If He’s Wicked

by Hannah Howell

  It had all started out so pleasantly. She had seen Julian and a younger man who looked a great deal like him laughing and slapping each other on the back in that strange way men did. Then everything had begun to grow dark. Shadows crept toward the house. There was blood splashed upon the outer wall of the stable. A young man slumped on the ground not moving. The shadows kept coming closer.

  Chloe could feel her heart pounding with fear but she kept forcing the memory of the dream to the forefront of her mind. The shadows burst into the house. They were big, and she sensed evil and anger. Knives flashed. Screams echoed in the halls. There was blood on the wall. One shadow kept moving toward a small bed and Chloe realized it was in the nursery.

  “Anthony,” she whispered in terror and leapt to her feet.

  As she ran to the nursery, she suddenly understood. The house was about to be attacked. There were armed men outside to protect them, but her dream had shown the shadows right in the house, killing and destroying everything they touched, so she could not be sure that the men guarding them would be enough to save them. Not knowing how much time she had to warn everyone, she banged on the bedchamber doors as she ran past them and yelled for everyone to gather in the front hall. By the time she reached the nursery, Dilys had a sleepy Anthony dressed and in her arms.

  “Heard your warning, miss,” Dilys said.

  “Good girl. Get him to the room in the wine cellar that Julian showed us. I will try to get everyone else rounded up and down there.” Chloe took a moment to kiss Anthony’s forehead and stroke his head.

  “Aye, miss,” Dilys said and ran for the stairs while Chloe resumed her search of the house.

  “Heavens, child,” said Lady Mildred as she stepped out of her bedchamber, her spectacles still perched on her nose. “What is all the noise?”

  “We all have to get to the room in the wine cellar,” she said. “Where are your daughters?”

  “Here, m’lady,” said Helena, the oldest of Mildred’s three daughters, the two younger ones huddled behind her.

  “Down into the hiding room. You remember how to get to it?”

  “Yes, m’lady.” Helena grasped her mother by the arm. “Come, Mama, we need to hurry.”

  “But I have not heard a sound.”

  “You will soon, Lady Mildred,” said Chloe. “If anyone is down in the front hall, make sure they understand that they must go with you.”

  “But do we not have men outside to guard us?”

  “Mildred, I think you better do as Chloe asks,” said Lady Evelyn as she stepped out of her room. “Are you sure we in the house are in danger?” she asked Chloe.

  “Aye, m’lady,” she replied. “The shadows came into the house. I went for Anthony first because a shadow was making its way to the nursery.”

  “He is safe now?”

  “Dilys took him right down there.”

  “What the bloody hell do you mean by this talk of shadows?” demanded Mildred.

  Chloe almost smiled at the way all three of Mildred’s daughters gasped and stared at their mother in shock. “Perhaps Lady Evelyn can explain. I have to make sure everyone is headed down to that room.”

  Lady Evelyn nodded. “I will explain it all to you, Mildred, as soon as we get into that room. Chloe?” she called over her shoulder.

  “Aye, m’lady?” Chloe answered absently as she peeked into each bedchamber.

  “Remember that you might have more than yourself to worry about now.”

  “Oh.” Chloe could not stop herself from putting her hand on her belly. “I will remember.”

  “Good. Then I shall see you soon.”

  Chloe marveled at how Lady Evelyn could make an order sound so polite as she watched the women go down the stairs. They paused only to pull Julian’s two sisters in with them. Chloe hurried back to checking the bedchambers and then rushed down the servants’ stairs. In the kitchen she found two kitchen maids huddled by the stove and shooed them down to the wine cellar.

  The girls argued that the cook had told them to stay in the kitchen, and just as Chloe was reminding them that she outranked the cook, shouting and a few shots sounded from outside. Chloe rushed to bar the kitchen door even as she ordered the girls to get into the wine cellar. This was going to be a very close call, she thought as she moved away from the door, and a moment later a shot shattered the glass in the window over the huge sink.

