The Serving Girl // Book 2 in the Rosie Grey series

Chapter Six

Zachariah's body yanked my arm down as he fell with the branch. I squeezed my fingers around his arm, my nails digging into the skin, so he wouldn't slip from my grasp. My arm felt as though it was being pulled from my shoulder as it took the weight of Zachariah's body. Biting my lip to keep from screaming, I readjusted my position on the branch to move a small piece of bark from my chest. I kept all of my weight on the branch whilst my shoulder took the full weight of Zachariah as he kicked and swung his legs as the hovered above the ground. My fingers slipped as he wriggled around, almost forcing himself out of my grip.

"Zachariah, I'm going to need you to keep still," I said through gritted teeth. My palm was sweating, and I was slipping along the branch as he moved. Any more movement and I was going to let him go or swing off the branch myself.

"Are you both alright?" Robert called, one foot resting on the base of the tree and the other looking as though he was about to start climbing.

"I'll feel a lot better when we get the ladder."

"Understood. Samuel can't be too far away."

"That's not very reassuring," I muttered.

Robert stood half on the tree and half off as I shifted myself forward slightly and took my other arm off the branch to take hold of Zachariah's arm and improve my grip. My body teetered over the edge of the branch as my own weight rested entirely on my stomach. Taking my other arm off the branch may have allowed for a better grip on Zachariah to stop him slipping, but it meant that my own situation was a little more precarious. Any wrong move and I could tilt either forwards or backwards and end up sending myself and Zachariah crashing to the ground.

Time felt as though it was passing at a snail's pace as we waited for Samuel to appear with the ladder. The bark from the tree branch cut through my dress and pressed into my skin as I fought to retain my balance. Zachariah seemed to grow heavier as time passed, his weight being enough to very slowly pull me down. Although the branch I was laying on was far stronger than the one he had been on originally, the fear that it would break gnawed away at the back of my mind the longer we waited. With Zachariah pulling me down, his weight along would have been enough to snap the branch, we were just lucky it hadn't broken yet.

Readjusting my grip on Zachariah's arm, I looked down at the ground below and watched as a dark shape emerged from the trees with something over their shoulder. I felt myself deflate slightly as Samuel appeared from amongst the trees and propped a ladder up against the trunk. He held the bottom of it whilst Robert scrambled up until he was at Zachariah's waist. I watched as Robert wrapped his arms around Zachariah's waist and then glance up to me.

"You can let him go now, I've got him," Robert said.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Robert nodded at me slightly and readjusted one of his arms, so it was lying on top of the other. With his reassurance, I released my grip on Zachariah's arm and watched Robert take his weight and quickly pull him over to the ladder. My shoulder relaxed as the weight of Zachariah's body was removed, but it still felt as though it was burning.

"Grab the wooden beam, Zachariah, then you can climb down the ladder," he said.

From my spot in the tee, I watched as Zachariah grabbed onto the top rung of the ladder whilst Robert released his waist and stayed close behind him as he climbed down the ground. Whilst Zachariah was being extricated from the tree, I worked on figuring my own way out of the tree. Using my body weight, I swung myself around until I was laying completely along the branch and then pushed myself up to a sitting position. Grabbing onto the branch, I moved my right leg over the side and sat on the branch looking down on the site below as Zachariah and Robert climbed off the ladder and onto the ground.