“Why do you want to find her?” the young man who’d stepped forward called out. “What do you mean to do to her.”
“I don’t mean her any harm,” Michael told them quickly. Time was running out. She was getting away. “Her father hired me to keep an eye on her. From what I was told, Croydon needs some law and order. I can keep them. I know how to do it, and I will, but I can’t go back and tell the duke I lost his daughter. He’ll kick me out on my ass.”
“She rode west.”
“Liam!” the older man scolded. “We do not aid strangers who seek to find her.”
Liam turned his gray-blue eyes to his companion. “You said it yourself, Sir, the roads are becoming more dangerous day by day. This man is willing to do something. I will not let our cowardice stop him.”
“Come with me,” he motioned for Michael to come. “We’ll need horses. I can track her.”
As he hurried back to the stable, Michael called out for two men to help Colin inside the mill.
He had a chance. He had a horse. And he had an escort, one who knew how to track. Talk was sparse for a while, both of them comfortable in the searching silence.
They finally found her about twenty minutes in, though Michael had no Apple watch to tell.
He didn’t want to come upon her right away but rather, watch her and see where she was heading. Liam agreed to help, though Michael hadn’t asked for it. They let her ride forward and tailed her from about a quarter of a mile away.
“What should I call you?” Liam asked him as they rode. “Constable? Are you the new Governor?”
“Michael. Michael is fine.”
Michael was quiet for another thirty feet. Then he asked, “Why did you defy your friend and call out?”
Liam shrugged his broad shoulders. “It was the right thing to do. I know how dangerous it has become to travel anywhere. People cannot get food in some places. Once they are on the road, they are game for the thieves. No one will step up to help. Everyone is afraid.”
Hearing this made Michael angry. “Who or what are they afraid of?”
“No one knows. Anytime someone seeks justice from one of them, the victim turns up dead. His family sometimes dies with him. None of the thieves have been caught or killed. You are the first man to capture one of them.”
Michael wasn’t afraid. He was challenged to make this right. Get rid of the Horsemen first and then whoever leads the thieves. The prisoner would need to be interrogated then. Michael knew how to do this, too. For now, though, he kept his gaze on the long, dark locks bouncing down Miss Whimsey’s back as she rode away.
Madly, he wanted to smile or smirk at her attempts to escape him. She kept him on his toes, his mind alert and focused. He liked it. He thought less about other things like Clements and Kelly and his brother…and a sixteen-year-old kid.
She turned a bend in the road and Michael and Liam couldn’t see her. Michael sped up his horse and didn’t see the two riders coming at them from the right.
Chapter Seven
Michael had toleap from his saddle to avoid being cut in half by a swinging blade. He was going to have to learn how to fight with a sword! The rider came around again. Michael was ready and waiting for him. He leaped at the assailant before the man had time to position his sword for a strike. He grabbed at his ankle and calf and dragged the man off the horse. Next, rid him of his weapon. After a right hook to his nose that left it broken and bleeding, Michael kicked the hilt of the sword out of the man’s useless hand, but the assailant had another, smaller knife. He came at Michael with it. Michael retrieved the sword and drove it deep into his opponent’s belly. He turned quickly to see how Liam was doing.
The young man had managed to avoid getting killed and fought off his assailant with double-fisted punches to the face and chest. Ah, a brawler. Michael wanted to smile.
His opponent went down, throwing himself down on a knife he held in his hand.
Liam turned to offer Michael a bloody smile.
“What now?” Liam asked, swiping his sleeve across his mouth.
“We get them back to the mill.”
“We should leave them here,” Liam told him. “Someone will come for them. ’Tis what the Horsemen do with thieves and killers. You go and get Miss Whimsey. We will meet up later.”
Michael took one of the thieves’ pistols. It had one bullet in it. Liam took the other. Michael thought it odd that he liked two people in one day. But it was good because he was going to need help at this, and Liam and Colin seemed to be perfect.
He didn’t want to think about the future plans he was making here. His life was in the twentieth-first century. This was all temporary until he found a way back.
At the next bend, he sped up his horse and came upon her.
