by Elin Gregory
"If you say so," Falk agreed, and cupped his hands to give Briers a boost up.
Climbing up the inside of the corridor wasn't hard but required care. Long-legged Nik, Falk and Briers could straddle the width of it easily enough, but for shorter and frailer people Briers knew it would be daunting even without the hazards of splintered wood and smashed glass. Luckily the compartment doors and the little fabric-covered ladders from the bunks spanned the width of the corridor and could be wedged to form rickety little landings that speeded up the rescues. A good thing, especially since the fires outside seemed to be growing.
"How are those ropes going?" he shouted.
"Miles is ripping, I'm twisting and Diana is supervising our knots," Emily replied. "I knew the time I spent escaping from my finishing school would come in useful some time."
"Practical education," Falk said with an admiring shake of his head. "Every girl needs to know how to organise a dinner party, make a souffle, pick a lock, load a gun and make a rope out of bed sheets. Just the basics really."
Their good humour was dampened when, in the next compartment, they found the corpse of an elderly man, still wrapped in his bedding. He looked peaceful and they agreed, for their own comfort, that his heart had probably given out from the shock of the impact. They made a note of the compartment number to pass on to the authorities, and moved on.
The next door was both hot and damp. Briers's heart missed more than one beat as he realised that the little coal-fired boiler that provided heat and hot water to the carriages had been right under Emily's berth. He broke one of the water pipes and fed it directly into the firebox, causing a great billowing gust of steam, but ensuring that the fire was completely out.
"What the hell are you doing?" Miles yelled. "Is that smoke?"
"No, it's steam," Falk replied. "Mr Carstairs is ensuring that you don't get poached to death."
"Well, thank him for me, then."
"Thank me yourself," Briers suggested. He didn't just rip the door off the runner but tossed it out of the window for good measure. Then he leaned in and almost head-butted the little rat, who was reaching for him just as eagerly. Briers hoped Diana was trustworthy because even quite close colleagues didn't hold each other so tightly, nor did they yelp, "Oh thank God, I was so worried about you," or snarl "I thought you were dead again, you little bastard. Who the heck blacked your eye?"
"That would have been me," Emily said. "We clashed heads. Look, I have one too."
"Ma looks like a prop forward," Miles said, he gave Briers another squeeze then moved back into the sleeper.
"They'll start a fashion." Diana's voice was weak but she managed a smile. "Matching shiners. They will be all the rage."
#
The next set of sheet ropes were very well made, considering the time they'd had to do it, and it was the work of a few moments to make a supporting harness and join the lengths of fabric. Diana was in so much pain she didn't even try to be helpful. She allowed them to slip a loop of rope under her arms and another under her knees and bunched up in silent misery as Briers and Miles paid out the rope and Falk and Nik fended her off the sides of the corridor. Emily, on the other hand, wanted to climb down. Briers didn't quite hear what Falk said to her but it was short, to the point, and possibly even offensive from her startled expression. However she did allow them to lower her down quickly and easily. Once her feet were on the ground and she had waved back to them, Briers was able to turn his attention fully to Miles. His eye might be purpling nicely, but Briers took a moment to assure himself that Miles's lips were still in good working order, likewise his tongue.
"How are you really?" he demanded as he patted over all he could reach of his lover's compact body. "How are the ribs?"
"Ribs? I... " Miles jaw dropped a little. "I'd honestly forgotten. I'm not feeling much of anything right now. Let's make the most of it and rescue some more of the other passengers."
"I think you ought to go down and look after Emily and Diana," Briers said. "On the other hand, I also think you need to do something active and manly for a bit so come on."
Of course, once out of the compartment with a clear goal in sight, Miles climbed like a monkey, and was nearly as cheerful as Nik when it came to dealing with the injured, the fearful or the bloody uncooperative.
"We'll come back for your baggage," he assured one gentleman. "No, you can't get changed, there's no time. Well, if there's no danger, your baggage will be safe enough until morning, won't it? Out you come."
