by Win Hollows
“Laura, now!” he shouted, releasing his grip on her clammy hand as she swung towards the gap in the treetops.
She screamed, her fingers trying to grasp his even as she fell.
And then she disappeared into darkness.
Chapter 10
Laura’s mind ceased to function during the split second she was falling. When she had been dangling from the basket, her brain had run through as many gruesome scenarios as possible in that short time. She knew there were unforgiving trees waiting below her that she couldn’t see. Her landing on the ground, head bashing in to a rock. Falling onto a branch that broke her back. Landing safely and then being smothered by the raging fire of the air balloon as it landed on top of her. Seeing Remington die the same way…
But in that brief moment when she could feel nothing except the wind on her skin, not a single thought passed in front of her mind’s eye. There was nothing to do but fall in the last seconds she might be alive.
All too soon, the blankness passed, and her feet came into contact with something hard that jarred her bones and snapped her back to reality. Pain shot up her shins as her knees buckled. Arms out, her feet instantly slipped on whatever they had landed on, and she began to fall further. She cried out as her body crashed into multiple hard surfaces, her exposed skin tearing. She tried to reach out and grab something, anything, but she was falling too fast to accomplish it. Her dress became caught on something and was pulled up over her head as she continued to plummet through the branches. She could feel that her body was being bashed from all sides, accumulating painful injuries, but all she could feel were white-hot flashes as she struggled to slow her descent. Legs bent under her, she couldn’t get her feet back in the right position to break her fall. If there was a strategy to falling through trees, Laura didn’t know what it should be, but it wasn’t this.
A thick branch caught her chin and snapped her head back, plunging her into a haze and momentarily slackening her limbs. Laura tumbled like a rag doll down through what seemed like a never-ending maze of hard, sharp instruments designed to torture her until she thudded onto the ground. Stunned, she lay on her back with her eyes closed, not wanting to move just yet. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, but she felt her heartbeat beginning to back off its feverish pace. She was afraid if she moved, she would find out that her body no longer worked. Her muscles twitched, but surprisingly, there was little pain at the moment. Instinctively, she knew that soon, there would be pain, and lots of it, but her body was still in survival mode and wouldn’t let her feel it yet. She wasn’t sure if perhaps she should try and move before the pain set in, but lying limp on the mossy ground after everything that has just happened felt like heaven.
Well, maybe heaven was a bad choice of words. She was quite glad she wasn’t in heaven right now.
Rem.
Immediately, she prayed he had landed safely somewhere nearby. She couldn’t hear anything except the wind rustling the trees and various other forest sounds, so she had no idea if he was close by or if the balloon was still on fire.
After letting herself have a few more seconds of blissful stillness, she forced herself to open her eyes and prop herself up on her elbows to look around.
A searing pain jolted through her midsection. The air left her lungs in a whoosh, and she collapsed back down on the ground. Hesitantly, she pressed her fingers against her side, feeling where the pain was. A breath hissed out between her teeth. There had definitely been some damage to her ribs. She didn’t know if they were broken or just bruised, but she doubted her corset was helping the situation much. She could feel it compressing the area every time she took a breath. It would have to come off- soon.
Other pains began to make themselves known as she tried to even her breathing. Looking up at the darkening canvas of trees above her, she noted the broken twigs and crushed leaves marking where she had fallen through them. Her jaw throbbed fiercely as she gingerly touched the bottom of her chin, which she could feel was already starting to swell. Aches plagued her left knee, both shins, the first toe of her right foot, and her right elbow, all of which she had managed to violently knock into various branches as she fell. Laura groaned. Then, she thought, now she had a perfectly legitimate excuse not to go out in public any time soon. There was a silver lining to everything, she supposed. If they survived this, that was.
She had to find Rem. Even though her entire body protested, she struggled to her knees, wincing at the pain in her side, then stood up on her feet. Lightheadedness left her reeling for few seconds.
“Note to self,” Laura mumbled, trying to stay upright, “Never drink champagne and then fall out of a balloon.”
It was at that point she realized one of her slippers was missing, her stockinged foot noticing sharp pinpricks from the pine needles on the forest floor. She rolled her eyes. Why not? Nothing else was going right, and a bare foot was the least of her problems right now.
The sun was sending lingering shafts of light through the trees, highlighting dust motes and particles in its beams. It would begin to get dark very quickly now, she knew. And once that happened, who knew if she’d ever be able to find Rem. Dead or alive. Thankfully, the forest wasn’t very thick here, the trees spaced out from each other so that it wasn’t difficult to walk between them. She began limping between the large trunks and shrubbery in the direction she thought the balloon had been travelling, swiping at branches that got in her way. He couldn’t be too far because the balloon had been careening just above the treetops when he had let her go. And the balloon had been on fire, so she supposed it still was. She hoped it wouldn’t start a forest fire. That was the last thing they needed.
It did not escape her that Rem had saved her life a few moments ago. No matter what happened between them now, there would always be that.
Laura said another prayer for his safety. She didn’t think she could live in a world where he didn’t exist.
