A Stranger at Castonbury - By Amanda McCabe Page 0,77
she could catch him off guard she could knock him to the ground, leaving Jamie free to deal with Webster. But as she took a step towards him, the gun suddenly swung up and pointed at her face.
‘Don’t—don’t come near me!’ the footman screamed.
‘Catalina,’ she heard Jamie shout. He dragged her down just as a deafening explosion went off. The flames behind them crackled higher, and Jamie threw her to the ground, his own body over hers.
‘Jamie! Are you shot?’ She ran her hands desperately over his back and shoulders, searching for any wounds. She felt his breath on her skin, steady and warm.
‘It’s not me,’ he said roughly as he pushed himself up over her. ‘For God’s sake, woman, what were you thinking, moving towards him like that? He could have killed you!’
‘I thought I could distract him.’ Catalina peered over Jamie’s shoulder to see that it was the footman who had been shot. A pool of dark red blood spread over his chest as he toppled to the ground.
Webster still held the smoking pistol levelled in his hand. He shook his head with a horrible calm. ‘That was regrettable, wasn’t it? He was a useful ally for a time, but he was obviously losing his nerve.’
He tossed away the empty pistol and drew out a dagger. As he took a step towards them, Jamie jumped to his feet and pulled Catalina up with him. He gave her a hard push and told her, ‘Run, Catalina, now!’
She did as he told her—she ran. But she didn’t go far. She could never leave Jamie. She snatched up the footman’s gun from where it had fallen on the ground and dashed to the edge of the clearing, where she took what shelter she could behind a tree and tried to get a clear shot at Webster.
He and Jamie circled each other warily, their intent stares never wavering from each other. The glare from the fire glinted off the knives in their hands as Catalina’s heart pounded with fear.
Suddenly, Webster lunged forward with his blade raised to strike. He let out a crazed, furious shout, but Jamie just slid agilely to the side. Jamie parried with his own dagger and drove Webster back.
And he kept driving him back, until he landed a strike on Webster’s arm, raising a line of blood on his sleeve. With a cry, he lashed out hard with his foot to kick Jamie on his bad leg and sent him falling to the ground with a sickening thud.
Catalina cried out, but Jamie seized Webster’s wounded arm as he went down and dragged him along. They grappled heavily in the damp dirt, and Catalina couldn’t see clearly what was happening. She heard grunts and dull thuds, barely audible over the crackle of the flames.
Webster’s arm arced back to deliver a killing blow. Seeing the tip of the blade come to within an inch of Jamie’s face, she screamed. But the sound strangled in her throat as Jamie twisted his assailant’s arm sharply and pushed him off.
It was a horribly confusing scene in the firelight, a tangle of limbs and strikes and shouts. She couldn’t see who was where, or get any kind of clear shot.
She fell to her knees with a frustrated sob just as Jamie’s dagger thrust upwards and landed deep in Webster’s chest. He fell face-first as Jamie rolled away, and then he was very still.
Jamie lurched to his feet to stare down at his fallen enemy, the man who had given them so much trouble. He carefully turned Webster over with his boot, and Catalina could see that he was truly dead. His eyes stared up at the night sky, glassy and sightless in the red light.
Jamie’s face was completely blank, no triumph or fear written there. Catalina dropped the heavy gun she held and ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his shoulder and held on to him as close as she could. He was alive! They were alive, and together at last. It hardly seemed possible after all that had happened.
But then she felt something warm and sticky on her skin, and swayed with a rush of dizziness. She suddenly remembered the blow to her head which she had forgot in the fight; it came back to her with a wave of cold nausea.
‘Catalina!’ she heard Jamie shout about the snap of the flames. Then she fell down into blackness.