A Bride for the Prizefighter - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,128

pointed out.

It suddenly struck Mina this was an excellent suggestion. She could not slow them down any more than if she made them carry her dead weight. And why should she aid them when every step drew her ever closer to her demise? Taking her cue from Gus, she swayed and then dropped like a stone onto the rough track they were following.

“I told ye, ye young jackanapes!” Gus said roughly. “Now look what ye’ve done!”

“Me?” Reuben carped back at him. “How’s this my doing, I’d like to know?”

“Because ye bloody near caved her head in this morning, that’s why! Bloody idiot!”

At this a loud, clear voice rang out. “Halt in the name of the law!” and all hell broke loose.

Mina rolled into a ball at the sound of a gunshot and only the fact she was gagged prevented her from screaming. She fancied it was Reuben who had fired, and now another gun made reply from elsewhere.

“Hold hard, you fool. You’ll give them our location!” Gus swore as Mina scrabbled about on the floor, trying to roll to her knees. She would not put it past Reuben to turn his pistol on her, so strong was his dislike and her first instinct was to try and get as far from him as possible. Luckily, he was darting this way and that, peering wildly into the darkness as though to pierce the shadows for their attackers. Very likely, he still thought her unconscious.

Feeling deafened, Mina managed to find her feet and stagger back until she hit a convenient boulder, which she made haste to scramble around her abductors were distracted. She had just taken another step backwards when two arms closed about her and a hand clamped across her mouth.

She rolled her eyes, trying to see who this newcomer was, when she heard him swear to find her already gagged. At the sound of his voice, she sagged with relief, for it was Nye. She could have cried if she hadn’t been so paralyzed with fear. Before she knew it, she was scooped up and borne a few feet away behind some gorse bushes. Even as Nye set her down, she heard Reuben’s bellow of fury at finding she had gone.

“Where is she? I’ll kill her! I’ll kill her!” he roared.

“Untie her—check her wounds,” Nye said in a furious undertone, and Mina perceived he had handed her into the care of Edward Herney.

She made a muffled attempt to warn Nye and would have grabbed at him to stay him if it were not for her bonds. She made a sound of distress in her throat as Herney fumbled to open his penknife to free her.

“Be calm now, Mrs. Nye,” he tried to soothe her, but Mina paid him no heed for she could hear shouting and scuffling down on the beach. Her ears craned for another gun shot and when she heard two more shots in quick succession she flinched and turned so fast she almost fell.

“Nay, I’ll cut you if you can’t keep still,” Herney reproached her in the ominous silence.

“Herney?” called a voice. “Herney? Do you have her?”

To her surprise, Mina found she recognized that voice. It was Guthrie, the younger Riding Officer from St Ives.

“Aye sir,” Herney responded. “Though I have not managed to free her yet, poor lady.”

“Step forward, I say! Bring forth the woman!” called another voice arrogantly. That would be Havilland, Mina realized recognizing the voice of the older and far less agreeable officer.

“Yes sir,” Herney called out and apologizing to Mina, he took her about the waist and lifted her out to where a semi-circle of uniformed men who seemed to belong to the local militia were stood brandishing lamps and swords. There must be eight of them, Mina thought blankly, staring about her. Then she noticed the dark heap on the ground. It was Reuben.

Gus was kneeling nearby, very pale, his eyes squeezed shut and blood pouring from his shoulder. Her eyes scanned the company with painful anxiety for her husband. At last she hit on him, stood with his hands behind him and a rifle pointed to his middle-back. He stared stoically into the distance and did not meet her eye. He was under arrest, she realized despairingly.

“Look out!” shouted Officer Guthrie, hurrying forward then Mina’s whole world slipped sideways, and everything turned black.

22

“There now, poor thing,” crooned a voice near Mina’s ear and she caught a whiff of sal volatile under her nose. Twisting away from it, she opened her