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The air around him is hot and he can’t see through all the smoke. It’s making him cough and he knows he should get to a place with less smoke, but he can’t very well leave Juliet behind. She’s just a baby. Where is she? The last he had heard about her, she had been fed by the nurse and put into her crib to sleep. So she should be here in the nursery somewhere, but the smoke is making it hard to see and breathe.
There in the corner! Isn’t that the crib her nurse had put her in? The flames are licking at the door and he knows he can’t go out that way anymore. It’s the middle of the night and somewhere a fire has started, making the servants wake them all up in a panic. He doesn’t know who started the fire and frankly he doesn’t care, the only thing that matters to him is getting Juliet out.
Yes, the crib is just there, with Juliet inside, swaddled as she still is. As carefully as he can, he picks her up, which isn’t easy with how big she already is and with how small his arms are. But he has to do this.
The door is out of the question, as flames have now fully taken hold of it. There is of course the window, but they’re not on the ground floor, so he probably would break something. Isn’t there a servant’s entrance hidden somewhere? Or some nook he can hide in? The smoke makes him cough again; it’s getting even thicker and soon he won’t be able to see the hand in front of his eyes.
It stings in his eyes too and tears start to roll down his cheeks. If it’s only because of the smoke, he can’t say, but it doesn’t matter because he can’t find a way out. Shit. If there’s really no way, he has to try the window. Juliet is still fast asleep in his arms, unbothered by anything.
It’s dark outside. Which does make it more difficult to make out what’s in front of the window and the fire hasn’t reached this side of the mansion to shed light on anything. But he knows that this is the side of the grounds where the big gardens are, so there are bound to be trees here, somewhere.
The door creaks behind him and just as he turns around, he sees how it falls, missing him by about a foot length. Just a few moments before, it would have fallen on him and then his clothes would have been on fire and he could have been knocked out– No use in panicking now.
Thanks to the door falling, light floods the room, making the outside more visible and he can make out some branches of a tree coming up right to the window. Who had left the window open? Anyone could have climbed up the tree and snatched Juliet from her crib, taking her away from her family, away from her home.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees the flames licking up the walls.
It’s now or never, so he tugs out two ends of the fabric that waddles Juliet and knots them together at his neck, making Juliet hang from him more or less securely. Just to be sure, he keeps one arm under her. To his luck, there is a chest right under the window, which he uses to climb up and out of the window.
When he looks down from where he’s sitting on the window ledge, precariously balancing on it with one hand under Juliet and the other clutching the window sill, he can’t really see anything, which does help a bit with his fear of heights. Right. The tree, which he can make out in front of him. Slowly, he slides from the ledge, still holding on with the one hand, reaching out with his feet to reach that one thick branch.
One big push and he’s clinging to branches instead of the window, his feet balancing on that branch. How is he supposed to get down in the dark? If he stays here, he’s afraid the fire will jump over to the tree and then this will have been for nothing. Just follow the branch to the trunk just follow– something cracks behind him.
He nearly loses his balance when he turns around to look, but he catches himself at the last moment. Juliet makes a sound, but doesn’t wake up thankfully. With all the smoke coming out of the building he can’t see what’s happening, but it’s not the tree and that is all that matters.
Climbing down a tree with one arm is even more difficult than climbing with both arms, but he makes it and lands on the grass safely. There. They should be alright. Now for the adults, his parents, his aunt and uncle along with everyone else. Where are they? Certainly not here, so he starts making his way towards the streets of Verona, where he will find someone who will help him.
They will be alright.