Everything was different now.
He needed it now.
It was finally all his and no one could take it from him without ending his life.
Only a quarter way up the monstrous pine, he heard the crunch of footsteps from the forest floor below. The shrouded figure of a man approached slowly, his hooded gaze turning in the direction of Darius’s discarded coat.
Darius dared not move. He didn’t recognise the figure as one of his sailors and he would not be caught unarmed or vulnerable. Reaching into the waistband of his trousers, he pulled out his gun and cocked the hammer. In the preternatural silence, the noise deafened and he flinched.
The intruder didn’t seem to hear as he crouched to inspect the jacket. He looked first left and then right but thankfully not up. Shrugging, he abandoned the coat and walked off. Darius swiftly climbed down and gave pursuit. This man was on his land and he didn’t take kindly to strangers. Especially strangers who could be agents for the earl.
Keeping a fair distance was easy until the snow began to fall again in earnest. Even under the wide-spread branches visibility was reduced and Darius was forced to get closer. He had to know what the man wanted before he sprung any kind of trap. Was he headed in the direction of the house? Was it his intent to steal or to murder?
Oh, the irony, Darius thought with a wry smile followed by a wet shiver. After spending the better part of fifteen years plundering and pillaging English naval ships and less than reputable trading vessels, it would serve him right to be fleeced in the same way.
Suddenly the intruder veered off to the right and Darius wondered if he’d been discovered lurking in the shadows. If that was the case, then why not stand and fight? Why lead him even farther into the forest?
A man could have his throat cut out here in the snow and his body wouldn’t be discovered until late spring, if at all. He swallowed and cursed the thick scarf he’d scoffed at, instead leaving it hanging on a hook by the massive front doors of his new home.
Before much longer and just when Darius prepared to call out and put a halt to the chase, the intruder slowed and came to a stop in front of a small tree, not much older than a sapling but already over the man’s head in height. He reached out a gloved hand and gave the tree a shake, dislodging the freshest of the snow in a white cloud. From the deep recesses of his coat, he pulled what looked to be a broken saw, the blade long ago snapped in half, jagged and wicked despite the defect.
When he placed the blade against the tree he paused and lowered his head for a moment before pulling the teeth of the saw over the trunk, close to the ground.
“Stop right there,” Darius called out in warning, no longer satisfied to simply observe. There was a puzzle here and he needed to work out what the hell was going on.
The stranger froze but didn’t turn or call back.
Darius drew a deep breath in an effort to sound more commanding. “Step away from the tree and turn around. If you run, I will shoot you in the back.”
The saw made barely a sound as it fell to the powdery ground next to quite possibly the longest rain slicker he’d ever seen, the dark, worn leather covering legs and boots. Slowly the man turned and for a moment hope bloomed in Darius’s chest that it was all just a simple misunderstanding and he wouldn’t have to mete out his first act of punishment to a trespasser. Hypocrite he might be but he wouldn’t abide treachery in his home.
Hope was short-lived as the stranger suddenly took off back into the tree line. Darius had only one shot but maybe it would be enough to scare?
He raised his arm and fired, the bullet hitting the tree next to where the man had just disappeared. The report didn’t echo for long but the sound was loud enough. There was a cry of pain and for a moment he wondered if he’d accidentally shot the man after all. He was used to sighting and firing from the rolling decks of a ship, not the uneven snow-covered grounds of a hellish pine forest.
Not more than ten steps into the tree line of a particularly ancient planting, the trunks several feet wide in diameter, the man lay sprawled on the ground clutching his ankle, his hood still pulled so far forward Darius couldn’t yet see his face.
“I told you not to run,” Darius taunted softly as he approached. He reloaded his gun just in case he had the need of it, confident the intruder was unarmed. He would have shot back otherwise. Wouldn’t he?
Finally, the stranger found voice. “How could you shoot at the back of an unarmed person? What if you’d actually hit me?”
Darius froze to the spot, his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth and his blood ran cold. The pistol fell to his side as his breath fogged before his face and horror dawned. “You’re a… You’re a…” He just couldn’t form rational thought let alone coherent sentences.
“I’m a what? A nearly dead person?”
“You’re not a he? You’re a she?”
The fury in the blue-eyed gaze that met his burned red hot as the she in question finally lifted her hood. “What difference does that make? I still would have been dead.”
Darius raised his hands in mock surrender. “In my defence, I thought you were a man and I wasn’t aiming right at you.”
“But you did shoot at me. Are you in the habit of gunning a
