arms wide like those of a crucified man. She saw him dragging the weight of his pistol back towards her, and still she could not react, could not take her eyes away.
The second shot hit him so hard, from a low angle, that it almost threw him up onto his feet again, but he collapsed instantly, his back a blasted ruin.
There were no further gunshots. The only sound was the echo and re-echo of the guns, fading and vanishing amongst the trees, and the wretched moaning sounds of the wounded.
Emily found that she could finally draw breath again, but the air she inhaled was choked with cordite and memory. Her hands holding the reins were trembling, and she felt the horse’s terror through the muscles of her legs.
Mr Northway stood up from where he had dropped to one knee to take his final shot into the Ghyer. The two pistols in his hands were smoking like pipes. His expression displayed only mild unhappiness, as the wounded soldier was helped up by his comrade.
There was a tugging at her leg and Emily started suddenly, but it was only her sister. Alice was sobbing, tears coursing down her cheeks, as she tried to bury her face in Emily’s dress.
Grant was across the clearing, checking on the stolen horses without a glance to spare for the fallen men – or for Mr Northway. After so much fury and gunfire, there seemed to be surprisingly few corpses within the clearing. She saw that Griff’s was not one of them. At least three brigands had made off into the trees.
‘It’s all right,’ Emily heard herself saying to Alice, though her head was still ringing from the noise. ‘It’s all over. We can go home now.’ She put a hand protectively on Alice’s head, and then raised the same hand with wonder, seeing it so fouled with grime and oil from the gun.
She heard a horse snort and stamp, and realized Mr Northway was now mounted again. He looked from her to Alice and back. ‘I had better escort you to Grammaine.’
‘Grant knows the way,’ Emily assured him, but Alice sobbed out, ‘Oh please, Mr Northway, please do. I don’t know what we’d have done if you hadn’t come – or what they’d have done to us.’ She raised her tear-streaked face to her sister. ‘I’m so sorry, Emily. I didn’t mean to cause trouble. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.’
You didn’t mean to cause this sort of trouble, anyway. ‘Look, Grant’s bringing over the horses. You had better mount up,’ Emily said.
As Grant helped Alice into the saddle, Emily turned her gaze back onto Mr Northway. ‘I suppose we will be glad of your company on the way back to Grammaine, Mr Northway,’ she said. Then, as soon as Alice was mounted, she turned her horse towards the trees again.
She did her best to ride aloofly at the head of their little procession, but Mr Northway was like her shadow, his horse keeping steady progress at her shoulder until she felt compelled to look back at him.
‘You have some accusations, I think.’ His lipless, sardonic smile had returned.
She had resolved not to speak of it, but his words broke the fragile dam her discretion had built, and out came the words. ‘It was no chance meeting there between you and the Ghyer!’ she spat out.
‘Indeed not.’ His maddening expression did not change.
‘He was expecting you. He knew you.’
‘The Ghyer knew many people, you included,’ Northway observed.
‘But he was expecting you. The very man you came to warn us of– and you have been dealing with him.’
Utterly deadpan, he replied, ‘But as Mayor-Governor it is my job to deal with brigands.’
For a moment she was so angry she could not speak. ‘You were going to . . . treat with him. What was it about? Would you turn a blind eye in exchange for a portion of the man’s gains?’
‘I was going to make terms, Miss Marshwic, and let him know what targets would arouse official ire and which he could attack in safety.’
She stared at him. ‘Mr Northway . . .’ But she fell speechless. What could be said to such an admission?
‘You see here in my company most of the official fighting strength of Chalcaster, Miss Marshwic. The Ghyer had more than ten, all told, though never all assembled in one place. If he decided to declare war on my town, what do you suppose I could do? My job is