The Colonel's Spinster - Audrey Harrison Page 0,69

other, she jumped in alarm at the first sound of smashing glass. The voices had risen shortly beforehand, and she knew without doubt that the situation had changed.

Choking back a sob of fear, not for herself, but that her father and two of his loyal workers were amongst whatever was going on, she started to search her father’s drawers.

Surprised but pleased, she found a gun tucked away in the bottom drawer of his desk. With shaking hands she managed to load the gun and prime it, before looking out the window once more.

Not able to see enough of what was happening, she took up a place behind her father’s chair and waited.

Time seemed to slow down, but moment after moment seemed to bring the noise of the destruction ever closer. Voices rose and cried out, but nothing was clear to her. She had never felt so out of control of events in her life, and she just hoped that no one would think of starting a fire.

If they did, all hope would be lost, for she would never get out of the building alive. Yet, she knew that for the present, being behind a locked door was safer than trying to make her escape.

Hearing footsteps running outside the office, she stood straighter and pointed the gun at the door. Wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead before putting her other hand on the gun to steady it, she silently cursed herself for her feebleness. She was descended from tough, hard-working stock. She would not allow fear to overtake her.

Standing still, she watched the door.

The rattle of the doorknob made her swallow.

“Prudence, are you inside?” Fitzwilliam shouted from beyond the door.

“Fitzwilliam!” Prudence cried, hardly able to believe whose voice was calling to her.

“Yes! It is I! Open the door!” Fitzwilliam demanded.

Prudence put the gun onto the desk and ran to the door. Flinging the wooden structure open, she did not wait for Fitzwilliam to enter the room but fell into his arms.

Fitzwilliam staggered a little at the force with which she flung herself at him, but he wrapped one arm around her, keeping his sword out of the way with his other. Kissing her hair, he squeezed her tightly.

“I thought they might have reached you. I feared you’d been discovered,” he said into her hair. “I wanted to kill everyone in that yard to get to you.”

Prudence laughed with a sob in her voice. “I wanted to leave but I’d promised Papa. Have you seen him?” Keeping her arms around his neck she pulled back a little to look him in the eye.

“He’s downstairs. He has been hurt, but he is alive,” Fitzwilliam said. There was no point in hiding the truth from her, having no idea how Mr. Bamber was.

“No! I must go to him!” Prudence said, rushing into the office and grabbing the gun.

“And what do you think you are going to do with that?” Fitzwilliam could not stop the twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

“It is in case anyone gets in our way,” Prudence answered.

“Give it to me. I think I will feel safer knowing my hands are shaking a little less than yours.”

“Beast.” Prudence handed Fitzwilliam the gun. Her hands were indeed still shaking, and she would more than likely have shot herself in the foot than injured anyone else, but it did not lessen the urge to see her father.

“Keep behind me,” Fitzwilliam instructed as they started to move across the loom floor.

“Is there much destruction?” Prudence asked as they walked.

“I don’t know. I think a lot of windows have been broken, but it does not matter. Material things can be replaced. You and your father are all that matter to me.”

His words warmed her insides, which had been chilled throughout her ordeal. She positioned herself so he shielded her, her hand on his shoulder so he knew she was there. They walked outside in their odd convoy, Fitzwilliam pushing away anyone who dared to come near him. Having his sword in one hand and a pistol in the other tended to put most people off. They veered around him.

As he approached the gate, he breathed a relieved sigh that there were two more cavalry officers in the gate area of the mill. He called to them, and they looked in surprise at him.

“Preparing for a real battle?” one of the men asked when seeing how he was armed.

“The mill owner has been injured, and his daughter was trapped in the mill,” Fitzwilliam explained, tucking