“No wonder you are so bloody cold,” Joshua grumbled as he eyed the thin material of the women’s hopelessly inadequate dresses. “You are lucky you chose to walk in the right direction.”
Tilly nodded. She knew that she didn’t fully appreciate just how lucky they had been. The consequences would have been dire if they had chosen to walk in the wrong direction.
Suzanna yawned as the warmth began to chase the chill from her fingers and toes.
“I am sorry, but I have to go and lie down,” she murmured. “I am exhausted.”
Nobody insisted that she stay up and answer some more questions. She looked as though she was about to collapse.
“Come on Zack,” Tilly urged as she stood up and moved to the young boy’s side. “Let’s get you tucked up in bed. You can start to thaw out and get some sleep.”
She hated to be apart from Harry, even for a little while so she could sleep, but she was about to nod off, and stifled a yawn as she steered Zack toward the door.
“Is anyone hungry?” Harry asked with a frown. They hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, but they all shook their heads. Weariness had stripped them of everything apart from the desperate need to get warm, and sleep.
“No thank you,” they chorused before they bade everyone goodnight and shuffled off to bed.
Tilly sighed as she settled between the sheets in the quiet of her bedroom.
Her thoughts immediately turned to Harry, and the relief he had been unable to hide upon seeing her in Bopple. Her heart swelled with love and joy and, in spite of the dull aching in her head, she found herself smiling up at the canopy ahead. She held the tenderness he had shown her in those first few moments of their reunion, close to her heart and rolled over in bed with a yawn, but sleep still eluded her. It was impossible to turn her exhausted mind to anything other than how wonderful he was.
A quiet knock on the door made her jump, but she quickly left the bed and hurried to answer it. Her heart hammered in her chest when she found Harry outside.
“I brought you a cup of warm milk,” he whispered.
Tilly opened the door wider and motioned him inside.
“How do you feel?”
“Relieved,” she replied honestly. “A little worried that they are going to come back and find us here again, but otherwise I am fine.”
She put all of her love and unspoken feelings in the look she gave him, and took the cup off him with a smile of thanks.
Harry watched her take a sip of the milk, and felt so proud of her that he struggled not to sweep her into his arms right there and then. She had been abducted, scared, kidnapped and worried, but she appeared to be relatively unaffected by everything that had happened, and now looked wet, but still so damned adorable that he wanted to kiss her, and keep on kissing her forevermore.
Harry moved to the bed and drew the covers back. “Get in,” he ordered softly, and added several more logs to the fire while she moved to the bed.
He knew that Barnaby had agreed to keep an eye on Suzanna, and Zack was being taken care of by Joshua and Joseph. Now that everyone was safe, and at least starting to get warm, Harry was free to focus his attention on the one person he wanted the most – Tilly.
“Neither of them touched you?” He asked as he approached the bed, tucked her in and sat on top of the covers beside her.
“You mean, apart from when they carried us off like we were sacks of potatoes?” She asked ruefully, and smiled at him when he shook his head wryly. “We weren’t overly hurt from our ordeal,” she assured him as she snuggled into his arms. “Just a little battered and bruised. It hurt more when we threw ourselves out of the moving carriage.”
“What?” Harry cried in horror. “What did you just say?”
She smiled at him and explained what they had done to escape their captors. “It wasn’t too bad, just a little prickly.”
She tugged the sleeve of her nightgown back to show him the scratches on her forearms.
He leaned forward and sighed at the angry marks that marred her pale flesh. “They need to be cleaned.”
“They have been,” she replied quietly.
The air between them suddenly shifted. His loving gaze met hers in mute appeal. Even the scant distance between them allowed him to see the acceptance in her eyes. It was all he needed to see to know that his presence beside her was welcome.
He leaned toward her and rolled her backward until she lay beneath him. All the while his gaze remained locked with hers, searching for any sign of discomfort, or wariness, but all he could see in her beautiful green eyes was calm acceptance.
“Come here,” he growled huskily. “I need to make sure for myself that you really area alright darling.”
With that, he lay siege to her senses in a way that rendered her helpless to deny him anything.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The following morning, Tilly awoke to find herself still wrapped securely in Harry’s arms. It was the most wonderful sensation she had ever experienced in her entire life.
The fact that he was busy placing tender kisses along her shoulder made it even better. She shivered as a wave of anticipation swept through her when she wriggled backward and felt his burgeoning hardness against her bottom. Her body still hummed from his tender ministrations last night, but the now familiar warmth still began to build deep within.
She should have been exhausted, but she wasn’t. She should be shocked and horrified at the sheer intensity of what they had shared last night, but all she could do was revel in it.
With a mischievous smile, she wriggled backward a little more and was rewarded with his answering groan.
“Minx,” he growled, and rolled her toward him.
Her eyes opened and she smiled at him.
Dawn had just started to break over the horizon and cast them in faint shadows, but it merely added a romantic haze to the room, which bathed them both in a honeyed glow of contentment. She snuggled beneath the covers, and stroked his chest as she gazed lovingly up at him.
“There was one thing I forgot to mention last night,” he whispered as he placed tender kisses along her jaw.
