“I’ll go with you,” Charis said quickly.
Akash cast her a glance that mingled astonishment and disapproval. “Out of the question.”
Her jaw firmed. “Make me stay.”
She saw him consider getting one of the Penrhyn men to restrain her, then clearly he thought better of it. Or perhaps he took pity on her frantic need to see her husband. His tone was low and adamant. “You are not to speak. You are not to move unless I give you the word.”
“I promise.” Her voice shook with gratitude. “Thank you.”
“I hope I don’t live to regret this,” he said grimly. He raised his voice. “Don’t try anything, Lord Felix.”
“Drop your weapons first. And remember, any tricks and Trevithick’s a dead man.”
Akash glanced at Charis, who nodded. Both of them laid their guns on the ground, then approached the mine entrance.
With every step, her heart beat faster. Fear closed her throat and made her skin itch. If Felix decided to shoot them, they had no protection.
Surely he couldn’t be so stupid. He wouldn’t be able to kill every man here. Then she remembered his vanity and recklessness.
“Watch our backs,” Akash hissed to Tulliver, as they passed under the heavy wooden beams that supported the entrance. Tulliver nodded while Charis and Akash edged inside.
Momentarily, the dimness blinded her. The dank tunnel was deathly cold. The air was rank with bats, stale air, and decay. Carefully, she moved forward, conscious of Akash as a silent, reassuring presence beside her.
“Damn you, Charis,” Gideon cursed from farther along the tunnel. “Get out of here.”
“No, she should stay,” Felix said in a silky voice. “A foolish, but noble gesture, my dear stepsister. You’ve presented me with yet another hostage. I must thank you.”
As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, lit by one lantern, she saw that Felix aimed his pistol squarely at her chest. It was one of the big clumsy horse pistols from yesterday. She glanced at him, long enough to read the desperation in his face. Then her attention flitted past him and settled on Gideon. He stood, hands bound behind his back, a few paces beyond Felix in the center of the brothers’ makeshift camp.
He glared at her like he wanted to kill her. His black eyes blazed in his pale face, and his mouth was a long line of displeasure. He should have appeared powerless. Instead, he looked indomitable, magnificent, undaunted.
There was blood on his jaw and bruises under his torn shirt. The visible evidence of Gideon’s ordeal made her heart slam to a shocked halt.
“Gideon…” She took a shaky step toward him, only to come to a trembling halt as his eyes narrowed with temper.
To think she’d fretted about this man’s ability to cope with captivity. He’d walk through a raging hurricane without turning a hair. His bruises and abrasions only emphasized his invincible spirit.
Gratitude punched the breath from her lungs, made her hands shake. She blinked back more tears. They weren’t safe yet. She couldn’t relax her guard.
“You spineless toad,” she spat, turning on Felix. “How dare you beat a bound man?”
“Charis, I’m fine,” Gideon snarled. “But you won’t be when I get my hands on you. Akash, blast you, what were you thinking, bringing her here?”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, making plans for what you’ll do once you’re free,” Felix said snidely. He backed against the wall, his gun still trained on Charis. “I have to ask myself if I really need three hostages. Perhaps I’m better off disposing of one of you.”
“You must know this rash gamble has come to its end.” Gideon’s voice rang with authority. “Surrender while you have a chance at convincing a judge you deserve leniency.”
Felix’s expression hardened. Charis shivered as she thought of a rat caught in a trap. She didn’t fool herself that this particular rat was harmless. He knew he’d lost, and he’d take them all down with him if he could.
“What I’ve done is a hanging matter,” Felix snapped. “I’m not a fool. I won’t offer myself up like a lamb to the slaughter. There’s fight in me yet.”
“That’s lunatic.” Akash stepped closer with unconcealed threat. “What can you hope to achieve?”
“Damn it, stay back!” Wildly, Felix swung the gun toward Akash.
Charis used Felix’s momentary distraction to dash across the rubble-strewn floor to Gideon. With a broken sob, she threw her arms around him and buried her head in his chest. She drew in his familiar scent, felt the steady thud of his heart against her breast. Relief thundered through her.