  “I do not understand, Evelyn,” said Mildred as they made their way down the stairs, servants in front and behind. “I hear nothing and I saw nothing. Everything is quiet out there. Why are we all rushing into that small dark room?”

  “Mildred, Chloe, well, knows things,” Evelyn tried to explain. “Can you not trust me when I say that if she believes we need to get into that little room, then we really need to get into that little room.”

  “Because Chloe knows things?”

  “She has the sight, Mama,” Helena said quietly and her two sisters nodded in agreement.

  “The sight? Where did you get that idea?” asked Mildred.

  Helena blushed a little. “Because I heard Julian and Lord Sir Leopold speaking of it. The earl believes in it,” she added quickly when she saw the doubt on her mother’s face.

  “There have always been rumors about such things concerning the Wherlockes and the Vaughns. That does not mean it is true.”

  At that moment two terrified scullery maids came running down the stairs, nearly knocking over the Kenwoods. There were muffled shouts of alarm and then the crash of glass breaking. Lady Evelyn grabbed the arm of one of the scullery maids and then had to lightly slap her to make her stop screaming.

  “Where is Lady Kenwood?” she demanded.

  “She was in the kitchen and told us to be coming down here right quick. Them men is shooting at us, m’lady. They shot right inta the window in the kitchen.”

  Lady Evelyn turned to start back up the stairs only to have Mildred grab her by the arm and hold her back. “I have to go find Chloe.”

  “This house is so huge it is easy to get lost, and you mean to search for her while men are shooting into the house? You will only get yourself shot,” Mildred said and pulled Evelyn along with her. “And while we are waiting for her to join us, you can explain this whole thing to me in a far clearer way than just saying Chloe knows things.”

  “Mildred, I am almost sure that she is with child.”

  Mildred stumbled a little but then straightened and kept on walking. “You will be of no help to her running around up there when you do not even know where she has gone. She is no tenderly raised child and she obviously has a very useful gift. She will find a place to hide if she cannot get down here before whoever those people are break in.” Mildred sighed. “I am sorry if I sound hard.”

  “No, practical, and that is what is needed. Searching for her now would be much akin to trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. I could not even call out for her, as that could bring their attention on me or her. So I will come along quietly.”

  Just as Lady Evelyn stepped into the crowded room and prepared to shut the door, a frantic Dilys pushed her way to the front. “You have to stay here, Dilys. Where is Anthony?”

  “I do not know, m’lady,” she choked out. “He was right with me and I set him on his feet just as people started to push in here and then he was just gone. I have to find him.”

  Mildred pushed a stunned Lady Evelyn farther into the room, blocked Dilys’s attempt to get out, and shut the door. “Now, we shall be calm and try to think of a sensible way to find that child and Lady Kenwood. Rushing out into the middle of a battle will just get one or both of you killed.”

  “Mildred, it is Anthony,” protested Lady Evelyn. “He is out there where there is shooting and men fighting, and—”

  “And he is a smaller target than either of you women. He is also a very clever little boy who has the wit to hide.” Several people murmured a hearty agreement and Mildred fleetingly wondered what that little devil had been up to. “W
e need a plan. No one is rushing out there to do anything unless they can give me a plan.”

  A lot of people started whispering to each other, but no one immediately stepped forward. Mildred stared at Evelyn’s tear-filled eyes and sighed. If none of these younger and stronger people came up with a plan or an offer to enact a good plan, then she and Evelyn would go together to find Anthony and Chloe. It would destroy Julian if he lost either of them even if he was being a blind fool and not seeing what was right in front of him. She nodded in response to Evelyn’s pleading look and saw her relax. Mildred just hoped someone came up with a plan, because she really did not wish to go out there even though she loved that little boy and was very fond of Chloe. She had also lost her spectacles on the stairs and her vision was not that keen.

