“Yes she is, and I will not let her go.”
Alex waved the pistol as he walked closer. Judith noticed Dominic slowly sliding off his horse, trying not to be seen. Taking careful steps, he crept through the shadows toward Alex. She prayed Dominic reached him before he shot Trey.
Alex shook his head. “I cannot let you take her. I have gone through a lot in order to make her mine.”
“Yes, I know. You killed her parents.”
She gasped and clutched the back of Trey’s cloak. How did he know? Unless… Was that what he and Dominic talked about this afternoon?
Throwing back his head, Alex laughed. “Exactly, so you know why I cannot leave without her.”
Finally, Alex stopped and aimed the weapon. No longer was his hand shaky. “Give her to me now, or I will kill you, Trey Worthington.”
“Then shoot, you coward, because I will not give her up.”
She sobbed and buried her head against his back. Why did he say that? Dominic wasn’t close enough to Alex to stop him yet.
“As you wish,my lord.” Alex narrowed his gaze on Trey.
“No!” The voice of the stranger shouted in the stillness.
Judith jerked her head up just in time to see him run toward Trey. The pistol fired. Smoke filled the air, and Trey’s body went limp. She screamed.
Chapter Forty-Seven
The force ofthe strange man slamming into Trey’s body caused him to lose his breath. He sagged against Judith who stood behind him. But the bullet didn’t hit him. Instead, the man who’d saved Trey’s life fell to the ground at his feet, clutching his shoulder. Trey glanced up in time to see Nic’s pistol fire and Alex crumble to the dirt in a motionless heap.
Hawthorne looked his way. “Are you all right?”
Trey nodded. “The bullet hit this man, instead.”
Judith sobbed and wrapped her arms around Trey. He pulled her to his chest and she clung to his shirt. Burying his face in her hair, he held her tight. “I’m all right,” he whispered.
Nic ran closer to kneel beside the stranger who’d taken the bullet. “I think he’s still alive.”
Trey pulled away from Judith and crouched beside the unconscious man, rolling him from his side to his back. Blood coated the stranger’s shoulder and down his arm.
“We have to stop the bleeding,” Nic said.
Judith stepped beside Trey and lifted her gown, showing her petticoats. “Use this.”
Trey took the bottom hem and ripped a long strip while Nic removed the man’s filthy coat.
“Who is he?” he asked Judith.
“I don’t know, but he knows me somehow.”
Trey looked up at her. “He does?”
“Yes, but only when I was a young girl. He does not know his name. He says he has a head injury and does not remember anything.”
Not much light shone on them from the half moon, and Trey couldn’t see the man’s face very well. With all the hair covering his features, it was hard to detect anything. Trey concentrated on bandaging the man’s arm, hoping it would stop the flow of blood.
As Nic finished removing the man’s shirt, the stranger’s arm fell across his chest.
“Look!” Nic shook his head and pointed to a ring on the man’s finger. “Trey, isn’t that—”
Gasping, Trey ignored his bandaging and lifted the stranger’s hand.
