The Rose Of Lorraine Part 21

The princes just stood there, frozen, on the verge of bursting into the same useless tears of the little ones.

Bella turned to the well, afraid to look at the water in its depths. She couldn't see the puppy for the

sunlight was now at a slant, but she could hear it crying, yelping.

That meant the puppy was still alive. Bella tore at the strings of her ap.r.o.n, removing it and s.n.a.t.c.hed her slippers off her feet. But the minute Geoffrey realized she planned to go down and get the puppy, he grabbed her waist and held onto her for dear life.

"This is not helping George!" Bella pushed Geoffrey away. "I said go get help for me. I can swim,

Geoffrey. I won't drown. But I'll need help to get back up."

No one was watching Henri. Bella only caught of glimpse of his dark head the moment he jumped into the well.

She screamed and slapped Geoffrey, pushed the princes out of her way and scrambled over the stone edge, grabbing hold of the bucket rope. Henri's terrible scream on impact rang and rang out of the deep, hollow cylinder.

Luck was with Bella. The bucket rope was strong and tied securely to the winch. She heard awful, ominous noises below her in the dark well as she dropped, the wet rope searing across her hands. She tried to go slowly and carefully down it, but her grip kept slipping and she dropped by long, palm-burning degrees at a time.

"Henri! Henri, where are you?" Bella screamed. "Answer me!"

Her toes touched frigid water and her skirts rose, billowing out around her legs. The puppy cried out weakly, but there was no response from Henri. Water rushed up to her chin and in a panic she felt all around her, touching slimy, mossy walls. She made a full circle and found no child, but did find the now silent puppy. Bella stuck it in the floating bucket.

"Pull up the rope!" Bella screamed. "Crank the rope up. The puppy's in it."

Small faces peered over the rim of the well at her. "Lionel, do you hear me? Pull up the bucket now."

Bella felt the pull of the rope and heard the crank. She took two deep breaths to fill her lungs then dove under the water searching for Henri. She forced her eyes open but could see nothing in the stygian blackness. She kicked hard to go deeper, always circling, hands clawing at the stone wall to find the child.

Her lungs were burning, and bursting, straining. Her leg touched something and Bella jerked toward it, circling, hands scratching at the mossy walls. It was like trying to swim in a fishbowl, impossible. She touched a leg and her fingers wrapped around it.

She needed air. Now. Pus.h.i.+ng her feet to the stones, she tightened her grip on Henri's leg and kicked for all she was worth. She felt whatever held him give. By then the s.h.i.+mmering surface of the water seemed so far away and the cold seemed so numbing, Bella didn't think she would make it to air again.

Her head broke the surface too late. She couldn't control the urge to breathe any longer and had sucked water into her nose. Choking, sputtering and spitting, she found Henri's shoulders and lifted his head above water.

Panicking thoughts raced through her mind. She knew what to do, clear airways, check his pulse, administer CPR and breathe into him, but she couldn't support him in the water, and do all that at once. But she had to. How many minutes? How many? Her mind went on and on plaguing her. She shook the child, tried to find some way to brace herself against the stones, hugged him as she checked his airway. Finally, she turned his face toward her and pushed her own air into his mouth, using one fist pressed on his solar plexus to compress his heart. Little puffs, her brain commanded. He's a child, gently, gently.

"...G.o.d restores what would otherwise be displaced."

ECCLESIASTICS 3;15.

-21.

Bella began to count, fifteen pumps then a breath. Her shaky fingers pressed against the artery in Henri's throat seeking his pulse. It was thready, but there. She continued administering the breath of life, while hugging his st.u.r.dy little body against her own. She didn't see his eyes flutter open, but she did feel the first sign of voluntary movement. His arms jerked and wrapped around her neck in a pathetically weak strangle hold.

The bucket splashed dangerously close to her head. Unintelligible shouts echoed down the shaft. Another rope plopped onto Henri's back. He coughed. Bella grabbed the bucket, hooking the rope under her shoulder, glad for the a.s.sistance from above that helped stabilize her bobbing up and down in the water. Henri lifted his head from Bella's shoulder and cried out, complaining of being stung by the heavy wet rope that had fallen on him.

"Thank you, Jesus." Bella closed her own eyes, pressing the boy against her.

"Georgie," Henri choked out his puppy's name.

"Georgie's already rescued." Bella kissed his cold cheeks. "Breathe for me, Henri, and cough as deeply

as you can."

"Hurts," he said.

"Where?" Bella felt his head, smoothing the wet curls back. Henri coughed again. Bella found a cut and a

ferocious lump above his ear, and smelled the coppery scent of blood.

"My knee."

"Anywhere else?"

"No, Maman." Little arms tightened around her neck.

"Lady Chandos, can you tie the rope?"

Bella looked up at the far away ring of light. Sir Graham's broad shoulders seemed to fill the whole circle.

"Yes."

"Are you certain. I will have the men lower me if you cannot make a knot secure." "No, just wait a minute. Henri, I'm going to tie this rope around you." She pulled the rope around his chest and made a cradle with it, looping it under his legs so he'd have a seat of sorts. She couldn't be certain he'd hold on.

