The Lover Switch (The Star Elite's Highwaymen Investigation Book 4)

by Rebecca King

  Morgan lowered his gun and demanded: “Who are you? How did you find me?”

  Ruth looked at the tracks she had made. “I am trying to make sure that we cannot be followed.” It was when she looked at her tracks, and the surrounding area, that she saw a body lying motionless in the snow several feet away surrounded in a steadily increasing pool of darkness.

  “It is the man they sent to execute me,” Morgan informed her. “Where is Elias? My colleague? Have you seen him?” Morgan had no idea who the Hell this woman was, but he was bloody glad that she was there. She had appeared as silent as a ghost before him so unexpectedly that he had wondered if he was hallucinating when he first saw her.

  “He is safe. He is just through the trees. Do you think you can walk?” She studied the patch of red in the snow beside him and knew that he had been shot.

  Morgan shook his head. He had spent the last hour contemplating everything he was going to lose if he gave in to the icy cold that was biting at him and surrendered to the urge to lie down and sleep. He knew what it all meant. Death was waiting to claim him. His deepest regret was that he wasn’t going to have a lifetime to spend with Lucy, the woman he knew now that he absolutely adored. Lucy, in the short time that he had known her, had become the centre of his world. Just the thought of her had kept him alive.

  “Tell her I love her. Lucy. Tell her,” he whispered when he felt the darkness settle like a shroud over his head. He knew that death was waiting to lower that black shroud over him and felt his heart start to skip and stutter. Deep in his gut, a strange certainty began to warn him that he didn’t have long. It was his time. He had to sleep.

  “I can’t do this,” he murmured suddenly, doing his best to ward the darkness off. “I can’t.”

  “You have to come with me,” Ruth bit out, stepping forward and dropping to her knees beside him. “You can tell Lucy all of this yourself. Don’t you dare give up.”

  Morgan blinked at her but couldn’t summon the energy to argue. He had slowly felt his life fade just like the warmth had seeped from his side. Even now, when he tried to focus on what was being said, it took far more effort that it should.

  “I am going to die,” he announced as if Ruth wasn’t already aware of it.

  “Let’s go,” Ruth snapped. Because Morgan didn’t move, she snatched off his cravat and shook it out before tearing a long strip of material off her skirt. When she had tied them both together, she ordered him to lift his shirt up.

  The sight of his wound made her empty stomach heave, but Ruth forced herself to tie the strip of material around him as tightly as she could. By the time she had finished her hands were covered in his blood, but she did nothing more than wipe them in the snow despite the ice that bit cruelly into her flesh. Wedging a shoulder under his arm like she had seen Mark do with Elias, Ruth used all her strength to help Morgan shuffle and wriggle awkwardly upright. He wavered once he was standing and cursed bitterly when his body was reluctant to do anything that he asked of it but he clung to this stranger through sheer determination and the need to survive.

  Ruth mentally calculated how long it was going to take them to get to Elias, and the fact that they were going toward the highwaymen and not away from them. If the highwaymen saw Elias, or Morgan, nobody was going to escape with their lives. Neither man was in any state to survive a race across the countryside. They were as a good as sitting targets if they were seen. With this in mind Ruth steered Morgan away from the fields and roads and deeper into the woods. She forced him to walk even when he stumbled and pleaded with her to allow him to sit for a few minutes.

  “You are going to keep going,” Ruth growled through gritted teeth. “You can stop when we get to where we are going but not before.”

  “You are bossy, do you know that?” Morgan grumbled.

  “Who is she?” Ruth whispered. “This Lucy.”

  “Lucy is my future wife,” Morgan murmured, his tone soft. She rose like a vision in his mind’s eye. Immediately, he straightened and found the strength to put one foot in front of the other.

  “Then fight for her. We are nearly there.” Ruth’s brow was beaded with sweat by the time they reached the edge of the woods. It was the very last place she wanted to be, especially because Elias and Mark were on the opposite side of the woods, but she had to get Morgan to her aunt. Maud would know what to do to help him, she was sure of it.

