Ben undid his anorak and pulled her slim and shivering body inside it. She slid her hands round his back and clung to him as he wrapped her in its warmth. She buried her face into his sweater and muttered little endearments in Italian. He stroked her dark soft hair with his lips and smelled its damp, fresh scent which seemed like wild roses.
He had a strange feeling in his chest. It was different to the way he had felt about girls before. He felt as though he wanted to protect and care for this one. She had so many problems now – problems not of her making. She seemed small and vulnerable. Her self-possession and occasional bursts of temper were a mask over the soft and gentle girl underneath. He had allowed her to accompany him into hardship and danger. Now he must do his best to see that she got out of it safely.
Under this stimulus his mind started to function again properly. It was time for the two of them to get moving. Dawn was fast approaching. He looked at his watch, expecting it to be well after six o’clock. But incredibly it was still only a few minutes before the hour. Less than ten minutes had passed since Francesca had slipped off the rope.
“Come on,” he said gently. “This is the last lap for you. You must show me where to find this Mancino Vitelli guy and then you must lie low somewhere.”
She looked up at him and Ben saw that the stubborn glint had come back into her eye. “I am not leaving you now. It is best if we stay together. They will find the two of us – how do you say? – a tougher nut to crack.”
“OK.” Ben grinned. “We’ll sort that out later.” Reluctantly he let her go. “Which way is it now?”
She took his hand and they set off along the foot of the wall below the upper terrace. “There are steps in the centre,” she whispered. “We need to be careful at the top.”
At the foot of the steps he stopped and peered up. It was just a short flight of about twenty steps with a landing half-way up. It presented no problems at this stage. He went up quickly in his soft trainers and paused below the top. Only his head projected above the terrace to survey the lie of the land.
Here there were mainly gravel paths so they would have to go carefully. But there were quite a few shrubs around for cover, swaying in the blustery wind. He couldn’t see any lights on in the house. He searched all the windows as best he could and they all appeared to be tightly shuttered.
Ben turned back to Francesca. “There’s nothing open at the back of the house. I think we’ll have to go round to the front. We’ll take this diagonal path to the left. The bushes will give us extra cover.”
He laid his hand on her shoulder as she made to move. “We’ll have to walk slowly and carefully to avoid making a noise on the gravel. Remember to put each foot down gently and transfer your weight on to it little by little before you lift the other foot.”
She nodded, her eyes wide with excitement. It was incredible. She was already enjoying herself again. She seemed to have forgotten the traumatic experience of a few minutes ago. Ben found her vitality was catching. He squeezed her hand and felt the ready response. But that was not for now. He tore his mind away from Francesca and concentrated on the business in hand.
They went along the path at a crouch, moving in a strange, slow-motion walk to cut down the noise. They reached the corner of the house and Ben looked round. Then he realized they would have no luck there. Floodlights were illuminating the front and part of the side of the house, lighting up the whole of the driveway clearer than day. There was no cover near the house.
From his view-point Ben could look straight into the lodge beside the gates. It had the appearance of a military guardhouse with its large windows giving unobstructed views over the front and side of the villa. Furthermore the door of the gatehouse was standing open and the lights were on inside the building even at this time of the night. Clearly someone remained on guard here all the time while the Vitelli were in residence.
Ben hastily stepped back out of the brightness and looked at Francesca. He hadn’t realised that they would keep such a permanent watch. From the expressive shrug of her shoulders it seemed that she was as surprised as him.
“Well, there’s no chance of us going that way,” he said. “We would certainly be seen before we got into the house.”
“What about making a run for it? There’s no-one watching at the moment.”
He shook his head. “That wouldn’t work. You can’t run silently on this gravel.”
Ben checked his watch. It was seven minutes past six. He looked to the east and fancied he could detect the first lightening of the sky that warned them of the approach of dawn. They couldn’t risk hanging about much longer.
“Come on. We’d better try the other way.”
He led Francesca along the back of the house, trying the shutters as he went to see whether by chance the occupants had forgotten to fasten one. Now they were walking on stone paving so they could afford to move faster. But he had to be careful to avoid making a noise as he tried each window. Francesca went casually ahead of him, waving cheerfully back at him when he hissed a warning not to make any noise.
There were nine windows along the back of the house. Then there was a set-back of some twenty feet or so before the start of the new wing. They had no luck at all with any of the ground floor windows. But the East wing had balconies at first floor level. Ben carefully selected one which appeared to him to offer the best possibility. Here he fancied he could make out a shutter standing slightly ajar. Perhaps they would have a chance of getting in that way.
He inspected the wall below the balcony. The newer masonry was in good condition and offered fewer handholds. However he was ready for a small problem like that. He unwound the short rope he was carrying wrapped round his waist and tied a soft heavy knot in the end to make it swing. Then he carefully measured the length of rope he needed. Standing back a little he tossed it over the balustrade parapet. As it swung over the rail he released more rope and the weighted end plunged back towards the ground. He stopped it at head height.
He stepped forward and caught the two ends together. Then he pulled enough rope through to let the free end reach the ground. He tied the rope ends together and put his weight into the loop. He suspected that the parapet might not be strong enough to take his weight. The last thing they needed was to bring it all crashing down. However he decided that, with his support, it would carry Francesca’s weight all right.
“Are you willing to climb up first?”
She nodded enthusiastically.
“I’ll support you until you’re out of reach, so it will only be a few feet of free climbing. Here you are.”
She came over and caught hold of the ropes.
“Remember to hold your knees out, your feet tight together and keep your arms bent – just like rock climbing. Are you ready?”
“Yes.” Her whisper was full of excitement.
“When you get up there, I’ll undo the rope. Then you must pull it up, move it along to the end near wall and lower it down to me again.” He pointed. “Then I’ll come up and join you. Understand?”
She nodded.
“OK, then. Here we go.”
He trapped the end of the rope to the paving with his foot and steadied her as she started to climb. He told her to pause when she got to the limit of his reach while he made sure that her legs were properly positioned. After that it took her only a few seconds of scrambling to make the last few feet. Then she was hanging on to the rail and pulling herself over the parapet with a great deal of noise. However there seemed to be no reaction at present from within the house.
She removed the rope, as he’d instructed, to the more secure fixing against the wall. Ben was able to swarm up it in a short time and get on to the balcony.
He immediately started checking the shutters which appeared to be open. The left hand one wasn’t locked but the hinges were extremely stiff. As delicately as possible he prised it open far enough to get his body through. He slid inside to see whether he could make any impr
ession on the window.
It was there that he came upon a strange phenomenon. Between the shutters and the window a framework of vertical steel bars was firmly fixed. It was as though the room had been turned into a prison.
Ben felt around the steel frame. His fingers encountered three hexagonal bolt-heads with new, sharp edges which were securing the frame to the masonry. No doubt the other side was the same. He would need the right tools and would make a lot of noise getting through this window. Disappointed at yet another obstacle, he slid out from behind the shutter and gently pushed it nearly shut again. He shook his head at Francesca and she smiled sympathetically.
He stepped to the edge of the balcony and looked along at the other shutters. As far as he could tell they were all tightly closed. Ben glanced again to the east. The heavy, rolling clouds were keeping the dawn at bay but he fancied he could detect the first shadings of grey seeping into the blackness of the night. If they stayed here much longer they would soon be clearly visible to anyone who might be patrolling in the garden below. He looked up to heaven for inspiration and there it was. Just a couple of feet above his head, were the deep, overhanging eaves of the roof and that gave him an idea.