Light to Valhalla (52 page)

He stopped cold in his tracks, heart in his throat.

Broken glass covered near every surface of the room while the furniture lay ove
rturned in total disarray
.
A
t the
center of it all
sprawled
Trudy, the maid,
bloodied and unmoving in a sea of
reflective
shards.

“Jesus,” Sid muttered, halting behind Alex’s left shoulder.

Across the room
Baker
—the left side of his head dripping blood—
held Charley in an unrelenting vice one arm barred around her torso, while the other held a knife to her throat
.

“Alex,” she choked
.
Her eyes widened and melted with
a mixture of
relief
and terror
.

Leveling his weapon, Alex prayed
he
lived up to
her unspoken faith in him
.
“Release her,”
he
com
manded, taking a few cautious steps toward the fiend
.

“Stay back or I’ll slit her throat,” Baker sneered, tilting the blade into the tender flesh of Charley’s throat
.

“Let her go or I’ll shoot you right between the eyes,” Alex bluffed
.
He was a crack shot, but would never take the chance of hitting Charley
.

He cast a sidelong glance at Sid who met his gaze and gave a quick nod
, breaking away from Alex, his own pistol at the ready
.

Baker’s dark eyes hardened
, flipping between Alex and Sidney
.
The knife blade gleamed in the lamplight as he curved the blade into her throat
.
Blood trickled an uneven path down her neck
,
leeching
into the
white
satin of her dressing robe.

Charley whimpered, tears splashing onto her cheeks.

Alex clenched the pistol handle, desperate to keep his rampaging emotions under control
.
“Everything will be fine, love
.
I promise.”

Terrified, watery eyes gazed up at him with such defeat
.
Alex couldn’t fail her now
.
Not after everything they’d shared
.
Not when life was finally looking up for them
.
Weighing Baker’s options, Alex continued his advance into the room
.
Killing Charley was out of the question, at least until he escaped the house
.
If Alex could keep him corralled a little longer…

“Don’t come any closer,
Coverstone
. Or do you like
watchin
’ your wife bleed?”

Alex remained
silent,
gaze locked on Baker, and continued circling.

Wild eyed Baker yanked Charley backward
.
The fiend may have continued flight but ran up against the large oak
dressing
table
nestled against the far wall
.
His grip on her and the knife loosened as he scooted along the edge of the table
.
The hand holding the weapon fell to her shoulder and by walking sideways Baker’s legs shifted away from Charley, providing a
n avenue for a possible shot
.

Alex shifted his own weapon down and carefully timed Baker’s steps
.
God bless my aim
.
He waited for the fiend to move sideways again, trained the barrel on his thigh and squeezed the trigger.

Charley s
creamed and flinched
, squeezing her eyes shut
.

The bullet tore through Baker’s right thigh, and h
e howled in pain
.
Fixing Alex with an acidic glare
,
Baker flipped the blade away from Charley and flung it expertly toward Alex.

Caught off guard, Alex dove out of the way, but the knife sliced brutally
across
his
upper
arm
.
He staggered back, gritting his teeth against the fire scorching
his entire extremity, forcing his attention back to Charley’s rescue.

As if on cue she
swung her leg back, planting a
slippered
heel squarely
in
the shine of her captor’s good leg
.
“Rah!” Baker
shrieked, dropping to a knee
.
She wrenched free
,
sprinting
towar
d Alex with outstretched arms.

Sidney tackled
Baker,
pinning the hollering thug to the carpeted floor
.

Charley
plunged trembling into his Alex’
s
arms
.
Knocked off balan
ce by her impulsive embrace he
slid
the uninjured limb
around her, pulling her along as he
stumbl
ed
back two steps
.
“Easy, darling,” he murmured huskily
.
She looped
both arms around his neck, hanging on for dear life
.

“You’re hurt,”
she sobbed, pulling back and shifting her tearful attention to his bloodied sleeve
.
“H
ow awful!
  H
is knife sliced
clear
through your arm.
”

He yanked her back into his embrace, burying his face in the sweet expanse of her hair
.
“It’s
nothing, love.
”

“
But there is so much blood.”

“It’s just a scratch.”

“Where have
I heard that before?” she grumbled in response
.

