by K. Young
On their third consecutive day of shopping, Kristen was rather bored with the whole affair. She understood the reason she had to go through the motions, but she still didn't want to. As they were leaving Mrs. Tisdale's shop again, a thug ran up behind Kristen and snatched her reticule. Not that Kristen kept anything of value in the stupid thing, but it was the principal of the matter. The thug took off running like a common thief who was about to be caught.
Mel put her hand on Kristen's arm to stay her. "You know perfectly well that his efforts are wasted as there is nothing of value in that bag. Do not ruin your reputation before it even begins."
Kristen sighed in exasperation, but rolled her shoulders in an effort to let it go. Her adrenaline had kicked in and, for the first time in days, she felt alive again. She didn't care for this city life. Mel's footman arrived, too later for Kristen's tastes, to see if they were injured. Mel assured him that they were fine, but he skirted around Kristen as the anger rolled off her in waves. Just before they climbed into the coach, there was a commotion across the street in the direction the thug had run off in. Kristen looked at Mel, pleading silently to take a look. Mel laughed and hooked her arm through Kristen's.
"I'm only allowing this because it is actually acceptable to be completely nosy." Mel said teasingly as the two walked across the street to see what the commotion was about.
When they got there, Kristen's jaw hit the floor. The thug was being slammed to the ground by none other than Derrick Shane. She grinned despite herself. She knew he was a worthy opponent, and she thought God must surely be tempting her to bring him across her path yet again. But, she didn't understand why as Derrick had already refused. Still, she watched with fascination as Derrick managed to knock the thief unconscious and took back her reticule. The crowd cheered him loudly, and he gave a mock bow at their applause. He spotted her in the crowd and began walking in her direction. Kristen couldn't help it, she clapped slowly as he approached her.
Derrick grinned as he handed her the reticule. "Am I to understand that you are not terribly impressed with my efforts."
"Not so much, no." Kristen said.
"Such a shame. I was hoping to impress you." He tipped his hat and took a step backward. "Ladies." He bowed and then disappeared into the crowd.
Kristen looked at Mel and grinned. "You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you paid that thug to take my bag just so Derrick could make an entrance."
"What? That is absurd!" Mel linked her arm through Kristen's, but Kristen didn't miss the wicked grin as they returned to their carriage.
Kristen climbed in first, then allowed Mel to settle before confronting her. "Mel, he said no. I think it best we focus our efforts elsewhere."
"Have you considered that perhaps you caught him by surprise and that maybe he has reconsidered that answer?"
"That particular perspective hadn't entered my mind."
"Well, consider it."
As the carriage ambled on, Kristen felt herself beginning to hope that Mel was right about Derrick. Ever since she had first laid eyes on him, she knew there was something compelling about him. But, their first meeting in his study confirmed what she suspected. She was undeniably attracted to him, and despite his vulgar suggestion in the cave, she was willing to consider life with him would be extremely entertaining indeed.
As Kristen thought about the possibilities, their carriage came to a screeching halt. Both Kristen and Mel were thrown from their seats and landed in a pile on the floor. Kristen's head slammed against the side of the carriage, and she winced as the pain lanced through her head.
"Ow, Mel. I believe you've made your bloody point!"
"This wasn't me."
Kristen noted the fear in Mel's voice and was suddenly alert. It had been almost two weeks since the last attempt on her life. She had hoped she was wrong about those attempts, that they were merely a figment of her imagination, but now she wasn't so sure. And, what scared her more, was the fact that Mel was with her. If anything happened to Mel because of Kristen, she would never forgive herself. She crawled out from under Mel and threw the carriage blanket over her.
"Stay on the floor, and be quiet." Kristen whispered.
"What are you doing?"
"Putting a stop to this."
Kristen opened the carriage door and quietly climbed down. The driver and the footman were dealing with what had happened. Scanning the area, Kristen noted that one of the horses had slipped and broke its leg. The footman and the driver were contemplating who was going to shoot the animal and put it out of its misery. Kristen scanned the treeline. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and she ducked just as an arrow flew past her head, sinking into the back of the footman.
The driver spun around and crouched low as the footman fell to the ground, blood spilling from his mouth. Kristen's lips thinned into a straight line as she turned in the direction the arrow had come from. She could just barely make out the shadow of a person in the treeline. She narrowed her eyes. There wasn't much she could do with a lone bowman at a distance. She would need to be closer to cause any damage, and she was a sitting duck the longer she stayed out in the open. Plus, Mel was caught in the crossfire.
She stayed low to the ground, but backed up to meet the driver as he was crawling toward her.
"They're after me. Can one horse pull this carriage?"
"Not with anyone inside it, m'lady." The driver responded.
Kristen was happy to hear that the man sounded steady. There was no fear of the situation, but concern for his charges. She smiled at him.
"Then take Lady Atchkinson and the good horse and get her home."
"But, miss - "
"No arguments. I'll deal with this and be along shortly."
"I can't leave you here alone."
Kristen's eyes blazed in fury. "If something happens to Mel because of your pigheaded notion of chivalry, I'll take it out of your hide. You get her out of her now and don't make me tell you again."
