by Gaelen Foley
Jones marched over to his cast-off coat and pulled a horse pistol out of the pocket. “You’re a corpse, you bastard,” he said in a garbled tone, still rubbing his throat, panting.
When Derek saw Jones load a powder slug into the muzzle, he knew he had only seconds to react.
Angling the pitchfork through the bars of his cage just as Jones raised the pistol, Derek gripped the pitchfork like Poseidon’s trident and hurled it as best he could from his cramped, bent position.
The pitchfork sailed; his aim was true.
Jones’s gun went off as he threw himself out of the pitchfork’s path. His shot flew high, dinging off the metal bars, but as he fell, he stumbled over their makeshift gaming table. The board tilted on impact, hurling the contents of their table into the air.
The light playing cards fluttered down in a colorful shower, but the oil lantern and two open bottles of whisky catapulted three or four yards through the stable and landed in a tall, round pile of loose dry hay.
Maguire cursed in astonishment as the haystack burst into flames.
Inside the dim Gothic chamber, Lily lifted her tearstained face from her arm when she heard the commotion below. She had lain down in the small cubbyhole of the window nook and must have drifted off. She barely noticed the smell of smoke at first. But then a new set of sounds besides the incessant barking of Edward’s vicious dog gradually invaded her awareness. Yells and animal screams from the darkness outside. What the deuce—?
Rallying herself from her despair, she pushed up to a seated position and peered through the glass.
At once, her eyes widened at the scene of mayhem below. The stable was on fire!
Smoke was pouring out of the horses’ stall windows and in one spot, flames had begun shooting through the roof. Horses were running free, careening in all directions in terror of the blaze.
Edward’s men were working frantically with cloths pressed over their nostrils and mouths. Some plunged back into the burning stable to rescue more of their master’s horses, while others rushed about with buckets of water, trying to put out the blaze. Their efforts were pitiful compared to the ferocity of the fire.
With one awestruck look, she was sure that Edward’s fine stable was going to burn to the ground, but only one question screamed through her mind.
Where is Derek?
Lily did not see him.
As she pushed the window open, her gaze probed the clouds of drifting smoke.
Where could he be? Dear God. She gripped the windowsill. What if he’s still inside there?
Something deeper than logic assured her that this was the case, and in a heartbeat, she knew she had to help him.
At once, she was on her feet. She flew across the room and fought against the heavy locked door, pounding her fists on it, shouting for any servant within earshot to let her out.
Nobody came.
Enraged at her situation, she gave up this futile aim and marched back to the window, knowing she’d have to take matters into her own hands.
It was a long way down, with a vicious dog waiting at the bottom, but as she leaned as far out the window as she dared, surveying her prospects, she spotted an ivy trellis a few feet to her right. If she could inch her way over to it, it could serve as a ladder that she could climb down—but then, what to do about the dog?
Now it was clear to see why Edward had ordered the dog tied there—to prevent her from even trying to escape.
Should she risk it?
Brutus would tear her apart before she set foot on the ground. Ah! With a swift glance over her shoulder, she recalled the tray of food the servant had brought up.
When she threw the lid aside, she found the food looking even more disgusting than before, clotted and cold. On the other hand, the fight dog was probably not a picky eater. Grimacing a little, she plucked the greasy, dripping hambone out of the soup bowl, shaking clumps of pea soup off it.
Then she went back over to the window, certain that this was madness. At the same time, she knew she had to act. When another glance in the direction of the stable failed to reveal any sign of Derek, she knew in her soul that if she didn’t help him, nobody would. They were not going to risk their lives to save a man they had wanted dead in the first place.
Her mind made up, heart slamming in her chest at the recklessness of her mission, Lily tucked the slimy hambone into her torn bodice with a grimace and set out for her descent down the steep wall of Edward’s mansion.
Crouching on the window seat, she climbed gingerly out the window. Turning by degrees until her back was pressed to the exterior wall, she slowly traversed the narrow platform of decorative masonry, feeling her way along with each agonizingly slow sideward step. A brief glance down made her dizzy.
She prayed hard not to slip. By the time she gained the top of the trellis, her knees felt wobbly and her palms were slick with sweat. It didn’t make the climbing easy, especially with a greasy hambone shoved down her dress!
“Ow,” she muttered when she pricked herself on a rose’s thorn on her way down the wooden latticework.
Brutus suddenly noticed her coming.
Chain links jangled below as the dog lost interest in the crazed horses rushing free about the grounds and trotted over to the wall, where he began barking anew.
Lily whimpered as the dog leaped up at her, his powerful jaws snapping shut on thin air mere inches under her feet. How was she to go down there when this monster was already trying to eat her?
She shrieked when Brutus’s next attempt succeeded in tearing the long, graceful train of her riding habit. She held on tight to the trellis as the dog fell to earth again with a mouthful of fabric.
Hanging onto the trellis for dear life, she called to the dog in what she hoped sounded like a friendly tone. She slid the disgusting hambone out of her bodice and waved it toward the dog, making sure the black beast saw it.
Brutus stopped barking long enough to sniff the air.