She paused, listening. There was a crackling, crunching sound up ahead. Sure of the direction of the source, she plunged forward, ignoring the pain that pierced through her with every step. A faint red glow emanated from between the trees. She knew it had to be the balloon. Increasing her pace, she tore through the sparse underbrush with growing panic, knowing her foot was being ripped to shreds as she went.
“Rem!” she yelled, gasping as a branch swiped the side of her face. The additional pain made her angry, but fear for Rem overshadowed everything else. The glow became brighter, turning into ribbons of flame in the twilight. She could see bits and parts of the wreckage ahead, the basket and material of the balloon draped over the trees, engorged in fire. “Rem!” she screamed, needing to hear him answer. The sound became a roaring in her ears, and she wasn’t sure if she would be able to hear him if he called out to her. She stopped several feet away from the wreck, her skin heating from the inferno. Seeing the raging tongues of fire lick at the misshapen skeleton of the basket, enveloping everything near it in flames, Laura let out a sob. “Rem, please…” She put her face in her hands, giving into the sobs that wracked her frame. Her ribs protested, causing her to take shallow, desperate breaths in between her cries. How could he have survived?
“Laura?” A hoarse voice said from behind her.
She whipped around to see Rem, his clothes torn and charred, standing not three feet from her, chest heaving and sweat pouring down his face in rivulets. Laura launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck and sobbing into his collar.
“Shhh. It’s alright. I’m here. No harm done. Relatively,” he said, his arms coming around her back. His voice was deep and gravelly, and he let out a cough at the end of his statement.
Laura drew back at the sound, looking into his face. “You’re not alright. You sound like a bloody frog! You could have been killed! Look at your clothes!”
“Language,” he murmured, smiling.
Even though she was weak with relief and relished the feel of his arms around her, she was not in the mood. “T
his is not amusing,” Laura retorted. “You do realize the entire forest is going to burn down, don’t you?”
Rem looked past her at the blaze. “Yes, that could be a problem.”
“Oh, you think so?”
Rem tried not to grin. “Now don’t go off mad at me, Love. I didn’t decide to have us tossed out of the sky.”
Laura’s breath came out in a huff, her shoulder slumping. “I know.” She put her cheek gently against his lapel, knowing it might dirty her face and not caring. “I’m sorry. I was just so… I didn’t know what had happened to you and-”
“I know, Sweeting.” He stroked her back, squeezing her against him. When Laura hissed in, Rem froze. “What’s wrong?”
She swallowed against the flash of pain. “I think I may have hurt my ribs. And, well, lots of other things, actually,” she admitted. Now that she thought about it and the excitement was wearing off, the throbbing and burning and stabbing sensations came to the forefront again. Her foot she held off the ground now as any pressure brought with it slashes of pain.
“We need to have a look at you, but first we have to get out of here.”
Laura nodded, a calm sweeping through her now that Rem was in charge of the situation. He couldn’t stop the fire, he couldn’t magically transport them home or change what had happened, but Laura knew beyond a doubt that Rem would get them to safety and figure out what had gone wrong. There was just something so innately capable about him; he seemed to fill up her entire world until there was no doubt that everything would be exactly as he wished it, a fact that both terrified and elated her.
Rem scooped her up in his arms and began weaving through the trees, away from the blaze. Laura knew it was completely indecent to have a man she wasn’t married to carry her, but they were certainly past that now. And it felt blissful just relaxing into his powerful body and not having to make her own limbs move. She knew she couldn’t have walked very far anyways, with her foot in its present condition. Her ribs and jaw ached fiercely, but she knew now was not the time to break down about it. Now was the time to be a lady, and to her, that meant pulling herself together under whatever circumstances came along in order to get through it. This was certainly going to be a test of that personal ideology.
The sun was fading fast, its light brazenly orange, and it reminded Laura of tea somehow as they wended their way through the forest. After a few minutes, there was no longer any hint of the fire that raged behind them. Fear pricked at her belly with thoughts of the fire spreading. There was nothing they could do about it now though. And it was a lovely patch of woods they were in, comprised of oak and yew and maple trees, along with others that Laura didn’t know the names of. Moss and leaves covered the packed earth they traversed, with tree roots snaking up from the ground around some of the larger trees. Laura loved forests like this one. It reminded her of home, the home she’d grown up in. She had wandered through copses just like this one on her family’s land, eating up the warm sunshine and smells of the forest that hadn’t been touched by man. If it weren’t for their current predicament, Laura would feel peaceful in the serene landscape.
Rem grunted as he hefted her closer to his chest. Though he reeked of smoke and ashes clung to his expensive garments and sweat-drenched neck, Laura had never been more content. The thought that she could get used to this position caused her to swallow nervously. With her head rested on his muscled shoulder and her torso flush against his, she could feel the way he moved, his powerful strides no less sure for his burden. Where he was taking her, she had no idea. Her sense of direction was coming back since she knew they were headed north-east, away from the rays of the setting sun and back towards Honeymoore.
“I’m going to try to find the horse path,” Rem told her in a raspy tone, his breath puffing against the arm that she had hooked around his neck.
Laura nodded. She trusted him in his judgment. Whatever ideas he had to get them out of this mess sounded good to her.