The driver drew back in surprise. He had never seen Lady Kristen in such a state of anger, nor had he ever seen her take charge of a situation better than most men. There was something in her expression that told him to listen. Lady Kristen was an unusual woman, and there were whispers among the staff that she had shown up to the house bruised and battered, but not the least bit crippled. Like she had been in a fight and walked away leaving the other unconscious. There was even rumor that it was a man. He couldn't credit that at the time, but looking at her just now, he was beginning to think perhaps the whispers weren't so wrong.
"Yes, m'lady."
The driver remained low and crawled to the door of the carriage. He opened it and helped Mel down, keeping the blanket wrapped around her. Kristen stepped in front of them and made a broad target while the driver took Mel up front and unlatched the remaining horse. He lifted her up into the saddle, then jumped on behind her, digging his heels into the horse's flank. Kristen kept her eyes on the treeline before her, but she listened as the driver got Mel away from the road.
"If I wanted to kill them, I could have." A man's voice rang out through the forest.
"I believe you." Kristen answered.
"I didn't because I wasn't paid to kill them. Just you."
"So what now? You stay hidden behind the trees and continue to shoot arrows at me until you finally get me? Seems rather a waste of good arrows, and of my time."
The man chuckled. "Afraid, your highness?"
Kristen furrowed her brow. The address made her think that perhaps Mel's theories about the mysterious deaths of her family might be correct. But, she wasn't actually afraid. She had long ago accepted death as part of life, and knew that when her time came, she would be reunited with her loved ones.
"Not especially." She said.
The man sighed rather dramatically. "You know, it really isn't any fun unless you're scared."
"Sorry to disappoint."
"I doubt that."
"True."
The man laughed. "I'll give you that you're witty, your highness, but it won't save you."
"How about we drop the banter and get to business then. It's unrealistic that you will be satisfied with the kill by trying to pluck me off with an arrow at a distance. What say you put down your bow and I put down my knife, and we try to kill each other like civilized people, hmm?"
"Tempting offer, m'lady, but I've been warned about you. I think I'll keep my distance."
"Suit yourself...coward."
Kristen crossed her arms and waited. She heard the man nock the arrow, and heard it fly loose from his bow. She dodged it easily enough. It was her turn to laugh.
"Unless you've got an endless supply of arrows back there, this is a pointless exercise. Obviously you weren't given a complete warning about me."
Another arrow came flying across the distance, and again she easily dodged it. Her plan was to agitate him enough to use all of his arrows, and then perhaps he would come out and face her directly. She didn't have a shot of reaching him until then.
"Oh, I was given plenty of warning. Don't you want to know who hired me, your highness?"
"Not really."
He growled in frustration and shot another arrow. The standard quiver held about thirty arrows. By her count, that was only four arrows. She sighed to herself. It was going to be a long night at this rate, so she concluded that she needed another plan.
"You can't dodge me forever. At some point, I will overwhelm you. It is inevitable."
His talking covered up the sound of him nocking the arrow, but she heard it fly, and then him immediately nocking another. She dodged the first and then immediately hit the ground as another came right after it, followed by a third and a fourth. Kristen was out of breath from the exercise of dodging and moving out of the arrows' path. She heard the man laughing in the treeline, and the sound irritated her more than she cared to admit. That he laughed at another person's pain was monstrous enough, but that he was causing it while laughing was beyond Kristen's capability of understanding. She retreated behind the carriage to think of another plan.
As she was behind the carriage, she noticed the horse that had fallen and broke its leg. It was lying there, moaning softly because the bowman had distracted everyone from killing it. Her heart broke and her rage at the man trying to kill her deepened. She had to find a way to put the animal out of its misery without making herself a target. But, the moment she stepped out from behind the carriage to reach the horse, an arrow flew past her head. She jumped back behind the carriage.
The bowman laughed. "Who's the coward now?"
His laugh turned into a gurgling sputter, and then silence filled the air. Kristen strained her ears, but she heard nothing. Still, her instincts told her to stay where she was. Then she heard some rustling in the bushes near the area the bowman had been.
"Kristen?"
Kristen's brow furrowed as she stepped out from behind the carriage. "Derrick?"
Derrick walked out of the treeline and tossed the knife he had used to slit the man's throat. "Are you alright?" He demanded.
Kristen didn't like his tone and put her hands on her hips. She glared at him. "Have you been following me?"
"You're welcome." He said sarcastically.
"I could have handled the situation myself."
"Oh yes, you were doing a bang up job of that, my dear."
Kristen scowled, but kept her distance as Derrick came closer. He saw the horse on the ground, moaning, and tsked.
"Such a waste of fine horse flesh." He said gently, then pulled a pistol from his coat and shot the horse between the eyes.
Kristen jumped with the sound. Her protective instincts immediately flared up, but she tamped them down as Derrick only did what she was trying to figure out how to do herself. She realized she should be grateful to him for his assistance, but she found herself wary of him instead. Would he expect something more from her? The memory of him asking her to be his mistress after refusing their marriage contract was still fresh on her mind. He was a deplorable cad, as far as she was concerned. Even if he had just saved her life.
