by Rebecca King
Yet it is not enough. I am still not completely happy.
The more Zach tried to focus on what he wanted, the more he began to feel as if he was fighting shadows in his personal life as well. He felt as if he should be reaching out toward something, but it wasn’t in sight yet. He had no idea whether he should change direction in life, or look toward something different, but he wanted to work with the Star Elite. He could see no reason to change any aspect of his life, therefore he had no idea what he should be reaching out for. Whatever he suspected was wrong with his life danced in the periphery of his vision, refusing to come forward and make itself known, but Zach knew that it lurked, this discontent of his, in the back of his mind, waiting to pester him in moments of quiet contemplation like this.
‘Try and get some sleep, eh?’ Greg murmured a few moments later. ‘We have a long day tomorrow, and an even longer night.’
Zach nodded but didn’t take his eyes off the hedgerow beside the barn. He watched the slow sway of several branches in the moonlight. At first, he didn’t think anything of it and ran a lazy glance around the rest of the area.
Before he stepped into the house, Greg paused. He too sensed that something was wrong.
Zach looked him in the eye and asked in voice barely above a whisper: ‘Feel it?’
Greg didn’t move but his gaze slid to the darkness beyond Zach’s shoulder. It was an inky wall of impenetrable blackness that was impossible to see through.
‘Where?’ Greg murmured, barely moving his lips.
‘Not sure.’ Zach sucked in a breath and tugged his shirt straight, but kept his head tipped downward so it looked like he was studying his boots. His eyes, though, slid over every branch, into every shadow, in search of the problem. It was then that he realised what was wrong and murmured: ‘It’s not windy.’
‘What?’ Greg frowned.
‘Get the others,’ Zach ordered. ‘We have company.’
Stretching as casually as possible, Greg ambled inside as if he hadn’t a care in the world. But his entire demeanour changed the second the door closed behind him. ‘We have company. Arm yourselves. Now,’ he ordered grimly.
The men had already closed the shutters before having their meeting so moved around the room gathering their possessions without fear of alerting the intruders to what they were doing. Daniel rolled up the map and shoved it into his saddle bag before swiping the food off the table and emptying the mugs. Everything was swiftly packed within minutes. Guns, bullets, knives, everything the men usually carried with them on an investigation was all secreted in their pockets, cloaks, saddlebags, and boots, before the room was tidied and returned to the way they had found it. Reuben lifted the window in the sitting room at the side of the house and dropped all the belongings outside before climbing out after them.
Outside, Zach ambled as casually as he could along the back of the safe house to the farthest corner of the building before retracing his steps. He couldn’t stand still because of making himself an easier target for the gunmen. While he seemingly kept his head facing forward, his eyes were flickering around the empty yard in search of the intruders. He ducked low to pretend to check something in his boot, but was painfully aware that any good marksman could pick him off at a moment’s notice if he chose to. As he stood back up, he became conscious of the silence of the night all around him.
The owls have stopped hooting.
It was nature’s way of confirming that something dangerous lurked in the undergrowth. What Zach couldn’t understand was how the highwaymen had managed to find them so easily. The Star Elite habitually used circuitous routes to reach their safe houses to ensure they weren’t followed but someone, somewhere, had seen them and alerted the highwaymen to where they were staying.
‘Damn, can this investigation get any worse?’
Seconds later, Zach received an answer when the first shot rang out. He was immediately showered in fine brick dust as the wall beside his head exploded. Zach ducked when a hail of gunfire immediately rained down on him. Scrambling away from the brilliant flashes of the guns, he darted for the darkness beyond the yard. Once safely hidden, he removed his gun and found a place to hide. Settling into the undergrowth, he chose a target, waited for a tell-tale white flash, and then began to return fire.
While the gun battle raged at the back of the house, several of the Star Elite jumped out of the side window of the property and ran toward the woods to find Zach. The men still inside the safe house returned fire, distracting the gunmen while Zach, Elias, Greg, and Al, circled around to come up behind the highwaymen. They were too late to stop one of the highwaymen from lighting a cloth attached to a bottle of liquid accelerant. Zach watched the man throw it into the barn. When the bottle shattered, flames immediately burst to life and engulfed the dry hay and straw stored within the wooden building.
‘Damn it all to Hell,’ Zach cursed when several more bottles were hurled into the flames before the highwaymen turned their attention to the house and threw yet more bottles.
A thick, acrid plume of smoke furled into the night sky and encased everything in a dull haze that was cloying. Zach shot at the highwaymen before him before carefully picking a way through the undergrowth to get closer to the barn and the horses trapped inside. A thick wall of impenetrable black smoke billowed out into the night through the front doors. Zach raced around the back. He cursed when he almost ran into a highwayman. The man looked at him and ducked, but Zach could still see him and fired at him. Zach felt rather than saw the thug drop to the ground but didn’t even glance at him. He raced to the back of the barn and began to kick at the wooden planks on the back wall.
‘Hurry!’ He growled when Greg appeared beside him.
