Lord Melvedere's Ghost (4 page)

All
humour immediately left Jamie’s face and he turned cold and hard.
Mentally running through his stock of weapons, he studied Jonathan
carefully and caught the silent hand signal his colleague had given
in warning.

Danger
was afoot.

He tried
to keep the concern from his face and remain as normal as possible,
but he could sense Cecily watching him closely. Luckily Jonathan
had given the signal so Cecily wouldn’t notice, but Jamie had seen
and understood, and was aware that his colleague was warning him of
something dangerous further along the road. Jamie glanced over at
Cecily and shot her a winning, overly bright smile, feeling
decidedly relieved when she blushed and averted her gaze. Once free
of her scrutiny, he turned to study the area around them and
consider their options.

He
immediately saw what Jonathan had noticed. At the farthest corner
of the field to the right of them, the backside of a horse pocked
out from behind the hedgerow. Although there was only one, and it
could only be a horse standing grazing in a field, it was highly
improbable given that cows were also in the field running beside
the road. The area was almost too quiet, as though waiting for
something to arrive – or happen. The gut instinct Jamie had relied
upon throughout his many years with the Star Elite, was warning him
that Jonathan was accurate in his assessment that they were facing
danger. The horse belonged to someone, and it was more than
conceivable that someone was lying in wait for them. To ignore it
was putting all of their lives in danger.

At a
single glance, nobody would have noticed his fingers stiffen on the
reins, his shoulders straighten slightly, and every muscle in his
body tense in preparation to fight. His heart rate slowed; every
sense was acutely tuned to any sound, any sight, any hint of
anything unusual.

“
You appear to be a natural rider,” Jamie declared, studying
Cecily’s comfortable posture and delicate hands on the reins. The
horse was responding to her confidence and was obediently plodding
along, his ears pricked forward alertly. It was as though the horse
himself was aware of the danger that was lurking ahead and was
waiting for his lady’s command. Jamie assessed her posture and the
easy way she was sitting in the saddle. She should be able to
handle a fast gallop if they needed to make a run for freedom.
Satisfied that she stood a better than average chance of staying on
board for the ride as long as it was over relatively smooth ground,
he turned his attention back to the area around them.

The
small row of cottages lay to the left of them, backing on to open
fields. Although the fields were not ploughed yet, they were rough
and uneven. He didn’t want to risk the horses’ legs by attempting
to run over such uneven terrain, and it would be a lot to expect of
any lady rider, especially a novice like Cecily. Frowning around
them, his eyes met and held Jonathan’s steady gaze.

“
What is it?” Cecily murmured, shivering at Jamie’s dark,
forbidding expression. She had never seen this harder edge to him
and wasn’t at all sure she was comfortable with it. The easy
camaraderie, and affable, if persistent, charm was gone. In its
place was a cold, forbidding man she hadn’t met before. It made her
wonder if she and Portia had done the right thing by placing their
trust in these strangers who claimed to be working for the
government. After all, she didn’t exactly have any proof they are
who they say they are. They could be anyone.

A small
voice warned her that she was being silly. Archie had fought for
them, and had gone without sleep and food in order to keep them
alive, and safe. If it hadn’t been for Archie’s quick thinking in
the church, both she and Portia could very well be dead. As it was,
Archie had asked them to trust him, and they had, but that didn’t
mean the same applied to Jamie. Although he was a friend of
Archie’s, how was Archie to know what Jamie had been up to while
they had not been in contact?

“
Jamie?” She persisted when he continued to study the area
around them, and showed no sign of answering her.

Jamie
snapped back to her, his face softening so quickly, in such stark
contrast to his sinister expression of moments earlier, that Cecily
began to wonder if she had just imagined the last few moments.
Still, he had been looking for something – or someone.

“
We are being followed,” Jamie whispered quietly, studying her
reaction closely for several long moments. He was pleased to note
that her initial fear was quickly replaced with curiosity, followed
by a frown of concern as she stared at him helplessly for several
long moments.

“
What do we do?” She whispered, feeling cold shivers snake down
her spine.

Jonathan
turned in his saddle and glanced back at them. “We go through the
gap in the hedge further ahead.” He nodded to the narrow gap a few
feet ahead of them. “Then gallop across it. We have to double back
around the village and head up over those hills over there.” His
head remained perfectly still, leaving his eyes to flicker
furtively toward the rolling hills to the left of them. “Just hold
on Cecily. Your horse will follow ours but you need to let him
run.”

“
Run?” Cecily whispered weakly, staring in horror at first
Jonathan, then Jamie.

“
You are a natural, don’t worry. We have to go around the
village and double back to make sure we aren’t followed.” He
sincerely prayed there weren’t any fences to jump or they were
going to have a problem on their hands. “When we have gone into the
hills, we can take a long route and double back so that we are
heading in the right direction again.”

“
Where is that exactly?”

“
I -” Jamie glanced up as Jonathan sighed.

“
Look, as nice as it is for you to want to chat and all, I
don’t think they are going to wait forever.” It wasn’t lost to
either him, or Jamie, that they had ambled to a stop in the middle
of the road. It gave the people further ahead, if they were there,
a clear warning that things were not going to go according to plan.
“Let’s go,” he snapped, glaring hard at Jamie.

“
Keep walking, Cecily,” Jamie murmured, nudging his own horse
forward and dragging hers behind him. “Just follow my
lead.”

“
But where are we going?” Cecily persisted, hating the
subterfuge. Over the past few days she seemed to have spent most of
her time walking through a thick fog of confusion, following orders
without question and not really making any sense out of anything.
“What is going on Jamie?”

“
I’ll explain later, sweetheart,” Jamie murmured, “right now,
just follow what I do.” Although he tried to keep his words calm
and soothing, he couldn’t withhold the biting impatience that made
his husky voice sharp.

