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Closing her eyes, she did her best to focus. The smithy looked like a collection of separate buildings that had been added on, one after another. Sir Samuel?

Yes! “He’s at the far left end of the building.” She gasped as her intuition told her more. “I think there’s going to be an explosion!”

Cameron swore and pivoted to the left, pulling his mount to a halt by the far end of the sprawling building. “Off!” he ordered.

He swung from the saddle, then reached up his hand to help her down. As soon as her feet touched the ground, a deep boom erupted from the end of the last section of the smithy. The windows blew out with a shattering of glass, and flames began flaring inside.

Casey was blasted from her feet by the force of the explosion. Her breathing choked when something large and heavy landed on her. It took a moment for her shaken wits to realize that it wasn’t a piece of wall but a powerful male body protecting her from the debris falling all around them.

As the air cleared, Cameron rolled off her. “Are you all right?” he asked urgently.

She began coughing from the dust she’d inhaled. “Not. Hurt,” she managed to gasp.

He stood and offered a hand to help her to her feet, but his stark gaze was on the ravaged building. “We were too late,” he said bleakly.

She closed her eyes and focused her attention on Sir Samuel Bentham. “I believe he’s still alive! There, I think.” She pointed to the area just to the right of the greatest damage.

“Stay here!” he ordered as he bolted toward the door nearest the blasted section of the building.

Casey followed him toward the shattered building, calling, “But I think I can find him inside!”

“Very well, but be careful!” The door was half off its hinges. Cameron wrenched it open. “Pull your scarf over your mouth.” Yanking his cravat over the lower part of his face, he bent and charged into the damaged building.

Grimly she obeyed and followed him into a scorching chaos of smoke and fire that stung her eyes and choked her breathing. Blinking to clear her vision, she tried to decide which way. No, normal vision wasn’t the way to locate him. She closed her eyes and reached out with her senses to find him.

It took only a moment to sense where Sir Samuel was. She tugged at Cameron’s arm and pointed ahead to the left. Only a dozen steps forward, they discovered his crumpled body. There were no obvious injuries, but he was unconscious. Cameron bent and caught the older man under the arms so he could drag him outside.

Casey was going to lift Sir Samuel’s feet until she saw a small figure sprawled on the floor to her right. Just a boy, probably an apprentice smith. Eyes stinging, she turned back and caught him under the arms as Cameron had done with Sir Samuel and began hauling the boy to the door. The fire was scorching her right side, and she sensed that this whole section of the smithy was about to collapse.

The door was a lighter rectangle ahead. Cameron had managed to get Sir Samuel outside. She felt on the verge of collapse but grimly continued forward. Step by step. Just a few feet more …

She was in the doorway when the building exploded around her. The force of it blasted Casey and the boy out into the yard.

As she lost consciousness, she realized that her clothing was on fire, and she wished despairingly that she remembered how to pray.

CHAPTER 6

Cameron knelt beside Sir Samuel, checking for injuries. His breathing was steady though his clothing was scorched, but his upper left sleeve was saturated with blood. Frowning, Cam used his pocket knife to hack off most of the sleeve at the shoulder so he could examine the damage. The laceration was deep and potentially dangerous, so he used the cut-off shirt sleeve to tie a tight bandage over the wound.

Hearing a second explosion, he looked up to see that Casey had been hurled through the door along with the boy she’d been bringing out—and that her clothing was on fire. He found himself screaming the word NO! He couldn’t lose her now when he’d just found her!

Heart pounding, he leaped to his feet, but by this time the fire and explosions had brought other workers running. Two men pulled Casey and the boy away from the building.

One of the men began tearing off her burning garments. In a matter of moments, her coat and vest and shirt were off—revealing much of her bare female body. Gasps of shock rose from the gathered men. Someone said disbelievingly, “He’s a girl!”

Locking down the fierceness of his emotions, Cam shoved his way through the men surrounding Casey. Dazed and horrified, she tried to cover her bare breasts. Another man had joined the group, and he stared down at her with appalled disbelief. “Mr. Harris?”

She looked up at him, her face turning ash white. “Mr. Norman!”

Cameron dragged off his coat and dropped to his knees so he could wrap the garment around her. Luckily she didn’t seem to have any serious burns, but her expression was devastated as he lifted her in his arms.

As she hid her face against his shoulder, Mr. Norman stammered, “That was very brave, Mr. Harris. Miss Harris. But you can’t possibly continue working for me!”

She began sobbing silently, her face hidden. “I’m sorry,” she managed to say.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Cameron said sharply. “The problem is a world that doesn’t accept the talents of women.”

Mr. Norman frowned. “Who are you?”