With a frightened glance over her shoulder, Lily calculated exactly where to throw it—as far as the dog’s chain would reach in the opposite direction from where she needed to go.
Provided the monster took the bait at all, she’d probably have only seconds to jump down and escape the circumference of his leash.
What if the chain that held him broke? What would stop him then? Nothing, she realized. If that happened, then she was dead. A bad way to go, too. But it wasn’t as bad as burning alive.
Derek. She had to think of Derek. She knew he was waiting. She could feel him in her heart. Every second counted now.
With one last terrified glance toward the stable, she held out the bone, making sure she had the fight dog’s attention. “B-Brutus! Here, boy! Look at this! This is for you! Yes! Easy now. There’s a good boy!”
The dog made another high vertical leap, but this time Brutus was aiming for the hambone rather than her.
“Good boy—go fetch!”
She hurled the bone.
The chain links clanked as Brutus raced after it.
With barely a glance, she jumped off the trellis, landed in a knee-jarring fall on the grass, picked herself up, and raced toward the stable. Instinctual dread cut off her breath at the sound of chain links rushing after her.
She stumbled, tripping on the torn hem of her skirts, and rolled ahead just to keep moving.
An ear-splitting bark rushed at her like a cannonball.
When she looked up through the tangle of her hair, she was on eye level with the dog. Brutus was almost upon her. He was coming straight at her, his slavering jaws wide. He seemed to think he was in the dogfight pit.
But a sudden jolt to his collar stopped Brutus cold. The chain pulled taut as the dog reached the end of his tether; his killer jaws slammed shut mere inches from Lily’s face.
The chain held.
Slowly, still terrified, she backed away.
Good Lord, how could I ever have thought about marrying a man who would keep such a pet?
A
s it sank in that she was still alive, that Brutus had not eaten her, Lily shoved herself to her feet and kept running toward the stables.
No one paid her any mind until she neared the burning entrance. Already she could feel the radiating heat from the towering flames. The thick smoke invaded her nostrils.
She could hear Edward’s booming voice before she spotted him. From behind the screen of billowing smoke, he sounded panicked. “Capture those horses before they run away! I’ll have your heads for this!” Through the shifting smoke, she caught a glimpse of him. He was pacing back and forth, his hands clapped to his head.
He stopped again to scream at his henchmen. “Put the water on there. There!” He pointed frantically to a section of the wall that had flames shooting out. “Faster, you useless bastards!”
Lily wanted at all costs to avoid him, but she would have to pass him to get into the stable. She pressed on, hoping to sneak past him, but suddenly, in the chaos, they nearly collided.
Edward stepped out of a billow of acrid smoke and grabbed her arm with a snarl every bit as vicious as his dog’s. “What are you doing out of your room?”
“Let go of me! Where’s Derek?”
“In Hell, for all I care!”
“He’s still in there, isn’t he?”
“Forget about him!”
Lily struggled to shake off his grasp. “Let me get him out!”
“He deserves to burn! Look at what he’s done to me!” Edward flung a furious gesture at the stable.
“I’m not going to let you kill him.”
“Hold still, damn you!”
There wasn’t time to fight—and with Derek’s life at stake, there certainly wasn’t time to fight honorably. Lily drew back and kicked Edward in the groin as hard as she could.
He let go of her arm with a garbled roar, dropping to his knees and hunching over his nether regions. Lily pulled free and ran into the burning stable.
Another newly freed horse came charging out of the smoke, nearly trampling her in the middle of the stable’s main aisle, but Lily dodged out of the way. Then she moved on, using her sleeve to try to filter the air, veiling her nose and mouth from the choking smoke as best she could.
“Derek! Derek!” She screamed his name repeatedly. She could only see a few feet ahead through the smoke and was already perspiring in the radiating heat. “Derek! Where are you? Can you hear me?”
Then, over the crackle and hiss of the fire, she noticed a rhythmic banging sound deeper in the stable—a powerful clash of metal banging.
Derek.
Thank God he was conscious—and fighting like hell to kick out the door to his cage, by the sound of it.
“Derek, I’m coming!”
“Lily?” The banging stopped. She heard the sound of coughing. “Lily!”
As she pushed on deeper into the burning stable, she could start to make out the square silhouette of the cage in the middle of the aisle ahead. Fury poured through her for what they had done to him, but she forged on, absolutely determined to get him out.
She spotted a moving shape in the smoke ahead, down near the floor. Through the haze of gray smoke, the picture came clearer with her every step. He had paused in his assault on the cage’s door and had crouched down low to catch a few breaths of the better air nearer the ground.
“Lily!” He straightened up as best he could in the too-short cage as she ran to him, closing the distance between them.
Behind the grid of the cage’s bars, he looked appalled to see her. “What are you doing in here?”
“Rescuing you!”
“You’ve got to get out!”
“Not without you!”
“It’s too dangerous! Watch—the bars are hot,” he warned as she started to reach toward him. His chiseled face was drenched in sweat as he searched her eyes fiercely, his own red-rimmed. “Look up. Lily—the ceiling’s on fire. Any second now, the roof is going to cave in. I want you out of here. Now.”