  Chloe kept crouched low as she made her way toward the stairs down to the wine cellar. As far as she knew she had managed to herd everyone downstairs. Now it was time to herd herself down there.

  Just as she crawled in front of a linen closet she heard a whimper. Trying very hard to be quiet in case someone was already in the house, Chloe eased open the door. The wide, tear-drenched eyes of an ash-bucket girl stared back at her. The girl could not be much more than ten or she was very small for her age. Chloe realized she needed to meet all the servants and not just those who warranted the stature of being addressed by their last name.

  “Do you know who I am?” she asked in a whisper.

  The girl wiped her dripping nose on her sleeve and nodded. “You be the new lady, the one what married the earl.”

  “Good, then you know you should do as I say. Your name?”

  “Brindle.”

  “Do you know how to get down to the wine cellar?”

  “Aye, m’lady, but why would I be wanting to go there?”

  Obviously someone had neglected to tell the lowest-ranking servants that there was a place they could go to be safe. Chloe made a note to herself that she would find out why they were not told and then personally show every one of the lower servants the room. Since most of them were very young boys or girls, it made her angry that no one was looking out for them.

  “Because there is a room there to hide in with a door so heavy and thick even a bullet would not get through. Now, are you alone?”

  A dirty little face suddenly appeared over her shoulder. “I be here, too, m’lady.”

  “And you are?”

  “Drew, the boot boy, Mama,” said a voice by her shoulder that sent shards of icy fear into her heart.

  Julian immediately slowed his mount to a halt at one signal from Leo. “I think I heard a shot,” he protested but trusted Leo to know what he was doing. In truth, the other three men were far more experienced in such matters than he was, and he decided he would be wise to follow them no matter how much higher in social rank he was.

  “Aye, m’lord, you did that,” said Bened in a voice that would make one think they were talking about a bird’s call. “There is fighting up ahead.” He dismounted. “Be back in but a minute.”

  The man disappeared into the shadows of early evening so quickly it startled Julian. “Where is he going?”

  “To see what we are up against,” replied Nigel. “He has been trying to teach me how to move like that but I am not sure I will ever get the trick of it.”

  “He is good,” agreed Leo. “I think my cousin Owain might be better, though.”

  “How many bloody cousins do you have?” asked Julian.

  “I told you—”

  “I know—like rabbits.”

  Julian suddenly thought of the suspicions he had had about Chloe last night and his heart clenched. It was not only his wife down there but quite possibly his pregnant wife. His mother, his sisters, his cousins, his aunt, and his son, the son he had only just found. He could lose everything that mattered to him. Fear clutched like a vise around his chest.

  “Breathe, Julian,” snapped Nigel as he reached over and shook his older brother by the arm. “We will get them all out safely. They went to the room in the wine cellar. I am certain of it. Do you not recall how often Mother made us practice getting to that room from several different ways?”

  Before Julian could reply to his brother’s assurances, a sound made Nigel draw his pistol and turn, all the while keeping his mount steady. “Who is there?” Nigel demanded.

  About a dozen men crept out of the shadows, their hands held out where they could be seen. It took Julian a moment to see that Bened was standing behind them. He looked closer and sighed.

  “It is all right,” he told Bened. “They are not the ones attacking the house.”

  “Know that, m’lord,” said Bened. “Just wondering if they could be of use or would it be better to send them home.”

  “We came to help, m’lord,” said Jake as he stepped forward. “We heard the shots and then Kip, he is the fourth footman and my nephew, he came running saying that someone was attacking the house. We thought we could help. Some of us have pistols.”

  Julian did not know whether to laugh or cry. He was well aware of what a poor man’s pistol was like, usually some cast-off mended and mended again until the one firing was fortunate it did not blow up in his face. Yet, he was touched. After the way he had failed these men, they were here ready to fight for his family as he had never fought for theirs.