He was alive. He was alive. They would come out of this yet.
His skin was chilled, and his tattered shirt was clammy from last night’s downpour. He stood rigidly in her hold, his muscles taut. For one horrified moment, she wondered if his affliction had returned.
Then she realized he wasn’t sick, he was angry. He vibrated with incandescent fury.
“How dare you put yourself in danger?” he growled, resisting her clinging hands.
“I’ve got a knife,” she whispered, looking up at him.
At last he glanced at her. His jaw worked as he fought to master his temper. She read his anxiety for her, his rage. But more, she saw the mirror of her own longing in his black eyes.
“Oh, hell, Charis,” he muttered, his mouth turning down with annoyance. He bent his head and kissed her, briefly but hard. She knew it was meant as punishment, but she felt the blazing love underlying the rebuke. “Now get out,” he said softly but firmly.
“Not yet.” She fumbled in her pocket for the small blade she’d taken from a display of arms at Penrhyn. It probably hadn’t been used since Black Jack’s day, but she’d tested its edge, and it was sharp.
She cast a quick glance across at Felix and took advantage of his focus on Akash to slide behind Gideon. Watching her stepbrother out of the corner of her eye, she sawed at the binding around Gideon’s wrists. It was dark where she stood, but still light enough for her to see the broken skin under the coarse rope. Her anger at her stepbrothers hitched higher.
“She’s not going anywhere.” Felix sidled in Gideon’s direction, keeping his pistol aimed at Akash. “She’s my surety I’ll get out of here.”
“There’s a dozen guns outside, more if the militia have arrived,” Akash said dismissively. Charis wondered if he guessed what she was up to and kept Felix occupied deliberately. Biting her lips, she worked more furiously at the rope. “Even if you do kill us, you won’t get far.”
Felix gave a scornful grunt, his eyes darting around the mine as if he sought an escape route. “Oh, yes, I will. Nobody will risk hurting her.”
“What about Lord Burkett? Do you intend to abandon him to his fate?” Contempt sizzled in Gideon’s words.
Felix shrugged without shifting his gaze from Akash. “He can take his chances. He’ll get to plead his case in the bloody House of Lords, whereas I’ll be treated like a common criminal.”
“You are a common criminal,” Akash said coolly.
Felix took a menacing step toward Akash. “Shut your mouth, you black bastard.”
“Give it up, Farrell,” Gideon said steadily. “If you come quietly, I’ll see what I can do about a lighter sentence. Transportation at least leaves you your life.”
Felix flinched in horror. “To that filthy hole, Botany Bay? I’d rather be dead.” He was considerably closer to Charis and Gideon than he had been. She applied the knife with renewed energy and prayed the shadows hid what she did.
“Keep this up, and you will be,” Akash said grimly.
“You speak as though my defeat is a foregone conclusion.”
“It is.” Gideon bunched the muscles of his arms, jerked his wrists hard, and snapped the last threads of his bindings.
“Not when I’ve got Charis.” Felix lunged, but Gideon moved faster than a striking cobra and grabbed him before he laid hands on her.
“Little slut untied you, did she?” Felix grunted, fighting
to get purchase on the larger man.
For a sickening moment, the two men teetered, casting a dance of grotesque shadows onto the mine’s walls. Then they fell and struck the ground with a thud that Charis felt in her bones. There was a sharp rattle as pebbles shot across the floor in all directions.
“Damn you, Trevithick!” Felix grunted, then finished on a loud exhalation as Gideon landed a hard punch to his stomach. The sickening sound made Charis flinch back.
She couldn’t tear her eyes from the struggle. The fight was cruel, frantic. Over and over, they rolled in a clumsy, murderous battle. She desperately tried to see who gained the advantage, but darkness and constant movement made it impossible to tell.
A storm of punches and groans punctuated the ungainly violence. Charis’s belly cramped with dread, and she backed on unsteady legs to press against the cold rock.
Felix fought dirty, and he was strong and wiry, for all his fashionable languor. Gideon was bigger, but he’d been bound and beaten. Heaven knew what injuries the brothers had inflicted on him during the night.