Chapter 10
"So, care to tell me why that man was trying to kill you, and why he kept referring to you as "your highness?"" Derrick asked casually.
Kristen had been in the process of opening the carriage door to grab her belongings, but she stopped and looked at Derrick. "How long were you standing there?"
"Since the whole thing started."
Kristen closed her eyes and tried to steady her temper. The footman had died needlessly so that Derrick could appease his curiosity, and Mel had been in danger for a time, as well. She closed the carriage door and walked up to him. He grinned down at her, completely oblivious to her anger. She barreled her fist straight into his nose. He staggered back and instinctively covered his nose with his hands. She saw a small amount of blood trickle out between his fingers. It didn't make her feel better, but it was no less than he deserved.
"What the bloody hell was that for?" He demanded angrily.
His voice sounded muffled behind his hands, and he blinked several times. Kristen assumed it was to clear the fog in his vision. She had hit him right at the bridge of the nose, which could have broken it, and would have caused his vision to blur over.
"That was for standing there and letting an innocent man die, and putting Mel in danger simply to appease your curiosity. If you had intended to help, you should have done so from the beginning." She spat angrily and then turned back to the carriage.
Derrick pulled a handkerchief from his coat and held it to his nose. He didn't think it was broken, but he was sure he would have a black eye come tomorrow. Kristen was certainly proving to be a surprise. Despite her small form, she could wallop a man with the best of them. That was a powerful punch she had just thrown, and worse, she knew how to do it without giving her intentions away. Derrick had no idea it was coming until it was too late.
"The footman took me by surprise, but I would not have allowed him to hurt Mel. Her husband would wring my neck, I assure you."
Kristen peeked out from the carriage. "You know Guy?"
"Of course, he's my best friend. We grew up together, went to school together, he's been there for me more than I can ever repay. So, when he travels as the ambassador for the king, I keep an eye on his wife for him."
Kristen narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything more on the subject. She withdrew back into the carriage. Derrick got the distinct impression that he had said something wrong again and sighed. He walked over to the carriage and poked his head inside.
"What now?" He asked.
"Nothing." Kristen replied, picking up her reticule and putting the blanket back where it went.
"Obviously something."
"Look, thank you for your assistance, but I need to be getting home. We'll need to send someone to collect the dead and the carriage."
She hopped down from the carriage and walked down the road back toward the main part of London. Mel's townhome wasn't that far, but they had taken the scenic route. Kristen liked the look of the trees along the road, and she enjoyed a good carriage ride after a stressful day of shopping. Honestly, for all of Kristen's blustering about things being Derrick's fault, she was the one to blame. If they had taken the direct route back to Mel's house, none of this would have happened. Also, she couldn't forget that they were after her in the first place, so Mel was in danger because of her, not because of Derrick.
She glanced sideways at Derrick as he fell into step beside her.
"I have a carriage, you know." He said kindly.
"I'll walk." She replied brusquely.
"Then I'll accompany you."
"I'd rather you didn't." She said.
Truth be told she was feeling rather guilty that she had hit him. None of this was his fault, but she wasn't handling things as well as she would like, and he made a convenient target to blame. But, that aside, he wanted something from her that she just couldn't give. She ha
d too many other things to worry about, and she didn't want to worry about constantly being hounded to be his mistress.
Derrick cleared his throat. "I think I owe you an apology."
Kristen looked at him but didn't say anything. He cleared his throat again and continued.
"I shouldn't have asked you to be my mistress. That was wrong, and in the heat of the moment, I wasn't thinking clearly."
Kristen's brows shot clear up to her hair line. Derrick searched her face, hoping to find forgiveness. He had been the worst sort of cad, and there was no excuse for his behavior. Whatever was going on with her, he wasn't helping matters by making such crude suggestions. He had already disappointed her once by declining to uphold the betrothal agreement.
"Apology accepted." She said at last.
Derrick was certain he saw her relax a little, and he smiled. "Excellent. So, do you know who it was that tried to kill you today?"
"I have a fair idea, yes."
"I'd like to help, Kristen."
"You've already declined what help you could provide."
There was no censure in her tone, no accusation, but it still made Derrick feel like the biggest jerk that side of the Atlantic. He stopped and grabbed Kristen's arm.
"Listen, about that - "
Kristen shook her head and gently pulled her arm from his grasp. "There's nothing to explain. It was a surprise to us both. I'll manage, but I don't want anyone else getting involved. One person is dead because of me, and I don't want anyone else to go the same way."
She continued walking, and Derrick was struck by her fierce sense of compassion. Not once did she mention concern for herself or her own safety. Her concern had been for others. That man in the woods had been trying to kill her, but she had hit Derrick because the footman was dead and Mel had been in trouble. He grinned. She was quite the intriguing young lady. He caught up to her and smiled as she looked sideways at him. She sighed.
"Derrick - "
"Listen, I get that you can take care of yourself, but sometimes it's nice to have people who are willing to help, no matter the consequences. You did me a great favor by not forcing me into marriage before I was ready, now I'm here to return the favor."
