by Rebecca King
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Unfortunately, the gun battle with Rointon resumed and delayed them leaving the cottage for several hours. It was only when sunlight had broken over the horizon that the men outside could see just how many lay dead or dying in the fields beside the house. Whether they retreated to regroup, prepare to attack again, or because they needed more ammunition didn’t matter. The Star Elite knew that it was time to move.
Once Rointon’s men were no longer visible and the woods became still and silent once more, the Star Elite closed the cottage down. Shutters were barred. Fires were raked. The food was put into saddle bags. Maud and Ruth’s possessions were strapped to the back of several horses which had been hidden in the village yesterday. Once everyone was ready to leave, Al broke the news that he suspected the women wouldn’t be happy about.
“I am afraid that we have to split up. We could ride together but would be too visible and wouldn’t be able to escape if we were ambushed. It is safer if we ride at speed in smaller groups and all set off in different directions. That way, Rointon won’t be able to follow all of us. If he splits his men up to follow each group there will then be fewer men to attack us. Just keep your cloaks tugged up and hang on if you need to try to outrun them. Let the men lead the horses, ladies. That way, if they need to urge the horses into a canter, all you have to concern yourselves with is staying on the horses. Understand?” When the women nodded, Al looked at Mark. “You are going with Duncan, lad.”
Maud looked worried but nodded. Her face was grim when she hauled Mark into a hug. Mark was clearly scared witless, but bravely squared his shoulders and followed Duncan outside.
Al wasted no time helping Maud into a saddle while Duncan led Mark over to another horse.
“Stay close to her, and make sure she doesn’t fall behind,” Al muttered to Jarvis, who was going to ride with them.
Mark, who was used to riding bareback, vaulted into the saddle, and picked up the reins before guiding his horse over to Duncan’s.
After what he had seen the lad do overnight, Al had no qualms about handing Mark one of his pistols. “Use it if you need to. You are not looking to kill any of them, just warn them that you are armed. Stay close to the others.”
Ruth stood shivering on the doorstep as she watched the small group of people ride away. Maud and Mark were bracketed by Duncan, Jarvis. Evan, Gregory, and Reuben, helped Morgan climb awkwardly onto his horse and set off in a different direction. They were going to escort him to the safe house using the shortest route so that Morgan didn’t have to stay in the saddle any longer than he absolutely had to. Ruth, Elias, and Al were all going to take the longest route. Ruth eyed the huge beast of a horse she was supposed to climb onto and looked at Elias with terror in her eyes. She hadn’t expected the horse she was supposed to ride to be that big. Now that she was faced with the prospect of having to climb onto it she had no idea if she could.
“Yoo-hoo. I say, yoo-hoo. Ruth! Ruth!”
“Oh, no,” Ruth moaned.
“Do you know her?” Elias asked, turning to look at the elderly woman who was marching determinedly toward them. Despite it being snowy and icy, she moved nimbly through the snow with a speed that was startling. Elias lifted a brow at Ruth. “Who is she?”
“Trouble,” Ruth muttered in disgust.
She wasn’t at all sorry that she was prevented from having to clamber onto the horse for a few more minutes but, after the largely sleepless night she had just endured, dealing with the arrogant old woman was the last thing she needed. But given the determination on Mrs Howell’s face, Ruth knew that she was going to have to speak with the woman anyway.
“Did you take that note to my friend?” Mrs Howell began without even bothering with the social niceties of finding out if Ruth was all right.
Elias squinted at the older woman who didn’t even bother to look at him. She was too busy glaring at Ruth as if she had committed some sort of cardinal sin.
“No, I didn’t get there. Like I told you at the time, it was snowing quite heavily, and your message was not urgent. I am sure that you are able to get up that hill now, though, if you want to go and see her.”
“Well, I could have done that the other night,” Mrs Howell snapped.
“As I told you that you should,” Ruth replied coldly.
