The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(99)

After about ten minutes, the assailants made another sally into the kitchen. Sarah and Caleb picked off the first two, but a third came charging through the hail of bullets, and launched himself at Alexander, who was sent sprawling. She heard a shot, and saw the flash of a knife. She brought down the butt of the musket full-force upon the attacker, and then aimed her pistol at yet another pair of men swarming through the shattered door.



"Caleb, take the one on the right!"



She hit her target squarely in the chest, while Caleb winged his in the right arm. The man dropped his pistol, which went off harmlessly when it clattered to the flagstone floor.



Alexander was still grappling with his attacker in between the two trunks, but managed to get the knife away from him and stabbed him in the belly. Sarah watched the ease and skill with which her lover fought, as if he had been born to it. He twisted the knife and yanked it back out, and planted the man a heavy blow to the jaw which snapped it in two. The man shrieked and squirmed, and began to crawl away out the door. Alexander reached out a second time to stab him fiercely in the side and let him go. The man crawled on all fours toward the door, his wounded comrades following him.



"Are you all right?" she asked, searching him quickly for any sign of injury.



"It's just a scratch." He took out his handkerchief and bound his wrist, and then resumed reloading the muskets and the new pistol he had just secured from the kitchen floor.



She stared at him, wondering at his calm stillness in the midst of the chaos. The fire had shaken him badly, but this, this was what he had lived and trained for, she was sure of it. Alexander might well be intelligent, gentlemanly, but he was a warrior through and through.



And so was she, she had discovered, when pressed hard enough.



In all the confusion, Sarah had not noticed the sound of breaking glass. The small transom above the front door had been shattered during the melee on the floor with Alexander. A hand and arm were now silently snaking in to lift the latch from the inside.



"Caleb, help reload, while I look at Alexander's wound."



"It's nothing, I tell you. Pay attention to the battlefield."



"How many do you think there are?"



"My guess, from the sounds outside, there were eight to ten," he replied. "I'm not sure how many we killed or wounded."



"If they come in again now, we're sitting ducks if we don't get loaded soon."



"A musket butt is a good weapon. Aim for the groin."



"Why, Alexander, I do believe you like to fight dirty," she tried to joke.



His face grew mask-like, remote. "This is no laughing matter, Sarah. I would do anything to protect you," he said, his voice raw with love and fear.



"Same here, darling."



Just then, a small sound behind her alerted her to the intruder trying to slip in through the front door. Having no weapon reloaded yet, she grabbed her brother's saber and ran through the questing arm, putting all her weight into the thrust. She heard a bellow of pain, felt it slice down to the bone, and the latch dropped once more. Sarah would have followed up with a second thrust, but the arm snaked back out of the small window in an instant, and at last they were alone once more.



After half an hour, Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. "I think they really are gone this time."



"Lucky we had a small arsenal in the house," Alexander said.



"That's for certain. We would have been done for otherwise."



"Miss Deveril! Miss Deveril! Are you all right?" a voice called from outside.



"It's Jed!" Caleb exclaimed in relief.



"Miss Deveril, it's me, Jed Miller, and some of the men from the village. We saw some men lurking around the vicarage just now, and thought you might be in trouble."



"Are you sure it's not a trick?" Alexander asked in a worried tone.



She ran into her small parlor, and looked out the window cautiously. She saw several of the local men carrying flambeaux. All of them were dressed in a variety of colors, but none of them in black.



"It's all right. I know them all."



Caleb kept an eye on the back door while she went out through the front, sword still in hand. Jed and Mr. Evans came in to survey the damage, and immediately offered their assistance in fixing the back door and cleaning up the mess. They were astonished with the manner in which the vicarage had been decimated, and offered to call in to the magistrate Geoffrey Branson's house to tell him the news.



"That would be wonderful, thank you. I would be even more grateful if some of you could stay tonight, and tomorrow, just in case they decide to come back. We'll be leaving in the morning, heading to some family and friends, and would be glad if you would keep us safe until then."