by Rebecca King
Despite Luke’s agility and strength, he was struggling against the man’s girth. Daniel ploughed forward and, when Luke’s opponent was distracted by a volley of punches Luke slammed into his stomach, Daniel attacked the thug from behind. They both watched the thug slump lifelessly to the ground between them. Daniel grinned at his friend over the unconscious body and lifted the large rock in his hand to show Luke how he had dropped such a heavyweight.
Luke nodded his thanks but when he turned around to help Roger, Peregrine, and Hamish, a large fist slammed painfully into his face. Stars danced behind Luke’s eyes. The swirling darkness around him blackened the edges of his vision. Luke felt the world recede, the noise around him diminish. He knew he was going to fall and staggered sideways to get away from the source of the danger. A low groan escaped him. He suspected that if he fell now his life would be over. An inner rage he hadn’t realised he could ever feel began to burn. It created a fury unlike any other Luke had felt but it wasn’t at the unfairness of being accosted in the middle of a country lane. It was at the thug who thought he could end Luke’s life. Like a beacon of promise for a future yet to be fulfilled, Rosemary rose in the back of the mind, reminding him of what she could bring to his future. A family, love, happiness, a home, all rose like an oasis of heaven before him, beckoning him to find the strength to succeed, protecting him from the darkness that threatened to suck him under.
With his thoughts firmly focused on the reason why he should fight, Luke shook his head to clear his cloudy thoughts. He squared his shoulders and sucked in a deep fortifying breath. When he turned around, his eyes were narrow, hard. His fists curled into tight balls. His shoulders were square, his back straight. Nothing and nobody stayed in his way for long when he waded back into the brawl and started to fight back with a brutality that left a pile of bodies in the middle of the road.
‘Jesus, who are they?’ Peregrine hissed wiping blood off his mouth. ‘They know how to fight.’
‘I don’t give a damn who they are. I am going to find out where they come from, and who in the Hell brought them here,’ Roger growled. ‘These are no opportunistic thieves. These are here for a reason.’
‘They are hired thugs all right,’ Hamish agreed.
‘Get them in a line. They can stay here while we wait for the gaoler’s cart,’ Roger growled. ‘Stay on guard. I doubt these will be the last of them. I’m going to fetch my horse.’
‘Do you want me to go for the gaoler’s cart?’ Dean offered.
Roger contemplated that. He sniffed and spat blood while flexing his aching hand. ‘No. On second thoughts, I don’t see why they should have a nice, soft ride to gaol. They can sodding walk all the way there. We have time to get them to gaol before dawn.’
Dean looked at Luke. ‘I think we have to increase the watch on your house. Whoever is doing this wants us out of the way. It isn’t who these men are that is important. It is why they want us out of the way, and who is behind this kind of attack we need to worry about.’
‘Their employer is planning something, isn’t he?’ Peregrine growled.
‘Right, well, we will be ready for them when they attack again,’ Roger snapped. ‘Luke, do you have some rope at your house?’
‘I think there is some in the storage shed in the yard at the shop. It should be long enough to tie this lot together,’ Luke replied. ‘The shop is closer.’
‘Go and fetch it. Dean, you go with him. Watch your backs and make sure that you aren’t seen. Peregrine, Hamish, you help me get this lot into this bloody field. Just in case these bastards’ employer decides to come and check on them, we are going to get these idiots out of sight. We will be in this field when you get back.’
‘What do you want to do about Wickerstone?’ Peregrine asked, sliding a worried look at Luke. ‘There is nothing to say that the fool who sent this lot after us wasn’t planning to distract us while they target Luke’s house.’
‘We have to secure these thugs now,’ Roger persisted. ‘Hurry up and get that rope. When you have dropped it off with us, we can get this lot awake and off to gaol where they belong. The rest of you must go to Wickerstone to keep watch. Luke, you and Dean, stay in the house. Everyone else stays outside. Keep a constant patrol until we can get back.’
‘It will take at least three hours to walk this lot to gaol,’ Daniel warned.
‘What do you want me to do?’ Roger snapped, incensed that they had been caught off guard and so nearly plunged into catastrophe.
