The Reluctant Duchess (30 page)

When the road was straight, the head rider fell back and when it curved, they sped up a little, so as to always keep the cart in sight.

They had been riding in this formation for just over an hour when they saw Isaac slow almost to a halt ahead of them. Richard and Sampson sped up to see what the problem was and as they approached, they could see that Isaac had the telescope pointed away from the road.

“They turned off down a country lane. Look just to the right of that large oak tree,” he explained handing Richard the telescope.

He quickly found the cart and riders, then followed the path of the lane.

“Where on earth are they going? There’s nothing down there.”

“Could be a farm house, could even be where Annabelle and your mother are being kept,” Isaac suggested.

Richard agreed that the remote location was perfect for keeping hostages but something didn’t feel right.

“How is your cross country riding?” he asked the others.

“Long as there are no six foot bushes, I shoul
d be all right,” Sampson answered.

“Me too,” Isaac agreed.

“All right then, gentlemen, stick close to the bushes, trees, anything that will give you some cover and don’t get too close.”

With that, Richard spurred his horse on to jump the ditch into the neighbouring field.

“Where is this stream?”
Frederickrick asked. Travelling down this rickety, potholed road was doing awful things to his backside.

“Not far.” H
answered.

“It would have taken le
ss time to travel to the next toll! They have plenty of water, you know.”

“Look, there it is,” B said
, pointing. “Now for the love of God, shut up with your whining!”

“Don’
t you dare talk to me like that!”

“Oh, I dare! Come on, fat boy, see if you can take me, I dare ya!”
B got down from his horse and roughly pulled Frederick from the cart, tossing him to the ground. “Come on, you swish drunkard, show me what you’ve got!”

Frederick
got to his feet and swung a punch that B easily missed, sending Frederick staggering to keep his balance.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

H got down from his horse and sighed at B’s theatrics, as he tethered it to a handy tree. He also secured the horses pulling the cart, then took his pistol out.

Frederick
took another swipe at B and this time fell on his face.

“Come on,
S
ir
, is that all you’ve got? Get up already!” B taunted as Frederick staggered back to his feet.

“Why you
-”

A shot rang out and
Frederick fell to the ground. B turned to see H wiping off his gun.

“What did you do that for?” B
demanded.

“Didn’t your mother tell you not to play with your food
?”

“You’re the one who
said to give ‘im a last meal!”

“Because that’s just polite. Now help m
e drag his fat arse to the well and with any luck, he’ll never be found.”

Richard had seen a lot of death in his time, being in the Army, it was hard to avoid but he had never witnessed such a cold-hearted, callous murder before. His first instinct was to run down there and see if there was anything he could do for Frederick, but that had been a close range shot and he knew that his chances of saving Frederick were minimal. What's more, they would have to fight the other two thugs and if they killed them, he would never find Annabelle and his mother.

“We have to keep following,”
Sampson said. “I don’t know why they did that or who’s in charge now, but they are still our only hope of finding Annabelle and the Duchess.”

“They did it so we’ll blame
Frederick,” Richard said. “If we hadn’t seen this, we’d just assume that he had gone abroad and keep searching for him and as long as we’re doing that, we aren’t hunting the real criminals.”

“Plus
, they get a larger cut of the gold,” Isaac added.

“You realise that this means they can’t let them go
, don’t you?” Sampson asked.

Richard nodded tersely. Of course they couldn’t leave the victims to tell everyone what
had really happened. He pulled his revolver from his belt and checked it. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t kill these men, not whilst there was the faintest hope that Annabelle and his mother were alive. 

Although their hands were bound behind their backs, Lavinia had finally managed to untie Annabelle’s hands and she had untied Lavinia’s. No one had bothered to check on them all day but they could still hear footsteps from below.

“It’s been dark for quite a while now,” Annabelle said.

During daylight hours, they’d had a few cracks of sunlight through the planks to illuminate the room but now that night had fallen, they could barely see their hands in front of their faces.

“I know.”
Lavinia sighed.

Alt
hough they were free of their binds, they hadn’t made any further attempts to escape because Annabelle was in too much pain.

Suddenly they heard a gunshot, followed
by shouting and then more shots.

“
Frederick must be here,” Annabelle guessed, clinging to Lavinia as if her life depended on it.

Lavinia nodded.

The ruckus continued for a few minutes, until finally there was silence, then ominous footsteps climbing the stairs.

“If you make it out of this, tell Richard how sorry I am, please?” Annabelle begged.

“I will and if you make it out, tell him how proud I am of him.”

“I promise.
Thank you for being my friend, Lavinia.”

“And thank you for being mine, my dear.”

They had no candle to light the room tonight, so as the door opened with enough force to crash it into the wall, they could only see an ominous silhouette of the man standing there, his breathing ragged and uneven.

Without
Frederick setting the pace, the other two men made good time back to the estate; one driving the cart and the other on horseback, riding behind him.

Following them after dark proved much more difficu
lt than during daylight, but Richard was used to night time attacks from his Army days. He felt he had the advantage over these men, who were surely city dwellers and untrained in combat, as long as he didn’t become over confident.