She returned the caress for a moment before she leaned back to look up at him. “What’s that?”
“I love you.”
Her heart flipped and she gazed up at him adoringly. He had just handed her the moon, and the stars, in one short sentence.
“I love you so much. I know that we haven’t known each other very long, but you have come to mean so much to me that there is nothing I won’t do for you,” she murmured when her voice would eventually work.
“I will get us through this with the Dandridges’, Tilly. That’s a promise. Once this is over, we are going to Cumbia, and will take a look at that house. If you are happy with it, then we will turn it into a home. Our home.”
“I am sure that it will be wonderful,” she assured him.
“You don’t know that yet.”
“I do, because you will be there,” she replied softly. “That’s all I need.”
His heart squeezed painfully in his chest and he swallowed harshly against the lump in his throat. “As long as we stay together darling, nothing can beat us.”
“Nothing,” she assured him seconds before his lips captured hers. One large palm slid tenderly down her side to cup her thigh and draw it upwards as he settled his weight more firmly over her.
“Fire!”
They both jerked and stared at each other in stunned disbelief before another shout shattered the silence.
“Everyone up! The house is on fire!” Barnaby bellowed as he raced through the house banging on doors, and tugging his shirt on as he went.
Harry threw himself out of bed, and hurriedly dragged his trousers on before he raced to the door.
“Stay close to me darling,” he ordered, and waited only long enough to help her with her laces before they rushed downstairs to join the others.
The house fell into pandemonium as the men raced to as
sess the flames and gather as many buckets and receptacles as they could, while Barnaby and Marcus kept guard over Suzanna and Zack.
Tilly stared at the chaos around her as Marcus and Barnaby checked their weapons. Harry did the same before he grabbed Tilly’s wrist in a firm grip.
“Whatever you do darling, stay close to me. Don’t go anywhere. Keep one hand on me at all times.” He turned and cupped her chin in his hand as he stared hard into her eyes. “Promise me.”
“I promise,” Tilly assured him. She had no intention of going anywhere without him.
“Come on then,” Harry urged as he turned to the front door.
“Wait!” She rushed into sitting room and grabbed a poker, a pair of tongues, and a fire scraper before she hurried back to him.
Harry lifted is brows in astonishment.
“For protection,” she told him, and handed Zack the tongues, and Suzanna the scraper.
The smoke began to thicken alarmingly. The steady stream of grey fog began to darken at the same time that crackling started to eat the servants’ door that led to the kitchen.
“The door is starting to burn,” Harry gasped. He waved everyone to the front door. “Let’s get out of here.”
“It’s all in the kitchen,” Barnaby growled. “We don’t know if the range has caught alight or whether someone has started it deliberately.”
“We need to get to the well,” Harry growled. He shared a knowing look with Barnaby. They both knew that this was a deliberate act of arson, and they both knew who was responsible.
Zack began to cough when the acrid stench of burning wood began to attack the backs of their throats.
Joseph cautiously opened the door to the kitchen, but was met with a wall of hungry flames that forced him to immediately slam it shut again.
“It’s not possible to get in there through here. The flames are too high. We need to go around the back.”
Harry stood for a moment and contemplated what to do. If the fire was deliberate, it could only be a desperate attempt to draw Tilly, Suzanna and Zack out into the open.
“Who was on watch?” Harry growled with a frown.
“Me,” Joseph growled. “It was fine when I went on my rounds. By the time I got back, the back of the house was on fire. Leaves and twigs had been piled by the back door. It was too high to put out.”
“If we don’t do something, the house is going to burn down around our ears,” Tilly snapped.
Harry hated to take her out there but they really had no choice. “Joseph, Jacob, Barnaby, you fill the buckets. Pass them down the line,” Harry ordered. He pointed to Zack. “You stand beside Barnaby. Suzanna, you stand beside Joshua. Tilly, you stay with me. We will ferry the buckets to the back door and pass them to Joseph, who can throw them into the fire. Nobody steps out of the line.”
They all made their way out of the door and hurried around to the back of the house. They glanced at the crimson and orange flames that licked at the windows in the kitchen, and a grim silence settled over everyone as they set to work.
Several minutes later, Harry cursed when he realised that he had left his gun inside. He passed a bucket along the line; and another bucket in the opposite direction before he turned to Barnaby.
“We are not going to win this battle,” Joseph called when they had been ferrying buckets for several minutes, but the flames continued to grow higher.
In spite of this, they continued to pass the buckets for several more minutes, but it was clear from the thicker smoke, that the fire was growing steadily worse.
Harry swore in disgust but, like the others, was determined not to give up. “Keep going for now. Let’s see what happens.”
He hated to think that the Dandridges’ had gotten the better of him so easily.
“You need to get that evidence, Harry,” Barnaby snapped. “If this place burns, all of the work we have done will be for nothing.”
They both knew the accounts ledgers, and the house inventory, were in the safe. Although it was the best place for it, they couldn’t risk any of it being damaged.
“Are you going to be alright for a minute?” He asked Barnaby quietly and waited for his friend’s brisk nod.
