He threw up his hands as he interrupted her. “Is there not, my girl? You are as naïve as my nevvy!” He drew a long breath. “At any rate, I mean to do something about it, and the first thing I must do is alert your uncle to this. Perhaps between the two of us we can scotch this piece of work.”
Serena felt a blaze of anger shoot through her. “You will do no such thing! I won’t have my uncle worried about me.”
“Won’t you?” his lordship said grimly. “And how will he be when he hears that an attempt has been made on your life, for mark me, both you and Freddy stand in this scoundrel’s way, and I, Serena, won’t have that!”
She frowned and chewed her bottom lip. “You don’t understand.”
“We are not playing at schoolgirl games. You cannot set yourselves up as bait and then make light of it. If you aren’t concerned for yourself, what of Freddy? How will you feel if he gets murdered over this?”
“Oh … no … no,” she said worriedly. “But what can I do now?”
At that moment, they looked up and found a rider, Freddy, in fact, making his way to them. He looked disheveled. His top hat was missing, and his cravat was askew and, Serena thought, dirty … and then she realized … it wasn’t dirt, but blood!
She gasped because, as he got closer, she saw blood all down the side of his neck. Freddy, however, appeared absolutely excited as he jumped off his horse, grinning like a fool, and exclaimed, “Wait till I tell you what an adventure I have had. Must go up to the house though, before the doctor takes his leave. I was told he was here tending to your uncle, Serena.”
“Frederick, what the devil has happened?” his uncle demanded.
~ Ten ~
SERENA RECOVERED HERSELF and went to Freddy, her face and voice filled with horror. “Freddy … blood is pouring out of your wound. Do hurry then—let’s get to the house. You can tell us what happened as we go.”
“At the beginning,” his lordship added as they picked up their pace and headed up the drive.
Freddy didn’t hesitate. He was exploding with excitement, quite willing and ready to tell it all, “Well, Sir Newton and I had the rarest kick-up when old Barker decided he was tired of being a foxhound and took off after a deer!”
He shook his head, and Serena objected. “Freddy … try not to shake your head. You are losing too much blood.”
“Yes, well, up the beach and into the woods after the biggest buck I have seen in some time, let me tell you. Right, what must the hounds do but honor him, all but Warrior, who won’t chase deer. Good hound. At any rate, off the rest all went in pursuit. Newton was furious. He blew his horn till I thought he would go off into an apoplexy, got as red as his coat, but only the best of his hounds packed in. Finally, we got them all back, except for Barker. I took up the chase and managed to find the fellow and discovered the poor ol’ boy was caught up in the briar.” He looked from Serena to his uncle and said portentously, “Guess where we ended up, Serena?”
She closed her eyes and said in a resigned, ‘oh no’ tone, “Piney Woods.”
“Aye, how did you know?”
“They usually run deer in that direction, especially Barker,” she answered on a sigh. “Freddy, your ear looks torn.”
His lordship didn’t bother knocking for the butler but pushed in, opened the door wide, and ordered, “In.”
Serena hurried inside, turned to the men, and said, “I’ll call for the doctor.”
She moved to the bellrope, and Davis entered the central hall from the library, a tray in his hand. “Yes, Miss Serena?” he said, looking from her to Freddy, who was dripping blood onto the floor.
She asked for the doctor to be sent for, and he replied that both the squire and the doctor were in the library having tea.
Pulling Freddy along, she said, “Come on …”
“Yes, but, Serena, I haven’t finished, have I? Do you know where I ended up?”
“You have just said the Piney Woods.” She frowned at him.
“Indeed, but it was less than thirty feet from where we found that poor fellow’s body.”
“And that is where you were shot,” his lordship said grimly.
“Shot?” Serena nearly screamed. “Shot? Freddy, is your wound from a gunshot?”
“Only grazed m’ear …”
Doctor Forbes, an elderly man, was already on his feet as they entered and asked, “Shot … gunshot? Here, let me have a look at that.”