Part 38 (1/2)
She strove to m.u.f.fle the cruel voices, but with every footstep, their howls grew louder.
Then over the wail of the wind, the slap of the rain, she heard a dull pounding. It came closer and closer.
Her sluggish brain puzzled over the sound. Was it blood beating in her ears? Thunder? Gunfire? But who could fire a gun in this wet?
When the big black horse cantered out of the rain, like something risen from the mouth of h.e.l.l, Charis stopped stock-still. Her dazed mind couldn't comprehend she was no longer alone. Or whether this new arrival signaled danger or rescue.
”Lady Charis?”
The rider drew to a rearing halt in front of her. The risk she took standing in the middle of a road in Stygian darkness vaguely registered. Her horse tugged listlessly at the reins but was too weary to pull free.
Stupidly, she blinked up at the man looming above her in the saddle. Water cascaded down her face and obstructed her sight. She swallowed, trying to summon a greeting. Nothing emerged apart from a broken whimper.
”Lady Charis?” He dismounted in one easy move and stepped forward. ”Lady Charis, it's Akash.”
”Akash...” she croaked without moving.
”Gideon wrote from Jersey and told me to expect you this evening at the latest.”
”The weather...” Then the significance of his arrival struck so hard she staggered with dizzy relief. Sudden energy buzzed through her. Blood that had frozen abruptly began to flow again. Her mind churned with new hope and determination. ”Akash, we have to help Gideon. My stepbrothers have him.”
She turned back the way she'd come. Akash would help. Akash would save Gideon. Everything would be all right.
”Wait.” Akash grabbed her arm. She was so cold, she hardly felt it. ”You can't go like this.”
Confused, she turned to stare at him. This didn't make sense. Akash was Gideon's friend. He'd saved him before. He'd save him now.
”Didn't you hear me? Gideon's in trouble.” Her voice became stronger as she strove to speak above the shrieking wind. ”There's no time to delay.”
He swept his hand across his face in a futile attempt to clear the rain from his eyes. ”Charis, Penrhyn is only minutes away. At least come back and get dry. We'll make plans there.”
Had she almost made it home? It seemed too good to be true. Reaction hit like an avalanche. Her knees threatened to fold under her. She glanced back to her brave little horse. He'd carried her this far, but he'd carry her no farther tonight.
She drew a sobbing breath, and the fight drained out of her. As she was, she was no use to Gideon. If she was to help him, first she needed warmth and food and a chance to recover her strength.
But how it tortured her to delay his rescue. Even when she recognized the necessity of finding shelter before she collapsed.
”Yes, take me home,” she said dully, and stood in s.h.i.+vering acquiescence as Akash wrapped his own much dryer coat around her.
Her heart in her throat, Charis crouched in the brown winter bracken and studied the overgrown entrance to the disused tin mine. It had stopped raining a couple of hours ago, and a cold gray dawn had broken.
She wore one of Gideon's mother's riding habits, and the ground under her was wet and muddy. At her side, Akash held a pair of beautifully chased silver pistols and watched the mine just as avidly. Hidden around them in the bracken were ten stalwart Penrhyn men. The same men who had unhesitatingly raced out into the foul night to locate Gideon.
The sight of the mine made her feel sick. She still reeled from discovering that her stepbrothers kept her husband in an underground tunnel. When the searchers returned to Penrhyn with the news, she'd barely been able to control her rising gorge. Fear remained a sour, bilious taste in her mouth.
In such a place, memories of Rangapindhi would be inevitable. Was it also inevitable that Gideon must succ.u.mb to his ghosts? Perhaps they'd steal him forever this time. With horror, she remembered his shaking, debilitating illness after Portsmouth. This fresh torture must test his limits, no matter how strong he was.
Let him be all right.
She bit back rising panic. She'd promised herself she'd be brave for Gideon's sake. But, sweet G.o.d, it was difficult when she imagined her husband trapped in suffocating darkness.