"What did you think he's got in there that's so precious?" Briers asked once the man, still protesting, had been helped out of the carriage.
"A suitcase full of bearer bonds against the Bank of Austria," Falk said.
"A fortune in diamonds," Nik suggested.
"Dirty postcards." Miles grinned and clambered up the wall again.
The uppermost compartment would be easier to evacuate from the top, they agreed. Nik went to fetch Ari and they made their way up the slope to the tracks and along them. There they tied off one of the ropes and Nik brought it down to them, jumping the ten feet from the tracks to the top of the car in one elegant jeté.
"Come down. I'll catch you," he called up to Ari who laughed and shook his head.
"You didn't last time! Catch this instead." Ari threw down the other length of butchered sheet.
Briers let it down to where Falk and Miles were encouraging a distraught young mother to allow them to take her toddler. The toddler was equally upset and the husband was dithering, unable to cope both with his sobbing family and what looked like a broken collarbone.
In one of those dizzying changes that Briers could never quite get over, Miles slid into Millie's persona and cooed over the child.
"I will take him up myself," Millie promised. "Look, like so. He will be perfectly safe and watching for you to follow."
Torn, the young mother expressed her intention to both accompany her child and to stay with her husband, who threw up his one working arm and begged them to get on with it.
"Ups-a-daisy," Miles said, slipping away from the screaming woman's grasping hands, and scrambled up to Briers, who fixed his fist in the loop of fabric around the child, lifted him away from Miles and handed him up to Nik. "Noisiest pass-the-parcel I've ever played," he muttered to Miles, then went down to help Falk.
Once the lady had been retrieved, Briers left Falk and Nik to deal with the man and grabbed the opportunity to do exactly when he had been telling people they couldn't - shove a few essentials into a pillow case. Washing kits, spare magazine and lockpicks, his and Miles's passports, both false and true. That would be enough to see them to Paris, where they could buy everything else they needed. As an afterthought he dug Millie's favourite shoes out and added those to the bundle, because he knew how much Miles would appreciate it. He'd seen him run in those shoes and still have the breath to kick some serious arse when he got there. It was a happy memory. Then he recalled Miles saying something about his grandmother's garnets and dropped those into the toe of one of the shoes. That should earn him a big thank you once they reached a place of privacy. Briers was grinning as he left the compartment.
"I got your shoes," he shouted up to Miles, the smallest of the three silhouettes leaning over the door way above.
"Briers, that's very thoughtful of you, thank you, but the carriage alongside has caught fire. I think it would be a good idea to get out."
Now Miles came to mention it, the light was a good bit brighter. Briers climbed, swinging up from ladder to ladder until one slipped and left him dangling from the window's edge. He swore as glass sliced his palm, then shouted, "Don't you dare," as he saw Miles start towards him. His view of Miles was blotted out by Nik, who swung down, bouncing from door to ladder with the rope looped around his massive shoulders. He grabbed Briers by the scruff of the neck, laughed and boosted him up with a heave. "Ups-a-daisy," Nik said with a grin, and set his shoulder under Briers's arse. "Did I say that correct?"
"Y
ou, did, Nik. You're a Trojan," Briers said.
"No, I'm from Odessa," Nik protested and heaved again. "Reach."
Briers did, and felt Miles's small cold hands fastening like a gin trap around his wrist. Another boost from Nik and they were all standing on the end of the carriage. Smoke was billowing around them and the heat was intense, but lights were streaming into the valley bringing help, and over near the tracks Briers could hear a strong mellow voice singing a French folk song with others joining in on the chorus. Something awful had happened, sure enough, but they had it under control.
"Get up here," Ari said. "Briers, you've got blood all down your arm."
"He needs his hand stitched," Miles replied, wadding up a section of torn cloth and placing it in Briers's palm.
"That remains to be seen," Briers said. "But yes, let's go up. I don't know about you, but I could do with a drink."
"More champagne," Nik crowed.
Falk scowled at the fire and pushed Briers towards the rope. "Can you climb like that? I thought not. Mrs Carstairs, will you go up and help Ari pull?"
