was lit only by the fire. The fire they had left banked. Someone had stirred it up again. In the flickering light a man moved around quietly, pouring liquid from a can. He wore a heavy coat and a hat pulled down low over his face, but for a moment the firelight caught his features. Montfort.
Ash sniffed. Lamp oil. His gut twisted. The bastard thought he was going to burn them out. Even as he watched, Montfort started laying the trail of oil towards the fire. Ash cursed mentally. He had to try to stop Montfort before he got any closer to the fire. If the blighter was armed, he was in trouble, but there was no time to find his own pistol and load it. By the time he did the hall would be ablaze.
He opened the door fully and strolled in. ‘Good evening, Montfort. You’re a little late for the Christmas goose.’
Montfort swore and dropped the can. Oil flooded from it but, thanks to the uneven old floor, did not flow towards the fire.
‘You’re a bloody nuisance, Ravensfell,’ he said.
Ash shrugged. ‘I do try. The magistrates are going to take a rather dim view of this, you know.’
Montfort laughed. ‘The magistrates? They aren’t going to hear anything except what a tragedy it was that Lord and Lady Ashton Ravensfell died when Haydon burned to the ground. I’ll be chief mourner for my poor little cousin. Might even persuade the courts to award the estate to me.’
He took a pistol from his pocket and trained it on Ash.
Time slowed to a crawl. He was too far into the hall to reach the door. But it didn’t matter if he died. He couldn’t risk Montfort getting to Maddy, and he had to warn her that the bastard was armed.
‘You don’t think they’ll find it odd that I died in a fire with a pistol ball in me?’
Montfort snorted. ‘That’s assuming there’s enough of you left for them to find.’
Ash gathered himself to rush Montfort. At the very least he’d be a moving target in very poor light....
* * *
Terror coursed through Maddy. Ash. Oh, God. Ash! She pressed against the wall beside the door, cold all over as she listened, hanging on to Ketch. Low growls sounded in the dog’s throat and his hackles were up.
One shot. Unless he had a second pistol, Edward had only one shot, and she’d be damned if she’d let him murder Ash. A distraction—she needed to distract him...
Please, God...
She stepped out into the hall. ‘Edward!’
Both men whipped around.
‘Maddy! Get back!’
Ash’s voice rang out, but the pistol was no longer aimed at him, and Maddy released her death grip on Ketch’s collar. ‘Take!’
Ketch hurtled low across the hall in a blur of movement and sprang in silent fury. The pistol roared as Edward went down under the dog’s weight, the ball smashing into the doorway beside Maddy. Splinters flew, stinging her cheek.
Ignoring that, she ran forward, grabbed the crossed swords down from the wall beside the fire, shaking them free of the holly. ‘Ash! Here!’ She flung one sword, hilt first, and he snatched it from mid-air.
Ash breathed again. He wasn’t sure he’d ever stop shaking after seeing Montfort’s pistol trained on Maddy, but at least he was armed now. He advanced to where Montfort was curled in a ball, arms over his head, protecting his throat from the dog.
‘Call the brute off! Call him off!’
‘Lie still, Edward, and I’ll call him off,’ snapped Maddy, coming up, sword at the ready. ‘But I warn you—if you try anything else I’ll set him on you again.’
‘Please! Ow!’ Ketch had found an opening and bitten an ear.
‘Ketch! Enough. Sit and guard.’
Clearly reluctant, the dog released his quarry and sat, still growling.
Montfort started to sit up, but cringed back when he found Ash’s sword at his throat. Ketch lunged, snapping.
‘Sit.’
The dog sat again on Maddy’s command, still growling.
Ash, keeping the point of his sword against Montfort’s flesh, asked, ‘Will he obey me?’
‘Who? Ketch?’ said Maddy. ‘I don’t know. Why?’
‘Because I want you to fetch the men.’ He wanted her away from Montfort. Safe.
‘Oh.’ Maddy smiled. ‘Well, if Edward does try to get up, Ketch will take him down again whether I’m here or not. But I don’t know if he’ll obey if you try to call him off.’
‘That,’ said Ash, in savage satisfaction, ‘doesn’t really matter.’
‘What in the world—?’
Maddy looked around to see Bets and Cally standing in the doorway that led out to the old garde tower.
‘Why,’ said Bets, ‘that’s ’is lordship! And what’s that stink of lamp oil?’
* * *
‘You bloody little idiot!’ snarled Ash, his face white in the fire’s glow as he slammed the bedchamber door behind them half an hour later and rounded on her. ‘Walking in like that when the bastard was armed! What the hell were you thinking?’
Maddy glared at him. ‘That he was going to shoot you!’
Ketch, who had followed them in, made for the bed and slunk under it.
Ash said a couple of words she’d never heard.
‘Instead, he nearly shot you!’ he went on. ‘What do you—? Damn it!’ His voice changed. ‘Your cheek—there’s blood on it!’
Maddy became aware that her left cheek really did sting. She raised a hand to it, surprised. ‘Oh. Splinters, I think. The ball hit the door.’
Ash reached her, caught her chin in one shaking hand and turned it. His mouth was a grim line. ‘Yes, splinters.’
Maddy let out a breath. ‘Well. Nothing to worry about, then.’
His hand tightened on her. ‘It could have been your eye, and it could still fester! I should put you over my knee and spank you. I told you to stay back with Ketch.’
She lifted her chin. ‘You said we were the reserves.’
‘What?’
His eyes bored into her, but she held her ground. ‘In case the first plan didn’t work.’ She fixed him with a glare. ‘And it didn’t. If you even had a plan. He had only one shot, so I thought we had a chance if I could distract him. Hopefully waste the shot.’
His
