AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He was meant to be here.” Eleanor glanced around the empty courtyard.
The inn would have been busy after the arrival of the mail coach, but it seemed most of the travelers had caught the next coach or walked on. She moved onto tiptoes to view the practically empty taproom through murky windows. Oliver wouldn’t be in there, though. Not if he still had not found his sister. But how could he have missed her?
He would not have travelled onward without checking for her and if he had been that much faster than Eleanor on horseback, he would have intercepted the mail coach and alerted Demeter to the plan to ruin her.
“Eleanor, what is going on?” her sister asked.
“Are you certain you have not seen Oliver?”
“Most certain.”
Eleanor paced across the courtyard toward the building, put her hands around her face and pressed her nose to the glass, though she knew she would spot no sign of him. No matter what she’d thought of him in the past there was no chance he’d be sitting around drinking and eating whilst her sister’s life and reputation were in danger.
Her stomach tightened, a surge of nerves rolled through her, and her chest constricted. What if something had happened to him? What if he’d come across the man intending to take Demeter?
Lord. What if he’d been killed? Men willing to do such ghastly things for coin would not think twice about harming him if Oliver tried to stop them. The thought made her want to bend double again as nausea rolled through her.
She strode back over to Demeter and took her arm. “We need to find Oliver.”
“But why is he here? Eleanor...”
A black coach drove through under the arch that connected the two sides of the building and Eleanor eyed it, breath held. It wasn’t Oliver. He’d been on horseback and why would he be in an unmarked carriage?
Regardless, she found herself standing there stupidly as the driver leaped from the top seat. It was only when she spied the bruises upon his face and the stain of blood on his collar did she think to snatch Demeter closer and hasten toward the building.
“Come on,” she cried as the man headed directly to them.
Upon them within several strides, the man snatched Demeter’s other arm and hauled her toward him. Demeter swiped a hand across the man’s face and Eleanor lunged for him.
“Get away from my sister,” she shouted only to be met with the back of a hand.
It felt like being struck with a brick, making her vision white as she stumbled back, and collapsed onto the hard cobblestones. Her vision cleared in time to see her sister being hoisted over the man’s shoulder and shoved into the open door of the vehicle. He slammed the door shut and threw a bolt across it.
Scrabbling to her feet, Eleanor sprinted to the door, but the kidnapper blocked her path and pushed her back with both hands to her shoulders. He pushed her so hard that when she fell, her head struck stone and the world turned blurry.
Pain throbbed through her skull, and she twisted onto her front, blinking slowly in an attempt to clear her sight. She made out Demeter in the window of the carriage, hammering at it with a fist as the man climbed the steps to the driver’s seat.
Eleanor crawled forward, clawing at the cold, dirty pebbles while her head spun. Movement caught her eye, and she turned her head slowly and fought hard to focus on the person arriving in the courtyard. Would they help them?
The person came into focus, and she sucked in a breath of half-relief, half-horror when she realized it was Oliver. Alive but clearly injured with a hand clasped to his side and a red stain surrounding it, he staggered toward the carriage.
She might have cried out his name, but she couldn’t be certain as her voice felt trapped. When he reached up, pulled the driver from the vehicle, and immediately leapt upon him, Eleanor didn’t know whether to cry or scream.
She shoved up from the ground and staggered to standing. The world tilted and she stumbled forward, hands out, toward the carriage. Throwing open the bolt, she pulled the door open, and Demeter flew into her arms.
Demeter clasped Eleanor’s face. “Are you well?” she panted. “Did he harm you?”
Eleanor nodded, aware of the dull throb in her skull and the slight blur of her vision. Nothing in comparison to the state of Oliver. She spun around, an arm banded around her sister’s waist to spy Oliver tussling with the attacker. It was hard to tell who was winning. Both men landed blows.
“What is going on?” Demeter asked, her voice wavering.
“Someone wanted to try to ruin you before the wedding.” Eleanor scanned the courtyard and snatched a sizeable rock. She grabbed it while her sister dashed across the courtyard.
The attacker punched Oliver in the side, making Oliver release a shout of pain, then wrapped his hands around Oliver’s neck. Oliver grabbed the man’s wrists, his face reddening.
“Oh Lord,” Eleanor cried. He was going to die if she didn’t do something.
Leaping forward, she closed her eyes and slammed the rock into the man’s head. It made a strange empty sound, and she dropped the rock as she opened her eyes. Blood trickled from the side of the man’s head, and he wavered for a few moments. Oliver used the opportunity to slam a fist into the man’s face and shove him to the ground.