"It would be better if you did," Miles replied, coiling the spare rope around his arm. He tossed it up to Ari who caught it and began to tie it off a few feet along. "Briers has been eating well lately. I don't think Ari and I could lift him."
"You are a cheeky little toad, and I will express my extreme displeasure with you another time," Briers promised. Miles didn't look one bit ashamed or apprehensive, in fact he seemed to be anticipating his chastisement, which was just how Briers liked him to be.
"If Nik and Mrs Carstairs come up this one, it'll save time," Ari said, dropping the tied off coil. "Look out below."
"Don't I get a say in this?" Briers complained as Falk began to haul himself up. Miles looped the rope around Briers's chest and began to mutter the 'out of the hole, around the tree, back into the hole' charm that was essential to the correct construction of a bowline knot.
"Not until your sore hand is vell," Nik said. "Mrs Carstairs vishes to be a nightingale and," he waved a hand, "sing songs to make you better or something. I don't know."
Briers gave the rope a tug and Falk picked up the slack. He and Ari pulled, Nik grabbed Briers’s foot and gave him a boost, and Briers reached... and grabbed the edge of the track with both hands. He chinned himself up and twisted to sit on the edge. "Right you two - " he began, but Miles and Nik were moving in a mad scramble. With a horrible scream of metal the coach tilted and began to fall. Nik grabbed Miles and threw him. Briers grabbed a handful of robe, felt himself beginning to slip. Falk wrapped an arm around him and dragged them both back.
"Nik!" Ari shrieked... but Nik was already jumping, sidelit by the fire, a great graceful leap into the darkness.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Miles
Miles finished tying off a bandage and sat back on his heels. His patient was unconscious, having passed out when one of the attending doctors set his leg.
"You can deal with the rest of his injuries, can't you?" the doctor had said, and that was fair enough because there were many more serious casualties and trained medical staff were in short supply.
Miles rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands then looked about him. Dawn had come - some time - he had been too busy to notice. In the dark and confusion he had been shoulder-to-shoulder with Briers and the other men, carrying stretchers, helping restrain those patients who fought their rescuers, just generally doing what he could. Then better lights had been set up and one fellow, furious with the world, had commented that he didn't want to be handled by some queer. Miles had decided that discretion was the better part of valour and had joined the ladies. Assuming a traditionally feminine role in healing, nursing, and nurturing should deflect suspicion, and if not he'd have a discreet but public fit of the vapours to establish his credentials when time allowed. That would be easy enough. Even without that necessity, though, it had been hard to stop the tears falling.
He covered his face again, smearing it still further.
"Darling?"
He opened his eyes. A few paces away his mother was treating another patient. She held out her hand to draw his attention so he rocked up onto his feet and went to her.
"What can I do, Ma?" he asked. The patient was very still, what skin visible between bandages and bloodstains very pale.
"Nothing, he's gone to sleep." Ma reached for his hand and drew him down beside her. "I just wanted you near me."
Miles put his arm across her shoulders and held her close, the dense wool of her coat warming his chilled hands. An hour ago, or three, Briers had noticed that Miles was shivering and had insisted he wear his evening jacket. It was too big but warm and well made and smelled of pipe smoke and Briers. It was like an embrace and would do very well until he could get the real thing, but his hands were cold and his ribs ached like fury.
Ma sighed and nestled into his chest. "I want to sleep," she said. "Right here on the ground."
"I'd wait. They'll be back to move the last of the wounded soon, and then it will be our turn. We'll find somewhere more comfortable for you to rest."
Ma sighed again and her head moved a little. Miles knew she was looking towards that area, well away from where they were treating the survivors, where the less fortunate lay. So far there were eight neatly-tucked bundles, but Miles was sure the count would go up once the fires had been extinguished. Someone - Miles would lay money on it being Pritchard's idea - had covered them with the richly-coloured counterpanes from the sleeping berths, retaining the boiled white sheets for the injured. Practical and less eye catching, but also more - friendly. Amongst the bundles, so neatly tucked in, so unlike his usual cheerful sprawl, lay Nik Utkin. Miles closed his eyes.
