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Thomas pounded his fist into the sailor beneath him with the force of cannon fire. The crack of the man’s jaw met with a terrible wailing and he stopped fighting to hold his face.
The other stranger grabbed a knife from the side of his belt and yelled as Eliza continued to writhe.
Bolting toward the struggle, Thomas skidded on his knees and lunged for the weapon, but the boney man turned toward Thomas at the last second, brandishing his dagger. Thomas stopped the man’s arm with his hand just before the blade sliced his cheek.
Eliza struggled to free herself from underneath the fighting men, but was trapped beneath their weight. Thomas squeezed the man’s wrist and twisted it with all his strength in an effort to make the man drop his knife on the ground.
The sailor’s grip didn’t loosen. But his stance did.
Before Thomas could stop him, the man pitched and fell forward with all his force onto Eliza, his knife slicing into her abdomen.
She screamed. A terrifying, ear-splitting sound.
Thomas froze.
Without thinking, he shoved the man off Eliza, the knife following him onto the ground. He grabbed the weapon, slippery from Eliza’s blood, and plunged it into the man’s chest.
A guttural moan ballooned around them before the soldier quivered and flopped motionless against the ground.
Thomas couldn’t stop shaking. He just killed a man. Forgive me, Lord. I only did it to protect us all.
The fat one, whose jaw Thomas had broken, yelled something heinous as he stumbled about in the dark, away from the scene and out of sight.
Thomas flew to Eliza’s side. Kitty did the same with uncontrollable sobs.
“Liza! Liza! Wake up!” she said, kneeling by her sister’s bleeding body.
“Eliza!” Thomas crouched over her. Dear God, please help her!
She groaned and tried to push him away.
“Eliza, it’s me, Thomas. I won’t hurt you.” His voice cracked. His limbs shook.
Eliza’s body went limp. Her head rolled to the side and her arms flopped to the ground.
Thomas reached for the lifeline in her neck. A soft beating nudged his fingers. Thank you, Lord! He pulled away to check the rest of her.
Her hair had come undone and lay tangled across her neck and face. Her cloak was missing and the skirts and petticoats she wore were ripped.
He touched her body, talking to her in gentle tones as he worked to find where she had been injured. A warm liquid pumped from her torso through her stays.
“Is she dying?” Kitty wept.
“I don’t know.” He ripped the bodice of her dress and using the same knife, cut off her stays.
Kitty knelt beside him. “What are you doing?”
“I need to stop the bleeding.” He rent a large section of Eliza’s already tattered petticoat and wrapped it around her tiny waist, then carefully placed his own jacket around her shoulders for warmth. He prayed the bandage would hold back the surging flood long enough for him to get her the proper care she needed.
Please, Lord Almighty. Don’t let her die!
Thomas picked up Eliza as carefully as he could manage. “We must get to town as quickly as possible. I have a friend who is a doctor. He’ll . . . he’ll know how to help her.” I hope.
He continued to speak to Eliza as they dove through the dark, though he knew she couldn’t hear him. Her slender, limp body rested in his arms and an animal-like urge to keep her alive raged through him. Eliza’s limbs and head flopped and swayed with his movements. Was she already dead? No. She couldn’t be. God wouldn’t let her die. Not now.
“Miss Katherine, tell me what happened. Who were those men?”
She started crying again at the question and took several seconds to answer. “I don’t know. They came from nowhere.” She wept louder. “Eliza knew right away what they wanted. She . . . she offered herself, to keep them away from me.”