“There might be a little problem, though. I need you to be prepared that we won’t make it out of here tonight. It might become too dark to continue walking. If that happens…” He trailed off.
Laura tensed. “Are we in danger?”
“No, Sweeting. I think whoever shot down the balloon is long gone. We’ll be fine.” Rem bent his head and nuzzled her neck.
Laura let out the breath she was holding, enjoying Rem’s affection.
“What I mean is, if we’re out here that long,” He said slowly, “Even if they find us sometime soon, there’s a possibility that you’ll be compromised, Laura. Do you understand?”
Laura heart stuttered. Compromised? Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of that? She had already been alone with Rem much longer than was proper. “We won’t let that happen. It can’t.”
“It might be out of our hands, Darling.”
Her stomach curled in on itself. “No, it won’t. No one can tell me I have to marry someone if I don’t want to.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Rem murmured. “Don’t worry about any of that. Just concentrate on right here and right now. We should be coming upon the horse path any minute. Everything will be fine.”
Laura attempted to look through the gathering gloom ahead, but could only see trees and shrubbery outlined by the sun’s weak lingering light. Eventually, she closed her eyes again, trying not to feel nauseous from the constant stabbing pain in her ribs with every step Rem took. He plodded on for some time, Laura didn’t know how long, and then abruptly stopped. She must have been dozing, because she felt the cease sharply and suddenly became aware of where they were. She looked from side to side, noting the absence of trees for a few feet on either side. They were on the wide path that ran through the woods now.
“Laura, I have to put you down now, sweetheart,” Rem said, his voice edgy and tense.
“Oh, of course. I must be getting heavy. I’m so sorry.” Laura was surprised to hear her own voice throaty with inhaled smoke.
Rem carefully set her on her feet, holding her until he was sure she was standing on her own. “No, it’s not that. Stay right here, and don’t turn around, alright?”
She frowned, trying to put most of her weight on her good foot. “What do you mean? Why not?” Laura’s body automatically swiveled to try and see behind her.
Rem grabbed her arms and said forcefully, “No, Laura. I mean it. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
“I don’t understand,” Laura protested, but Rem had already moved away from her, his footsteps quickly eating up the path behind her. She wanted to look, but was also afraid to. What was going on?
Rem’s torn growl reached her a few seconds later, and she couldn’t bear to stand still. She turned and walked slowly and silently towards where Rem sat in the middle of the path, surrounded by four prostrate figures.
Laura broken gasp drew Rem’s gaze immediately. She covered her mouth with her hands, choking on a sob that tore through her entire being. Rem knelt among four bodies, the four men that had been on horseback guiding them in their balloon just a little while ago. Laura’s throat closed and nausea bubbled up in her stomach. Three of the men’s eyes were open, unseeing points of white in the semi-darkness. One’s throat had been sliced clean open from ear to ear and dark blood seeped into the ground around his head. Another had a halo of blood around him too, but from a head wound that was so forceful, it had obliterated part of his skull and pieces of brain matter and bone littered the dirt near his staring face. The other two were less grisly, one having blood stains blossomed over his chest and the other his stomach, hands held over the area. Clearly, all four had died painful deaths, but probably swift ones. Whoever had killed them had obviously not wanted to use a gun, possibly because of the noise it would have made so near Honeymoore Manor. Even with rockets being launched, the sound of a gunshot was unmistakable. The horses they had been riding were nowhere to be seen.
Laura stared at their faces, her breathing quickening. Their lives had been so easi
ly ended. Four innocent people, gone forever. No dignity was left to them, their bodies marred gruesomely and already foul-smelling.
“Dammit, Laura, I told you to wait over there,” Rem exclaimed darkly, rising to his feet.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Laura said faintly. She staggered to the side of the path and vomited into the grass. Rem came up behind her and held her shoulders as she did. The spasms caused intense pangs in her ribs and she sank to the ground, doubled over. When she had emptied her stomach until nothing came up but burning bile, she rasped, “Get it off. Please. Get it off.”
“What? Get what off, Laura?”
“Corset. It’s…too much. Can’t breathe.”
Rem took a knife out of his boot and put in between his teeth while he began to unbutton her dress from the back. When it was far enough down, he took the small jackknife and, putting a hand between her back and the corset, sliced clean through the stays from top to bottom.
When he had done this, Laura instantly began to take in large gulps of air. As Rem lifted the corset over her head and buttoned her back up, she began to wheeze, which turned quickly into weeping, her torso hunched over in her kneeling position. Rem petted the back of her neck, making soothing sounds while great sobs wracked her. Her body was shaking like a leaf, yet she felt as if she were made of lead, numb and painful at the same time. Her throat stung from the bile, but her body continued to sob wrenching cries that she couldn’t seem to keep inside. “Why? Why would someone do that?” she shrieked, unable to get the images of the dead men lying feet away from them out of her mind. “They’re dead! They’re just dead!”
“I don’t know why, Sweeting. I’m so sorry.”
Laura wretched again, her throat burning with misery. She didn’t care that Rem was seeing her like this. Nothing seemed to matter. She wiped her with the back of her hand, coughing. Taking a shaky deep breath, she said quietly, “I never knew...death…looked like that. I’ve never seen anything…”
