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It didn’t go all that well Her feet left the ladder and the ladder swayed sideways again, skittering along the stones, this time with no one to catch it before it fell It landed with a clatter at the base of the wall

Could her heart pound any harder? It bounced around madly inside her chest

Had they heard the ladder fall in the villa? Would so here until her strength failed and she fell and broke her silly neck? Rafe would have to corunted andar for purchase against the wall

And then, ured it out The trick was to simply hold on with her wis to walk up the wall She swung her left leg up and over ay too —and then, there she was, lying on top of the wall, legs dangling to either side

Safe

For the ritty stone and took a ain

Through the night-dark branches of olive and palhts were on But apparently, no one had heard the racket she’dthe house was quiet She lifted up enough to peer at the softer-looking grassy ground on the garden side It see way down there

She probably should have thought this through a little more carefully

Maybe the thing to do noas to start shouting, just scream her head off until Rafe or the housekeeper or someone came outside and helped her down

But no She just couldn’t do that, couldn’t call for help and have to be rescued She refused to be that pitiful and ineffectual She’d gotten up here on her own She’d get down the same way

Dear Lord, have mercy Please, please be kind

She eased her left leg lower, swung the right one over and down Now she was dangling on the garden side of the wall, holding on for dear life

She squeezed her eyes shut Let go, Genevra You have to let go

Not that she hadto hold on, but her strength was used up

She dropped like a rock and hit the ground hard Pain shot up her right heel, sang through her ankle and stabbed along her calf A strangled screa with several very bad words

“Ugh!” She crurabbed her ankle “O!” It throbbed in ti heart “O, ow” She rubbed andif there was any way she was going to be able to stand

“Gen” The deep fae to her left “I ht have known”

She whipped her head around “Rafe?”

Rafael Michael DeValery, earl of Harte And her silly heart leapt with hopeless joy at the sight of hi in the shadows a few feet away “Have you hurt yourself?”

She shot hi her poor ankle “I’ll survive And you could have si—or maybe, oh, I don’t know, taken one of my calls?”