What if she managed to save his body yet couldn't save his sanity? The prospect didn't bear contemplation. Although her mind did nothing but play grim scenarios.
Courage, Charis.
She tightened her grip on her pearl-handled pistol. Her eyes were scratchy from lack of sleep, and her pulse thundered in her ears. The hairs on the back of her neck p.r.i.c.kled. She knew Gideon was close. She felt it in her blood, the way an animal recognized the approach of its mate.
”Gideon will have my guts for garters when he finds out I brought you on this escapade,” Akash muttered in a voice so low only she heard it.
”I gave you no choice.”
The only way he could have kept her away was by locking her in the attics. Even then, she'd have done her best to climb out. Akash had been determined to leave her safely at the manor, but her obstinacy had outlasted all argument. If Gideon's demons had conquered him, she needed to be there to fight them.
”He still won't like it,” Akash said gloomily.
She prayed Gideon was alive not to like it. Strangely, Akash hadn't been overly concerned when she laid the whole story of the ambush before him last night. Yet surely Akash more than anyone knew what imprisonment meant to Gideon.
Tulliver appeared on top of the bank overhanging the entrance and waved before dropping out of sight. It was the arranged sign for movement within.
Purpose flowed through Charis in a reviving flood, and her heart took on a surer, steadier rhythm. She would save Gideon, no matter what forces ranged against her.
Not long now, my love. Wait for me...
Akash gestured behind him. With surrept.i.tious rustling, the men crawled forward. Charis was aware of the movement, but she didn't s.h.i.+ft her attention from the mine.
Hubert emerged into the daylight, leading two horses. She immediately recognized the homely pony Gideon had hired to draw the gig.
Her stepbrother yawned and stretched, his lack of self-consciousness indicating he had no inkling he was observed. Hatred flared in Charis's belly as she watched him. He was about ten yards away, close enough for her to see he looked even worse than yesterday. Impossible to believe he held one of the kingdom's oldest t.i.tles. In his dirty, ragged clothes and with his greasy, overlong hair, he'd pa.s.s for a beggar.
Soundlessly, a wiry Cornishman rose from the bracken that grew toward the entrance. Another joined him. Using the undergrowth for cover, they'd circled behind Hubert, who stepped into the watery sun. A few silent steps, and one man covered Hubert's mouth to m.u.f.fle any shout of warning. The other man quickly overpowered him.
The struggle was over in seconds. Hubert lay gagged and bound. He writhed as the men dragged him away from the cave. His m.u.f.fled grunts of protest ceased abruptly when one of his a.s.sailants kicked him hard in the ribs.
There was no sign of Felix. A charged silence fell. Charis's gloved hand curled with painful force around her pistol. At her side, Akash tensed and raised his guns.
”Hubert? What the devil are you playing at?”
Felix's irritated question emerged as an eerie echo from inside the mine. One of the ponies snorted nervously and trotted toward the bracken, trailing its halter rope.
”For G.o.d's sake, stop messing about.” Felix appeared at the entrance. Then, just as quickly, slipped back under cover.
Like a deadweight, foreboding settled in Charis's stomach. Any chance of another surprise attack was lost. And still she'd seen nothing of Gideon. Over and over, her mind chanted her desperate prayer. Please, G.o.d, let him be all right.
”Come out, man. The game's up.” Akash stood, and his voice rang across the open area in front of the mine. ”You don't have a hope of getting away with this.”
Tulliver jumped down from his hiding place above the mine and hid from Felix's view beside the entrance. A wicked-looking knife jutted from his belt, and he held a pistol. For a heavyset man, he moved with incredible smoothness.
Felix called out from inside. ”You forget-I have Trevithick.”
Charis was sickeningly familiar with her stepbrother's defiant tone. For one surreal moment, it transported her back to their first meeting. He'd expressed his contempt for his new stepsister in just such a voice. And received a cuff from his hulking father in return. A cuff he'd returned with interest when he got Charis to himself.