Together, the men worked to get the horses out of the burning building. Zach coughed and gagged as he tried to suck in air but found his lungs full of acrid smoke instead. His stomach churned but he daren’t give in to the encroaching blackness threatening to engulf him. Instead, he forced himself to plunge into the heat and smoke. It took every ounce of concentration he could muster to focus on staying alive and getting the horses to safety. The horses danced about wildly and kicked out at the shadows as they fought to break free of the steady wall of heat creeping toward them. Zach couldn’t release the horses and let them run out of the building because they would just keep running. Consequently, he battled to keep a tight hold on them as he led them to the gap in the back wall.
‘Hold them,’ Zach shouted as he shoved the lead ropes of three horses through the makeshift doorway at Greg.
Gritting his teeth against the wall of heat that grew hotter with every second that passed, Zach ventured toward the flames again to fetch four more horses. By the time all the horses were safe, Zach was covered in soot, exhausted, and struggling to breathe, but at least the barn was empty.
‘Get out here,’ Al growled.
Al and Elias hauled Zach to safety and dragged him several feet away from the burning barn and lay him onto the blessedly cool ground where Zach stayed for a while, watching thick plumes of smoke darken the already inky night sky. Beneath him, the dewy grass cooled his heated flesh and dampened his clothing, but he didn’t care. It was a wonderful moment, made brighter and more enjoyable by his success.
‘Leave the lot to burn,’ Morgan coughed, casting a baleful eye on the burning house and barn. ‘We have to get out of here. The locals will see the smoke soon. We can’t let them see us here.’
‘We need to get after the bastard highwaymen before they get too far away,’ Duncan snarled.
‘One of them is wounded,’ Evan warned, pointing to a large patch of blood on the ground several feet away.
In the orange brilliance of the burning barn, the blood looked like a dark, shiny patch on the ground, but they all knew it shouldn’t be there. Around it was nothing but grass, which made the blood stand out starkly even at night.
Reuben touched it. ‘It’s blood all right, and not from one of the horses.’
�
�We need to get after them before the locals arrive. The villagers might have good intentions, but we don’t need them stomping through the trail the blackguards have left for us,’ Zach warned.
‘Do you think you are up to tracking them?’ Al asked warily. Together with Morgan, he helped Zach to his feet and remained dutifully by his side when Zach succumbed to a coughing fit.
‘I’ll get them all right,’ Zach growled.
‘We got one,’ Evan announced grimly.
The men all looked at each other before following him to the spot where the highwayman had been cut down, a few feet within the trees beside the barn.
His boots were the first thing Zach saw.
‘Well, well, well,’ Al murmured with no small measure of relief. He squatted down and, together with Duncan, dragged the body out of the shadows so the men could see his face in the firelight. ‘Let’s see who we have, shall we?’
‘I don’t recognise him,’ Morgan said as he peered into the dead man’s blank stare.
Zach studied the unfamiliar features with dispassionate anger. ‘He wasn’t careful enough about watching his back. I tried to injure his right shoulder as he was taking another shot, but he moved. I must have caught him in the back of the head instead.’
‘He is clean shaven, so he hasn’t been living rough,’ Elias muttered.
‘We can’t take him with us, but we can hide him,’ Morgan said. ‘If he lives in the area, loved ones will report him missing in the next couple of days.’
‘The highwaymen will come back to fetch him,’ Al replied. ‘We can be waiting for them when they do.’
‘Do you think they will bother? I mean, he is dead. There is nothing to say that he has any loved ones at all,’ Evan argued. ‘Shouldn’t we just hide him in the woods? If his friends come back and search the area, they will find him. We can keep an eye on the churches and see if there are any burials.’
‘We need every man we have to follow the trail they have left us tonight,’ Morgan warned. ‘We don’t have the men available to leave someone here on watch. There is nothing here to watch except two burning buildings which are not ours. We cannot waste time here.’
‘Fine. Hide him. We need to go after the living, not the dead,’ Duncan replied. ‘Let’s go, preferably before those horses bolt.’
‘Can we sketch him?’ Morgan looked up at Evan, who nodded and hurried off to find his saddlebag. Minutes later, Evan, who had the best drawing skills in the group, set to work quickly sketching the dead man’s face while Duncan rifled through the man’s pockets.
‘This gun is well worn and certainly not all that expensive,’ Elias muttered as he picked the weapon up.
‘This knife isn’t anything out of the ordinary either,’ Zach mused, snapping the flick knife closed and tossing it disinterestedly back onto the ground.
‘He isn’t carrying any money,’ Reuben added.
‘Maybe because it might make noise,’ Jarvis offered. ‘The bastards were quiet. We never heard or saw a damned thing.’
‘I was outside, but even I didn’t hear movement. The only thing that alerted me to their presence was the swaying of the bushes,’ Zach explained. ‘Unfortunately, they had ample time to creep up on us while we were having a briefing. They must have been watching and following us the whole time.’
‘Well, that’s a mistake we won’t make again,’ Al announced coldly. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
‘At least we have a trail to follow,’ Reuben murmured, studying the large patch of blood before ambling off to find another.
‘Can you track him in the dark?’ Elias asked Zach, the group’s most expert tracker.
