“I remember her arguing with Father in the same fashion, using the same logic. Or what passed for logic.”
“You are making me want to hurt you.”
“All right, all right. You and she both wanted the same things – for women to be treated the same as men.”
Thea nodded. “I do remember some of their talks when they did not know I was listening.”
“Father used to get so annoyed with her.” Freddie laughed.
“Do you ever think about,” she began, her stomach roiling, “what they went through – at the last?”
Freddie stared straight through his gelding’s ears. “All the time. What they were thinking before they were murdered, what they felt as they stared into death. Yes, I cannot seem to stop thinking about it.”
Trying not to shudder, Thea gazed out over the rolling green hills, the sheep and cattle grazing on the lush pastures. “Whoever did it is still out there, free, and escaped justice.”
“They may not remain free for long, Thea,” Freddie said, reaching across to take her by the hand. “They may yet hang for what they did.”
“I never thought something like that could happen to us,” she went on, squeezing his hand, gazing at him. “This land has so few highwaymen roaming across it. What are the odds?”
He let go of her hand. “Come, this day is too nice to spend it talking of such morbid topics. Shall we canter a ways?”
Though not very good at cantering while in a sidesaddle, Thea knew her mare had a smooth gait and rarely stumbled. “A short ways, as I am not comfortable in this contraption.”
Nudging her horse first into a trot, then a rolling canter, Thea laughed up at the pure blue sky, enjoying herself. Freddie rode up alongside her roan, grinning at her obvious delight.
“I told you this was something we needed to do.”
Sheep bolted away from them, bleating, even as the cattle watched their progress past with large, mild brown eyes. The road wound around the base of a tall peak, before running on toward the tiny village of Ridgelake. Thea kept a close watch on the obstacles that lay in front of her mare’s feet, even as Freddie urged his horse to a slightly faster pace.
His red gelding, cantering a half a length in front of her roan, suddenly fell, spilling Freddie from his saddle. At the same instant, Thea’s hearing registered the sound of the rifle shot. Her mare leapt sideways, avoiding the tangle of man and horse on the ground, and the gelding’s thrashing legs.
A short scream ripped from her throat as Thea was thrown violently from her sidesaddle to land forcefully on the hard packed road. Hitting the earth on her hip and shoulder, Thea ducked instinctively, knowing she lay well within range of the red gelding’s hooves. She rolled to her left, seeing the silver flash of a shoe pass within an inch of her face.
Chapter 6
“Freddie!” Thea shrieked, still frantically stumbling away from the dying gelding.
Tangled in her gown and petticoats, her black hair cascading around her shoulders and across her face, Thea fought to get her feet under her. Panicked, unable to see her brother, she swiped her hair from her face, looking past the red gelding’s shoulder and the blood.There.Freddie lay on the road, not moving, but not under the horse who even yet kicked and struggled, trying to get up.
“Freddie?”
Running past the beast, Thea dropped to her knees beside Freddie’s body. He lay on his right side and face, what she could see of his flesh had been marked with scrapes from the gravel on the road. A large, angry looking lump had formed on his brow, but he breathed evenly, his eyes closed. Gently rolling him onto his back, Thea ran her hands over his chest, under his coat, searching for wounds, for blood.
Finding none, Thea lightly slapped his face. “Freddie, wake up, come on, brother, you are frightening me, get up now.”
His eyelids fluttered as he fought to escape her slapping palm. He groaned, raising his hands to ward her off. “What – what happened?”
Relief coursed through her at his movement, his words. She sat back to give him room, using the back of her hand to wipe dirt and dust from her eyes. “I think someone shot your horse.”
“Bloody hell.”
Thea did not flinch at his curse, as the same words had crossed her own mind, but she had not voiced them. Freddie rolled onto his stomach, then pushed his way to his knees, gazing at his now dead mount. “Who in the blazes would shoot at us?”
Thea met his light brown eyes, feeling anger replace the relief that Freddie lived and was relatively unharmed, even if his gelding was not. “I do not know. I heard the shot at the same time your horse went down. Naturally, I came off, as well.”
Stumbling to his feet, Freddie reached his hand down to help her up. “Are you all right, Thea?”
With her panic and fears now in the past, she felt the sore bruises forming on her left hip, shoulder, and arm, glancing at the scrape on her skin. She dusted off her gown as best she could, seeing her roan standing by the road, grazing peacefully. “Yes, I am all right.” She eyed his scrapes and the angry looking lump on his forehead. “How about you?”
