

“Is Claude here?” Caroline demanded as she rested the tip of a dagger against the guard’s throat.

“No,” he grunted. “He went back to his mansion with some of the guards. He said he had to take care of something before he hung La Croix.”

“Where is La Croix?” When the man didn’t answer Caroline pressed the knife against his skin until a thin stream of blood dripped down his throat. “I won’t ask again.”

“He’s on the bottom floor. The last cell on the left!” the guard yelled in a panic.

“Good boy,” Caroline said kindly before knocking him across the head with the handle of her dagger. She stood and faced the rest of the group. “So what now?”

“We find Desmond,” Paul said simply.

“How?” Clare asked. “Are we just going to break down the front door and demand his release?”

“Sounds good to me. We have a score to settle with most of the guards in there,” Giovanni replied and his men nodded. Clare shook her head, thinking he was joking until Stephan spoke up.

“Try to leave the guards alive,” he said. “You’re thieves, not killers.”

“Not a problem, Signore,” Giovanni replied in Italian with a lazy salute. He motioned for his men and Crispin to follow and together they approached the front door. In a display that nearly made Stephan laugh, Giovanni knocked on the door and waited for a guard to open it before he kicked it the rest of the way open. There was the sound of metal clashing with metal and Stephan motioned for everyone to follow him. They ran into the prison and saw Giovanni and his men were outnumbered two to one but seemed to be holding their own nonetheless.

“Go!” Crispin yelled at the group. “We’ll handle things here. Find Desmond so we can leave.”

Stephan nodded and led the rest of the group to the stairs leading to the prison’s basement. They moved along the cells towards the back and saw someone slumped against the wall of the last cell, just as the guard had said. Willem broke the lock with one slash of his sword and they opened the door, but the figure didn’t move. Paul put a hand on his shoulder and was nearly punched in the nose.

“Easy, my friend,” Paul said gently. Desmond looked up at all of them in bewilderment.