  “Where are we going?” Morgan asked as he looked up and saw a small cottage overlooking the village. He sighed with weary defeat and felt himself start to fall.

  “Just in here,” Ruth gasped, forcing him to stay upright. “Keep going. We only have a few more steps. We are nearly there.”

  Morgan used the last of his strength to stumble to the house. Ruth shoved the back door open with one hand while she forcibly propelled the half-conscious man into the kitchen. For once, she was relieved that neither she nor Maud habitually locked the door.

  “Thank God,” Morgan whispered once they stepped into the warm kitchen, but the woman refused to allow him to stop. Instead, she propelled, poked, prodded, and bullied him through the house and into a bed chamber at the front of the house.

  “Maud!” Ruth called even though they made so much noise, Maud stumbled out of her bed chamber to find out what all the ruckus was about.

  “What are you doing?” she shrieked at Ruth when she saw Morgan. “Who is he?”

  “He is one of the Star Elite,” Ruth gasped. “He has been shot and needs help.”

  Thankfully, they had reached the bed. Ruth released her hold on Morgan and watched him lower himself gingerly onto the crisp white sheets.

  “Are you sure?” Maud blinked at her with wide eyes, but ventured deeper into the room so she could study him. When it was clear that Morgan was unable to even remove his jacket, Maud began to help him. “Where did you find him?” she asked Ruth even though Morgan was perfectly capable of answering the question himself.

  “In the woods. His friend is out there too. I need to go and find him. He needs help too, Maud. This house is the only place they can be safe. The highwaymen have tried to execute them tonight.”

  “The highwaymen did this?” Maud looked horrified and slammed her fists over her mouth to stifle her cry when Ruth nodded.

  Ruth’s gaze turned pleading. “We can’t let them die. They work for the War Office. Just help him, Maud. I won’t be long.”

  “You can’t go back out there,” Maud cried in horror. She clung to Ruth’s arm and held her in place when Ruth tried to leave. “You can’t. They will kill you too if they catch you.”

  “I have to go,” Ruth replied. “They tried to murder his friend too, Maud. Mark is out there as well. He helped me save them. He is in danger as well. Do you remember Mark?”

  “The young lad from the farm across the village?”

  “Yes. He has been dragged into what the highwaymen have been doing but chose to help me when he heard that they were planning to kill them. Rointon wanted the ability to murder one of the Star Elite as a warning to the War Office to stop investigating him. Tonight, Rointon nearly murdered Morgan and his friend.” Ruth pointed to the man on the bed who was listening intently to every word. “His friend - Elias - is still in the woods but needs to come here so he is out of sight too. They have drugged him, Maud, and were planning to execute him too.”

  “Go and get him,” Maud bit out grimly. “Hurry, but make sure that nobody sees you or is able to follow you back here.”

  “I have my gun,” Morgan whispered. “Go. I will keep her safe.” He would have sounded convincing had his voice not been faint and laced with pain.

  Ruth threw a worried look at him but left Maud to hurriedly slam the shutters and curtains closed and help settle him into bed before tending to his wounds.

  When she stepped outside the cottage, Ruth began to slide her feet through the footprints she and Morgan had just made. It was a daunting task to work her way steadily through the snow to try to obliterate her trail. But w
hen she stopped several minutes later, and looked back at what she had done, even she could still see the trail of blood. The highwaymen would be able to find the cottage without any hinderance if they chose to search the area.

  “We are done for,” she breathed in horror when she studied the route to the house that was still sprinkled with red splashes that were still visible amidst the white snow.

  “Not yet,” Mark replied from several feet behind her.

  Ruth gasped and whirled to face him.

  He grinned at her and held his hand out palm upward to catch a few of the snowflakes in the air. “Look.” He pointed at the rolling landscape that stretched out for miles behind the cottage.

  Tonight, none of the landscape was visible. It had been obliterated by low lying clouds that were rolling steadily closer by the minute.

