Rescued By the Spy

by Laura A. Barnes

  “Get her out of here. I’ve got him,” Maxwell ordered.

  “Charles,” Raina tried to get his attention again.

  He stopped, looking over at her. She laid on the ground with her dress torn to shreds. Tears streaking down her face. Her hand clutching at her leg. She was injured. He dropped his hold on Shears and went to her side. Lifting her in his arms he turned back to Maxwell.

  “Go now,” he shouted.

  Charles left the garden with Raina in his arms. When he turned back around to Maxwell, it was to witness his friend finishing the pummeling on his enemy. When Shears tried to fight back, Maxwell stuck his knife into the man’s side. Maxwell stood back as the man dropped to the ground. Charles felt relief when Shears was to finally meet his end.

  But the relief was finished before it even began. Before Charles realized what was happening, Maxwell was set upon by Shears’s men who were not captured from earlier. They beat him senseless. They lifted Shears and carried him away. After they were done with Maxwell, they followed carrying him away too.

  Charles stepped forward to help his friend. Raina’s touch stopped him.

  “They will kill us.”

  “I must help him.”

  “We will rescue him, but now isn't the time. We are outnumbered.”

  Charles knew she spoke the truth. He must get her medical help and see to Ivy. He would figure out a rescue plan for his friend. Maxwell had shown his true colors tonight. While misguided, he came through for his friends. Now it was only right they come through for him.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  CHARLES SAT BY RAINA’S bed as she slept. He watched her as she dozed. The morning sun was peeking through the curtains. She slept in peace through most of the evening. The doctor gave her laudanum for her sprained leg. When he saw the handprints from Shears imprinted on her leg, it set him off in a rage. But with her gentle words, he calmed down. She was safe from danger and that is what mattered.

  The rest of England was safe from Shears too. Over the course of the evening, Shears’s cronies had been gathered up and locked away in the tower. Their families were to be stripped of their titles and lands. His resources were dried up. While he had made his escape, there were agents dispatched over the entire country looking for information on where he traveled next. There would be no safe refuge for him to hide. Thorn’s man Jake shipped out this morning looking for him. But Charles had knowledge on where he might go next.

  But for now, he was only concerned about his wife. They could finally put this nightmare behind them and move on with their lives. A life he planned to spoil her with. There wouldn't be a day that goes by she isn't loved by him.

  Raina drifted awake feeling groggy. Her eyelids were heavy, and her body did not want to move. She looked at Charles sitting in a chair watching her.

  “Are you drugging me now?” she attempted humor only to watch him frown.

  “Not by choice, my dear.”

  She tried to sit but needed his help.

  “Did you find him?”

  “No.”

  She sighed at this news. The man was forever a ghost. Here one minute, gone the next. Was there any stopping him?

  “We will find him.”

  “Maxwell?”

  “We think Shears is keeping him captured.”

  “We will get him.”

  “No, we will not. We will stay in bed until we are healed.”

  “Charles…”

  “No, it is final. I won’t put your life at risk any more. You are too valuable to me.”

  “But…”

  “No, Raina.”

  Raina did not argue, she realized it was pointless right now. She would wait for later when she was feeling better and could persuade him. She lifted the covers for him.

  “Will you at least join me?”

  Charles knew she was not done. She was only humoring him. Smiling he slid under the blankets with her, pulling her into his embrace. She sighed as his arms tightened around her. He was careful not to nudge her leg as he softly caressed her. Rolling her over, he leaned above her and gently kissed her lips.

  “I thought I lost you last night.”

  Raina reached up and brushed her hand across his cheek. She saw the fear in his eyes. She didn’t know how to reassure him. Life was this way. Unpredictable. She had learned that. It never goes the way you want it, then one day everything falls into place. Everything clicks. It was always changing, she learned you had to learn to change with it. Then everything would be fine. She could not take away his fears but embrace them. It was part of love. With love comes unwanted emotions sometimes. But she would never trade their love for anything.

  “I am here.” Her eyes spoke her unspoken thoughts to him. He recognized in her eyes the same fear, but their love would keep them safe.

  “Yes, you are.”

  They lay there through the morning lost in their own love. With soft kisses and touches they spent the day adrift in their feelings for one another. When she needed to rest, he held her in his arms offering her the comfort she needed. When she awoke, they made love again as their passions flared. Each of them giving the love the other needed. Love. Trust. Understanding.

  Epilogue

  LATE THE NEXT MORNING they made their way to Thorn and Ivy’s suite of rooms. Ivy was to be bedridden for the rest of her pregnancy. They visited with her, making sure she was well. They told her of their plans in finding their own place. While the ladies chatted about baby names, the men sat around the fire watching the women they love. Over the course of the last year they had suffered a lot. But in the end love had won for them.

  “I realize it is the elephant in the room, but how are you going to locate Maxwell?” Ivy asked.

  “Ivy, that man should be the least of your concerns. If not for him, you wouldn’t be at risk today.”

  Thorn’s comment silenced Ivy for all of two seconds, “Well?”

  Thorn growled his dislike at the concern Ivy felt for Maxwell. Damn that man. He still held his charm over her obviously.

  “One of his cohorts in the Tower has talked,” explained Charles.

  “Did you discover where he is going?” inquired Raina.

  “It appears he is delivering a shipment in Edinburgh.”

  “Do you believe this is where he is taking Maxwell?” asked Ivy.

  “Yes,” replied Charles.

  “So, we will wait for him there,” Raina stated.

  Thorn laughed, “I am glad to see you married a hard head like me, my friend.”

