“I hope not because he is still on the loose. My boss has ordered search teams from across the area to find him, so I will escort you home to the children, Harriett. I must then go and join the search teams. This is my investigation. I should be the one who oversees the hunt for the killer. The rest of you need to stay here and not leave the property.” Mark looked apologetically at Tuppence. “I am sorry for what I put you through. I hope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Tuppence stared at him, a little shaken by his heartfelt words. She nodded, but her gaze was distant, and she couldn’t force herself to utter a single word of hope or forgiveness. She wasn’t at all sure what to think about anything he had said.
“Well, I have to go,” Mark announced in case anybody was interested, which he seriously doubted. While the atmosphere was no longer hostile toward him, it wasn’t friendly either. There was an expectant silence within the house now, as if they were all waiting for something to happen. With nothing more than a brisk nod, and a brief wink at his wife, Mark made his way to the door. “You had better come with me, Harriett. Isaac.”
Isaac and Tuppence both followed Mark and Harriett into the hallway.
“I will come and see you just as soon as this is all over,” Harriett burst out, launching herself at Tuppence and wrapping her arms tightly around her in what could only be described as a bear hug. When she eventually released her, there were tears in both women’s eyes.
Tuppence couldn’t stop her chin from wobbling. That one hug was all it took for all her defences to crumble. As she stared her lifelong friend in the eyes, Tuppence felt her annoyance, fear, upset, and doubts fade instantly. “I will make sure of it,” she whispered.
She smiled at Isaac when she thought she heard him mutter, ‘thank God for that’, and caught him shaking his head ruefully at them but didn’t mind. She was just relieved that he was staying at home with her. She had expected Isaac to want to join the search with Mark, even though this was now a police matter, but Isaac held his hand out to Mark instead and said: “You too, Mark. Stay safe. Come and let us know when this is all over. You know where I am if you need me.”
“Stay here and protect everyone,” Mark replied, shaking his friend’s hand. “We are assuming that Glover is running for the distant hills, but he may decide to stay in the area that he is familiar with.”
Isaac stood beside Tuppence and slid a protective arm around her while Mark yanked the front door open. The second the front driveway became visible to them all, the first of Glover’s bullets slammed into the door mere inches from Mark’s head.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mark swore fluidly and ducked out of the way. He looked for the gunman but the few seconds it took almost cost him his life. The second bullet that Glover fired grazed his upper arm. Cursing fluidly, Mark placed a hand over the now bleeding wound and stumbled back as Isaac slammed the door closed.
“Mark!” Harriett lunged toward her husband as he staggered over to the main stairs and plonked himself down on the bottom step. “Are you all right?” Harriett looked helplessly at Isaac. “Can we send someone to fetch a doctor?”
“No. You stay here,” Mark hissed. “Everyone stays inside the bloody house.” His face was grim as he forced himself to his feet. It wasn’t because of his injury. He was annoyed with himself for having made such a stupid mistake. “Can all of you come into the hallway and stay in here? Bring chairs with you if you must because you might be here for a while.”
As if to prove that the sitting room was no longer safe, the front window smashed. The shattering of the mirror above the mantle echoed tauntingly through the house and made everyone slam all the hallway doors closed.
Isaac raced into his study at the side of the house and yanked open his gun case. Within minutes, he was stalking back to Mark with two hunting rifles and a box of bullets. He grinned as if anticipating what was to come as he held a rifle out to Mark. “Care to go hunting?”
“God, this isn’t funny,” Tuppence moaned.
Gertrude, who was in the process of barking out orders to the terrified house staff, turned to her son. “If you go and get yourself shot, well, well, I think I will shoot you myself,” she snorted.
“Grant me the dignity of having a better aim than him. If Glover is trying to hit one of us, he is a lousy shot,” Isaac drawled.
Tuppence shook her head chidingly at him. “This is a killer you are going after you know.”
“I know.” Isaac turned solemn. “But we cannot spend our lives cowering in our homes because of his stupidity. We have lives to live. I have a marriage to arrange, and I am not going to postpone it because of Glover.”
“Marriage?” Tuppence was stunned.
“Yes, marriage. You must realise that is what must happen between us. My life is complete with you in it. I have a reason to be here, a purpose, a home, a life, a future full of promise and joyous things. Without you, I have nothing.”
“Ahem.” Gertrude glared maliciously at him.
“Except her,” Isaac amended with a grin. “And Uncle Reginald. The problem is, they can’t bring me a happy marriage, or a house full of fun and laughter. They can’t bring me you.”
“But they did. They allowed me to be here, to stay with you. They made me a part of their lives and welcomed me into their home despite what everyone said about me,” Tuppence whispered.
“I knew the second I heard what happened to you that it couldn’t possibly have been you. You are too sweet, too strong, too capable, dependable, predictable even, to ever be so rash, so reckless, so foolish. You work to survive. There is nothing even remotely connected to surviving by murdering someone, or calculatingly plotting someone’s death or downfall. You have been busy working to feed livestock, and running your life, your property, and making your house a home for you to live in to be bothered. Life hasn’t afforded you any other luxury, but I am going to change that.”
Tuppence’s gaze slid to Gertrude. They both remembered what they had discussed about how busy life in the house was. While Tuppence knew she didn’t understand how she was going to adjust to her new life yet, she knew she would in time. “We have plenty of time,” she whispered without realising she was uttering the words aloud for everyone in the hallway to hear.
“No, we don’t. Glover is proving that life is very fragile. We are all vulnerable to the weaknesses of other people. I don’t intend to waste a moment of the life I have, and I don’t intend to allow you to escape me a second time. I nearly lost you, Tuppence, because I was too foolish and weak to protect you; to do something about the love I have always felt for you. Whenever I contemplated approaching you about my feelings for you, I always found a reason to do it another day, a reason to delay declaring my love for you, a reason to postpone making the changes I needed to make because I was too cowardly and too worried about other people’s good opinions. Now, I don’t care about them. Other people’s opinions will not help me when I am old and grey and sitting alone in a cold and empty house with nobody to share it with and nobody to hand it to when I am gone from this mortal coil. Why should I care what others think? People will gossip about something else when they get bored, and if they don’t, well they will be boring themselves, won’t they? As for me, I am asking you, begging you, to please marry me?”
Tuppence was openly crying by the time Isaac had finished. He had edged closer and closer while he had been talking until they were standing almost nose to nose.
“I adore you,” she whispered lovingly.