Cecily
wasn’t sure whether to argue, stubbornly object or meekly follow
his lead. Matters were taken out of her hands when, in a sudden
burst of speed, Jonathan kicked his horse hard and disappeared
through the gap in the hedge. She didn’t need to see which way he
went, the heavy thud of hoof beats were distinctive, and were
heading rapidly across the grassed field. Within seconds, her horse
increased its pace and enthusiastically gave chase.

“
Jamie!” She cried, unable to get the horse to stop. When she
did pull on the reins, the huge beast swung its huge head this way
and that, fighting for freedom, and winning against Cecily’s
inexperienced hands. There was nothing she could do but gasp as the
cruel fingers of bramble and hedge lashed against her face and
arms. Grabbing wildly at the horse’s mane, she was left clinging on
for dear life as the horse negotiated the rutted ditch in one clean
jump before tearing after Jonathan’s horse as though there was a
bag of food attached to its tail.

She
wanted to see if Jamie was behind, but daren’t break her horrified
gaze from the sight of Jonathan now half way across the field. Her
bottom pounded against the hard saddle as the relentless wind
whipped against her cheeks, tearing her hair free of its pins until
it billowed out behind her in a frenzied mass of
disarray.

“
Stand up!” Jamie shouted, drawing alongside her.

“
What?” Cecily gasped, unable to turn her gaze away from the
reassuring sight of Jonathan’s back. She saw him turn to look at
her several times, a dark frown of concern on his face. Her shocked
gaze watched in amazement as he released one hand and drew his gun
while still riding at breakneck speed.

“
Get your bottom out of the saddle and stand up, it makes the
ride smoother and easier on the horse,” Jamie ordered, his voice
harsh. He could see the wild panic in her eyes and wanted to demand
she listen to him. The field was huge but they were far too out in
the open to risk slowing down. They were too easy to pick off for
any discerning gunman, even at speed. There was little he could do
but hope that there wasn’t a further ambush directly ahead. He cast
a quick glance backward, swearing loudly as he caught sight of
three riders gathering pace. Although they were several feet
behind, their dogged determination and French swearing was enough
to convince Jamie that his instincts were indeed right, they had
been followed, and were facing an ambush.

He
didn’t flinch when Jonathan swerved to one side, doubled back, and
fired a shot.

Even
through the wind, Cecily heard the single cry from behind them.
Tears pooled in her eyes and she fought to control the rising well
of panic that made her stomach begin to churn alarmingly. She had
thought that the events within the church had been bad enough, but
this was far worse. If Jonathan had a gun, then there was every
possibility that the people giving chase had guns too. Should she
do what Jonathan was doing and start to swerve around? She threw a
beseeching glance at Jamie only to catch sight of him raising his
gun and taking aim at something behind her. Her horse ran even
faster at the loud retort from Jamie’s pistol.

Cecily
turned her attention forward, her eyes widening in alarm at the
sight of the huge hedge looming before them. Her eyes ran along the
length of the thick green mass, but she could see no gaps they
could use to get through to the other side, even if she could get
her horse to go there. She didn’t know what to do. Jonathan was
busy shooting again, and Jamie was busy doing something else with
something on his hip. Another shot sounded, but was that from
Jamie, Jonathan, or the men giving them chase?

She
didn’t know much French, but was fairly certain that the language
the men behind were using was French, or foreign at least. As far
as she knew there were no other foreigners chasing them. That left
them with the problem of the French guards, who clearly wanted to
finish off what they hadn’t managed to successfully complete in the
church. Why were they so determined to see her dead? What had she
done? Who were they?

She was
nothing. She had nothing now. As far as she knew she had done
nothing to anyone to warrant her life being thrown into such
turmoil. How did the spy smugglers even know she was alive, let
alone hate her enough to want her dead? She ruthlessly shoved the
thought to one side and began to feel panic burn at the sight of
the bramble now only a few feet away. The horse showed no sign of
slowing down. Unless she was much mistaken, it was going even
faster. She had no choice but to go with him.

Despite
Jamie’s warnings, she couldn’t prevent the quick glance down at the
ground and suddenly wished she hadn’t as she caught sight of the
dark grass rushing past with frightening speed. She wasn’t at all
certain she had been travelling this fast in the carriage. The fact
that there was no substance around her; nothing to break her fall,
was horrifying. If she did come off now, the French wouldn’t need
to kill her, she would be dead already.

“
Oh, God,” she whispered, casting a frantic glance at Jamie.
“Jamie!” She screamed, just as the horse’s front hooves lifted off
the ground.

It
seemed as though she was in mid-air forever. She daren’t open her
eyes, but could hear every snort, every heavy breath of the horse
beneath her. At some point she was certain that she had lost
contact with the horse entirely. If she wasn’t still clutching the
reins she would have felt sure that she and the horse had parted
company. Squeezing her eyes tight, she became aware of the loud
curses from Jamie and Jonathan and, from somewhere far behind her,
loud shouts, curses and screams followed by more gunfire. Whatever
was going on back there was of little importance though.

For one
brief, infinitesimal moment the world stopped. Her breath lodged in
her throat. Her heart ceased to beat. She was held in life’s firm
grip and her fate had yet to be decided. The heavy jarring as the
horse landed with a thud made her cry aloud. Her bottom crashed
into the saddle with bruising force at the same time that her face
slammed into the horses’ neck. She felt the forward slide with
horrifying detail and knew she was going to fall off and land in an
undignified heap on the floor.

To her
amazement the horse stumbled, righted itself and began to gallop
once more, leaving Cecily with little choice but to cling on for
dear life. As they tore across the field, she slowly pushed herself
upright, although had no control of the horse. At some point she
had dropped the reins, but she daren’t let go of the horses’ mane
to pick them back up.