“But I asked you to go. If you had told me that you weren’t going to do it, I would have asked someone more reliable,” Mrs Howell snorted.
Ruth’s gaze fell to the folded piece of notepaper in the older woman’s hand and knew what Mrs Howell wanted. This time, though, Ruth was angry and not about to be bullied mostly because the men from the Star Elite were with her.
I have nothing to fear. Not now. Not after last night.
Elias squinted at the elderly woman and felt his temper stir. Her rudeness was accompanied by a mean expression on her face that irked him. It was clear that she was angry, but only because Ruth hadn’t done a favour for her. Without knowing the true circumstances, Elias couldn’t really form an opinion on the matter, but he was annoyed that the woman spoke to Ruth so rudely. Given the looks on his colleagues’ faces, they all felt the same way and, rather than ride out, Morgan, Evan, Gregory, and Reuben, stopped to watch the interplay.
“I am sorry, but you are?” Elias interrupted.
The woman raked him with a condemnatory look. “I could ask you the same question.”
“I work for the Star Elite, madam,” Elias announced coldly. “Or have you not heard the gunfire last night?”
“I heard noises,” Mrs Howell muttered awkwardly.
Elias knew from the way the woman looked at each man’s gun that she had indeed heard the gunfire. What he couldn’t decide was whether she was truly annoyed with Ruth for not climbing the hill to deliver the message in the middle of a blizzard, or if she wanted to find out what had happened last night.
But the woman’s lack of concern for Ruth and Maud says everything about her genuine interest in their welfare.
“Well, you should know that the highwaymen are in the area. It is not safe for any woman to be wandering the street at present, even to deliver messages. Journeys should be undertaken only when absolutely necessary, and certainly not in the middle of a blizzard.” Elias glared pointedly at the woman, but Mrs Howell flushed with indignation and squared her shoulders. When she spoke next, she addressed Ruth having clearly decided to ignore him.
“I should have expected nothing else from you,” Mrs Howell spat, raking Ruth with an insulting look.
“Oh?” Ruth lifted one brow and stared coldly at the older woman. “I don’t believe that I gave you permission to demand my time, Mrs Howell. What I have done for people in this village should in no way have given any of you the mistaken belief that you can summon me like a servant and be so rude about it. I have done what I can to help people, but I am certainly not going to traipse through a blizzard to deliver a note to a woman who has neighbours who help her if there is a problem just to appease you when you are perfectly capable of going up there yourself. I did tell you at the time, but you were so busy trying to force your will onto me that you refused to listen, and quite rudely ignored me because you chose to. Now, if you don’t mind, I wish you good luck in finding someone else to carry your messages from now on, and fetch your groceries from the village, and your post from the posting office, and arrange with the farmer to deliver your wood, and help you with your garden in the summer to name but a few of the things that I have done for you and others in the village over the past year. But, seeing how ungrateful you are, I shan’t bother from now on. I am sure you shall miss me far more than I shall miss you.”
Mrs Howell positively trembled with outrage. “If you weren’t happy to do it you should have said.”
“I have tried, Mrs Howell, but you never seem to listen because it has been convenient to you to ignore me,” Ruth replied dryly. “I would advise you to pay attention to what the Star Elite are saying now, though. It isn’t wise for you t
o be out here because the highwaymen are in the woods and were shooting at the houses last night. They appear to be looking for someone. I don’t doubt they will be back. Go home before they return.”
Ruth turned her back when Mrs Howell opened her mouth and hoped the woman would get the message. She didn’t. “What have you done? Why are you going with them?” Mrs Howell demanded. This time, she did turn her attention to the Star Elite.
“Why would she have to have done anything?” Reuben challenged. “She has just told you that the highwaymen were in the trees last night. Her house was the closest to their gunfire. Have you not seen the damage?” He pointed one long finger at the holes in the wall that were clearly visible. “Neither her nor her aunt are safe in the property anymore, so are coming for us. It is good of you to be so kind about their welfare.” His sarcastic tone wasn’t lost on the older woman, but she lost none of her belligerence.
