Page 62 of Her Wicked Highwayman
“Oxford! Grab the money box!” Rafe shouted to Will, who was closest to the open coach doors.
Will ducked inside the coach and retrieved a box about a foot and a half long. Caspian helped him carry it to the horses and secure it to the back of Will’s saddle.
The wounded guard spat at Rafe from where he knelt, clutching his injured leg. “You killed him!” He pointed a finger at the man lying face down in the mud. The man Rafe had shot in the back. “You’ll hang for this!”
“Someday. But not today,” Rafe said coldly. He felt little sympathy for any man who willingly worked for someone like Caddington. He returned to his horse and mounted up. He met Will and Caspian in the woods a safe distance away.
“Take the money to Lennox House. Hide it in the stables until we can sort all this out. Tell Rosalind anything you like about how I invited you to stay at the house.”
“What about you?” Caspian asked.
“I’m going after those fools. I need to warn them off. We got lucky. With Caddington setting traps like this, they’ll likely get killed next time. I won’t have that on my conscience.”
“Be careful,” Will said.
“I will.” Rafe then turned his horse westward.
It wasn’t long before he picked up the trail of the other three highwaymen. In their haste to flee and their need to see their wounded man home, they had ridden together in a straight line directly away from the coach. The rain would wash away their trail in a few hours, but Rafe had enough knowledge of the area to determine the route they were taking. Once he had them in sight, he kept his distance to avoid detection. Trailing them to a wooded area, he gave pause once he realized exactly where he was.
He was on land abutting Foxglove.
Hellfire.Diana had dangerous men living near her. What if those thieves came across her when she was riding alone? Rafe was all too aware that he and his companions were the exception to the rule when it came to highwaymen. She could be in danger if these men couldn’t be trusted.
The three riders left their horses in a small stable at the edge of the estate and seemed to disappear into the earth. Granted, the night was growing dark and the rain had thickened, but Rafe was convinced of what he saw. One of the men had pulled up the ground, and they had all vanished beneath. An underground hideout, perhaps? A clever idea, that.
He left his horse in the stable with the others, praying that nothing would happen to his mount while he investigated further.
He reached the spot where the men had disappeared and found a trapdoor. It was covered with mud and grass, but he was able to find the lip of the door with his fingers and lift it up. He peered into the hole, and with a careful test of his booted foot, he found the rungs of a ladder leading down into the dark.
He contemplated following the trio of men right away, but he decided it would be best to warn Diana first. If he came back in daylight, he would feel safer about trailing unknown men into an underground tunnel. Even though he had helped these men escape tonight, he still didn’t know or trust them, certainly not enough to approach them by himself in a dark passageway on a stormy night.
He set the trapdoor back into place and retrieved his horse from the small stable, then rode to Diana’s stables behind her manor house. They were dark and empty of any stable hands. He slipped his horse into an empty stall, knowing it was a risk if any of the stable hands checked the horses and found one that didn’t belong, but it was a risk he’d have to take.
He left the stable and headed for the trellis beneath Diana’s bedroom window. With care, he climbed up the ivy-covered wood latticework and eased the bay window open just as he’d done that first night he’d gone to see her as Tyburn. He silently dropped down into the room and glanced around. A rushlight had been newly lit, but there was no sign of Diana. Perhaps she hadn’t gone to bed and a thoughtful servant had lit the rushlight.
A commotion in the hall sent Rafe ducking behind the curtains that covered half the window.Blast!Had his arrival been witnessed after all? The bedchamber door opened and voices carried over to him.
“Sit her on the chair.” Rafe recognized the speaker as Diana’s butler, Mr. Peele. “What happened, Matthew?”
“We were ambushed,” a man who was presumably Matthew said in a shaky voice. “It was a trap. There were twice as manyguards this time. It was as though they knew we were coming. We didn’t think... Lord, we didn’t think...”
Rafe’s heart stilled. Diana’s own servants had been the thieves. But why bring the wounded man to Diana’s room?
Then he remembered the butler had asked Matthew to sitheron the chair.
“Lift her arm into the light,” Peele instructed. “I need a better look at the wound.”
It couldn’t be.
“Ouch!” Diana’s voice jerked Rafe out of his stunned silence.
He flung the curtain back, revealing himself. But whatever effect his shocking reveal might have had upon the room’s occupants, it paled in comparison to the shock he felt right now.
Diana sat in a chair by the bed, wearing a black pair of trousers and a black shirt and waistcoat. Her hair was hidden beneath a blond wig that resembled his own hair. Her butler, wearing his dressing gown, and a young man who wore the same black clothing as Diana stared at Rafe, mouths agape.
Rafe saw the bloodied, torn sleeve on Diana’s left arm, exposing where she’d been shot. She’d been the one he’d helped onto the horse, the one he’d killed a man to save. The woman he loved more than his own life. And that realization struck him like a bullet. She stared at him with a stunned and pained expression that knocked the breath from his lungs.
“Do ye realize what ye’ve done?” he snarled at the woman whose very beating heart held the key to his own and charged toward her.
