Chapter 36: The Ascent

I have seldom moved so quickly in my life. I had the clamp and my picks removed from both doors with no more than the small twist I had designed them to require, and was silently racing towards the lumbar room, gathering the twine as I ran. Miss Hunter ran from the opposite direction, her face flushed ad her expression frantic. I felt a twinge of compunction about the lonely vigil she must have endured whilst I was buried in the seamy contents of the filing cabinets.

We both dived into the little room, and, as I drew the door closed, I saw a housemaid round the foot of the stairs. Thankfully, she had not observed the movement, but she was carrying a broom, and the sounds of industrious sweeping penetrated through the closed door. Curse the girl! What was she doing, sweeping a corridor at the crack of dawn? Certainly, she had cut off our best escape route, and soon the rest of the house would be stirring.

Miss Hunter was breathing rather quickly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to me, "I heard her coming down the stairs, but there was no time to do anything apart from bolt to here."

"It is not a disaster yet", I breathed back, her hair tickling my nose. "Thanks to your promptness."

I leaned out of the window, looking upwards. The ledge we had made our way along earlier in the night was seven feet above my head, and I muttered imprecations against Georgian builders and their elegant love of high ceilings. I narrowed my eyes, considering the stonework around the window. It consisted of raised stone slabs in a decorative brick work pattern. It would present little difficulty for me to climb back to our ledge, but Miss Hunter?

Her head appeared beside mine, leaning out of the window. She followed my gaze.

"I'm fairly certain I could climb that, with a little assistance" she declared gamely. Seeing my doubtful expression, she stuck her chin out stubbornly. "I do not see that we have a plethora of options, William."

I nodded. There was little time to indulge in chivalry.

"Do you think it would be easier if I pulled you or pushed you?"

"A bit of both, I think. The difficult part will be getting my balance on the ledge and straightening onto it – oh, no!"

The reason for her ejaculation of dismay was immediately apparent. Several large drops of rain splashed onto us. It would make the smooth stone ledge as slippery as ice.

"'Twere best it were done quickly", I muttered, borrowing from Watson's phraseology. "Come on!"

Our ascent was far from dignified. I stood on the window sill, and pushed Miss Hunter upwards by her rump, to take the strain from her fingers as she negotiated the brickwork. When she reached the top of the window, she was able to reach up and hold on to the ledge. She held her position whilst I scrambled up beside her. I then hissed instructions to her as she continued the ascent.

"Climb onto my knee, keep hold of the ledge, that's right. Now climb onto my shoulders. Don't worry, I'm steady as a rock here, just think of me as a very fat step-ladder. Make sure you keep your centre of balance forward, stick your behind out more, that's it, good girl! Ow! No, sorry, don't worry, your foot just scraped my ear. Now straighten up the wall. Press yourself against it and step up onto the ledge – yes! Well done!"

She carefully turned herself so her back was to the wall and moved along to leave me space to manoeuvre. I pulled myself onto the ledge, twisting and flattening myself as I did so, then straightening to join Miss Hunter. She was panting and flushed with exertion, and her hair was stuck to her forehead, but she shot me a look of triumph, her face breaking into a broad, exultant grin. I could neither help but return it, nor stop the next thought that barged uninvited into my brain.

She looks extraordinarily beautiful.

What?! What on earth had induced me to think such a preposterous thing, and at such a time? Concentrate, Holmes! I metaphorically shook my head, and we set off around the edge of the house again, two shadows against the wall, thankfully still barely visible as the rain masked the promise of dawn.

I would have preferred to lead the way, but Miss Hunter had moved towards our destination to allow me to climb onto the ledge, and I had deemed the risks of climbing around her to outweigh the benefits. However, I had great cause to regret this decision. When she rounded the corner of the house, she stepped on a patch of lichen rendered treacherously slimy by the rain. To my horror, her foot slid from under her, and she was falling....