“What are you going to do about them?” Mrs Howell demanded. “You can’t just leave gunmen running around the village and expect ordinary, decent folk to remain locked up like common prisoners. Why does she have to have protection while the rest of us don’t, that is what I should like to know?”
Elias rounded on her. When he spoke, he leaned forward until he was almost nose-to-nose with the spiteful older woman. “Because she works with the Star Elite now. She is helping us with our investigation, but given that her situation has been compromised, she can no longer stay here. You have made full use of her kindness and generosity over the last several months but are quite clearly undeserving of her help. Don’t you dare think you can speak to her as if she were nothing more than a common servant. Ruth is a member of the Star Elite, and now has other things to do elsewhere. Find yourself another unpaid servant or start to do your own errands. From what I can see of you already you clearly have plenty of time on your hands. Now, go home and stay there, or take your message to your friend yourself.”
The Star Elite watched the older woman study each of them closely as if trying to decide if Elias was telling the truth about who they were. Ruth busied herself with tugging on her gloves and didn’t give the woman even a cursory glance before she turned her back.
“Here, let me help you,” Elias offered gently, helping Ruth into the saddle of the horse she was going to share with him. Mrs Howell was dismissed. “Now ease yourself forward.”
“Pardon?”
Elias showed her what to do before vaulting into the saddle behind her. Ruth’s cheeks turned florid when Elias swept long arms around her and tugged her closer before smiling down at her. His tone was soft when he said: “Hold on.”
Ruth awkwardly slid both arms around his lean waist and clung to him as he guided the horse out of the garden and down the narrow path leading around the outside of the house. Once they were on the street, he turned the horse toward the trees. By the time they reached the track leading through the woodland, Mrs Howell was stomping home, still clutching her undelivered note, and clearly put out at being so effectively dismissed.
“God, what an odious creature she is. Why on earth have you agreed to help the likes of her? What an ungrateful wretch.” Reuben growled.
Ruth scrunched her nose up and pulled a face. “It all started when I delivered a letter for a poorly neighbour while he was ill. I then fetched her a couple of groceries. Then someone else wanted shopping fetching while I was in the village. But then people started to demand more and more of my time and made it impossible for me to stop them. Each time I went into the village, someone wanted me to pick things up for them, or do chores for them, or pop into a shop for them. It seemed churlish to refuse them seeing as they are elderly, and I was doing my own shopping or posting my own letters.”
“Can they get about by themselves?” Al asked, lifting a hand in farewell to the rest of the men before they set out in the opposite direction.
“Well, yes,” Ruth edged.
“Then it wouldn’t have been churlish to refuse them,” Al smiled. “With people like her, you have to be selfish. She won’t look after you in return. No matter what she wants, thinks, says, or calls you, it is right that you should stop her leeching off you. It isn’t your job to run her life. She must run her own. If she cannot do things herself then she must understand that they won’t get done. You are not her maid. She shouldn’t feel able to speak to you like that. She clearly doesn’t have any respect for you, so don’t care about her. Feel sorry for her, but don’t let her control your life. The only person who should control your life is you.”
“You don’t plan to return to the cottage, do you?” Elias muttered aware of how distressed Ruth now looked. Further, that she was shaking from head to foot, and he suspected it wasn’t because she was on the horse.
“We were going to leave before I found out what Rointon was going to do to you,” Ruth admitted, studying the retreating house over Elias’s shoulder. She wasn’t sorry to see the back of it now. “Now, we are going to have to move home a little faster.”
“The Star Elite will help you relocate,” Al assured her, smiling at Elias. “You saved two of our operatives last night. We owe you. You not only put your life in danger but rendered your home no longer safe to live in to help us. While we don’t have any doubt that we will arrest the highwaymen in time, there will be some in the village who will be angry that their loved ones or friends have been put behind bars where they belong. They may target you if you returned there. Because of it, we will need to move you out of the area.”
