“No, I’ll do it. I’ve been climbing ropes since I was Clay’s age.” He was already retrieving one of the coils of rope and making a small loop at the end, tying it off with a knot.
“Kyle, are you sure? Not even Saul could bear your weight.”
“No… but a half-dozen people could. Saul? I need you to form a line with everyone here to lower me down. Can you see to it?”
“Yassuh!”
“You stand at the front. Get a good grip on the rope. Don’t pay it out or you’ll end up with burns. Start back from the edge and walk forward slowly.”
Saul spun around and started pointing at the house servants who had come to watch. “You, Martha, plant yourself right there, and you, woman…”
But even as Kyle positioned himself at the edge and slipped his foot through the rope’s end loop, another problem made itself known.
“Clay!” Danielle cried. “Don’t move! You’ll fall…”
Selena knelt beside her and immediately realized the danger. Clay had managed to stand up and was trying to climb up the steep wall of dirt and vines.
“Please, darling,” Selena added her pleas to Danielle’s, trying to keep the fear from her own voice. “Be still. We’ll come down and fetch you.”
She flung a glance at Kyle. He had shed his coat and was testing the rope for tautness as he lowered himself over the edge. His tone quiet and efficient as he called up orders to Saul, he slid downward through the undergrowth toward the tree where his son clung.
Clay saw him coming and turned, arms raised, but his small foot slipped on a root and he fell, nearly tumbling to the gully floor below.
Kyle uttered a sound that might have been an oath or a prayer, while Danielle shrieked. Selena, her heart in her throat, watched helplessly as the child hit his chin on a root and burst into fresh tears. Danielle followed suit.
“Danielle!” Selena murmured frantically, thrusting the weeping woman behind her, “You’re only frightening him. Clay, please love, stay right where you are.”
I have to talk to him, Selena thought. Give Kyle time to reach him. But Kyle was being lowered with such deliberate slowness that her nerves were screaming.
“Clay, did you hear that?” Selena said desperately. “Horatio is calling to you. You must be very quiet to hear him.”
She thought the child understood her, for it seemed that his cries lessened fractionally.
“Did you hear what Horatio said, Clay? He wants you to come to tea. Of course, I think what he really would like is a picnic.” Kyle was nearly there…a yard to the right of the tree. “When you come up here, you can give him a cracker. Would you like that?” She held her breath as Clay raised his tear-streaked face to her, his attention diverted.
“Please God,” Danielle sobbed. “Just spare my son.”
“Please Kyle, just a few more feet,” Selena whispered, digging her fingers desperately into Danielle’s arm. “Beside the tree now. Please, hurry.”
Kyle made his move then. Reaching around a limb, he grabbed for Clay, wrapping a hand around a small arm, dragging his son against his chest as he clung to the rope.
The boy let out a wail, while above them Danielle buried her face in her hands.
“Thank you, God,” Selena breathed, her voice little more than a croak.
“All right, pull us up…slowly.” Holding on to the rope with one hand and to his wailing son with the other, Kyle shielded the child’s small body from the worst of the underbrush as they were slowly pulled up the bluff. They finally reached the top.
“Far enough, Saul! Here, take him,” Kyle rasped as he half pushed, half lifted Clay toward Selena.
Throwing herself to her stomach, she stretched as far as she could to reach down for him. When her fingers closed over the small arms, she pulled the whimpering child to safety and gave him to his terrified mother.
“Oh, thank God, thank God,” Danielle sobbed over and over again, clutching so desperately at Clay that she was in danger of smothering him.
Selena remained where she was on the ground, not trusting her weak knees to support her. She was panting for breath as if she’d run a great distance, and her heart still thudded in her breast.
Kyle, too, was breathing hard as he dragged himself over the edge. He scarcely gave Selena a glance as he got to his feet and drew the weeping Danielle into his embrace.
“Danielle, it’s over,” he murmured. “It’s over.” The ragged note of relief in his voice was apparent as he pressed his cheek against her hair, offering strength and comfort to the trembling woman.