  This time it was Charles who growled, “No, we won’t.”

  Before Raina objected, Thorn took pity on his friend, “I have just the person who can infiltrate Shears’s ship and rescue Maxwell. I have already sent word. As soon as contact is made, we will rescue him. In the meantime, we will wait.”

  “What about Shears?” Raina asked

  “The person will finish Shears too. Within a few weeks, Shears will meet his maker,” Thorn explained.

  With that thought they felt a sense of relief the next few weeks would bring. Thorn and Ivy imagined the new addition to their family. Charles and Raina dreamed of their new life they were starting. Raina looked on at the glow of Ivy as she talked excitedly of her baby. She couldn’t wait for that to be her. To give Charles a child. When she glanced up, she caught him looking at her and smiling his charming smile which only meant one thing. Shaking her head at him in rebuke, in which his smile only grew larger. Charles had seen the expression Raina was getting in her eyes as she watched Ivy. He read her thoughts from the few spaces away. She was thinking of having a child. As he caught her eyes, he sent her the signal he was willing to try. When she blushed again, he knew she was thinking the same thing. Rising from the chair, he held his hand out to her. They made their goodbyes and swiftly left to return to their bedroom. They were newlyweds after all.

  …..

  He didn’t grasp how long he had been hanging from these chains. It seemed like an eternity, but he
perceived it only to be a few days. A few hazy days at that. How he got himself in this predicament was unknown to him. He only knew he betrayed his best friends to end up here. Here on this godforsaken hovel of a ship, chained to the walls. His wrists were raw from chafing against the metal chains. They were cut open with blood soaking along his arms. His body beaten and bruised from every angle. But it was not only his blood covering his body, he was covered with his enemy’s blood too. The only regret he had it wasn’t the blood of death. He learned he still lived, lived long enough to keep him prisoner on this poor excuse of a ship.

  Zane lifted his head to look around the hold. The pit of the ship was as disgusting as the rest of everything else Shears owned. Rats were crawling around biting at his ankles wanting something to fill their bellies, he kicked out at them. He watched as they scurried to the pile of rubbish in the corner. The walls lined with mildew from where the water seeped in through the bow of the ship, with water seeping through now. To think his dear friend Ivy was kept captive on this ship. How she endured the suffering he would never understand. While she was thrown overboard and left for dead, it was the best thing that ever happened to her. When he had found out what Shears had done to her, he remembered attacking him, only to be laughed upon. All along everybody had been pawns in Shears’s game of destruction.

  Leaning his head back against the wall he took stock of how he would escape. Laughing to himself, he realized he had gotten himself in way over his head. All for what? Praise, recognition from the Crown as a job well done. Since he attacked Shears intending to kill him, he knew he could not talk his way out of it this time. Every other time he had fooled Shears he was a double agent. At least he killed Gold Tooth, Shears’s big man. With him gone, he might fight his way off the ship.

  Hearing footsteps coming downstairs to the ship’s hold, he hung his head pretending to be unconscious. He listened to what sounded like four sets of feet. One had a lighter tread than the others, he couldn’t afford to peek without blowing his cover. He would just have to wait for them to show themselves.

  “Madam, you are not allowed down here?”

  “Why not, what are you hiding? Since you say you do not have my shipment, you must have cargo I might be interested in buying.”

  “Nothing is for sale here. Now you must leave. Captain Shears will contact you in a few days.”

  “I think not, I have been waiting for two full days as it is. I notice you have been docked here for longer.”

  “The Captain will be in touch soon.”

  “What of my shipment? What is your excuse this time? I’m thinking your Captain has proven false on his claims to provide me with the firearms for our cause.”

  “We have them Ma’am.”

  “Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, how I hate to be called Ma’am. It makes me sound so old. Am I old Ethan?”

  “No, Mac you are definitely not old.”

  She laughed, a soft husky laugh at that. Her voice touched Zane from across the hold. He wanted to catch a glance of her. Her wit and sarcasm were lost on Shears’s man, but not on him.

  “Over here Mac, looks like they got themselves a prisoner.” Another voice beckoned for her to come near him.

  He heard her walk softly across the planks to him. Maxwell could feel her eyes piercing his soul as she looked him over from head to toe. He could imagine her touch as if she was caressing every part of his body. He didn’t have to raise his head to sense her perusal. Who was this mystery woman? When she touched him, it took everything he had not to react to the power of her touch. All she did was trace her fingers across the raw openings of his wrist. While it should sting, it soothed. Maxwell let out a moan at her gentle touch, hoping she did not hear. But she did. Lifting a finger under his chin she raised his head. He met her eyes as his head rose, the darkest green eyes he had ever seen, gazed back at him. They appeared to read his mind as well as his soul. They searched for the answers, she already knew, but wanted him to admit to. He shuttered his gaze, rocked to the soul of her awareness. He didn’t have all the answers, and those he did they weren’t for her to discover.

  But it wasn’t only her touch and the gaze in her eyes which took his breath away. Her hair was a deep shade of red that hung to her waist. It was unusual for a woman to wear her hair down unless in the privacy of her own bedchamber. But she was not any lady, she was beyond bold. He noticed she was Scottish, she had an accent which slipped out every now and again. But there was no gown that hugged her body, but trousers molded to her legs, begging to be stripped out of. They shaped and hugged her derriere. But it was the blouse she wore, white cotton that teased open to display her breasts. They gleamed under the dark light the lanterns provided. Who was she?

  …..

  Look for Zane Maxwell’s story in the Summer 2018

  The End