“How far?”
“However far you need to go to feel safe,” Elias replied. “It isn’t just the highwaymen but their friends we need to worry about once the highwaymen are behind bars. Their loved ones, wives, brothers, sisters, cousins, especially in the village, will hate you despite their relatives being criminals who deserve to be behind bars. So, we must look after you and relocate you somewhere that is safer. If you are happy to move several miles away, it wouldn’t hurt to move, say, to the opposite side of Mivverford.”
Al fought a smile because he knew that was where Elias lived. While the village’s name hadn’t been mentioned, Al threw Elias a wry grin and watched his friend’s smile widen. Moving Ruth closer to his house, if not in it, was indeed something that Elias was seriously going to contemplate. If he was honest, Al was a little worried at the speed in which Elias had become emotionally attached to the woman before him but then he hadn’t been rescued by her and had no real idea of what they had battled through.
Because he knew that their time together was going to be restricted in the safe house, Al decided to give them a little time alone together, mostly because he wanted his friend to make the right decision based on attraction and not responsibility or gratitude.
“I am going to scout the area. I will be back soon,” he announced before disappearing.
“Where did he go?” Ruth demanded when Al suddenly turned his horse into the trees and vanished.
“He is back there somewhere. He will look for trails and watch us from a distance to make sure that nobody is following us,” Elias replied with an off-hand shrug.
Ruth studied the way Elias constantly scanned their surroundings. She wondered what he would do if the highwaymen appeared in front of them but decided it was probably better that she didn’t know. The thought of a shoot-out with the highwaymen in broad daylight was simply horrible - but it happened anyway.
CHAPTER TWELVE
They were on the edge of the woodland several miles away from Riddlewood, and able to see Mivverford on the horizon, when Elias suddenly tensed.
“It’s them, isn’t it?” Ruth whispered without needing to look.
Elias pointed to a group of riders thundering across a field. “The Star Elite would never ride huddled together like that.”
Ruth shivered when she saw that the men were riding toward them. “What do we do?”
Elias tipped his head back and emitted an owl-like hoot that was loud enough to make Ruth’s ears ring. Within secon
ds, a hoot replied.
“Come on, let’s move back into the trees,” Elias murmured.
“Do we wait for them to pass us? What do we do?” Ruth tried not to panic.
“We can’t leave the trees. They will intercept us if we become visible,” Elias warned. He backed his horse up rather than turned it around until they were out of sight of the riders.
“Elias.”
“Get down,” Elias urged quietly but firmly.
“What? Are you out of your mind?” Ruth gasped, shocked that he would leave her so vulnerable with the highwaymen bearing down on them.
“Hold the horse,” Elias urged, nudging her off the horse with an urgency that was scary.
Ruth slid to the ground and dumbly took the reins off him. “What are you going to do?”
Elias removed his guns, checked them both for shot, and showed her how to hold the horse tightly. “We are going to stop them following us. Hold the horse. He will flinch at the first shot. After that, he should settle because he is used to the noise.”
Because she looked terrified, Elias smiled and decided to distract her by placing a very thorough kiss onto her lips before he turned to leave.
“Where are they?” Ruth whispered when he tipped his head to peer around a tree.
“Coming toward us.” Elias winked at her. “Stay here.”
Before she could object, Elias left. He followed Al back to the treeline. Together, they watched the riders jump over the low stone wall on the opposite side of the field.
“They are heading to the path through the woods,” Al warned.
“We are going to have to move out of the area quickly once they have been hit,” Elias muttered.
“Just focus on getting her back to the safe house, I can distract any survivors,” Al replied before settling down to choose his first target.
With eight highwaymen in clear view, one of which was Lucius Rointon, the men from the Star Elite had no qualms about opening fire.
