Sir Henry smiled. “My spies tell me he’s on his way.”
For a moment she couldn’t think of anything else to say, she was so relieved to hear her beloved gentleman wasn’t dead.
“Where are they?” Sir Henry was speaking to one of his men.
Tina managed to sit up, some of the pain returning to her injured hands now that they were free, and there also seemed to be bruises all over her body if her soreness was anything to go by. Through the shrubs and trees she could see a largish house, set back from where the coach had stopped on the road. Lights were shining from its windows, and there was a dark plume of smoke coming from the chimney.
“Little is in there with Sutton and his sister?” Sir Henry said gruffly.
“He is, sir.”
Something occurred to Tina, and she said in a muffled cry, “Don’t let Mr. Little escape, please, Sir Henry. Richard has made a vow to capture his brother’s murderer, and if he gets away, we won’t be able to get married.”
Sir Henry’s mouth twitched. “Oh has he now? That sounds like our romantic Richard, doesn’t it? Well, we’d better capture him then, hadn’t we, Miss Smythe? For the sake of a happy ending, eh?”
Chapter 40
“This is it.” Will pointed toward the narrow track that led off the road. “The lodge will be down there.”
They’d knocked at an inn in Faversham and got directions to Sutton’s sister’s house—Peggy, a widow with two children, owned an old hunting lodge outside the town. The innkeeper seemed to think the goings-on there were less than law-abiding, but no one had been brave enough to have her charged. “She has a brother,” he explained, “puts the fear o’ God into anyone who threatens to haul her up before the magistrate.”
The men urged their horses forward.
“It could be a trap, sir,” Archie said nervously.
“Not if they don’t know we’re onto them,” Richard reminded him. “And if it is . . . we’ll just have to take that chance, won’t we?”
“Please be careful, sir,” Archie said anxiously.
Richard met his gaze. “Still taking care of me, Archie? Well, I thank you for it, and the years we’ve been together. You’ve always been a friend to me.”
He was almost saying good-bye, and Archie seemed to know it. Richard knew he was being reckless again, but he had to save Tina, and if he couldn’t . . . he’d rather die with her than go on alone. He turned away from Archie’s understanding gaze.
“Come on,” he said, and led them down the track.
“Someone coming,” one of Sir Henry’s men gave a loud whisper, pointing down the track. But before they could do more than look, the door to the house itself was opened, and Sutton came striding out, heading toward the coach. Sir Henry edged forward under cover of the bushes, and when Sutton opened the coach door and climbed inside, the men rushed out and trapped him.
Sutton gave one shout, loud enough to be heard inside the house, because a moment later Little ran out, making a run for the trees.
Just as Richard rode up with Will and Archie.
“Sir Henry?” he blurted out, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. “What are . . . ?”
“No time for questions, Richard.”
A woman was screaming, more with rage than fear, and being dragged from the lodge. At the sight of her, Sutton began to shout and swear, fighting as he was hauled from the coach, and when Richard dismounted to help, he felt a light touch on his arm.
“Richard.”
He turned, and she was in his arms, warm and alive. He could have stood there holding her forever, but in the end he set her away, eyes searching her face for marks, for signs of hurt or suffering, but apart from a weary cast to her features, she looked remarkably well. And she was smiling.
“Your head?” she said softly, reaching as if to touch him.
“My head hurts,” he said, forgoing any heroics.
He saw her hands then and clasped them, turning them over, scowling at the injuries made by her struggles with her bonds.
“They will heal,” she said. “There is nothing wrong with me that will not heal.”