‘Confine them in the barn at Wickerstone. Why should we waste time walking these bastards to the gaol while the perpetrator behind this attack strikes at Luke’s house? Taking his lot to gaol is probably what the bastard wants us to do. They know we are Star Elite. They know we will want these bastards behind bars. Even by their calculations, moving this lot will keep us busy for at least three hours. It will give the bastard plenty of time to attack Wickerstone, and Rosemary and Thomas who are asleep in their beds. What the fiend won’t expect us to do is go straight to Wickerstone with the thugs. If we bind them on the floor, gagged and tied up, they are going nowhere. We can keep watch over them and the house. They can bloody stay in the barn until we can spare a man to fetch Debrette tomorrow.’
‘The bastard intends to attack Wickerstone tonight.’ Luke knew, deep in his gut, that he had to get to Wickerstone, and make sure that Rosemary was all right.
‘Let’s go. Tie these bastards up. Use their sodding breeches if you must. Let’s get them bound and on their feet. Luke, Peregrine, Daniel, you go to Wickerstone now. We will catch you up,’ Roger ordered.
Luke was already moving by the time Roger finished talking. He didn’t stop or look back and was quickly galloping across the fields to the house he now knew was home within seconds. Wickerstone was his, his oasis, his life.
It isn’t just the property, it’s the people in it now too.
Luke knew that as he raced through the fields toward Wickerstone, he was racing to protect his family. He already considered Thomas a friend and father figure and looked forward to being able to spend time with him discussing his watches, and the various clocks Thomas made. Luke already looked forward to being able to spend more time in Rosemary’s company, enjoying life with her instead of just surviving it with the Star Elite.
‘Try to stay calm,’ Peregrine warned. ‘Take it from someone who has been in your situation, recently as a matter of fact, it is going to do you no good if you allow your emotions to make you foolish.’
‘But I love her,’ Luke snapped.
Daniel rolled his eyes but grinned. ‘Do you think that we don’t already know that? God, you were ready to settle down or you would never have purchased the house. While we have all questioned your sanity in choosing the first woman you stumble across, there is nobody in any doubt about what a good match you two are. Anybody who sees you two together knows that the affection between you two is strong, mutual and genuine. We also know that you have your family to protect but you need to be a part of the Star Elite. It is difficult because your emotions are involved. Believe me, I know. But for the love of the woman you adore, please don’t go off and make foolish mistakes. Stay close and remember that we are here to help you. We are here to work with you not against you. For now, you have to remember that you are a member of the Star Elite first.’
‘Why in the Hell is Morton doing this to them?’
‘Morton isn’t just targeting Thomas and Rosemary now, is he? It is the Star Elite he is targeting now as well,’ Peregrine warned. ‘It is arrogant of him to think that he can distract us with the thugs and do what he wants at your house while we are busy.’
‘It is probably because he doesn’t believe that we are the Star Elite. After all, the magistrate wouldn’t be the last man in office to have been conned into believing someone is something they are not. It might be that Morton doesn’t want to believe that we are Star Elite because it ruins his plans,’ Daniel reasoned. ‘Whatever the reason, this is a dangerous Star E
lite mission because the home of one of our investigators is in danger.’
Luke glared at the house on the horizon. At first glance, all was quiet and just how it should be given the people inside were in their beds where most respectable people should be. But Luke knew that tonight was going to change his life.
‘Damn it all to Hell,’ Daniel growled when they dismounted from their horses and wandered silently into the garden. Even from the woods at the bottom of the garden they could see the dark shadow of a man on his knees beside the back door. The smell of smoke already hung in the air, and it didn’t come from the chimney.
‘It’s the arsonist,’ Luke hissed.
He hurried across the garden and raced for the long line of hedgerow which bracketed the gardens on the left and the right, and hunkered low as he crept toward the house. No flames were licking the door yet, but he didn’t doubt that as soon as the arsonist got the fire lit, the door would be engulfed within seconds. Luke crouched behind the hedge and parted the branches so he could watch the arsonist fan the small mound of embers on the doorstep into life.
Luke saw Daniel signal he was ready, but the arsonist was facing Luke who knew that as soon as he stood up his target would see him and run. Daniel positioned himself in the gap between the house and the barn. Peregrine stood in the centre of the garden, waiting for the thug to try to race for the trees. Once he was sure his friends were braced, Luke broke free of his hiding place.