A pistol shot rang out, resounding as the noise ricocheted off the rock.
“Gideon!” Charis screamed, lurching forward. Her heart slammed against her ribs. Her eyes went blind.
Akash caught her around the waist and stopped her flinging herself on top of the combatants. “Charis, it’s all right.”
She hardly heard him through the clanging in her ears. If Gideon was dead, she didn’t want to live. Without him, there was nothing in the world she wanted.
Akash spoke more sharply. “Charis, they’re alive.”
At last she heard and understood. She realized how tightly he gripped her against his chest. Her fingers dug into his arms with bruising force.
The bullet must have gone wild.
Her sight cleared, and her terrified gaze focused on Felix and Gideon. She realized both men still moved, still struggled to best the other. Her aching heart started beating again. She sucked rancid air into starved lungs.
Dear heaven, thank you, thank you, thank you.
She trembled convulsively in Akash’s grip. The tall body looming behind her bristled with silent tension. His support was welcome. She wasn’t sure her legs would hold her. Her mouth was dry as cotton, and her heart pounded like a mallet wielded by a madman.
She stifled her urge to call encouragement to Gideon. He needed all his concentration to defeat Felix. The now-useless gun bumped across the floor as a wildly kicking leg sent it sliding. Gideon rolled over and kicked it more purposefully, propelling it out of reach.
She straightened, ashamed of her weakness. Akash must have realized she’d regained control of herself. He released her and edged around the fight to pick up the gun.
The men on the ground grunted and gasped and wrestled for dominance. They writhed across the rough floor. Felix flung out one leg and sent a tin kettle rattling against the rocks. The sharp metallic clatter made Charis jump. She raised one shaking hand to her mouth to hold back a scream.
The bone handle of the little knife she clutched in her other hand was slippery with sweat. If only she saw a chance to intervene. But all she could do was stand in agonized suspense on the conflict’s edge.
Felix rolled on top of Gideon and clawed at his throat. For an endless moment, time hung suspended. Then Gideon twisted with what seemed impossible strength and dislodged his attacker.
The battle continued. Charis’s hand dropped from her face to twine with painful tightness in her skirts. More thumps. More hoarse grunts and gasps. With a shuddering groan, Gideon jerked onto his knees, straddling Felix and gripping his neck.
“Die, you bastard!” Felix forced out. He flung Gideon away to land with a sharp crack of bone on rock. Charis bit back another cry. Every muscle tensed to excruciating pain as she waited for Felix to surge up and land the decisive blow. But instead he lay winded and unmoving a few feet away.
“For God’s sake, help Gideon,” she begged Akash in a strained whisper as he returned to her side.
“He’s better on his own,” Akash said softly.
It seemed hours before Gideon stirred even though she knew it must only be a fraction of a second. As he sat up, he shook his head to clear his vision. He staggered upright at the same time as Felix found his feet.
Exhaustion and pain took their toll. Both men panted in jagged gasps as they circled one another, their fists upraised. Felix’s left eye swelled, and his mouth was broken and bloody. Charis noticed that her stepbrother’s gait was uneven, and he favored his left leg.
She drew another shuddering breath and stared at Gideon. He looked dirty and disheveled and bruised but otherwise blessedly whole, and his eyes were bright and alert. They focused on Felix with a glint of triumph. There had been some shift in the battle, and it had been in Gideon’s favor.
“Give it up, Farrell. There’s nowhere to go.” He sounded calm, confident, like the man who had saved her life. He flexed his gloved hands and rolled his shoulders.
“I’ll get out of this, Trevithick.” Felix stumbled on the rough ground but didn’t fall. “Damn well see if I don’t.”
Charis watched as he staggered farther into the tunnel. His eyes remained fixed on Gideon, who took a step after him.
“You won’t escape that way, man. Didn’t you explore your hideaway? The mine peters out in the hillside.”
“Felix, he grew up here,” Charis called, desperate to bring this ghastly scene to an end. “He knows every inch of the estate. You’re trapped.”
