Page 69 of Bound to a Wicked Duke

Cecil shook his head. “He did not. The inn has been busy this evening.”

Percy nodded, frowning. “The stable hand said that they have not yet been able to send a man back to help with the carriage. That means we cannot be too terribly far behind.”

Cecil nodded. “Then we should not waste a moment.”

Percy nodded in agreement, and they both mounted their horses. There was a chance, a slim chance, but a chance that they could stop Madeleine from making the worst mistake of her life. There was a chance that they could save her and return her to the family fold before anyone noticed that she was missing. There was a chance that she and Percy could truly be together.

“What is that?” Madeleine asked, slowing her horse so that she could hear better.

“What?” Mowbray looked at her in question, slowing his pace to match hers.

Madeleine strained to hear. The night was quiet, and she thought for a moment that she had imagined it, but then the sound came again. “There! Do you hear that?”

They both turned in the saddle to look behind them. There in the dim waning light of the moon they saw the outline of two riders swiftly moving towards them. “Brigands?” Mowbray asked aloud, fear in his voice. “The driver said that there were brigands on this road.”

“I do not know,” Madeleine shook her head. “Should we hide? Should we run?” She had never been in such a situation before and did not know what to do. Every instinct in her body told her to take some kind of action to protect herself. She was not about to be killed out there on the road in the middle of the night, leaving her family to mourn her loss in dishonor.

“They have clearly seen us. I do not believe that we have any other choice than to run.” Mowbray kicked his horse into action, simultaneously slapping Madeleine’s horse on the rump causing it to leap forward.

They raced north as fast as their horses would go, but no matter how fast that they rode, the riders following them were gaining ground. Madeleine could feel them behind her so strongly that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and a shiver passed down her spine. She looked over her shoulder through the massof hair that had come undone and was streaming in the wind behind her.

“No!” she cried out in alarm at how close they were behind them.

One of the dark figures reached out their hand towards her and her heart raced in panic. She attempted to move her horse off of the road to get away from them, but she was unsuccessful. Within the next moment, she found herself being swept from the back of her horse and into the arms of one of their pursuers. Lashing out, she punched and clawed at the man who had grabbed her.

“Unhand me!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. She plunged her elbow into her attacker’s ribs with all of her strength, knocking the air out of their lungs.

“Madeleine, stop!” Percy’s voice commanded, his arms tightening around her. “You are safe.”

A yelp from Mowbray drew Madeleine’s attention to her left. To her surprise, she found that her brother Cecil had yanked Mowbray out of the saddle and had dumped him on the ground at their horses’ feet. “Percy?” she breathed, looking up into his shadowed face for an answer. “I thought you were leaving England for the continent.”

“I was,” he answered, “but not now.”

“Why are you here?” She felt dazed and confused by all that had just happened.

“We are here to stop you from making the worst decision of your life.”

Madeleine shook her head. “I have no choice. Laura Knight has threatened to bring my family to ruin over what we did in the garden at the ball unless I marry Herbert Mowbray before the dawn. I am running out of time.”

Percy reached up to caress her face. “Lady Laura Knight will not be able to harm anyone ever again where she is going.”

“What do you mean?” Madeleine gazed up at him in wonder, still not entirely convinced that he was there and that he was real, not some figment of her terrified mind.

“Laura Knight murdered Francis and her carriage driver. Lady Laura will most assuredly be hanged or placed into an asylum for the mentally insane at the very least. She can cause you no harm.”

“I am free?” Madeleine breathed with a hopeful sigh.

“You are free,” he confirmed with a tender smile.

“As long as Mowbray here does not talk,” Cecil ground out angrily. “What were you thinking taking my sister?” Cecil kickedout his foot at Mowbray, who staggered to his feet to avoid the blow.

“I was trying to save her reputation!” Mowbray yelped in pain as Cecil’s foot made contact.

Percy set Madeleine on the front of his horse and stepped down onto the ground. He came over to where Mowbray had scrambled and took him up by his shirt. “You are the only one from which she needed to be saved. I should kill you now where you stand.”

“Percy, no,” Madeleine protested, in an effort to restrain his hand. “Lord Mowbray was doing his utmost to assist me. He did not mean me any harm.”

“He is working with Laura Knight,” Percy ground out, not taking his eyes from Mowbray’s face.

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