"Now, Henri, put your hands here. Can you hold on?"

"Un huh." His teeth rattled. Bella placed his hands on the rope above her knots. The rope was so thick he couldn't possibly have much of a grip.

"Okay, Henri's tied, winch it up a little bit and let me check my knots." Henri began to spin as soon as his

body cleared the water.

"Wait!" Bella screamed. The knots held but she feared he'd be banged and battered against the walls. If he didn't have broken bones already, he would before they'd lifted him the twenty or thirty feet to the top.

"Throw me down another rope!"

"Maman!" Henri let go and reached for her. Bella tried to calm him.

"Hush, hush. It's just a precaution, Henri. Be brave, please."

"I want you to come with me!" He burst into tears. She caught the end of the second rope and tied it to

the side of Henri's cradle.

"Let me have the rest of the rope. Let it fall, Sir Graham."

"Are you daft, woman?" he shouted.

"Please let it go. This one." Bella tugged on the rope she wanted. The knight swore an oath that burned

Bella's ears. She yanked on the rope and he let it fall.

"Thank you. Now, pull Henri up, slowly. He's injured."

She pulled the second rope behind her back and let it out little by little, bracing her feet against the stone wall, doing her best to keep Henri steady and not spinning.

Henri screamed for her all the way to the top. That was fine with Bella. The more he howled, the clearer he made his lungs. Sir Graham had choice words for the boy's bellowing.

The little boy was lifted out of the well shaft. For a few minutes all heads, shoulders and arms that had

protruded into the distant ring of light disappeared. Bella took the time to say a prayer of thanks, exhaling in shuddering breaths her own deep relief. She came aware of the slimy wall at her back and pushed away from it, treading water to stay afloat. The cold registered. She couldn't feel her feet and her heavy gown dragged on her legs, tiring them more. She knew the best thing she could do for herself was strip off her gowns, but her fingers were too cold to unfasten the laces.

She tilted her face to the empty circle of daylight. Had they forgotten about her? Then the darkest thought she'd ever had in her life splattered across her brain.

If Graham murdered Lady Isabella, why shouldn't he just let you drown, Bella?

"No," Bella shook her head. "No, no. He won't do that. He had nothing to do with Isabella."

How do you know?

The rope she'd held Henri stable with sc.r.a.ped across her hands. "Lady, you next. Are you tied?"

"Tied?" Bella sorted out that request. Dear G.o.d, what was she thinking? She wasn't thinking. "Wait."

She fumbled with the rope, tying another square knot and one more after that. She slid a big loop of rope down to her hips and tried to sit on it.

"Ready? Are you secure?"

"Oh, yes." Bella nodded. But she wasn't. The rope slid up her back, tightened across her shoulders then

the knot gave. She dropped back into the water, sinking heavily, banging against the stones as she struggled back to the surface.

Furious words trumpeted down the hollow well. Sir Graham s.n.a.t.c.hed the rope out of the well, fas.h.i.+oned his own knots and loops and dropped the rope back to Bella.

"Lady, it took us forever to get your knots off Henry. Put one loop between your legs and the other around your arms and for the love of G.o.d, hold on. There is no reason to make this more difficult than it is."

"Well, kiss my Aunt f.a.n.n.y," Bella grumbled, stung by Graham's rudeness. He couldn't even bother to be pleasant when someone's life was in danger. "You can just leave me here if you want."

"And taint the well?" he snarled back. "No."

"You weren't supposed to hear that," Bella whispered her next complaint as she struggled with his loops and her cold, tired limbs.

"Aye, and I'm not suppose to hear that either. 'Haps I should leave you a while longer. Sir John might appreciate my efforts if it sweetens your disposition."

Bella got the larger loop he'd fas.h.i.+oned onto her legs. This time, when she felt the rope tug on her, it bit deeply into her flesh under her arms and below her hips and held. She also spun like a top once her feet left the water, but she could brace herself with her arms and avoid the worst of the battering. As the rim of the well came closer, she realized the easiest way out would have been repelling, using her feet and the wall the smart way.

The men pulling the tow rope held it fast as Sir Graham and Friar Kerwin both reached into the well to grasp Bella's arms and drag her across the stones.

A crowd of servants and men-at-arms cheered. Bella sank to a wet heap beside the well and looked for Henri. Meggie had him swaddled in a blanket, rocking him. On the cobbles at Meggie's feet lay the inert body of the Spaniel puppy.

"Oh, no," Bella moaned, pus.h.i.+ng away Sir Graham's hands, ignoring the priest's prayers of thanksgiving.

"Hold still," Graham ordered testily as he unfastened knots. Bella pushed her hair away from her face and struggled onto her feet. She was shaky and cold. Graham lifted the last loop over her head and more wet hair tumbled in Bella's face. She pushed that back again and Sir Graham firmly away and staggered to the puppy, sinking in the same puddle it had died in.

She picked the puppy up. "How long has it been?"

"The pup is dead, lady." Graham put his knee to the cobbles beside her soggy skirts.

"How many minutes? How much time?" Bella turned the small body over, letting water run from its open mouth while supporting its limp head.