‘We can try,’ Reuben grinned before sliding a look at Zach. ‘Or, rather, Zach will.’
‘God, you don’t ask for much, do you?’ Zach grumbled but ruined it with a grin. ‘You aren’t content with me killing one of them single-handedly or freeing a sodding herd of horses in the middle of a burning barn. Now you expect me to track the bloody highwaymen in the dark, through the undergrowth for even more of a challenge. Are you going to follow, or do I have to go after them all by myself as well?’
Reuben, unperturbed by Zach’s sarcastic humour, grinned and waved a hand to the empty fields behind the house. ‘Lead on. We will just loiter back here until you have finished.’
Rolling his eyes, Zach went to fetch his horse but already knew that he was going to have to make most of his next journey on foot.
CHAPTER TWO
‘My dear, I do wish you would take Arthur with you. He still has an excellent aim and won’t allow any highwaymen to take advantage of you,’ her father persisted. Despite his pleading tone he glared angrily at his daughter because he didn’t like her defying him. ‘Why do you not listen to me?’
Clarissa dug deep for her patience and forced herself to keep her smile firmly in place. ‘I am listening, father,’ she replied, her tone hardening. ‘Like I have told you before, there is no purpose taking Arthur with me because I already have Frederick. He has an excellent aim as well.’
‘I am sure that Frederick is a fine shot, but I still think you should take Arthur with you,’ her father, Colin, replied.
Clarissa knew that the real reason why her father wanted Arthur to accompany her back to her Aunt Bessie’s house was because he wanted to find a way of visiting Bessie.
Undoubtedly because he wants to try to force me to change my lifestyle again. If he can get an enemy in the camp or, rather, Arthur, he has someone who can watch what we do. I am sure he would find something about our activities he can scorn and use as an excuse to stir up trouble.
‘I don’t see why you could not return home and live here with me again. It is only right and proper that you should be with your real guardian,’ Colin persisted.
Clarissa tugged her gloves on with jerky movements but felt a heavy weight of all too familiar pressure settle over her shoulders. Before he could do something rash like bolt the front door and prevent her from leaving, Clarissa tugged the front door open and stepped outside.
When she spoke, her face was as closed as her voice was clipped and she said: ‘We have already been through this on many occasions, father. I like living with Aunt Bessie. She needs me. You have your parishioners. Besides, I am far too old to need a guardian.’
‘But I am your father.’
‘So?’ Clarissa shrugged. ‘Moving back in here won’t resolve the problems we encountered which made me leave in the first place, will it? Neither of us have really changed.’
She could tell from the way her father’s pale blue eyes turned glacial that she was just annoying him even more, but at least she was on her way home.
‘Arthur can be ready in a thrice,’ Colin persisted as he followed her to the waiting carriage.
Frederick was settling himself on the driver’s seat and busied himself with the reins. He didn’t bother to look at either Arthur or Clarissa for fear of being dragged into their argument. Clarissa knew he was listening to every word, despite having heard this same conversation practically every week since the day Clarissa had moved to live with her aunt over twenty years ago. She didn’t doubt that Frederick would also report what was said to her Aunt Bessie.
I will have to as well because I need to forewarn her that Colin is on the war path again.
Clarissa forced a smile at her father that was fleeting and didn’t meet her eyes. ‘You and I both know that Arthur’s eyesight is not what it used to be. It would be a miracle if he managed to hit the side of this house. Besides, we are going to draw the highwaymen’s attention if he sits on the back with a rifle because we will look like we have something worth protecting.’
‘I would just rest a little more easily in my bed at night if I knew that you were safe at Aunt Bessie’s. You know how inept she can be. She is a fuddle-brained half-wit half the time. How am I to know that you got home safely, or that she can keep you safe?’ Colin moaned.
Clarissa had to take a moment to contain her fury befo
re she turned to glare at her father. It incensed her that after everything her Aunt Bessie had done for her, Colin still had the audacity to criticise his sister. Before she said something that she knew would annoy him, and probably give her father a reason to pressure her to return home again, Clarissa climbed into the carriage but she slammed the door closed behind her with more force than was necessary.
‘You know that Aunt Bessie is not an addle-brained half-wit. She is a very clever lady. She will be beside herself with worry if we don’t return home soon. We must leave now, Colin. Being waylaid like this only increases the likelihood of us being accosted by the highwaymen. The hour is still early enough for us to get home before the highwaymen even leave their homes. We must make use of it. You know as well as I do that the miscreants have struck coaches out on the road far later than seven o’clock. We must go.’
Clarissa lifted the step because her father didn’t think to do so. Before she gave the order to Frederick to leave, she studied her sire one last time, but felt no regret at leaving him. In fact, after their conversation she had to wonder why she bothered to come to see him at all. An air of discord now lay between them which made the several feet of physical distance between them feel considerably wider.
Clarissa had no regrets when she said: ‘Given what is happening with the highwaymen right now, I think it would be best if we forego our weekly dinners. It won’t be for long. It is getting far too dangerous to travel the roads at night.’
