Rob was already halfway down the path, having lost all patience. He needed facts, and his men damned well better have them. And Lucy.
He hit the barnyard at a dead run and skidded to a stop at the sight of Corporal Goodfellow and Martin Abbott lifting the lifeless body of Lieutenant Robbins from the bed of a farm wagon. He opened his mouth to ask what happened just as Goody shifted to the ground, and Rob saw what had been hidden behind him. Lucy, covered in blood and slumped against the side of the wagon.
To his right, Gibbons spoke, but Rob didn’t turn, nor did he make out the words. He leapt onto the back of the wagon and knelt next to Lucy. The urge to grab her into his arms warred with common sense.What if she’s injured?
“Rob, thank God,” she said, and she began to shake as if she had been holding herself together and could now fall apart.
“You’re injured.” He tried to move her to search for the source of the bleeding.
“No, no. It isn’t my blood.” She reached for him, and he sat down on the bloodstained planks to pull her into his arms. She clung to him like a limpet, beginning to weep. “Robbins,” she sobbed.
Rob looked over at Gibbons, who held two saddled horses. Robbins had been laid out on the ground, and Agnes attempted to pull a sheet around him. Gibbons nodded at the corporal who rose from the side of the dead man to stand at the end of the wagon.
“Miller,” Goody said, horror giving his voice unfamiliar depth. “Miss Whitaker went off toward that high ridge to look for missing sheep, and Lieutenant Robbins followed.” He looked apologetically at Lucy. “We couldn’t leave you unprotected like that, ma’am,” he said. “So, when he wasn’t back, I followed, too.”
“Tell me.” Rob held Lucy close as her storm of sobs subsided.
“When I found the lady, she was coming down the hill carrying a lamb. You know that ridge, sir. Boulders and scrub.”
“Places to hide,” Rob said, picturing it.
“I didn’t see Miller, and he must not have seen me, because he had her quick as a wink, then Robbins—” Goodfellow swallowed hard, grappling for control.
Lucy spoke up, lifting her head from Rob’s shoulder. “Miller clamped one arm around my throat and started to pull me up hill. I tried to go slack, but I couldn’t breathe. When I kicked him, he hit me with his pistol.”
Rob felt her hair until he found the lump. She shuddered. “Miller threw that poor lamb down the ridge,” she cried.
“Robbins?” Rob asked, his words for Goodfellow, but his eyes never left Lucy.
Goodfellow took up the story. “I didn’t see him either at first, but he must have come up the other side because, before I could move, he leapt down from above, tackled Miller, and tried to grab the pistol. I ran up the hill, but I had no safe shot and… It happened so fast, and—” The man fought for composure.
“The gun went off.” Rob, watching Goodfellow closely, didn’t make it a question.
“Robbins pushed me free,” Lucy whispered, sitting up and pulling away. Rob tugged her back.
“Did you get him?” Rob demanded.
Goodfellow shook his head morosely. “He ran. My shot missed. I started to follow, but I couldn’t leave Miss Whitaker.”
“Goody brought me down here to gather a search party. We had to leave Robbins on the ridge.” Her voice had wavered.
Rob glanced at Gibbons. “I repeat. Did you get him?”
“Goody and I followed a bit of trail over the ridge, but he disappeared into the neighboring estate.”
“Caulfield Hall.”
“Aye.”
What was the wagon doing with a search party, and what was Lucy doing in it if Goodfellow brought her down to safety? “Do I understand that you came back here to fetch a wagon. Then you went back to fetch Robbins?”
Gibbons shifted uneasily, and Lucy stood up. Goodfellow took her hand before she could jump down.
Rob had a sick feeling. “Gibbons, you were saying…”
“I told Miss Whitaker not to follow us, but I turned around, and she and Abbott had the wagon halfway up the path. She tended to his body and then waited for us to ride back and load the wagon.”
Rob jumped from the wagon and confronted Lucy. “You realize you forced them to cut the search short because you foolishly endangered yourself.”