  “I hope that is snow,” Ruth murmured fervently. “Another blizzard. A thick and very heavy blizzard.”

  Mark nodded sagely. “The highwaymen have raced off in the direction of Mivverford. By the time they realise that they have lost both of their victims, the snow will have covered our tracks.”

  “I hope so,” Ruth whispered before demanding: “Where is he?”

  Elias stepped silently out of the trees. At first, he was nothing more than a dark shadow, but as he edged closer, he became more defined. He had listened to every word and realised then just how much Mark and Ruth had both done for him and Morgan. He also knew just how much danger everyone was now in, and that it was down to him and Morgan to keep them alive.

  “Where is he?” Elias asked, wondering how badly Morgan had been injured.

  Ruth pointed to the cottage but looked at Mark. “If you are happy to stay out here for a bit longer, we have to cover these tracks a bit more. While I hope those clouds contain a blizzard, we can’t assume that there will be enough snowfall to protect us.”

  “We can get the footprints joined up with those leading from main road. If we dislodge the snow all the way up to the main road the highwaymen won’t have any idea where we have gone. Hopefully, by the time they come this way the fresh snowfall will have covered everything over that we can’t get to,” Mark replied.

  “You have to stay with us when we have finished,” Ruth announced. “You can’t go home. Bob will come after you seeing as you were seen in the stable yard. He will think it suspicious that you have disappeared at the same time as their victims. The highwaymen will undoubtedly call at your mother’s farm to find you. I hope that they leave her alone when she tells them that you haven’t been back there.”

  “My mother won’t tell them anything because she hates Bob, and Rointon. I doubt she would even talk to them,” Mark replied. “She threatened to shoot Bob the last time he turned up at the farm.”

  “Is that why you met with him in the storage yard?” Ruth asked. “He can’t go to your farm because your mother hates him.”

  Mark nodded. “She will be mad at me for being stupid enough to run errands for them. I didn’t steal from anybody or kill anyone.”

  “You just passed messages between them?” Ruth wasn’t sure why they were having this conversation on the street.

  “You will have the protection of the Star Elite, Mark, as will your family,” Elias assured him. “For now, we have to get out of this weather and off the street.”

  “We have work to do,” Ruth contradicted but before she turned to leave, looked askance at Elias. It was evident that he wasn’t in any position to enter the house without her help. Besides, Maud would just shoot him if he appeared in the doorway. “I will introduce you to my aunt.” She looked at Mark. “You had better come too.”

  By the time they reached the cottage, snow had started to fall heavily around them. It came with a howling wind which appeared within minutes and tugged at their clothing as if warning them to make their way home before the worst of the snowfall engulfed them.

  “It’s only me,” Ruth called when she stepped into the house for the second time that evening. She ushered Mark in before her. “Get your coat and boots off,” she ordered gently.

  Maud hurried into the hallway. She did nothing more than tut and sigh with relief when she saw all of them standing in her kitchen. She then rushed across the kitchen and engulfed Mark in a huge hug. “Your mother is going to be so proud of you,” she breathed tearfully.

  Mark, acutely embarrassed, looked guiltily at her. “Not when she hears about everything I have been doing.”

  “He has been running errands for the highwaymen because of Bob,” Ruth warned before nodding toward the door leading to the bed chambers at the front of the house. “How is he?”

  Maud hurried to the dresser and removed several items from it before slamming the drawer closed. It was then that she saw Elias looking down the hall.

  “The name is Elias, ma’am,” he murmured politely to her. “I understand that you have my friend here. Might I go and see him?”

  Maud wasn’t sure if she should be annoyed with him or not. While she would have preferred it if they hadn’t dragged her and Ruth into their investigation, it was too late now. The Star Elite were under her roof and there was nothing she could do about it, especially because it was clear that they both needed help.

  Mark looked at Ruth. “Do you want me to go and fetch the magistrate, or the doctor?”

  “You have to stay here,” Ruth ordered. “You can’t go out there. With the snowfall, it will be impossible for you to get back even if you could reach town.”

