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“Yes.” She reluctantly pulled herself away from his warmth and rolled to her feet, feeling multiple aches as she stretched.
James got to his feet more slowly, but she kept a sharp watch on him and he seemed to be all right.
He pulled the canvas they’d slept on away from under the hole in the roof, and set the bucket down directly beneath it. He looked up at the uneven break above and glanced over at her.
“I don’t think I’d fit through.”
She agreed, which is why she had suggested she do it. She walked over and he held out a hand, which she used to steady herself as she clambered up.
“It’s not high enough.”
“I’m going to put my foot on it, bend my knee, and you’re going to step up onto my thigh,” he said, and then did it.
Still using him for balance, she carefully stepped up, reaching up with one hand and getting it through the hole.
“Still too low,” she said. There was no way she could boost herself up.
“Now you’re where you are, let’s try this.” James put both hands on her thighs, just below her bottom, and lifted her.
All those muscles that she had admired in his arms seemed to bulge as he thrust her upward, and suddenly she was shoulder height above the roof.
She put her hands out, used her arms to propel her, and with James’s help from below, eventually clambered up.
Her short skirt had ridden up around her thighs, but she dismissed the embarrassment that flared momentarily in her as she tugged it down. Much more important things to worry about than flashing her knickers, that was for sure.
“All right?” James called up.
“I think so.” Although her left hand was throbbing at having had pressure on it. “I’m going to crawl across the roof.” She didn’t know how strong the wavy fibercrete was, and given it had collapsed in one corner, she guessed not very strong at all. So she carefully moved on hands and knees toward the front of the garage and peered down over the side.
The roof sloped upward from back to front, and the ground looked a fair distance away.
The sound of someone coughing came from her left, and she shielded her gaze against the rising sun to see an old man limping down the row of garages in blue overalls.
“Hello!” she called, waving.
He came to a stop, looking around for her.
“Up on the roof! Hello!”
Eventually he found her, but his eyesight was obviously not good, because he was frowning and squinting as he came closer, and then stopped in amazement.
“A girl on a roof.”
“Yes. My friend and I were locked in the garage last night and I climbed through a hole in the corner. Can you break the padlock to get my friend out, and get a ladder for me to get down?”
“Break a padlock?” the man said, shaking his head. “I don’t go around destroying other people’s property.”
“There’s a detective sergeant of Scotland Yard injured and trapped in that garage,” Gabriella said. “You’d be on the side of the law if you broke it. But if you don’t want to, can you go and fetch a bobby or two to help instead?”
“The coppers?” he spat to the side.
“Can you at least get a ladder to help me down, then?” Gabriella asked, suddenly finding her patience wearing thin. She had to force herself to keep her voice calm and friendly.
“Reckon I can.” He was still standing in the middle of the row, looking up at her, when Gabriella saw a man walking down toward him.
He was wearing a hat low over his eyes and a dark gray jacket. Something about him set her heart thumping and when he stopped, took a few steps back at the sight of her and the old man, then darted quickly around the back of one of the garages, she understood why.
Despite the warm rays of the rising sun, a chill went through her. She crawled back over the roof and looked down at James, who was staring up at her from below.