The Langley Sisters Trilogy Boxed Set (91 page)

“Come on, Bessie, just a little tumble.”

Bella heard the voices as she approached. Moving into the shadows beside the door, she stopped to listen.

“I have to get back to work, Jed.”

“You want a tumble, Bessie, you know you do.”

Bella listened to the kissing sounds and then she heard Bessie giggle, but the noise was further away now. Slipping inside the stables, she made her away along the stalls, taking care to duck below the door where the sounds of Bessie and Jed’s passionate encounter was taking place. Visions of her and Luke slipped into Bella’s head, which she hurriedly pushed aside. Now was not the time for that. Now she had to get away from here and on the road back to London.

Slipping into a stall, she found a horse, which looked far bigger and stronger than any she had previously ridden. Swallowing her nerves, she ran one hand down his nose. Looking around her, she found a bridle hanging on a hook and quickly took it down. Finding a box, she dragged it closer. Bella had put bridles on horses before her accident, so she knew what to do. The horse seemed obliging, so soon she had at least achieved that.
 

There was no sign of a saddle, however, which was disturbing. Dared she take precious time to find one? Listening to the sounds of Bessie and Jed, she thought not. They seemed to be reaching the conclusion of their coupling if the noises were any indication. Taking the reins in one hand, she opened the stall and led the horse out. She could do nothing about the clopping sound of the hooves, and prayed they did not hear her as she passed. Holding her breath, she did not release it until she was outside.
 

“Now, I don’t know your name, nor do I know if you are a good horse or bad one. However, I need you to be good tonight, and aid me in my escape. If you do that, I shall endeavor to look after you in your retirement.” Bella whispered the words into the horse’s ear after she had climbed up on the mounting block. Swinging her leg over, she then took the reins and urged him from the yard and out onto the road.
 

“If you know the way to London, I should be very grateful if you would head that way, if you please.”

Giving him a little nudge with her heels, Bella then clutched his mane as he leapt forward, and soon she was galloping down the road, in what she hoped was the right direction.

I’m coming, Luke.
 

***

They twins had anticipated that Biverton was about a three-hour ride from London, if that was where he had taken her. They had been riding for two hours now, and Luke was plagued by doubts. What if Anthony had taken her somewhere else and the man had lied to them? Was she hurting? Was she crying? Had she called out for him? Was she married?

Beside him, Will’s face looked as grim as his, as did Finn and his brothers’. Ace looked as he always did—serious. None of them had spoken, all intent on what needed to be done.
 

As he rode, he thought of Bella, of what they had planned to do in their life. He thought of their children and the love he would lavish on them, and of her, his love, his life.
 

“A rider approaches.”

The shout came from Alex. They reined in their horses and waited. He saw the horse, with the rider crouched low over its mane in the distance.

“Just someone heading back to London, I’m thinking,” Will said, looking down the road.

Luke watched it get closer and then he saw a hand lift and move to one thigh.
 

“It’s Bella!” he roared. Kicking his horse’s sides, he galloped towards her, pulling up as she approached.
 

“Bella!”

She lifted her head. Hearing his words, her hands gathered the reins and she pulled as hard as she could, but the animal was strong. Luke turned as she passed him and urged his mount up alongside. Reaching down, he gripped a rein and pulled the horse to a stop. Will did the same on the other side.

“Luke!” She reached for him as he did her, and he pulled her off the horse and across his thighs.
 

“Bella! God, are you all right?” He crushed her to him, feeling her tremors.
 

“Y-yes, just c-cold.”

Opening his overcoat, he pulled her into his chest and she huddled into him, her arms slipping around his waist.
 

“Where is he?”

Will had moved to his side; placing a hand on her head, he stroked her hair until slowly she calmed. Only then did she lift her head.

“I escaped; he still thinks I’m in the r-room. It was Lord Anthony all the time, Luke. He was the one behind everything.”

“I know. Finn found that out this morning, but it was too late to stop him taking you.”

“He did not hurt me, but I hurt him by scratching his face. I also taunted him by saying you would come after me and he would be very sorry when you found us.”

Will smiled; reaching for her chin, he tweaked it. “You have so much of your sisters in you, little one.”

She touched his hand and then settled back into Luke’s chest. She was exhausted now that she could allow herself to be.
 

Luke lifted her chin, studying her face. He saw the mark on her cheek before kissing her lips. He then tucked her back into his chest. “I love you,” he breathed into her hair.
 

“Where is Anthony, Bella?” Finn said, coming forward to brush a kiss on top of her head.

 
“I don’t know what the place he is in looks like because he drugged me.”

Luke swallowed down his rage at her words; she was safe now, and in his arms.

“But I’ve been riding for about an hour is my guess.”

“You’ve been riding that beast for over an hour?” Luke shuddered.

“We’ll get him, Luke. You take her home.”

“No!” She lifted her head as Finn spoke. “I want to come.”

“You’re exhausted, love,” Luke said. Even though he wanted to be the one to confront Anthony, he knew she needed to get her back to her sisters, who would by now have tried to bribe the entire household staff to let them get into a carriage and chase after their sister. Will had threatened them with dire circumstances if they yielded, but if there was a battle of wills, Luke knew who would win.

“I’m all right now I’m in your arms. Please, it was me who was taken. Therefore, I should be allowed to do this.”

They heard a carriage racing down the road behind them then.

“This could be him,” Luke said. “Everyone stay as we are in the middle of the road, the driver will be forced to stop then.”

