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"Sit," Jeremy snapped.
Suzette hesitated, but then sat on the grass at the side of the carriage. It seemed the smartest move at that point. Jeremy looked angry enough to throttle her, and she couldn't run and just leave her father behind. Besides, her legs were a little shaky anyway. Sitting seemed like a good idea.
The moment she was down, Jeremy moved to the carriage and began poking around the driver's seat area. A moment later, he headed back toward her with a second weapon in hand. She thought it was a blunderbuss, and supposed she shouldn't be surprised the driver carried one. The roads were filled with highwaymen and bandits. No doubt the weapon came in handy.
Pausing beside her, Jeremy tucked the blunderbuss under his arm and proceeded to reload his pistol. The sight reminded Suzette of the horse he'd shot and she glanced toward the animals. The wounded one appeared to be dead, though she couldn't tell for sure; however, it wasn't moving. The other horse was still alive but tangled up in the reins and works and pinned to the ground by the dead horse. He was struggling to free himself, but wasn't getting anywhere.
Suzette frowned and turned to Jeremy. "One of the horses is still alive, but it's pinned. He can't get up."
Jeremy glanced toward the horses as he finished reloading, but then turned his attention to the carriage when the driver, Thompson, suddenly emerged from the cab. As they watched, he perched on the side of the carriage with his legs dangling into it through the opening. He then bent and pulled her father up and out to lie beside him, still bound. Within moments Thompson had both himself and her father on the ground.
Suzette eyed the older man with worry, glad to see that while he, like her, was a bit banged up, he seemed mostly fine.
"Good," Jeremy said as Thompson led her father to stand in front of him. "Sit him on the ground next to his daughter."
Thompson urged her father around to her side, and pushed on his shoulder to make him sit. He then glanced to Jeremy for further instruction.
"Now go see if the one horse can be saved." Jeremy waved his freshly reloaded pistol toward the struggling animal.
The driver glanced to the horses and frowned. In the short time since she'd first looked, the live horse's struggles were already growing weaker. She suspected the weight of the horse on top of him, along with his position, was smothering the poor creature, and guessed the driver had decided as much too when he said, "He won't last the amount of time it would take me to free him. Besides, two carriage wheels broke in the turn, we can't use the carriage anymore anyway."
"Just check the damned horse," Jeremy snapped.
Thompson scowled belligerently, but turned and stomped toward the horses. He hadn't taken three steps when Jeremy retrieved the blunderbuss from under his arm and shot the man in the back. The driver barely seemed to hit the ground before Jeremy tossed the empty blunderbuss aside and turned his newly reloaded pistol on Suzette and her father. "Up."
Suzette gaped at him and then turned to peer at the unmoving driver and back. "You just shot him. In the back. For no reason."
"No one blackmails me," he said coldly. "Now get up."
She stared at him with disbelief, unable to believe anyone could be so cold. "But--"
"Shall I shoot your father too? Would that make you more agreeable?" he asked grimly.
"Hardly," she snapped, her shock giving way to anger. "You wouldn't be able to get me to do a damned thing if he was dead."
"I didn't say I'd kill him, I said shoot him," Jeremy pointed out calmly. "A warning shot in the arm, perhaps?"
Suzette got abruptly to her feet, and then turned to help her father up as well, when he was incapable of doing it on his own with his arms bound behind his back.
Once they were both upright, Jeremy caught her arm and jerked her so that her back was to him. "Hands behind your back."
Suzette hesitated, but supposed she didn't have a choice. She couldn't risk his shooting her father, so slid her hands behind her back, her mouth tightening when she felt him binding them with some sort of cloth. His cravat, she realized when he finished and moved up beside her.
"Now, start walking," he ordered, gesturing with his pistol.
Suzette hesitated, her eyes sliding to the horses. "What about the horse? He will suffocate to death if we just leave him."
"That's his problem," Jeremy said with unconcern. "Thanks to your foolish attempt to escape, he's useless to me now anyway. His death can be on your conscience."
Suzette didn't respond, but she scowled and thought bastard very loudly in her mind as she began to walk.
Chapter Fifteen
Why are we slowing?" Daniel asked with a frown, leaning to the window to peer out. It was full night now, but with a new moon that cast the landscape in shades of gray. Still, he didn't at first see anything that would cause them to stop.
"It looks like there has been an accident," Richard said, peering out the opposite window.
Daniel slid along the bench seat to peer out the window Richard was looking out. Sure enough there was an overturned carriage on the side of the road ahead.
"You don't think it could be Danvers's carriage, do you?" Robert asked, slipping from the bench seat he and Richard were sharing to crouch on the floor and look out as well.
Daniel frowned at the suggestion and banged on the wall of the carriage to signal his driver to stop. This time he did not leave Richard or Robert to get out while he waited in the carriage. Daniel had the door open and was climbing out the moment the carriage stopped. He even managed to do it without grunting in pain, though he would have liked to. Damn, his back hurt.
"All right?" Richard asked with concern as he followed him out.
Daniel ground his teeth together, but nodded and started toward the overturned carriage.
"What is it?"
Daniel heard his mother call that question from the carriage the women were riding in, but left Richard to answer. "An accident. We are checking it out."
The carriage lay on its side, two wheels broken. Daniel eyed the crest on the back as he approached, able to just make it out in the gray light cast by the moon, but he didn't recognize it and continued around to the front end. He spotted the body on the side of the lane as he neared the front wheels and immediately moved toward it with Robert and Richard following.
"The driver?" Richard suggested as the three men circled the body.
Daniel considered the man's livery and nodded grimly.
Robert knelt beside the body and examined him briefly, before announcing, "He's dead."
"He must have been thrown in the accident," Richard suggested.
Robert shook his head. He was still kneeling, but was now examining his own hands, rubbing his thumb and forefingers together. "Blood," he announced and tugged up the back of the man's coat, revealing what even in that light looked a messy wound. The driver's back was a mass of small bloody holes.
"Looks like the work of a blunderbuss," Richard said with a grimace.
Robert let the coat drop back and straightened. "Highwaymen?"
"This is Danvers's carriage."
Daniel turned sharply toward the back of the carriage as Lisa made that announcement. The three women were gathered there examining the crest, and Christiana now nodded in agreement. "I recognize the crest too."
Cursing, Daniel turned and moved toward the front of the carriage, but Richard moved past him and quickly climbed up on top of the upraised carriage before he could do so himself.
"Empty," Richard announced a heartbeat later as he knelt to peer into the cab interior.
"Then where are Suzette and her father?" Lady Woodrow asked with a frown.
"They could be walking," Lisa suggested.
Daniel glanced to the dark form of the driver. It seemed doubtful to him that Danvers would shoot his own driver, which would suggest they had been attacked by outsiders, highwaymen or bandits. Swallowing the worry that thought instilled in him, Daniel said, "Spread out and search the area. If we don't find anything, we'll
