Jack and Kate were a bit awkward outside their doors. Tomorrow they were going away. Together. Just the two of them.
Kate repressed a yawn. Jet lag was catching up with her.
“See you in the morning,” Jack said. “If you need anything, you know where I am.”
“Right beside me. I mean—”
“I know.” His hand was on the knob. “You can lock the connecting door if you want.”
“I don’t think I will,” she said, then quickly went into her room and shut the door. The tall princess bed was gleaming in the light of a single lamp.
Suddenly, the long day hit her and she was exhausted. It took only minutes and she was in her pajamas and in the bed. Visions of men in kilts and the sound of bagpipes danced in her mind. She went to sleep smiling.
Six
Jack was in bed, sound asleep. “Get up,” he heard Sara say. He glanced at the windows. The heavy curtains were drawn but he could see that it wasn’t daylight. “Too early to leave,” he mumbled, and turned over.
“We have to go.” She sounded urgent.
Alarm ran through him. “Kate?”
“She’s fine.” Sara’s camera was around her neck and a sling bag at her back. Wherever she was, she went out early to take pictures. “It’s your buddy Puck. She wants us outside. Now, before daylight.”
Quickly, he got out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans. “Is she okay?”
“Yes, my rescuing knight, she’s also fine. She’s waiting for us. I’m going to get Kate. Make no noise.”
“I’m intrigued.”
“Me too.” Sara’s eyes were alight. She opened the connecting door and went into Kate’s room.
Jack could hear them moving about. One of the things he liked about Kate was that she could dress in minutes and was always up for an adventure. Well, actually, maybe she was a bit too ready as well as too fearless and way too unafraid. Jack put his running shoes on. Whatever his women were up to at this hour, he planned to be there.
They met in the hall outside their rooms. Sara put her finger over her lips. No talking; no noise. Even with the hotel mostly empty, she meant to take no chances. Silently, they went down the carpeted hallway, then down the stairs. On the ground floor, Jack took the lead as he made sure no one was about. The exterior door was locked from the inside but he threw the double bolts aside.
Outside, it was quite cool, and their Florida-adapted bodies shivered.
“Wool,” Kate said. “My new favorite word.”
Sara was looking around. “She was here a minute ago.”
Jack motioned for them to follow him as he led the way to a nearby clump of trees. With the sun not up yet, they could see very little. But Jack knew what he was looking for. He stopped at a big tree, reached up into the branches, and a hand magically appeared. Then a foot. Jack lifted his arms and swung Puck down with his hands on her waist.
Once on the ground, she looked up at him with adoring eyes.
“Really?” Kate’s voice sounded like a hiss.
Sara was smiling. “Where to?”
Puck didn’t speak but set out at a quick pace across dew-covered grass, always staying out of sight of the house. If someone looked out a window, they wouldn’t be seen.
She led them to the back of an old stone building. There was a big wooden storage bin along the wall. When Jack lifted the bin lid, he couldn’t see what was inside.
Kate turned her phone light onto the contents: tools, half-empty bags of fertilizer, ground stakes.
Puck reached inside, moved a few things and lifted a piece of chain.
Jack pulled it the rest of the way out. It was a chain ladder, what people in upper floor bedrooms used in case of fire.