“Wait! You can’t be thinking about going back in there,” Tilly cried. “It is full of smoke.”
“I have to get the paperwork that will ensure the Dandridges’ don’t evade justice. I will only be a few minutes.”
“Harry –” she protested, but knew from the look on his face that he was going to go anyway. She stared at him in horror but struggled to find some convincing argument to persuade him to stay with her.
He handed her a bucket and looked her in the eye. “I am only going to be two minutes, darling.”
She opened her mouth to speak only to stare after him in dismay as he turned around without waiting for her to answer, and disappeared around the corner of the house.
Harry coughed as he stepped through the front door, into the heavy smoke. He buried his nose into his shirt and felt his eyes water, but wasted no time finding his safe and retrieving all of the paperwork he needed. After placing it all carefully into his satchel, he opened his desk drawer and removed all of the Rectory seal, and tucked that into his satchel as well, just in case any of the Dandridges’ hoped to get back into the house and help themselves to it.
He wasn’t sure if the fire was going to get as far as the study but, if they weren’t able to put it out, it was entirely feasible that his study would be consumed.
Cursing the Dandridges’, and Cruickshank, for their determination, he made his way out of the house. It was a relief to get outside and into the clean, early-morning air and he took a moment to suck in several large lungs full of air.
At first, he didn’t pay any attention to the shouting he could hear at the back of the house. He just thought it was Joseph, or one of his colleagues, shouting orders to the others.
However, when he turned the corner of the building, he realised that in those few brief moments that he had been away, matters had taken another surprising twist.
His heart began to pound in his chest as he studied the abandoned well where, moments earlier, he had left Joseph hefting buckets. He scanned the gardens at the side of the house in search of Tilly, but couldn’t see her. Rather than move forward, he stayed perfectly still and scanned the trees around him while he listened to what was being said.
“We just want what is rightfully ours,” Dandridge replied.
“She married me. She is my wife. All I want is my wife back,” Cruickshank growled.
“As if I would ever marry you,” Tilly declared with a snort of disgust. “You are an oaf who cannot even kidnap someone successfully.”
In spite of the tension of the situation, Harry grinned. Aware that enough of his colleagues were with her this time, and were perfectly capable of keeping her safe, Harry quietly made his way around to the other side of the house.
Unsurprisingly, there, at the side of the building, with her back toward him, was none other than Mrs Dandridge. Her tall, cadaverously thin figure faced away from him and, thankfully, she was engrossed in what was happening at the back of the house to notice Harry creep up behind her.
Tilly caught sight of Harry seconds before Mrs Dandridge’s eyes suddenly widened, and she was yanked off her feet with a large palm across her mouth.
She coughed loudly in an attempt to cover any noise the older woman made, and smiled secretly to herself as she mentally applauded Harry’s tactics. It made her inordinately proud to be a part of his life, and she straightened her spine as confidence replaced her fears.
Harry’s abilities were the only thing that could save them now because, what Harry couldn’t see were the wicked looking pistols Dandridge and Cruickshank had trained on Tilly, Zack and Suzanna. It was the only thing that kept the men from the Star Elite from striking the would-be abductors out of action.
However, now that her worry had faded, and she was able to think logically again, she became
aware that Dandridge and Cruickshank were hopelessly outnumbered; especially so given that Tilly, Suzanna and Zack were also armed.
“You three come here,” Dandridge demanded, and waved his gun threateningly in their direction.
Zack took a step forward to do as he was told, only for Tilly to grab his elbow and keep him still.
“No,” she declared defiantly. She kept her defiant gaze locked firmly on Dandridge, and hefted her poker threateningly as she stared challengingly at him. “We are not going anywhere.”
She felt Suzanna and Zack stare at her, but they too eventually realised that the men before them, although armed and dangerous, were not really in control of the situation. Within seconds, they had mimicked Tilly’s stance, and hefted their own weapons threateningly as they stared at the intruders.
“Get behind us, or I will shoot you.”
Tilly shorted disparagingly. “Well, that will do you a lot of good, won’t it? I mean, you want to trade us. What good will our bodies be to anyone if we are riddled with shot?” She lifted her brows and studied Dandridge dismissively. “If you shoot us, your pistols will be empty. Then what will you do because, unless my counting isn’t as good as I think it is you are hopelessly outnumbered.”
She glanced meaningfully at the men from the Star Elite, who stood at various positions around the garden.
In that moment, Dandridge noticed Harry, who moved into the gap between the house and the outbuildings where his wife had once been. For a moment, he appeared completely flummoxed, and it was all the distraction Joseph needed.
With one swift kick, the gun flew out of Dandridge’s hand at the same time that Joshua practically flew at Cruickshank, and tackled him to the ground.
Before Tilly could see anything else, she was immediately grabbed around the waist and swung off her feet in a high arch. She landed with a heavy thump on the unforgiving ground at the same time that chaos descended over the garden. Before she opened her eyes, she knew that the man lying protectively over her was Harry, but she couldn’t be angry at him. His large palms were covering her head, and his body used as a shield against the bullet that flew when someone’s gun was fired.
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