“What are you doing, sir?” Erin demanded.
“Silence,” he hissed.
“Why are you doing this?” Erin’s voice trembled as they reached the boxwood-lined path.
He didn’t reply.
“Mister Napier,” Erin persisted, “what—”
“Be silent or I will kill you now,” he snapped.
“You intend to kill us anyway,” Alison said.
She yanked back her elbow and drove it into his ribs. His hold on her arm loosened. Alison yanked free, threw her fisted hand forward, then swung back as hard as she could into his belly. He doubled over. Alison lunged for Erin, seized her hand and dove right, toward the bushes.
Erin cried out but leapt through the foliage with her. Mister Napier growled. Alison pulled Erin through another hedge. Fabric ripped as they stumbled out the other side onto a path. Alison looked over her shoulder at the mansion. How did they get back without crossing paths with Mister Napier?
“This way,” Erin whispered, and tugged Alison to the right.
They raced down the path, then took a left, then a right. Alison’s head whirled. They were going away from the mansion. They needed to get back to the ballroom. Erin pushed through more bushes. A branch scraped Alison’s arm as they emerged in a flower garden with a fountain at the center.
Erin started around the fountain. Bootfalls crunched gravel at a run somewhere behind them. Alison couldn’t believe it. This was the second time in two days she was running from someone who wanted to kidnap her. Kidnap? Mister Napier wanted to kill her and Erin. Her stomach cramped, but she forced her legs to keep going as they rounded the fountain and made another right on the path.
The mansion came into view up ahead. They raced down the path. Could they reach the mansion without encountering Mister Napier? She and Erin reached a T in the path, and Erin pulled her left, away from the mansion.
Alison started to say something, but a man cursed nearby. Her blood chilled. They pushed through more bushes and Alison nearly cried out when they broke through to the lawn. They ran. Faster. Faster. A shout went up behind them. Two ladies on the balcony looked their way.
Erin fell and cried out. Alison skidded to a stop and whirled. Mister Napier had broken through the hedge behind them. Alison grabbed Erin’s hand, hauled her to her feet and stumbled away. They recovered their balance and ran. The women on the balcony moved toward the steps.
“Help!” Alison shouted.
The women looked at one another. Alison and Erin reached the stairs. Was that a man’s panting breaths behind them? Alison’s lungs burned. She held tight to Erin’s hand as they raced up the stairs. The two women looked past them, but Alison didn’t stop. People emerged from the ballroom. A loud murmur went up when Alison ran straight into one man’s arms.
“Help us.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Erin collapsed in another man’s arms.
Had Mister Napier followed them up the stairs? Alison couldn’t look.
“What the devil is going on?” a familiar male voice said. “Alison?”
Alison pushed away from the man who held her and stumbled into Cameron’s arms.
Chapter Nineteen
Shock rolled through Cameron. His wife trembled in his arms and her cousin cried into the shirt of a stranger. Nae. James had taken her into his arms. What the hell was Alison doing here? Why was her hair a mess and her—
“By God, your dress is torn. What the bloody hell happened?”
“Mister Napier,” she said through a gasping sob.
Fury swept through Cameron. “Napier?” He sent a startled glance at James, then scanned the lawn.
Alison rasped through her sobs, “He grabbed Erin and I in the garden—”
“The garden?” He looked sharply at James. He started to tell James to search the garden, but the man was long gone. Napier knew full well what Cameron would do to him.
The crowd parted when they turned, and the ballroom’s occupants fell silent as Cameron led Alison toward the door with James and Erin close behind. They descended the stairs and reached the front door. The waiting footman’s eyes widened, but he opened the door as they passed through.
“Call for my carriage,” Cameron told the outside footman.
The man’s eyes flicked to Alison’s hair and dress. He spun and took the six steps two at a time, then sped off down the drive to locate Cameron’s carriage amongst those parked at the side of the house. Alison had stopped crying, but she clung to him, as her cousin did to James.