  Maud nodded and hurried off to her bed chamber without answering Elias. As far as she was concerned, he was Ruth’s problem to deal with.

  Elias lingered beside the back door long enough to slide the bolt across, and then followed Ruth’s aunt through the house. He almost wept with relief when he stepped into the bed chamber doorway moments later and saw a wounded but lucid Morgan lying on the bed. For a moment, he couldn’t speak. Memories of the last two hours flooded through him and left him pale and shaken to the point that when he did stumble through the door it was on shaking legs.

  Morgan jerked awake when he sensed movement in the doorway and immediately reached for his gun. “Jesus, Elias,” he growled, slumping with relief when he saw his friend. “I damned well nearly shot you.”

  Thankfully, Maud had removed the bullet, and had mopped him up, so moving wasn’t as painful as it had been when he had been walking to the cottage. Morgan managed to sit upright but studied his friend with concern. Elias looked so ill that Morgan wondered if he was about to fall over.

  “Don’t do that to me again,” Elias ordered before hauling his friend into a bear hug. “They damned well nearly executed you.”

  “I was a bit slow ducking out of the way,” Morgan breathed, clapping his friend heartily on the back.

  “I will get you both some food,” Maud mumbled before hurrying out of the room.

  When she had gone, the men from the Star Elite looked at each other. For a moment, neither of them said anything. They knew they had come close to losing their lives. There was nothing either of them could say to that.

  “What do we do?” Morgan breathed moments later. “If we stay here, they are in as much danger as we are.”

  “They are already in danger. The young lad has been helping them. When they realise that he has turned traitor on them they will kill him, and the women. We have to stay and protect them,” Elias whispered although how he was going to do that when all he wanted to do was fall asleep was beyond him. “Hopefully, the blizzard will stop Rointon and his mob from coming after us for a few hours. They were heading to Mivverford the last time we saw them. I hope the weather keeps them away for a day or so. We need a few hours to rest. Hopefully, by the time the weather clears, we will both be strong enough to fight them off if they do venture this way.”

  Morgan lay back against the pillow and stared blankly at the ceiling.

  “What happened?” Elias whispered after several moments of companionable silence. “They drugged my rum. I
can remember that much. I think it was Laudanum. I know they hit you over the head but by then the Laudanum had a hold of me and I couldn’t fight them off. I watched them drag you out of sight but couldn’t do a damned thing to stop them.”

  “I woke up in a stable,” Morgan replied. “They hit me on the head just as soon as you were dragged up the stairs. One of the thugs threw a bucket of water over me to wake me up. The inn keeper was there. He returned to the tavern as soon as he saw that I was awake and left one of the highwaymen with me.”

  “Did you see who it was who shot you?” Elias asked.

  “I killed him. His body is still in the woods,” Morgan replied. “When they find him, and don’t find me, they will know what happened. The inn keeper told my killer to walk me far enough into the woods that I wouldn’t be found. I walked through the woods wondering if each step was going to be my last. All I could think was that I had not had the time or opportunity to make Lucy my wife. Do you know that? That was my deepest regret.”

  “You will now,” Elias promised.

  Morgan barely heard him. He was lost in recounting events while he could. “We walked and walked until the trees became too dense to carry on. I kept using a meandering route, so it was harder for my executioner to get a clear shot of me. When I saw a clearing ahead of me, I knew that he was going to use it and so used the trees as protection. We fought for the gun. He shot me as we wrestled, but I stabbed him with my knife and then shot him.”

  Elias cursed and ran a shaking hand down his face. “We were stupid to go in there by ourselves, but in our defence, I never once stopped to consider that every patron in that tavern was involved with the highwaymen. Apparently, the locals know it is the highwaymen’s meeting place still.”

  “How do you know that?” Morgan asked curiously.

  “Ruth and Mark told me. The highwaymen were having a meeting when we arrived. That’s what we walked in on. The main gang have a network of men willing to carry the stolen hoard to buyers up and down the country. They wanted us to see them because they had every intention of killing us,” Elias said.