Dammit. Cooper had forgotten the maze in his enthusiasm for Rosalinde’s lockpicking stunt. How in the world was she going to get out of there anyway? He considered shrugging to buy time, until Sarah’s head came to rest on his shoulder. He wasn’t going to do anything to dislodge her, that was for sure. Instead he took advantage of that feathery kiss on his jaw to smile and sigh and lean his face against her her hair.<br/><br/>“True, that. They had all been hitting the rum pretty hard. If it had taken half an hour to stab a guy to death with her lockpick, she could have finished them all off without waking anybody up. But Rosalinde wasn’t a killer, so … ” Hang on. Hang on a second, there was an idea. Coop kissed the top of Sarah’s head and carried on.<br/><br/>“The next thing they knew, the alarm bell was ringing. Everybody jumped up, or fell off their chair, or whatever. They stumbled around for a bit, banging into each other, and then stared at the door. It was hanging wide open, and the only lamp in the room was gone. Rosalinde had escaped!<br/><br/>“Well, about five minutes went by and Melendez burst into the room. And boy, was he pissed - there were his guards, filthy, stinking of booze, standing around in the dark with their thumbs in their … ears while Rosalinde wandered in the maze. Curses!” He shook his fist for melodramatic emphasis. “He ordered them all to come search with him. They all fanned out, and they searched and they searched. No Rosalinde. Could she have made it out? It should have been impossible, but if she wasn’t in the tower where else could she be? Melendez told two of the guards to come with him and sent the other two back to search the tower.”<br/><br/>As he warmed to his tale, Coop had removed his hand from Sarah’s grasp and slipped it around her shoulder. The other hand assumed its place, fingers interlaced with hers.<br/><br/>“Outside, they didn’t get two paces before one of the guards lunged forward and yanked Melendez’ pistol out of his belt. ‘Thanks for your help, Captain!’ It was Rosalinde! She had dragged one of the drunken guards into a storage room, stolen his pants and hat, rubbed filth on her face and splashed rum on her clothes. In the dark, it was good enough to disguise her as one of them.”