One of his brows arched upward and as Mandy cleared her throat in an effort to say something, her brother interjected, “Ye be in the right of it. We know better than to have a go at ye, so we’ll jest be on our way then.”
“Will you?” said the stranger surveying them both, his expression thoughtful. “I don’t think so.” He centered his attention and the pistol he brought forward on Mandy and she bit her lip as he motioned and said, “You, down and it is not a suggestion.”
Ned held his empty gun in a show of force as he pointed it at the gentleman’s head, “There be two of us…only one of ye.”
“Yet, I still may kill one,” said the duke unrelenting. “And I think it will be your young…brother is it? Yes, I definitely will kill him before you get a shot off.”
Suddenly the stranger had Mandy’s arm. He yanked and ripped the gun right out of her hands, stashed it behind him in the carriage as in one fluid movement he had her off the horse and held her tight against his body.
She gulped again for one arm crossed her shoulders as he had her backed against his chest. His arm slipped as she struggled and landed across her breasts and she bit her bottom lip.
She tried scrambling away from him but it only served to detach the scarf from the lower part of her face.
He had her in tow once more and this time, held her fast around her middle as he pointed a gun at her head.
“Rather lean in years to be riding the road, my cull,” the duke remarked lightly as he inspected the toby’s face and frowned. His hand moved up her front and found her breasts and she felt him go very still as he dropped his hand and said, “What the devil?”?
“Who, who are you?” Mandy breathed losing the toby cant as she managed to move out of his hold.
“By Jupiter, you are a cool one,” said the duke, surprised. “Do you always insist on an introduction before you try and relieve your victims of their blunt?” He waved his gun then at Ned, “And you, taking a woman with you on the high road? What sort of highwaymen are you?”
“Stubble it, gent!” Mandy remembered the part she was playing. She turned to her brother as she caught up the reins of her horse. “We do what we must.”
Ned called out, “Here…” he threw the driver’s gun into the bushes. “Retrieve your barking iron when ye have a mind. We no longer have a fancy to prig ye and will be on our way.”
The duke’s brows were up and he studied these two intently. He reached out and caught Mandy’s wrist as she tried to escape his hold. “Not so fast pretty little toby. I have a few questions.”
The sun’s rays glinted off the gun and Mandy eyed it and then him. “Would ye hold a gun to a woman then? Is that the sort of gentry ye be?”
“When that woman is a thief, I would,” he answered easily.
Trouble, thought Mandy, why did it follow them endlessly? Perhaps it was them, still playing at pranks, forever encouraging trouble to land in their laps?
“If ye have a mind to tap m’claret, then do it and be done, or let us go. We mean ye no harm…” Mandy tried softly.
Suddenly, his viselike grip held her tightly to his hard rock body and she thought he might just break her bones, when just as suddenly he eased his hold.
She kicked backward and hit his shins dead on. However, she discovered the man was made of iron. He didn’t budge and he didn’t release her.
She struggled, wriggled, flung abuse at her subjugator’s head, but it became stunningly apparent to Mandy that she was trapped.
All at once, he spun her around and peered into her eyes and exclaimed, “Fiend seize it!” He tried to still her and yelled, “Stand a moment, you undersized fury.”
By this time, Ned was no longer holding his empty gun at the guard, but had jumped off his horse and was charging the stranger.
Ned grabbed one of the stranger’s arms and declared, “Blackguard. If you have a mind to fight, then meet me, swine, for I am more your size.”
For his effort, Ned was powerfully flung off to one side, tripped backward over something at the edge of the road and landed on his rump.
The stranger eased off Mandy and he did it with a cool, slow deliberateness that sent a shiver rushing through her body. Everything about his mien was that of control, and beneath that control was a predator, unwilling to be beaten.
She saw Ned get to his feet and rushed the stranger once more only to get a fist in his face.
Ned had been landed a settler that sent him sprawling backward once more and once more he landed soundly on his rump, but this time, he would have an ugly bruise to show for his efforts.
Mandy shrieked out his name, “Ned!” And then realized what she had done and bit her lip.
The stranger stood open-mouthed for a moment before he grabbed hold of her shoulders and spun her to face him.