At first, the arsonist was so focused on fanning the flames to life that he didn’t notice he wasn’t alone. It was only when Luke drew closer that the thug looked up. The young lad cursed and immediately launched to his feet. With Luke blocking his path forward, he whirled around only for Daniel to step up behind him. The only route off the property was across the garden, but Peregrine was blocking that too, but that didn’t stop the lad from trying to escape. Darting around Luke, the youth ran for the gap between the house and Peregrine. Peregrine’s long stride was still not enough to catch the darting lad who ran this way and that as he tried to outwit the three men. But while the young lad had speed on his side, Peregrine had determination and agility, and Luke had his weapon, which he fired at the arsonist. Luke deliberately aimed for the young man’s right side, knowing that to avoid being shot the lad would dart to the left, and would inadvertently move toward Peregrine. With Peregrine drawing closer, Luke braced himself and took another shot, this time catching the young lad in the leg.
‘Stay inside,’ Luke ordered Rosemary when the window of her bed chamber slid up and she poked her head outside. ‘Better yet, if you have any water in the house open the back door and put the flames out. I won’t be a minute.’
Luke looked worriedly at Rosemary but jogged toward Peregrine who was standing over the cursing intruder rolling around on the floor clutching his wounded leg.
‘You, my lad, are facing gaol for two counts of arson,’ Luke informed him.
‘Do you recognise him?’ Daniel asked as he peered into the young lad’s face.
‘No, but Rosemary or Thomas will if he is local,’ Luke replied.
The men looked at the house when they heard the door open. Rosemary and Thomas were visible in the faint glow from the candles in the kitchen. Thomas threw a bucket of water into the smouldering hay and twigs the arsonist had planted on the doorstep and glared at the culprit through the smoke. It didn’t surprise Luke when Thomas stepped around the debris and hurried outside to see the person who had caused so much damage to his property.
‘Do you know him?’ Peregrine demanded, yanking the young man’s head up.
‘I can’t rightly see in the dark,’ Thomas murmured.
Luke frowned worriedly at the house because Rosemary hadn’t come out.
‘I’ll get a lantern,’ Hamish offered before disappearing into the barn.
‘No, he isn’t local,’ Thomas announced when he had taken a good, long look at the arsonist. ‘I haven’t seen him before.’
‘What of it, lad? Who has paid you to set fire to the house and the shop in the village? Don’t tell me that it wasn’t you who tried to burn the shop down because it is highly unlikely that there are two arsonists in a small village like Oakley Bridge.’
The lad didn’t reply.
‘I think you should know that the other thugs your boss employed are now on their way to gaol, which is where you shall be going. If you don’t answer my questions now it means that you are going to be facing a longer interrogation because we will get information out of you. I want to know who has employed you,’ Peregrine said firmly.
‘Let me guess, it was Finley Morton,’ Luke said.
The young man stared angrily into the darkness and refused to even look at them.
‘A longer interrogation it is then. I suppose he is going to have to go into a cell on his own as well, just so he realises that he is in this situation on his own. His associates are certainly no good to him now.’ Peregrine’s words were said while looking at Luke and Thomas, but their meaning was directed at the young lad. The lad knew it as well because he shifted and slid them an uncomfortable look, but stoically refused to talk.
‘Where is she?’ Luke growled impatiently when Rosemary didn’t come out of the house.
‘I’ll go and see where she is,’ Thomas mumbled with a scowl at the house. ‘She said that she was going to get dressed.’
Luke’s gaze immediately went to her bed chamber window. The small hairs stood up on the back of his neck when he saw that the room was still encased in darkness.
‘Damn it,’ he breathed. His feet were already moving before he had finished talking.
Luke and Peregrine searched every room downstairs before stomping upstairs. Luke repeatedly called Rosemary’s name, but she didn’t reply. It wasn’t until he slammed open Thomas’s bed chamber door, and glanced out of the window overlooking the front of the house, that he saw the dark outline of two riders on horseback racing away from the property. When they reached the end of the driveway, they didn’t turn toward Oakley Bridge to the right, or to Mirsley Ford to the left. Instead, they vaulted over the stone wall lining the road, and raced into the darkness of the fields opposite the house.