She ignored him, glancing around. “I don’t suppose they left the key?”
He shook his head. “No. Sweetheart,” he said in a softer tone, stopping her. She was astonished by how calm he was. He swallowed hard. “There may be no way out of this for me. You need to go.”
“No,” she uttered, shaking her head. “No.”
“Please.” He reached carefully through the bars and touched her hand. “Just save yourself—”
“No!” she repeated more forcefully. “I’m going to get you out of here! I’m going to prove to you that I didn’t lure you to that ambush to betray you—”
“I would never think that. I knew it wasn’t your fault.”
“You did?”
“Of course, right away. Now listen to me. You need to go.”
“I will not leave you—”
“Lily,” he whispered, staring at her, “I love you.”
She drew in her breath and turned to him in amazement. “Derek.” Tears rose in her eyes. She reached her hand carefully through the bars and took his hand. “I love you, too.”
New resolve flooded her as she stared at him. By God, she was not going to let the man she loved die while there was breath left in her body—especially not like this. It was too unfair. He had not survived so many battles to die here, trapped like an animal.
“I am not going to let this happen to you,” she ground out so fiercely that he looked startled.
Clenching her jaw, she pulled away from him and ran into the smoke, infused with wild new courage.
“Lily, look out!”
She glanced up at Derek’s warning, her gaze homing in on a burning beam overhead. She leaped out of the way just as it came crashing down.
“Are you all right?” Derek called in a shaky tone.
Her pulse pounding, Lily nodded. “Fine!” She knew she had to think of something fast. The stable was coming down around them. Time was running out. “Keep working on the door, all right?”
“I’m not sure there’s any point.” When she glanced over at him, Derek held her gaze with a soulful stare. “Please—”
“Don’t even tell me to go!” she retorted before he could give the intolerable order. “Whatever happens,” she vowed, “I am not leaving you.”
She knew what it was like to be left behind when you needed someone the most. With that, she rushed into the billow of smoke ahead…
And came back a moment later wielding a long-handled shovel that she had found lying amid the rubble.
“Good!” Derek exclaimed, coughing, waving her over. “Give it to me and get the hell out of here.”
Lily marched back to the door of the cage and just looked at him. “Stand aside!”
“Lily—”
Crash!
“Jesus,” Derek muttered, backing up a bit.
Swinging the long-handled shovel again with all her strength, she bashed the metal edge of it against the cage door.
The door jumped, but the lock still held.
She banged it again.
Derek watched her in grim silence, no longer protesting. Perhaps he realized that he wouldn’t have been able to get a good arc with it anyway inside the small, constricted space. But he was probably praying as hard as she was.
Lily struck the locked door of the cage again and again—harder, faster, more furiously—and still it held, until she let out a scream of sheer fury and blasted it one more time with all she had left.
The metal hinges gave way with a groan.
She threw the shovel aside as Derek kicked the door open and rushed out into her arms.
“Let’s get out of here,” he murmured. Lily nodded as she realized she was shaking. Holding onto each other, they started toward the stable’s main exit, but the way was blocked. Derek glanced around, his eyes narrowed against the smoke.
She still could not believe how calm he was, but then, with his vocation, he was probably quite used to smoke-filled scenes of chaos and destruction.
“There.” He pointed through the smoke.
The blaze had not yet reached the last stall in the aisle, emptied like all the rest now that the horses had been rescued.
The open window offered them their best and probably last hope of escape.
Racing through the stable, they ran to the end box stall. Derek threw the door open. They sped across the hay-strewn floor to the horse’s window. Then he lifted her easily up onto the broad window sill.
Lily jumped down onto the grass just a few feet below. Derek was right behind her, leaping out of the window, grabbing her hand.
With the whole of Edward’s property in chaos behind them, they fled into the darkness.
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
“They’re shooting at us!” Lily cried, glancing over her shoulder when a mighty cracking sound ripped through the night.
“Get down!” Derek shielded her with his body as they continued running across the manicured grounds of Edward’s estate. “Keep going. We should be out of range soon.”
Hunching down a little, they pressed on, racing toward the high wrought-iron fence that girded Edward’s property.
Edward’s fine horses were careening around the park, zigzagging this way and that, some of them bunched into a loose herd, others following their own paths. Not far ahead, a ghostly gray leaped over a clump of azaleas and galloped on.
“I could catch one of these horses to get us out of here,” he murmured.
“No need; the sorrel mare is tethered in the woods. Besides, there’s a fence.”
“All right. Come on, sweet,” he urged her as Lily coughed, her lungs still aching from the smoke.
When another clipped report rang out, the top ball of a boxwood topiary near them burst into a shower of leaves.
“Climb!” he ordered, cupping his hands to give her a leg up as they reached the wrought-iron fence.
Wasting no time, she stepped into the makeshift stirrup of his hands and grasped the bars, pulling herself up. Gingerly scaling it, she made sure her long skirts weren’t hooked on the blunt spikes that lined the top of the fence before landing none too gracefully on the other side.