When it became clear that they were returning to
Frederick’s estate, Richard and Isaac veered off course, cantering around until they were ahead of the cart. They stopped behind a dense patch of trees, left the horses tethered and ventured back towards the road by foot. Richard found a bush that was easy enough to see through but that should keep him hidden, whilst Isaac crossed the road to wait on the other side.

They heard the cart before they saw it and Richard prepared to take aim at the one on horseback
, the one who had shot Frederick. He was the more dangerous of the two and they could afford to lose one of them. He wished that he had his Army bayonet as he was more practiced and a far better aim with that weapon, but a revolver was all he had. He took aim, thankful that the moon was at least out, if not full, and fired.

Knowing that
the flash from the gun would give away his location, he scrambled a few feet away as he observed the scene. The rider was down but alive and the other one was drawing his gun. Isaac fired from the other side of the road, distracting them for long enough for Richard to take another shot at the fallen rider. The shot hit its target and he stopped moving.

The driver didn’t know where to point
and shoot, so he emptied all four barrels of his pepper-pot gun into the woods.

Richard stood
up, his gun aimed at the driver as he approached the unsettled horses, grabbing the closest one’s bridle. Isaac came out of hiding too and they soon they heard a horse cantering up from behind.

“There, boy, it’s all over now,” Richard soothed the horse, patting
its neck before turning to the driver, who was still aiming his empty gun at him. “You’re surrounded; throw down that useless gun or join your friend over there.”

The driver looked to his friend, who had a rather nasty head wound, then threw
his gun away as instructed.

“Good, now tell me where your friends are keeping my mother and
-” lover didn’t even begin to explain what Annabelle was to him. “My heart, and I may just let you live.”

“T- there’s a farm, an empty one.
A f-farmhouse, I mean. About a mile from here. He’s there, with your women.”

“Who is
‘he’?”

“Old John.”

“What's Old John’s real name?”

“John I think, that’s what everyone calls him.”

“All right, what’s the name of this farmhouse?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t know it had one.”

Richard pulled the hammer of the gun back.

“Wait! It’s got a well pump to the left of house and a tiny barn on the right and it’s sort of L-shaped and its roof was missing half its tiles. Frederickdie said it had been empty for two years or so.”

“How many others are the
re?”

“Four, Old John and three other fellas.”

“Tie him up.” Richard told Isaac, then he went to speak to Sampson, although he kept his gun trained on the driver. “How far away from the estate house do you think we are?”

“Judging
by where we turned off, maybe a mile in that direction.” He pointed north.

“
Very well, you ride there and get the garrison, if they’re still around, the steward should recognise the house from that description and our general direction.”

“You’re not going in alone, are you?”

Richard shook his head. Although his first instinct was to rush in and rescue the women he loved, his military training told him that it was the best way to get them all killed. “We’ll run this cart off the road and Isaac and I will make our way on foot. Hopefully by the time the Cavalry arrive, we’ll know a little of the lay of the land.”

“All
right but be careful. You want me to take him to the soldiers?” Sampson nodded towards the driver.

“Sure.”

Isaac bound his feet as well, then they secured him behind Sampson’s saddle, his legs on one side of the horse and his head on the other.

The first house they came to was clearly occupied, although it was in dire need of some repairs. The second house they saw had smoke coming from the chimney but many of the roof tiles were missing and the door was leaning against the frame, having been pulled from its hinges.

Richard
paused for a moment to get his breath back, then he and Isaac walked around the house, carefully staying under cover of the trees.

“I only see two,” Richard whispered.
One in particular kept looking out of the window, clearly waiting for the cart. He wondered if that was ‘Old John’. They circled back around to the side of the house and waited there.

The snap of a twig behind him caused
Richard to turn and he saw the Captain peering out from behind a tree, holding a broken twig. He and Isaac made their way over to him.

“What's the situation?” the Captain asked.

“There’s supposed to be four kidnappers in there, but I can only see two.”

“Did you see the hostages?”

“No sign but I think they’re on the first floor.”

“Why?”

“There’s a window at the front that’s boarded up, it’s the only one like that.”

“I’ll tell my men to avoid hitting the first floor then.
Here’s the plan; there’s only four of them and they can’t have that much ammunition between them. One of my men will fire to try and draw them out and get them to waste bullets, then we go in two teams; one in the front entrance, one in the back.”

“Sounds good,” Richard agreed.

“Don’t waste your own ammunition firing at the house; we have plenty to spare but you don't, so keep your gun for when we go inside.”

Richard nodded
his understanding, then the Captain headed back into the trees to talk to his men. For the next few minutes, Richard could hear the soft noise of men moving through the surrounding area and when all went quiet, a single shot rang out.

Thirty
seconds later a series of shots began as gunfire was exchanged. There was a lot of yelling from inside the house but the soldiers were silent and efficient. None of the kidnappers came outside but their fire became much less frequent, until finally there was a roar of “NOW!” and Richard rushed the house, the soldiers beside him.

The first man he came across
continued to pull the trigger on his gun, although he had already emptied all four barrels of the pepper-pot gun. Richard easily subdued him with a punch to his throat, then he headed deeper into the house. In the main front room, there was a second man being subdued by the soldiers who had entered through the front of the house. In the corner of the room lay two bodies, already dead.