‘Go!’ Peregrine snapped, shoving Luke toward the door.
Everything seemed to move slower the more Luke was compelled to go faster. He was cursing bitterly and chastising himself for having made a foolish error as he raced down the stairs. What he knew he shouldn’t have done was leave Rosemary alone in the house, which is why Roger had told them to get men on watch inside the property.
‘We were sodding distracted by the arsonist,’ Luke snarled as he vaulted into his saddle.
‘He must have gotten into the house through the front door while the arsonist was setting fire to the back door.’
‘Well, it is to be expected that Rosemary would flee the building through the front door when she realised that the back door was alight, or too smoky for her to see properly,’ Luke retorted.
‘She would walk straight into her kidnapper’s waiting arms,’ Peregrine grunted. ‘Well, they can’t have gotten that far away.’
‘I don’t know this bloody area,’ Luke snapped. ‘Which way would he go? As far as I can remember, there is nothing but miles and miles of empty fields for miles around. They could have gone anywhere. Anything could happen to her. Rosemary is alone with him.’
Luke tried to control his growing panic, but it was suffocating him. It robbed him of common sense and logic. All he could focus on was what misery he would face if he couldn’t find her. Contrarily, it that turned his panic into determination, but it was confusingly contrasting with a gnawing sense of fear that it was already too late to find her. Desperate not to lose her, Luke urged his horse to go faster until the world whipped past him at a breakneck pace. Deep inside, a warning voice told him to slow down, that it would do him no good if his horse fell and broke its leg, but Luke didn’t have a moment to lose. Each minute that Rosemary was with her captor was a minute in w
hich she could die.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Rosemary clung to the saddle for dear life. She stared down at her bound hands. There was nothing she could do to release herself because even if she wanted to bite through the thin rope around her wrists, the gag in her mouth prevented it. When she looked over her shoulder at the rapidly retreating house she was leaving behind, panic threatened to overwhelm her. Rosemary knew that if she lost sight of the house, she might never find it again.
I might never see Luke again.
That thought hurt more than the possibility of never seeing the house. She had no idea if he even knew that she had gone yet, or how long it would be before he realised that she couldn’t come out of the house because she was no longer there. While she didn’t doubt that he would do everything to find her, there was no possibility he could even find out which way Morton had taken her.
He couldn’t see her, but Rosemary glared hatefully at Morton’s back. He was hunched low over his saddle, urging his already galloping horse to run faster. Rosemary cried out when her horse stumbled and nearly pitched her into the dirt. Morton glanced over his shoulder but once he saw that she was still mounted, kicked his animal to run faster. Rosemary closed her eyes and prayed that she wouldn’t die. All sorts of thoughts slammed through her but she daren’t contemplate any of them too much because the fear of what might happen to her left her helpless to fight off the terror. She glanced at the ground and wondered if death would be an easier way out of her situation, but something deep inside of her refused to even contemplate that. She wasn’t going to allow Morton to ruin any chance she had of a future with Luke.
I love him.
Rosemary knew it was true. She did, deep in her heart, know that Luke was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, to grow old with, to have children with. It had nothing to do with his kindness and generosity, or his work with the Star Elite, but because of him, the man. From the day she had first met him in the market in town, there hadn’t been a waking moment when she hadn’t thought of him, wondered about him, smiled at the memory of something he had said or done, or thought lovingly of the way his eyes twinkled when he laughed, or wondered over the way that small dimples blinked besides his mouth whenever he smiled. Tears gathered on her lashes when Rosemary contemplated that she might never see him again. A well of pain and hurt began to create an ache in her chest that was so very real she wondered if there was something physically wrong with her. But Rosemary knew there wasn’t because what she was experiencing had been brought about by Morton. He hadn’t just contented himself with shoving a hood over her head and slamming an arm over her mouth as he had dragged her by the neck out of the house. He had threatened her at gunpoint that if she tried to scream or escape, he would kill her. Consequently, Rosemary had been helpless to prevent herself being dragged out of the house with him.
