The ruffian showed surprise as his gaze flitted from James to the tree and back again.
“It would have also behooved you to be closer when we stopped rather than coming from…? Where did you come from?” He was dealing with simpletons. He should have known by the fact that only six men thought to hold up a carriage with an unknown number of occupants. If it had been full, they would have been outnumbered and outgunned with the driver and another man up top.
Hobson was right now waiting for his signal, Willie with him in the dense forest.
“How about we agree that no one won here today and go our separate ways? We have nothing of value save our lives so why not walk away with them?”
“You’re lying. Rich nabob like you must have some blunt.”
James shook his head. “Not a farthing and not a shiny jewel in sight.” He held out his arms again to show that he indeed had nothing on his person. Nothing that showed anyway. Only the signet on his little finger could be seen, and he wasn’t giving that away. His watch was secreted in his pocket and his money was in the carriage. Thank God the men hadn’t searched it when Daniella had invited them to.
The ruffian swore a blue streak but his grip on Daniella tightened. She showed no panic at all as she was jostled. Her hands went to her skirts, he assumed to avoid stumbling.
“Are you all right, m’dear?” he asked her in a low voice.
“Are we done with this?” came her reply.
James raised his brows at her but then nodded. “I rather think we are.”
Out of her dress pocket, Daniella drew a pistol and without a glance behind or any hesitation, tucked the thing close to her side and pulled the trigger.
The brigand released her with a strangled cry and fell to the ground, his hands immediately going to his abdomen, where her bullet had dug deep.
James rushed one of the remaining two men just as Daniella launched herself at the other. He lost sight of her but knew Hobson would be only seconds away as he wrestled with his own bandit. He landed a few good punches but this wasn’t his opponent’s first outing. They both went down, James on top with a right hook to the other man’s jaw.
Ordinarily, his punch should have at least had the man seeing stars but in less than a second, he was on his back while the brute pummelled him. He couldn’t disable the man; he needed his hands to protect his face and head. A glancing blow slipped from his cheekbone to his ear but as the man atop him lost his balance, James flipped him over, took hold of his head and slammed it into the ground. He slammed again and again until the brute’s eyes rolled back in his head and his body went limp.
James was breathing hard, his face hurt, the skin of his knuckles split open; and when he looked up to see where Daniella was, to make sure she was all right, shock hit him harder than any fist could. Hobson had his arms around her and had lifted her right off the ground as he dragged her away from the man in the dirt—the man she had been kicking with the hard toe of her new boot. As soon as she stopped struggling, Hobson put her down but then the crazy girl ran back and landed another kick to the ribs, her skirts held in her hands as she swung her leg with power.
Astonishment unlike anything he had ever experienced washed over him and he began to laugh. He climbed off the unconscious man and fell to his back still laughing and still fighting to catch his breath.
He would hate to be on the receiving end of one of those kicks but she hadn’t been lying when she said she could look after herself. The minx looked to be enjoying the fight.
*
The sound that brought Daniella back to the present was as unwelcome as it was unsettling.
“What are you laughing at? I could have been killed,” she shouted.
Trelissick sat up and stared at her as though two heads had sprouted from her shoulders. “If you had thought your life in danger, why didn’t you stay in the carriage as I instructed?”
“You left me in there alone. Anything could have happened!”
“We were watching.” He gestured to Hobson and Willie who were now dragging the bodies from the road. “The only potential danger was these ruffians being actually any good at what they set out to do.”
“How do you know that?” How could he possibly know what the outcome would have been? She could have been shot, stabbed, raped, all of the above.
“If these bandits were worth their salt, they would have killed me when I exited the carriage and Hobson as he jumped down and indeed Willie before we even made the fallen tree. It’s what I would have done. Lucky for us they weren’t even close.”
She raised her hands to her hips. “Have you ever been on the side of the road readying an ambush? How much battle did you actually see?”
“That—” he pointed to one of the dead men “—is not my first kill.”
“They don’t call him the Butcher for no reason, lass.” This from Hobson.
“Yes, why do they call you that?”
“Never mind that now. We have to get this mess sorted out so we can push on. We’ve lost a lot of time here.” The glare he threw at Hobson would have killed had it sharp edges.
Daniella almost smiled. She really was going to get some answers out of Hobson. It was the second time Trelissick’s man had spoken out of turn.
James had shot that man without regret or compunction. So had she, but many a man had died by her blade. On the