“Shut up, you little bitch.” Felix sounded savage, furious, as he backed away on faltering feet. His voice resonated oddly as the tunnel narrowed. “We’ll see who’s trapped.”
“Be careful. There’s a mineshaft behind you.” Gideon set out after him, his booted heels thudding sharply on the hard dirt floor. Charis broke away from Akash and followed, gripping her knife. She still didn’t trust her stepbrother even though she could tell he had reached the end of his strength.
“Resorting to childish tricks now, Trevithick?” Felix’s grating laugh sent a shiver down her spine. He retreated more quickly from the light.
“Take a look if you don’t believe me.” Gideon’s voice roughened with urgency. “For God’s sake, man, listen to me! Look behind!”
“And take my eyes off you? You must think I’m a damned half-wit.”
“Farrell…”
Felix kept up his odd crablike shuffle, then suddenly tottered. His arms windmilled as he fought for balance. It was tragically clear Gideon’s warning was sincere. Charis’s stomach lurched with horror.
Gideon leaped forward. But even fast as he was, he was too late and too far away.
With a high-pitched scream of fury, Felix lost his footing and tumbled over the edge.
Twenty-four
There was a sickening, distant thud, then silence descended like an ax.
Shocked, unable to credit what had happened, Gideon stood on the edge of the shaft. He couldn’t see anything in the darkness. It went down too far.
“Farrell?” he called. During his childhood, a miner had fallen down the shaft and died. It was one of the reasons the workings were abandoned.
He called again, recognizing the act as futile.
He’d despised Felix, wanted to make him pay in blood and suffering for hurting Charis. But all the same, this was a sorry end for anyone, even the most despicable cur.
Dizziness struck from nowhere, and he swayed. He ached from the beating and the fight. Through the buzzing in his ears, he heard Charis’s husky cry as she launched herself after him.
Still reeling, he staggered to face her and caught her up against him, hiding the black chasm behind him from her sight. His shaking arms lashed around her slender softness with a desperation he only now let himself acknowledge.
She’s here. She’s unharmed. Thank You, God and all Your angels.
The still, cold watches of the night had tortured him with the devastating possibility that he’d n
ever see her again. A prospect more agonizing than Hubert’s punches or Felix’s childish taunts. So much worse than his persistent fear that his demons would emerge from the dank darkness to claim him. His raw anguish made a mockery of his plans to send her away, even when he knew it was for her own good.
“Oh, my love, my love,” he whispered, and buried his face in her thick, silky hair. He drew in a shuddering breath full of her scent. She smelled warm and alive. Clutching his back as if she never meant to let him go, she quivered in his arms.
For a long, glorious moment, he held her and luxuriated in the knowledge that they’d come through, that they were alive and together. Giddy relief swamped his rage that she put herself in danger. He should have known she’d never leave his rescue to others. Not his brave Charis.
“You’re safe,” she choked out against his skin. “You’re safe and you’re…you’re well. Oh, Gideon, I was so afraid.” She finished on a broken sob and pressed her hot face into his bare chest, above his furiously pounding heart.
He forced himself to relax his bruising grip. The reality slowly dawned on his dazed mind that the threat had passed. He drew far enough away to see her. Even in the dim light from the tunnel mouth, the strain she’d been under was apparent in the muddy brown of her eyes and the dark marks underneath them. But her face was aglow with relief and happiness. And love.
“My darling…” Words failed as love surged up as unstoppable as high tide into Penrhyn Cove. “Are you crying for Felix?”
“No.” Then more strongly. “No! What happened to him is horrible. But I’m crying because…because we’re free at last.”
He smiled down at her, then winced when the expression tested his torn lip. “Happy tears?”
She gave a jerky nod. “Happy tears.” Regret shadowed her eyes as carefully she touched the graze on his mouth. “They hurt you. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s nothing.” Truly, it was nothing. In return for the joy of having her in his arms, he’d undergo a thousand beatings. He pressed her shaking hand against his cheek. With every minute, he breathed more easily. The danger was over. He could hardly believe it.
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