As he was facing off with Flavian, it was the distraction that Fleur needed to whip up her sword and slice the hand that held the weapon. With a cry of pain, Daniel dropped the pistol. As it clattered to the floor, Flavian snatched it and then brought the hilt of the weapon down on Daniel’s temple. He instantly crumpled to the floor.
“Dear God, did you?—”
“He’ll live,” Flavian muttered. “But just have one helluva headache when he wakes up.”
Armed with their prospective weapons, they left the cottage.
* * *
“Doyou think she stayed in the carriage?” Avalon whispered to Drake as they kept close to the wall of the pub and inched along the shadows, alert for danger.
“Not a chance.”
Drake would have been surprised if she had actually done one thing he’d ever told her, but other than obeying him in the bedchamber, she was sadly too stubborn to listen to him otherwise.
His jaw clenched as he thought of what she might be doing in that moment. He prayed it was nothing too bothersome that it might get her into trouble, but while his chest clutched with fear at the idea of anything befalling her, he had to admit that she had the fortitude to withstand most anything. She wasn’t some simpering miss who expected to be saved. She was quite capable of looking out for herself and he was grateful for her intelligence in strained situations. It was one reason he’d taken her to that fight the first night they were together in London. He wanted to see how she might handle herself and he had been pleasantly surprised to find that she hadn’t crumpled at the first sight of blood.
Lost to his thoughts, Drake made the worst mistake he could have done. He allowed inattention to distract him long enough to find himself in turmoil.
A brief scuffle behind him had Avalon lying on the ground and a pistol pointed at Drake’s head. Elijah’s lips curled in contempt as he faced off against him. “I don’t know how you manage it, but you simply won’tdie.”
Elijah’s blond hair was plastered to his head, his eyes flat. He had always had an air of insanity around him, but at that moment he looked completely mad. “Reynolds,” Drake drawled.
The other man spat at him. “I curse the day you were ever born for treating my sister the way you did. You killed her as surely as if you had pulled the trigger on this gun and ended her life.”
“I wasn’t responsible for anything,” Drake said calmly. “She made her choices. Unfortunately, they were the wrong ones.”
Elijah’s hand gripped his pistol tighter. “You’re wrong!”
“I am sorry things ended the way they did,” Drake admitted. “But there was no one to blame for Elina’s demise but herself. Her disease affected her mind. No one could have saved her from her fate.”
“Lies! It’s your fault she’s dead!” Elijah let out a roar of denial and took a step closer. He cocked the hammer and narrowed his eyes.
Looking up at the heaven full of twinkling stars, Drake exhaled slowly and thought of Fleur. He had already been convicted of a crime he hadn’t committed, but his past actions had condemned him. He shouldn’t be so calm as he faced the end of a barrel, but he had never really cared if he lived or died. He had made so many mistakes that he might never try to atone for them all. At least he could die knowing that Fleur was safe. The thought of losing her was too much to bear. It was as if someone was strangling him, slowly choking the air out of him whenever he imagined it. Death would be a blessing for him if she didn’t live to see another sunrise.
“Drop it.”
He didn’t have to turn his head to see who was addressing Reynolds. He would know that angelic voice anywhere.
He saw the sword aimed at Elijah from where he stood, the ominous silver blade prepared to run him through if he didn’t comply with her demands.
As the pistol wavered, Drake murmured, “I would do as the lady says. She doesn’t seem like the type to take such a warning lightly.”
He could tell that Elijah was reconsidering his odds but just as he was about to make the choice that would decide his fate, a pistol cocked behind Fleur. “I hate that it has come to this, but where I failed to protect my sister, I must protect our brother. Hand me your sword.Slowly.”
The new danger caused Drake to turn his head to look at the stablemaster. Daniel’s head was trickling blood where he’d been struck in the temple. He would have chuckled had the situation not been so dire, considering the last time he’d seen this man he had just struck him a blow similar to the one he had now.
And then his attention turned to Fleur and what he saw in her gaze caused his blood to run cold. He shook his head slightly, a warning that he hoped she might heed. If she would give their reinforcements a bit more time to get into position…
“Now!”
He uttered a curse as she shouted the order and Flavian sprang into action. He tackled Daniel to the ground while she sliced her sword through the air. Elijah was taken off guard, but he had enough wherewithal to fire the weapon.
Something struck Drake with a searing pain that sent him to his knees.
Fleur screamed and suddenly, all hell broke loose.
As Drake blinked in an attempt to regain his equilibrium, Avalon abruptly put Reynolds in a headlock as the rest of the Blue Boys arrived with the local magistrate. While Flavian had done rather well in subduing the stablemaster, he was soon clapped in irons. The same went for Elijah once Avalon had released the chokehold he’d put on him.