Five minutes later, the carriage pulled up. Will leapt from the driver’s seat next to Bob and reached the door as Cameron opened it and helped Alison inside. James helped Erin up, then entered the carriage.
“Listen, Will,” Cameron said, “Napier tried to kidnap the women, but he escaped. I want a search mounted immediately. He accosted them in the garden, but, no doubt, is riding hard to put as much distance between himself and me as he can.”
Will’s eyes narrowed. “I will borrow a horse from Mister Napier’s stables and see what I can learn. No doubt, someone there saw him. I am only a modest tracker, but I might get lucky.”
Cameron nodded. “I will await your report at home. Send word at your earliest convenience and I will come to wherever you are.”
“Aye, sir.” Will spun and strode toward the side of the house.
Cameron vaulted into the carriage, pulling the door shut behind him as he dropped onto the seat beside Alison. He slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. The carriage rolled into motion.
“Tell me what happened,” he said. “You may start with why you are here. I feel certain I told you I did not want you attending the party.”
“I did not intend to come.”
He lifted a brow.
“I went to see Erin. I wanted to be sure she was well. Her maid confided she had gone to Mister Napier’s party.” Alison paused. “You can imagine how worried I was.”
Cameron resisted an urge to kiss her senseless. He couldn’t allow her to think this behavior was acceptable. He arched a brow and said, “Indeed?”
“Do not be angry,” she said.
“Do not be angry?” he shot back. “Alison, we are taking you and Miss Lennox home with disheveled hair and torn dresses. I can only assume Napier intended—” He broke off and fought for control. He would find the bastard and kill him with his bare hands.
The carriage slowed, then turned left out of the drive.
“You may call me Erin,” her cousin said.
Cameron frowned. “What?”
“We are family now, after all. There is no need for you to address me as Miss Lennox.”
“Aye then, Erin. What have you to say on this matter?”
“Me, sir?”
“Sir? You only just said we were family. You may call me Cameron.”
She offered a tremulous smile. “I saw Mister Napier whisk Alison off the dance floor and through the balcony door. I thought it odd, so I went after her.”
Cameron looked at Alison. “He forced you off the dance floor and onto the balcony? You were dancing with him? By God, Alison, I should paddle your backside right here in this carriage.”
“I didn’t know it was him when he asked me to dance,” she shot back.
Cameron stared. “Didn’t know it was him? Who the bloody hell did you think he was?” He narrowed his eyes. “Do you know the man?”
Even in the dim light of the carriage he saw the blush that crept up her cheeks.
“He tricked me,” she whispered.
Cameron believed her. He closed his eyes and released a slow breath. “What happened then?”
“Then Erin came.”
He opened his eyes and looked at Erin. “You did not think to call for help, Erin?”
“Easy, Hunter,” James said. “The lass has been through a terrifying ordeal.”
“All of which could have been avoided had she called for help.”
“Forgive me, Cameron,” Erin
said, “but had I taken the time to find help, Mister Napier probably would have disappeared with Alison.”
“Erin saved us,” Alison said.
“Oh no, it was you who saved us,” Erin said.
Cameron forced back frustration—and the need to crush Alison to him—and said, “Pray continue, Alison.”
“I am not lying when I say Erin saved us. I was lost in the garden maze, but she knew how to get us back to the mansion without encountering Mister Napier.”
“And Alison hit him—twice,” Erin said. “That is how we got away from him.”
“Did either of you think to scream?” Cameron said.
Alison drew far enough away to look into his face. “It was far too likely he would have found and incapacitated us before anyone located us in that maze.”
She was right, of course, which only infuriated him all the more.
A shot exploded outside the carriage. The vehicle swerved. Cameron yanked Alison against his chest. Horses screamed and wood cracked. The carriage listed heavily to the back left. Cameron dragged Alison onto his lap in the instant before his shoulder slammed into the corner. Alison screamed when a heavy weight toppled onto them. The interior went dark. The carriage scraped another several feet, then stopped.