Ignoring her quip
Alex closed his eyes and dropped slowly to his knees, keeping his arms around her the entire time
.
“
What of you, Charley? 
You’re well?  He didn’t hurt you?
”
His palms spanned her tiny waist, his thumbs framing the lower portion of her abdomen
.
He gulped
.
“What of the baby?”

She curled her fingers in his hair and
made a tremulous attempt to smile
.
“We’re both fine,” she assured.

“Thank God.
”
Weak with relief Alex sagged against his wife, resting his face against her womb
.
For a long moment he was content simply to be held by her and relish the warmth of her body
.

A moan drifted up from the center of the room.

“Trudy!
”
Alarmed Charley broke away from Alex and dashed to her ever faithful maid.

The servant sat with Charley’s assistance, holding her bloodied head
.
Small cuts and abrasions marred the young girl’s face
.
“Did we get him, ma’am?”

Charley hugged the other woman
.
“Yes
.
Yes we did.
”
She looked up to Sidney—who’d successfully bound Baker’s hands with his cravat
.
“Thanks to Sidney and Alex everyone is fine.”

Sadness flickered in Sid’s expression
.
“Don’t thank me just yet, Charles.”

Alex’
s heart clenched at the re
minder of such acute betrayal, and he looked away from his half-brother unsure what would transpire next between them.

“What in the hell is going on here?” Regina’s shrill voice
split
the brief silence
.
She appeared in the doorway
.
“Oh, my god!
 
This way General
.
Quickly?
”

General?
 
Confused
.
Alex rose, clamping a palm over his oozing arm
.
To his utter
shock, General Witherspoon, plowed into the room next,
dragging the grizzly Steven Johnston by the scruff of the neck
.
“Found this bastard skulking about the hall.”

Charley
gasped
.

A
lex positioned
himself protectively in front of her
.
“Johnston,” Alex growled
.
“I had wondered what happened to you
.
Did you know that your partner,
John
Halverson, hanged last week?”

“Where the hell were you?” Baker demanded from
his prison between Sid and the wall
.

“Got lost in this bloody maze of a house.”

“Good Christ.
”
Witherspoon took in the scene about the room
.
“What the hell happened in here?
”
His gaze dropped to Baker cowering on the floor and
Sid
standing guard over him
.

             
“
It’s a long story,” Alex supplied for his mother’s benefit as much as to answer the general’s question
.
Wary Alex faced Witherspoon
.
“What are you doing here?”

             
“Harris came to find me
.
Said he needed help and sent me to fetch the magistrate to arrest the little miss waiting downstairs.”

             
Alex flipped a questioning eye to Sidney
.
“You had Veronica arrested?”

Sid shrugged
.
“
Of course.”

“Veronica?” Charley and Regina exclaimed in unison.

Alex lifted a commanding, silencing arm
.
“Let’s move everyone downstairs
.
Sidney and I will explain everything before the magistrate.”

Regina nodded
.
“An excellent idea.
”
Her gaze fell to Trudy
.
“I’ll send for a physician as well.”

Alex glared at Baker, thinking of all the times he’d sensed being watched
.
The footprints outside the hunting cottage
.
Charley’s severed girth strap
.
“You’ve been watching us.”

“For weeks,” Baker confirmed
.
“I’ve been watching, waiting
,
biding
my time
.
It was Lady Veronica
who wanted to move tonight
.
Told
her
it was a mistake, bad timing and all, but
s
he wouldn’t listen.”

Alex cast a quick glance to Charley—
still
a trifle too pale—sitting
on the bed, arm linked with her maid
.
He
strode to
Baker and yanked the
injured
brigand bodily to his feet
.

Alex clenched an angry fist and drew a ragged breath
.
V
engeance
for the havoc wrecked on his
life would be
short in coming and
very
sweet indeed
.

*
             
*
             
*

Trembling Charley
sat
on the loveseat, squished between the wooden arm and
Alex whose hulking frame took up far more than his share of the furniture
.
Not that she minded
.
His nearness
lent her an element of the security she so desperately needed
.
Her gaze filtered ov
er Veronica
,
and the battered
Johnston
and Josiah B
aker seated in
the chairs opposite them
.
General Witherspoon and the magistrate,
Sirius Mott
,
as well as two Bow Street Runners
flanked the trio
should any of them try to run.