The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(210)

No, not cold. Warm, and alive, like her bracelets, whispering her name.



She picked up the sword and swept it before her like the Grim Reaper, cutting a swathe through the dark-suited and blue-uniformed men.



She started as she saw Sean Lynch fall at her feet, then a heavy-set man in a rough coat. Next a young woman dressed in soldier's garb. Agnes. Two uniformed French soldiers met their deaths next.



Finally, the dreaded Earl of Ferncliffe thrust his way in, parrying her first strike with his musket barrel.



He stared at her in disbelief through his one remaining eye. Her sister Jane had stabbed him in the left one just before the swine had killed her.



"Elizabeth!" he exclaimed in shock, seeing the delicate young woman he had known as a Society damsel wielding certain death in her lily-white hand as she stood half-naked before him.



He gaped as she glowed almost golden, then red, then black.



"Aye, it's me." She took advantage of his astonishment and stabbed him hard, and then twisted the sword with all her might. "That's for Jane. And Sophie. And my happy home."



He snarled like an animal, unable to believe he had been defeated by the unworldly little girl he had tried to seduce in Bath less than a year before.



When she was certain he was dead, she pulled the blade out of his body. She covered her eyes with a shriek as the sword glowed and crackled like a bolt of lightning.



Now the entire cave began to tremble. As more and more men in French uniform tried to enter the cave to seize the muskets, the roof began to collapse. Huge boulders showered down on them, flattening crates and muskets into splinters.



Elizabeth ran to her husband's side and clutched his sleeve. She stared at Parks. A cascade of crimson was gushing down his chest and his eyes had already glazed over.



Her husband was weeping like a baby. He hardly even noticed the flurry of rocks and debris pouring down from the roof.



"Will! We must go!"



"We can't leave him here."



"We won't! Come on, love."



She heaved the sword into the hole and then ducked in herself. She stuck her arms back out and snatched at Parks' body as Will pushed.



She hauled with all her might and dragged the prone body up through the narrow second chamber of the cave, and from there on through the tunnel. She could barely keep on her feet as the rumbling grew more intense.



Half way up the tunnel she paused. "Hurry, Will, faster. We haven't much time."



"Just keep going, straight on. It comes out at the wine cellar at Joyce Hall. Monroe is up there waiting for reinforcements."



"I know. Will, my love, the Hall is going to go. Give me my bracelet and ring and take him up. You know I can't carry him."



"But—"



"Trust me. Do what I ask now. You know it's the only way."



Will tugged them out of his pocket and kissed her one last time.



"I love you."



"I love you too. I'll see you in a little while. Run. Don't stop until you reach the oak tree at the edge of the garden. Hurry. Go now."



"I'll see you soon." Then he lifted his friend's corpse over his shoulder. With one last look at his lovely wife, Will turned and ran.



Elizabeth struggled back down the passage, which trembled and writhed like a snake. She took up the sword once more. It was as tall as she, and she wondered how she had ever been able to wield it. She rubbed her still loosely bound wrists against the blade, and the ropes fell away.



She lifted it now with one hand, admiring the finely crafted broadsword ornamented with a single black onyx oak tree along both sides of the handle.



The trees glinted darkly, and she could hear their message. She swung the sword at the sides of the cave, and a white hot inferno scorched her as the walls flared.



She ran as the fireball rolled in both directions down the long passage. She could feel her bare flesh scorch. The stench of gunpowder filled her nostrils. Sparks showered down on her shredded chemise like flaming stars.



She ran up the stairs to the cellar and came out behind the winerack where she had first noticed the stray specks of sand.



Parks was the one who had said sand got everywhere no how much you tried to get rid of it. So many clues…



At the thought of Parks, Elizabeth ran faster than ever. When she was safely at the top of the stairs to the cellar, she turned. Taking the sword in both hands, she thrust the blade into the flagstone floor with all her might.



She heard a vast crack and rumble, as if the maw of Hell were yawning open. She had to grasp the door jam to stop herself from tumbling headlong as the entire house careened downwards toward the sea.



She turned and ran uphill the rest of the way as the last remnants of the ancient settlement of Ardmore defended Ireland one last time.