“Don’t shoot him.”

“What?” Luke took his eyes of the approaching carriage long enough to look at her.

“I know you’re angry with him and want to hurt him for the pain he has caused us, but I don’t want you to end up in jail, or us be forced to flee England.”

“He hurt you.” In his mind, that was enough to see Anthony dead. The rest didn’t matter.

“Hurt him back, but you will not kill him, Luke. Promise me this.”

Will snorted as Luke looked from him to Finn. The twins were listening with interest also. Ace was focused on the approaching carriage.
 

“I promise,” he sighed. She kissed his chin and then eased herself upright. He still held her against his chest, but she was now looking down the road.

The driver called to them to move, but when they didn’t, he pulled the horses to a halt.

“Of course this may not be Anthony, in which case Finn can do the explaining.”

“Why me?” Finn looked at Will
 

But he did not get an answer as the driver was yelling at them. “Move those bleedin; horses. I needs to get my passenger back to London!”

Luke raised his pistol, which shut the man up instantly.

“Those inside step down!” he roared.
 

“Phoebe told me that she and Livvy used that phrase,” Bella whispered to him, which Will heard, because the side of his mouth curled up.

The door opened and out stepped Lord Anthony. He, too, held a pistol. However, when he saw the five that were trained on him, he quickly dropped it.

“Hold my horse.” Luke took his jacket off and wrapped it around her, then dismounted. He had his fist in Anthony’s face before Will, who had also dismounted, could stop him. “You hurt the woman I love, you sniveling bastard, and were it not for my promise to her, I would be returning you to London in a long wooden box.” Luke punched him again in the stomach, the breath wheezing from Lord Anthony’s throat, as he bent double.
 

“Here’s how it’s going to be, Anthony,” Will said, wresting the man from Luke and punching him again. Picking him up, he added, “That was for what you did to Luke. The lies and attempts on his life.”

The man couldn’t speak, simply wheezed.

“You’ll leave London permanently. I have no care where you go, but if it is not a great distance from me and mine then I will hunt you down myself and put you into that box.”

“It was a very foolish move on your part, Anthony, taking on this family. We are very protective of our own, and will take whatever steps are needed to ensure its safety,” Finn added. “And it is lucky for you that between us we can set to rights what you have done.”

“I-I can’t leave London,” Lord Anthony rasped.

“Well, then, we have a dilemma,” Luke said. “Because if you stay, I will kill you. And the thing is, Anthony, I could do it and no one would tie it to me. In fact, no one would even know you were missing…for days, maybe months…perhaps not ever. Doesn’t appear to me like you have much reason to stay.”

Ace offered to accompany the man, and suggested that he knew someone who knew someone and he would soon have Anthony on a ship bound for France. Everyone was happy with that. Realizing he had no other option, Anthony simply climbed back into his carriage.

Luke shook his friend’s hand, and then watched as the carriage disappeared down the road, with Ace riding behind, before returning to Bella. She watched him walk towards her, seeming so small on his horse, huddled in his coat.
 

“It’s all right now, love. He’s gone.” Climbing up behind her, he pulled her back against him.

“Yes,” Bella sighed, leaning into him. “We have to take the horse back with us, Luke.”

“Why?” He looked at the animal still standing beside his horse.

“I know he’s not ours to keep, and it’s stealing, but perhaps we could buy him. He is a lovely horse, and I promised him I would look after him if he got me back to you.” She looked up at him and he wondered if there would ever be a time that his heart wouldn’t skip a beat when she did so.

“I don’t think he understands about promises, love.”
 

“Yes, he does,” Bella said, taking the horse’s reins and handing them to him, “because he took me right to you after all.”

Luke’s laugh was a lovely sound in the still night air.
 

“That he did, and I shall be always grateful to him for that.”

EPILOGUE

Luke stood with Finn and Will, waiting for Bella to arrive. Behind him, the guests had assembled and there was a low hum of noise in the Twoaks Village Church.
 

“Mrs. Popplehinge has an entire floral display on her head, Luke.”

Turning his body slightly at Will’s words, he looked to where the woman sat, and indeed her headwear reigned supreme over everybody else in the church. In front of her, he saw his family all displayed in the new clothes that Phoebe had bullied them into having made.
 

“I’ve heard about her.” Finn joined the conversation. “Apparently, she and my wife were not on the best terms due to a certain misunderstanding with her son.”

“That’s a polite way of putting it.”

Luke let Will and Finn talk while he looked around him, up at the eves where he had spent many long hours staring in his youth, counting the old wooden beams while a sermon was being read, and to the rear where he was baptized and to the pew where Bella and her family had once sat.
 

“Ace has just tried to slip into the back row, but due to his size, he has every eye in the church upon him.”

Luke turned again, this time to locate the man who had become his friend, and saw he was now seated with Ben and Alex.
 

“And here comes your fiancée.”

He’d been remarkably calm until that moment, but now that Bella was here he was suddenly beseeched by nerves. He must have made some kind of noise as Will moved closer to his side.

“Breathe easy now, my friend.”

“Tis a silly thing to feel such nerves, but I do, just the same.”

“Not silly, but understandable considering the road you have both traveled to reach this moment.”

“I love her so much, Will, I almost fear it.”

“I know what you feel as it was no different for me when I stood in your shoes to marry Livvy, but it will pass and soon you will simply enjoy the life you will share with your wife.”
 

“Thank you for standing up with me, when I know you wanted to walk Bella