She quickly glanced at the instructions for operating the door and found that it was about what she had assumed. Gripping the handle, she gave it a tentative tug.
It didn't move.
It says PULL. I have to PULL, not bat it around like a kitty toy.
She pulled. The handle resisted and then went over with a clunk that sounded echoingly loud.
Behind her, there was a shout of "Hey, there she is!"
Panicking, she pushed on the door. It was heavier than she expected, but driven by fear, she threw herself into the effort and swung it up. A cool breeze blew in her face.
Freedom!
Lucy jumped down onto the wing. Her designer Louboutin flats skidded on the metal and she almost fell. Not waiting to see what she was jumping onto, she leaped down off the wing and fell to her knees on gravel.
Lucy stood up and looked around, her heart steadily sinking.
She had absolutely no idea where she was.
She had expected some kind of airport, but this barely deserved the term airfield. She was standing on a gravel landing strip with weeds growing up around the edges. There was a wire fence along the edge of the runway—if it could even be called a runway—and a single small clapboard building with a windsock that looked like the closest thing to a terminal that this place had. A few single-engine aircraft even smaller than the private jet were tied down near the building.
Beyond the fence, in three directions, there was nothing but rolling green hills with sparse trees. The other way lay a wide expanse of ruffled blue-gray sea. The air was cool and brisk and full of a salt-metal ocean smell.
Lucy stared around in absolute dismay.
Wherewasshe? Scotland? Canada? The tip of South America?
She had hoped to find somewhere to hide or someone to ask for help, but there was absolutely nothing.
"Hey there, Lucy," Andy said. He was climbing out onto the wing above her. "How 'bout we sit down and talk?"
Lucy took off running.
Her first thought was to sprint for the clapboard hut, but it was all the way down at the other end of the runway. She was much closer to the fence, and on the other side of that, she saw a small dirt road that wound down to the ocean. There were a few more buildings down there, clustered around a narrow dock with a few boats.
Maybe she could find some help there, or somewhere to hide.
She hit the fence going full tilt. Lucy had never climbed a fence in her life, and she certainly wasn't dressed for it, in designer shoes and an embroidered pair of leggings more suited to a high-end shopping district. If she had stopped to think about it, she might have talked herself out of it. Instead, she scrambled up the wire like a squirrel. She ripped her leggings on the barbed wire along the top, but ignored the sting and threw herself into the grass on the other side. Picking herself up, she ran for the road as hard as she could.
She risked a glance back to see the men piling out of the plane. And then what she had feared most happened.
Leaning over, shedding their clothes, they turned into animals.
Instead of four men chasing her, now there were two tigers, a wolf, and a bear.
This was the part she could never explain to anyone. She could hardly believe it was happening herself. But they were gaining rapidly, so nearly sobbing with fear, Lucy ran on.
She pounded down the road and glanced back again. She was actually putting some distance between herself and then now, because they didn't find it nearly as easy to get over the fence. Two of them had shifted back to men, but they had lost their clothes in the shift and didn't seem eager to climb over the barbed wire naked. A tiger was trying to clamber up the wire, which sagged under his great weight.
Lucy half-laughed, half-sobbed and ran on.
She had exactly two athletic skills: running and skiing. Her hand-eye coordination was mediocre at best, and she had struggled with the tennis lessons, horseback riding, polo, and other sports her hired tutors tried to teach her. But when she was running, or on a pair of skis, it felt almost like flying. It was the closest thing to freedom she had ever known.
Now she fairly flew down the hill. The steeply slanting road helped her. She knew that it was only a temporary victory. As soon as Uncle Rodric's men got over the fence, they were going to catch up to her in a matter of moments.
Indeed, as she looked over her shoulder, this was exactly what was happening. The wolf and one of the tigers appeared on the road, covering the ground in great leaping strides.
Lucy was starting to feel the burn in her lungs, in her legs, and in her feet. As much as she liked running, it had been a while since she had been diligent about it. And she was used to jogging, not running flat-out as fast as she could. The shoes weren't the best for it either, although she supposed they could have been worse; at least they didn't have high heels.