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It wasn't as though I did not expect Raffles to come. Raffles always came. But in the dark of the night, illuminated only by a thin sliver of moon, waiting for him to emerge from Felton Castle with the Sproule Ruby, I began to get concerned. Hundreds of possibilities of his exposure assaulted my mind. Surely, I thought, he would not have made his escape some other way and not come back for me. This I knew in my rational mind, but a long wait in the dark can tend to give the irrational mind a louder voice.
"Ah, Bunny! Sorry to have kept you waiting!" Raffles was pulling himself out of the rockwork about the cliff base, which we had discovered concealed a secret passage with which we would make our entrance and exit.
"It was no trouble! It never is!" I took the bag he carried from him and offered him my hand so he could climb fully out.
"Yes, you are always so faithful." Once he shrugged his jacket off and shook the dust free from it. The moon slipped from behind some clouds, lighting his face. "Crawling through that darkened passage, I did wonder if—well, if you might not be better served by leaving me."
"Never," I said. "Raffles, I would never leave you."
"Yes, I know that." He rolled his sleeves up. "But in the dark, one's thoughts may stray from the rational."
"I found the same thing," I confessed, slinging his bag of tools over my shoulder.
"Then let us proceed free of worries and with our object." He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out the ruby. It was a magnificent specimen—he would not have gone to get it otherwise. "But—" he said presently, tucking it away again, "we must be on our way before its absence is noted."
And he took my hand again. There was no reason for him to do that; I had only offered my assistance when he was on the rocks, but we now stood unencumbered on the flat sand.
We set off, still holding hands.
My heart was racing at this development. Raffles and I had long had a mutually beneficial arrangement, but it had never strayed into anything too sentimental. I glanced at him to try to glean his intentions, but he appeared entirely unconcerned.
"Raffles," I said, then, "are you quite aware—"
"That we are holding hands? Yes, Bunny, I am. You may let go if you like. I won't be offended."
"No," I said, twining our fingers together more firmly. His long, capable fingers that I knew so well. "I shouldn't like to let go."
"Then you must also tell me if this causes offense." He stepped closer, though there had been little space between us to begin with. And he kissed me.
I dropped my sack, and he let go his jacket. The passage of time seemed to stop as we stood there, having crossed what had seemed to me an uncrossable line. Now that we were finally kissing, it seemed that neither of us could pull away from the other.
"I suppose you liked that," he said when we finally parted.
"I liked it very well."
"In that case—" he kissed me again. "We must go on doing it."
Neither of us was unconscious of the fact that someone in Felton Castle might be raising the alarm even now as we stood kissing on the beach, so we soon found it prudent to carry on with our escape. All that would be left if anyone followed us were two sets of footprints that would end at the road, as though two people had been walking, holding hands.