The weight lifted off them and Cameron twisted and moved Alison off his abdomen. She cried into his shirt. Erin was crying, as well.
“Are ye all right, lass?” James asked in unison with Cameron’s “Alison, are you hurt?”
“Aye,” Erin answered in a bare whisper.
Alison shook her head against Cameron’s shirt.
Cameron released a breath. “We must see what happened.” A broken wheel was bad enough. It was the gunshot he’d heard before the carriage veered that worried him.
“James,” he whispered, “have you your pistol?”
“Aye,” James whispered back. “Two.”
“Give one to Erin. I will go first. Shoot anyone who tries to enter the carriage.”
“Perhaps we should let them come to us.”
“Nae,” Cameron said. “All he has to do is open the door and shoot.”
“You can be shot climbing out of the carriage,” James said.
“When I open this door, you open that one,” Cameron said. He withdrew a pistol from his left boot and pressed the weapon into Alison’s hand. “If anyone tries to enter the carriage, shoot,” he whispered.
She shook her head.
“Alison, do as I say. You and Erin get on the floor.” He pushed up and set her on the floor as James helped Erin onto the floor. “Lie flat,” Cameron ordered. Their shadows flattened against the floor, and he added, “Keep quiet, no matter what you hear. Ready, James?”
James’s bulk was visible in the darkness. He shifted closer to the door. “Ready.”
Cameron grasped the handle. “Now.”
He shoved the door open as James shoved open his door. Cameron leapt from the carriage as a gunshot roared. He glimpsed the gunfire to his left, beyond the rear of the carriage. Cameron dropped onto his belly and aimed at the man racing toward the trees. The distinct click of a hammer being pulled back sounded behind Cameron. He froze.
“Do no’ move, Hunter,” Napier warned.
Cameron rolled left and swung his pistol up. Another pistol roared so loudly his ears rang as he pulled the trigger. No pain seared through him as Napier fell forward, inches from him.
“Hunter,” James called.
“I am not shot,” he called back. “Stay inside.”
Cameron crawled to Napier and felt his neck. A faint pulse. A gun had fired in the instant before Cameron pulled his trigger. Someone had shot Napier. But who? Where was the man who had run away? Damn Napier. Cameron crawled past him to the front of the carriage. He discerned a fallen man to the right of the horses. Bob. Cameron crawled to him and felt for a pulse, then released a breath when a pulse thrummed against his fingertips.
Cameron rose onto his haunches and scanned the area, but not so much as a shadow moved. The knave had probably run as fast as he could back to his horse and was far away by now. They had to get Bob to a doctor, but how? He wouldn’t leave the women behind.
He went down on one knee and felt Bob’s coat. The shoulder was damp. Cameron opened the coat and touched the shirt. Wet.
“James, have Alison give me one of her petticoats.”
Seconds later, James said, “Should I come out?”
Cameron hesitated. They had to get Bob into town, yet they couldn’t leave the woman in the coach.
“Aye,” he said. “Drop to the ground and crawl.”
James jumped from the carriage and landed in a crouch. He crab walked to Cameron, then handed him a petticoat.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“He’s alive, but losing a fair amount of blood.”
“We have to get him to a doctor, but how can we get safely away from here?”
“Unharness the horse and ride to the nearest estate. ‘Tis only another half mile.”
“A half mile in the bloody dark,” James muttered. “It might as well be ten miles.”
Cameron agreed.
“Where is Napier?”
Cameron tore the petticoat. “Near the door where I exited the carriage.”
“Is he dead?”
“Damn near.” Cameron folded half the petticoat and pressed it against the wound. He felt for a pulse again and was relieved to locate the constant beat. “You’d better start unharnessing the team,” he told James. “There was a second man, but I have no’ seen him since he ran for the trees.”
The distant creak of carriage wheels came from the direction of Napier’s estate.