  “I think we will know better what we are about to do when Bened tells us what we are facing. Then we can actually make a plan that might help a few of us come out of this alive.”

  “You have twenty well-armed men down there, most of them still outside. Your men are putting up a good fight but I am thinking they were surprised, for a few are down and I do not think they will all rise again. At least three men have slipped inside already. I heard nothing to say they found anyone in there. By now you would have heard a woman scream, but there has been none of that. The men have encircled the house. A few of your men are on the roof and they are holding the men on the ground down so that they have to crawl if they want to move ahead. If you want to move ahead I can tell you the best place for a man to go, where to stop until I wave you on, and then you move again right up to the house.”

  “I have to move ahead, Bened. Except for Nigel, my whole family is in there including my son and my wife, who just may be carrying my child.”

  “Told you. Like rabbits.”

  Nigel snickered and Julian wondered how these men could be so calm, make jests, and even talk when this siege was going on. He supposed it was because of what they did. Nigel was a soldier and had been for almost ten years. Julian was not exactly sure what Leo did but he suspected the man’s work for the government was not all reports and gathering information. Bened was also a soldier, but he had the feeling the man was the embodiment of the stoic soldier.

  He, on the other hand, was an earl. It carried a lot of weight in the courts and in society, but in this situation it was next to worthless. The only thing he was sure of was that he had to get to his family and, he hoped his mother and sisters forgave him the thought, but right at that moment that was Chloe and Anthony.

  It was at that moment that Julian realized he loved Chloe. He also realized that he had never really loved Beatrice. He had been entranced, seduced, and bewitched, but never really in love. With Chloe it was love and he had no doubt about it, knew it with a certainty that had him wondering why he had taken so long to acknowledge the feeling. Now all he had to do was save Chloe so that he could tell her and, he prayed, pull the same emotion out of her.

  “You tell me what you think I, or we, should do, and I will do it.”

  Bened looked at Nigel, who just idly waved his hand indicating Bened should lead. When had his brother grown up, Julian wondered. When Nigel had first joined the military, he had been cocky and had thought that no one could know anything better than he did or do anything better than he did. He had obviously gained enough maturity to realize the error of his thinking. Shaking free of his straying thoughts and hammering down his emotions, he dism
ounted and listened to Bened’s plans with the others.

  Everything moved quickly after that and Julian soon found himself slipping through the shadows, his pistol in his hand and his heart in his throat. On one side of him crept Jake and on the other crept Nigel, a large intimidating knife in his hand that he seemed to know what to do with. He was obviously going to have to get to know his brother all over again.

  “There is where we are supposed to go,” whispered Nigel when he signaled to stop and wait for Bened’s signal before they went any farther. “Front door, straight in and then divide. You remember the directions for inside the house, Jake?”

  “Aye, sir. No need to tell me again, as I been in there.”

  Even in the dim light of a fading moon Julian could see the blush on the man’s face and knew just what Jake had been called to the house to do. He nearly growled, except that he was sure that sound would carry farther than the soft whispers they were using now. “I thought you had a family, a wife and children.”

  “I do, m’lord, and I sorely love my Tibby, but men what said nay ended up dead. My Tibby told me that she knew I was not wanting to go but she would rather me let that whore play with my jock a time or two than try to find what pit she put my bony arse into.”

  “Sounds like a wife to me,” said Nigel.

  “And, sad to say, it sounds like Beatrice to me. I am sorry, Jake, and tell your wife I beg her pardon for not stopping the woman long, long ago.”

  “My Tibby will be right pleased to think your lordship done begged her pardon. Of course, that will only be after she rips a strip off me with her tongue for telling you.”

  “Do not trouble yourself. I begin to suspect Beatrice used my lands as her own little stud farm.” He grimaced. “I still do not understand how I never saw it.”

  “Fair face like that hides a lot and the things she did, well, just hard to believe, is all. If it be any comfort, I made sure I was real bad at it and she never called on me again.”