Nik had almost made it, that great leap a calculated risk. They had rushed down expecting to find him cursing a broken ankle or cuts from the glass. He had looked surprised more than anything else. Certainly there was no trace of pain on his face. Both Falk and Briers agreed that he couldn't have known anything about it - a slip on the grass and the sheer bad luck of a large stone just where his head would strike it.
Sheer bad luck that wouldn't have happened if Miles had been a bit quicker on his feet and they hadn't all ignored the danger signs.
Ari was heartbroken.
"Darling, I think we need to move." Ma stirred. "The ambulances are back. Help me up?"
He supported her until she could get her feet under her, then let her brace a hand on his shoulder.
"I want tea," she said, stretching. "Well, a bathroom first, then tea and maybe ten hours sleep. Less painful knees would be nice too. That ground's hard. But I'll settle for a bathroom and tea, in that order, please."
"Your wish is my command." Briers ambled up, his once-white shirt now mottled with charcoal, blood and grass stains. His arm settled heavily across Miles's back and he drew Ma in for a hug as well. "Transport is being laid on as we speak, but one of the local officials is a Ruby Aston fan and has invited her whole party back to his house for refreshments while we wait. That includes us, in case you're wondering."
"How is she?" Miles asked. "Ruby, I mean."
"Upset," Briers said. "So's Janice. And Pritchard is looking after Ari, which is good. He's devastated."
Miles felt his throat tighten again. Then Briers changed his grip, tugging Miles's head down to his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. Not at all. Don't you think that. He was a lovely lad and we'll miss him, but he made the wrong choice."
"You can't say that," Ma protested. "It might be true, but you can't say that."
"Not in front of anyone else, but I can say it to you. Nik had time to grab the rope, but he thought he could jump to safety and so - damn, he nearly did it too. It wasn't your fault. I'm going to keep saying that until you believe it." Briers pressed a kiss to Miles's temple. "Now, let's go and find that tea ... and that bathroom."
#
The house belonged to one Mr Szarka, a gentleman with interests in business and a good tast
e in soft furnishings. The man treated them all with great kindness - and not just Ruby, either. They were offered a chance to wash, tea and coffee, food and comfortable rooms in which to rest, and bearing in mind he was a Ruby Aston fan he and his family were remarkably self-effacing.
"Please take your ease," he said to Ruby. "You will not be disturbed here."
Miles could have hugged him because they had already had a camera thrust into their faces as they'd disembarked from the ambulance that had brought them into the village. Briers had dealt with the photographer, tripping him up, confiscating the camera and promising he could have it back when they left. This was very good news for the photographer because Falk had been aiming for him, and it had taken both Pritchard and Miles to hold him back. The man wouldn't have got off with just muddy trousers if Falk had got hold of him.
Immediate needs seen to, they settled down to wait for their transport. Diana had been put to bed on a couch in the next room and Ma took a chair beside her, draped another blanket over her lap and said, "I would very much like to be left alone for a while if you don't mind?"
"Are you going to have a nap?" Miles asked.
Ma sipped the last of her tea then set the cup down. "I am." She offered her cheek for a kiss, then gave him a pat. "Off you trot."
Miles chuckled and closed the door carefully behind him. He went to Briers's side and sank carefully down onto a bench. "She's going to sleep," he said. "I'm jealous."
"You can doze off here, if you like," Briers offered, patting his lap. "I can't see anyone minding."
Miles glanced around the room. Ruby and Janice were on a day bed, curled up together under a blanket. Pritchard was talking to Ari and trying to persuade him to have something to eat. Falk was glaring out of a window with a tension in his shoulders that suggested he was planning a murder.
"Someone's coming," Falk said keeping his voice low so they didn't disturb Ruby and Janice.
"Smethwick?" Miles asked. He thought he'd caught a glimpse of him during the night but had other things on his mind at the time. "The man is a pain in the neck, but I do feel responsible for him."