“Help me get him to the other side of the carriage,” Cameron ordered.
James grabbed Bob’s legs and Cameron his shoulders. They lifted and hurried around the carriage. Once he lay on the ground near Napier, Cameron quickly folded the remaining half of the petticoat, placed it on top of the other half, then buttoned Bob’s coat over the makeshift compresses.
He took two steps to the open carriage door and peered inside. The woman still lay on the floor. “Are you two all right?”
“We are frightened and cold,” Alison replied. “But well, otherwise.”
“Stay down,” he ordered. “There is another carriage approaching.” As he said the words, the vehicle appeared on the rise of the small hill, moving at a good clip. “Alison, give me your pistol.”
“You may have it,” she said, “but you’ll need to reload. I shot Mister Napier.”
“You?” he blurted, then cursed under his breath. “Erin, give me your weapon.”
Erin handed him the pistol.
The carriage drew closer. Cameron watched the driver. The vehicle slowed and the driver called, “My lord, there is a carriage broken down on the road.”
“What?” a familiar voice called.
Lennox.
“Erin,” Cameron called, “it is your father’s coach. Call out to him when the coach draws near.”
As the coach neared, the driver called, “What is the trouble?”
“We were set upon by brigands,” Cameron called. “My driver has been shot. We must get him to a doctor immediately.”
“Who the devil is that?” Lennox leaned his head out the window.
“Lennox, pull your carriage over,” Cameron ordered.
“Hunter?”
“Father,” Erin called out.
“Erin? What the devil is going on here? Pull over, Allan,” he snapped.
The carriage stopped and Cameron strode to the door as Lennox descended.
“My driver was shot and the back wheel is broken,” Cameron said. “We must get Bob to a doctor immediately.”
“What is Erin doing with you?” he demanded.
“We will explain on the way. I have no wish to remain in the open in case the brigand returns.” Without waiting for an answer, Cameron spun.
“I will take Erin and send help,” Lennox said.
“You will take us all, or it will be you who is waiting here,” Cameron snapped.
Ten minutes later, Bob lay on one cushion of Lennox’s carriage and the ladies sat beside Lennox on the other seat.
“Erin, you will explain now,” Lennox demanded.
“Erin, say nothing,” Cameron ordered. “I will speak with your father.
“You have no right to interfere with a father and daughter,” Lennox shot back.
“Do not try me, Lennox,” Cameron growled.
Cameron hauled Napier over his shoulder and handed him up to James in the driver’s seat next to Allan. The man weighed as much as an elephant. Cameron stepped inside the carriage and pulled the door shut behind him.
He eased Bob’s head up, then sat and laid the man’s head on his leg. The carriage lurched into motion as Cameron lifted the petticoat and checked the wound. It had stopped bleeding. That was something. Bob’s chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.
“I expect an explanation, Hunter,” Lennox snapped.
Cameron jerked his head up and pinned the man with a hard stare. “I advise you to save your questions for when we are alone.”
Lennox scoffed. “I care nothing for your advice.”
“Then I will gladly discuss your association with a Mister Ross Montgomery. He is a close associate of John Napier, I believe.”
Lennox’s eyes widened. He glanced at the women, but said nothing more.
Cameron met Alison’s worried gaze and forced a reassuring smile.
An hour later, Cameron left Bob in the doctor’s care and headed to the library to deal with Lennox. The ladies had retreated to Alison’s bedchambers, which afforded him the privacy he needed to deal with Lennox. Cameron entered the library, where Lennox stared out the window. Cameron crossed to the sideboard, poured a glass of whisky and emptied the glass in two gulps.
Lennox didn’t turn until Cameron said, “You will confess all to the constable.”
Lennox turned. “Make any accusations you like, I have nothing to confess.”
Cameron slammed his glass down on the sideboard and crossed to Lennox. “Napier tried to kill your daughter and my wife.”
“And he is dead.”
“I will not hesitate to shoot you, as well.”
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