Page 80 of Her Wicked Highwayman
Uncle Ashton’s face went white as he stared at Isla and Rosalind. “I...” Whatever it was he wanted to say to her, he couldn’t finish it.
“Where would he go? Why did he leave?” Nanny asked him.
“The letter is damnably vague on those points...” Uncle Ashton sank into his chair and buried his face in his hands. Isla pulled free of Rosalind and hurried over to her uncle, setting a hand on his knee.
“Mayhap Papa’s friends know where he is?”
Ashton looked up. “Will and Caspian?”
Isla nodded.
“Kitten, you’re bloody brilliant.” Ashton kissed her forehead and rushed from the room, leaving Rosalind to be in charge.
“Mrs. Chesterfield, wake everyone up and have the cook prepare some food and brew some tea.” Rosalind stopped by the bassinet near her bed and kissed her child’s head before adjusting his blankets. “Ashton will need to be ready for whatever we must do.”
Diana sawa group of riders coming toward her in the distance. Dawn was an hour away, and the skies were a faint purple at the edge of the horizon. There was enough light for her to see the horses as they thundered toward her, but not enough to know whether to expect friend or foe. When they were close enough to be recognized, a sob of relief choked her throat.
It was Lord Lennox, followed by three other men. She halted her horse upon the road and waited for them to reach her.
“Diana?” Ashton gasped. He slowed his horse, causing it to snort and toss its head. “We feared something had happened to you. Where is Rafe?”
She glanced at the riders behind him: Brock Kincade, the intimidating Scottish brother-in-law, and two other men Diana thought looked familiar but could not place. One was fair-haired and the other dark. Each wore a worried look as they waited for her to speak.
“Lord Caddington kidnapped me, and Rafe exchanged his life for mine.” Diana pointed back the way she’d come. “We must hurry. Caddington will kill him!”
Ashton nodded and she turned her horse back down the path. Now she led the charge to Caddington’s home. She’d been afraid they would ask a thousand questions, questions she didn’t have time to answer truthfully, but Lord Lennox had trusted her brief statement and followed her.
For the first time in the last hour she had hope, feeble though it was. She couldn’t get the image of that whip striking Rafe’s back out of her mind, nor could she stop reliving the moment when he’d removed the mask.Rafe and Tyburn.The two men she loved were one and the same. She hadn’t been angry with him, nor did she feel betrayed, no matter what that devil Caddington had tried to convince Rafe of. She had been relieved, even overjoyed at that moment, only to become terrified when she realized she was going to lose both of them.
He won’t die, he wouldn’t dare.
She tried to argue with herself, but she had seen that he’d given up when Phelps had been given the order to kill her. He couldn’t know she was still alive, and if he didn’t... Surely he wouldn’t give up on her and his daughter like that. He’d made it clear while courting her that she had become his world, that he had nothing left but her and Isla to fight for...
She turned back from the dark path where those thoughts were leading her, and suddenly tears blurred her vision too much for her to see the road ahead of her. Her horse was lathered with sweat and foam dripped from its mouth as they reached the gates of Caddington’s home. As they approached the house, she jerked the reins, halting her horse, and threw herself from the saddle so fast she nearly tripped over her torn skirts.
Ashton and the others were on her heels, pistols raised as they entered the house, expecting trouble. Phelps’s body lay where she’d left it. His dead eyes stared into nothing, the tapestry still partially draped over him.
Lord Lennox looked between Diana and the body of the man she’d killed, his brows raised in a silent question.
“He tried to kill me—” Diana pointed to the pistol that lay abandoned on the floor. “But I was quicker.”
One of the men who had come with Lord Lennox and Brock looked around with uncertainty. “Where is everyone?”
“Yes, it’s far too quiet,” the other man agreed.
“Aye.” Brock passed the stairs, his pistol still ready.
“Before I left the house, I told the servants to flee. It seems that they did.”
They searched the hall, and Diana caught sight of a body that hadn’t been there when she’d fled.
“No,” she whispered, her heart suddenly freezing. “No . . . no . . .”
“Rafe!” Lord Lennox bellowed as he ran to his brother’s body. Rafe’s back was slashed to ribbons. The sight turned Diana’s stomach so violently she nearly tossed her accounts.
Lord Lennox turned Rafe onto his side, and Rafe’s closed eyes fluttered.
“He’s alive!” Lord Lennox said. “Thank God. Rafe, damn you, hold on.” Lennox glanced around. “We need to bind his back, to stem the bleeding as much as possible. Will, go to the stables and see if they have a wagon we can use to transport him home. Brock, ride for the doctor in the village at once. Have him meet us there.”
