‘You don’t think they’ll find it odd that I died in a fire with a pistol ball in me?’
Montfort snorted. ‘That’s assuming there’s enough of you left for them to find.’
Ash gathered himself to rush Montfort. At the very least he’d be a moving target in very poor light....
* * *
Terror coursed through Maddy. Ash. Oh, God. Ash! She pressed against the wall beside the door, cold all over as she listened, hanging on to Ketch. Low growls sounded in the dog’s throat and his hackles were up.
One shot. Unless he had a second pistol, Edward had only one shot, and she’d be damned if she’d let him murder Ash. A distraction—she needed to distract him...
Please, God...
She stepped out into the hall. ‘Edward!’
Both men whipped around.
‘Maddy! Get back!’
Ash’s voice rang out, but the pistol was no longer aimed at him, and Maddy released her death grip on Ketch’s collar. ‘Take!’
Ketch hurtled low across the hall in a blur of movement and sprang in silent fury. The pistol roared as Edward went down under the dog’s weight, the ball smashing into the doorway beside Maddy. Splinters flew, stinging her cheek.
Ignoring that, she ran forward, grabbed the crossed swords down from the wall beside the fire, shaking them free of the holly. ‘Ash! Here!’ She flung one sword, hilt first, and he snatched it from mid-air.
Ash breathed again. He wasn’t sure he’d ever stop shaking after seeing Montfort’s pistol trained on Maddy, but at least he was armed now. He advanced to where Montfort was curled in a ball, arms over his head, protecting his throat from the dog.
‘Call the brute off! Call him off!’
‘Lie still, Edward, and I’ll call him off,’ snapped Maddy, coming up, sword at the ready. ‘But I warn you—if you try anything else I’ll set him on you again.’
‘Please! Ow!’ Ketch had found an opening and bitten an ear.
‘Ketch! Enough. Sit and guard.’
Clearly reluctant, the dog released his quarry and sat, still growling.
Montfort started to sit up, but cringed back when he found Ash’s sword at his throat. Ketch lunged, snapping.
‘Sit.’
The dog sat again on Maddy’s command, still growling.
Ash, keeping the point of his sword against Montfort’s flesh, asked, ‘Will he obey me?’
‘Who? Ketch?’ said Maddy. ‘I don’t know. Why?’
‘Because I want you to fetch the men.’ He wanted her away from Montfort. Safe.
‘Oh.’ Maddy smiled. ‘Well, if Edward does try to get up, Ketch will take him down again whether I’m here or not. But I don’t know if he’ll obey if you try to call him off.’
‘That,’ said Ash, in savage satisfaction, ‘doesn’t really matter.’
‘What in the world—?’
Maddy looked around to see Bets and Cally standing in the doorway that led out to the old garde tower.
‘Why,’ said Bets, ‘that’s ’is lordship! And what’s that stink of lamp oil?’
* * *
‘You bloody little idiot!’ snarled Ash, his face white in the fire’s glow as he slammed the bedchamber door behind them half an hour later and rounded on her. ‘Walking in like that when the bastard was armed! What the hell were you thinking?’
Maddy glared at him. ‘That he was going to shoot you!’
Ketch, who had followed them in, made for the bed and slunk under it.
Ash said a couple of words she’d never heard.
‘Instead, he nearly shot you!’ he went on. ‘What do you—? Damn it!’ His voice changed. ‘Your cheek—there’s blood on it!’
Maddy became aware that her left cheek really did sting. She raised a hand to it, surprised. ‘Oh. Splinters, I think. The ball hit the door.’
Ash reached her, caught her chin in one shaking hand and turned it. His mouth was a grim line. ‘Yes, splinters.’
Maddy let out a breath. ‘Well. Nothing to worry about, then.’
His hand tightened on her. ‘It could have been your eye, and it could still fester! I should put you over my knee and spank you. I told you to stay back with Ketch.’
She lifted her chin. ‘You said we were the reserves.’
‘What?’
His eyes bored into her, but she held her ground. ‘In case the first plan didn’t work.’ She fixed him with a glare. ‘And it didn’t. If you even had a plan. He had only one shot, so I thought we had a chance if I could distract him. Hopefully waste the shot.’
His mouth flattened. ‘You were nearly killed! What the hell did I matter? Sit down while I get the splinters out.’
She sat and he lit every candle in the room, banishing darkness and fear. They were safe. Edward was locked up in the root cellar, with a single blanket and no light and two men on guard. Given that he had tried to burn the house down, his plea for a candle had been dismissed. He would be taken to a magistrate in the morning.
Ash found a cloth, heated water over the fire and dabbed carefully at her cheek. She sat very still, trying not to wince as he searched for splinters in grim silence.
* * *
Ash could barely speak for remembering the sickening swoop of terror as Montfort’s pistol had swung towards Maddy. Knowing he couldn’t reach Montfort in time, believing she was going to die.
At last he spoke. ‘I’m not saying your plan wasn’t a good one,’ he said, each word feeling as though it had been ripped from him. ‘But you still shouldn’t have done it.’
If a junior officer had handled himself like that in action, coming up with a spur-of-the-moment diversion and counterattack to save a comrade, he’d be commending the young idiot.
But Maddy wasn’t a junior officer. She was his wife, and he’d thought she was about to die. He eased his fingertips over her cheek, searching. All the splinters seemed to be gone.
‘Can you feel anything?’ he asked.
What he could feel, tearing at his heart, was a damn sight worse than splinters. He’d have to get used to it because, no matter how painful, he couldn’t imagine not loving her.
She shook her head. ‘I think you got them all. And, for what it’s worth, you do matter. To me.’ She met his gaze. ‘You can be as cross as you like, but I’d do it again.’
He groaned, drew her into his arms. ‘I know you would. And it terrifies me. What the hell would you have done if you hadn’t had the dog with you?’ He shuddered, glancing at Ketch under the bed. A tail thumped. ‘No. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.’
Twelfth Night
Supper was over, the household had retired for the night and Ash stood, his arm about Maddy, watching the fire blazing in the hearth of the hall. The remnant of the Yule log had been removed and quenched. It was set safely aside to light next Christmas. Yet the fire still burned—and