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“Remain here,” he whispered to me. “I shall fetch you the moment it is done.”
I nodded quickly. “Go.”
I helped Mr. Wildingham as they walked toward the front door to our waiting carriage.
Never had I been so nervous, watching them prepare to depart, when all of a sudden, I heard what sounded like thunder crack outside.
But it was not thunder.
I watched the horses in front buck in fear and Evander, by the door, fall to the ground!
“Evander,” I screamed, rushing to the door.
Across from him, with a pistol in his hand, was Fitzwilliam.
“I knew it,” the wretch said as he rushed to Evander.
“Evander?” I called and rolled him onto his side, blood escaping the corner of his mouth. “Evander!”
“Ummm.” He groaned, and I gasped out. “What happened?”
The answer to his question came as we heard screaming.
“Let go!”
I glanced up to see Marcella now being pulled by the hair away from us.
Fitzwilliam shook her violently. “Shut up! Do you not know the trouble you have caused me?”
“Stop—” My voice cut off as he held the pistol on us once more.
“You’re still alive, Evander? Exactly how many lives do you have?” he hollered as Evander tried to sit up. “I should end you right here, right now, and be done with this for good.”
“And then no one will let you off for murder,” Evander sneered.
“Then our war continues, little brother. But now, when I bring her before all the town and expose you to be a liar, who shall believe you?” He pulled tighter on Marcella’s hair. “I will tell them you sought to steal her from me. That this was all a wicked plot to ruin me, and they shall believe it!”
“Let go!” Marcella cried again.
“I said, shut up!” He nearly brought her to her knees as he pulled her to his horse. “Or would you rather be the reason your benefactors met such a horrid fate? You dare lie about me? Your husband—”
Once more, that sound, like the crack of a whip and thunder in the sky, echoed through the night. Evander covered me, throwing us back down onto the ground.
“Are you all right?” he asked, checking me over even though blood was upon his face, not mine. “Aphrodite, are you all right!”
“Yes,” I said quickly. “Are you?”
He nodded, but then where had the bullet landed? I sat up, worried Fitzwilliam had in his anger shot Marcella, but she sat on the ground in stunned silence and beside her was Fitzwilliam. Both of us confused, we rose to see a stunned Dr. Darrington standing at the door, not looking at us, but at the window. There stood the feeble Mr. Wildingham with a gun pointed directly at where Fitzwilliam had stood.
“What have you done?” Dr. Darrington was now running toward where the man bled upon the ground.
“Fitzwilliam?” Evander whispered, eyes wide, slowly walking forward. I grabbed him as he made his way to him.
I saw blood everywhere. Dr. Darrington knelt over him, seeking to save him, but even I knew such a thing was not possible. Fitzwilliam looked up at Evander, and Evander back down at him.
“Little…brother…why?” Fitzwilliam spat out with the last of his breath and blood.
Trembling, my hand covered my mouth.
