“Ah, blimey, you poor fools. What have we got here?”
“I heard sommat about a toff, eh? What a pretty little thing.”
“Not little. Look at them legs on her.”
A new sort of shiver ran down her spine as she stiffened, turning to see there were indeed shadows in the darkness. Three men appeared from nearby all dressed in shabby layers and wicked smiles.
“Sir?” Isabel managed in a small voice, taking a step back. But when she looked to her driver, she saw he was already pressed up against the carriage with his hands up. A fourth man had a small blade pressed to his neck.
Oh no. Oh no, oh dear. Oh good lord.
Her breathing stuttered as she tried to think. While she had convinced Thomas once to teach her fencing once his tutor refused, she wasn’t certain she remembered the footwork. And she didn’t exactly have any sort of weapon.
She looked around desperately for something solid. The driver’s whip.
Hope lurched in her chest. She snatched that up, left on the driver’s perch, and tried waving it at the three men. “Stay back!”
“O-ho!” One put up his hands. “She has fight in her, I like that.”
“And I like that pretty little purse. What have you got in there, girly?”
The reticule was tied to her wrist, hanging in the air while she used the whip to keep the men at bay. Her heart pounded. The whip hit her ankle when she swung again and she yelped, the men laughing.
“She doesn’t know what she’s doing. Maybe one of us should help?”
“You take the whip, and I’ll take the girl.”
“Now, where’s the fun in that? I’ll take both.” They all laughed, only frightening her more.
Grasping the whip with all her strength, Isabel knew she couldn’t let them get their hands on her.
They cannot touch me or mine. They cannot have my reticule. All I have is a spare ribbon, my sewing kit, and the house key. If they manage to get a hold of the key, then whatever will I do? They’ll have a way in to steal what is left of the house and hurt what is left of us. I won’t let them!
“Come on, dearie,” said one. He was the smallest and the fattest, and he kept getting closer. She had to dodge him twice. “Davey, help us?”
“Might as well.”
She blanched, hearing the voice from behind. Dread blossomed heavy in her stomach to learn of the fifth man. When she turned,unable to help herself, she jumped at the sight of a bleary grin on a frog-faced man.
“Hello, dovey,” he crooned.
He immediately slapped her across the face. It was a sharp sting that surprised her more than with actual force. But it did the job as she dropped the whip and staggered back a few steps in surprise.
There she wound up in the arms of two men. “No!” Isabel cried out. “Please, let me go!”
It was all for naught. The men laughed and jeered and pawed at her yellow dress before reaching for her reticule. “Stop it! No!”
“What the devil is going on here?”
That was a new voice. It wasn’t high and shrill like the others, but deep and dark as the night. A shiver coursed through her––and she wasn’t the only one. Isabel floundered when she noted the way all of the men had frozen at the sound, looking back into the shadows.
A giant of a man emerged.
He was tall with the broadest shoulders of any man she had ever seen. Though he was well-dressed, it was hard to be certain what sort of man he could be. If he could even be a gentleman. She saw dark unruly hair and angular features that only cast moreshadows across his face. She couldn’t tell much else from here as she begun trying to twist herself free.
If this giant got a hold of her, Isabel knew for certain she would be caught for good.
CHAPTER 2
