Tuppence (The Tipton Hollow 3)

“Will you?” he prompted.

“I would love to,” she replied firmly, and without any hesitation, doubt, concern or worry. “Deep in my heart, I know that you are what I want in my life. You. Just you. The house is a bonus, and the lifestyle is indeed luxury, but it would all mean nothing to me if you weren’t here to share it with me. I want nothing more than a future with you, a lifetime together, a happy home, and a family we can share it with.”

Isaac swept her into his arms and kissed her amidst a chorus of claps and cheers, whistles, and cries of jubilation from not just the family and friends in the hallway but the assembled house staff who had all crammed into the long hallway to listen to what was being said. When they had ventured out of the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about, they had inadvertently witnessed something splendid, and far from destructive.

That still lingered outside.

“Now that is sorted, I have a killer to catch,” Isaac whispered to Tuppence.

“He is probably long gone by now,” Mark grumbled, but ruined his criticism with a grin. He had just seen several figures running past the house and suspected that Isaac’s grounds staff were already hunting Glover.

“Let’s try again, shall we? This time, I think we need to go out of the side door,” Isaac murmured to Mark.

“Please stay safe.” Tuppence wished she could stop him going.

Isaac smiled at her but followed Mark down the hallway toward his study. Minutes later, the men were scurrying through the shrubbery circling the mansion’s garden toward the assembled group of workers who were rushing to the woodland on the opposite side of the main driveway.

“Come on, let’s go,” Mark called and set off at a jog. He took no more than half a dozen steps before the gunfire began again, this time from behind them.

What worried Isaac more than anything was that it was coming from inside the house. “Damn it all to Hell.”

“He must have gotten into the house while the staff were in the hallway,” Mark snarled.

Thankfully, they hadn’t managed to go too far and were soon back inside the study.

“Get down!” Glover bellowed before releasing another sh

ot over the heads of the house’s occupants.

Terrified screams accompanied the loud retort of the gun blasting shot into the ceiling in the main hallway. Tuppence clung to Harriett as they cowered beside the grandfather clock next to the front door.

“Now put that damned thing down, you maniac. This isn’t the place for you,” Sir Reginald commanded only to dodge into the sitting room he had been steadily backing toward while he was talking. Before he disappeared into the safety of the room, he grabbed Gertrude’s arm and hauled her behind him before promptly slamming the door closed.

“Stand right where you are, Glover,” Mark bellowed.

“Thank God for that,” Harriett murmured, knowing her husband was an excellent marksman.

“I hope Isaac is with him.” Tuppence tried to crane her neck to see through the windows on either side of the front door but all she could see was miles and miles of empty countryside, and a large group of estate workers running toward the house. From half a mile away, though, it was going to be some time before they arrived.

“You couldn’t leave it, could you?” Glover growled to Mark as he backed against a wall beside the library. “You had to release her.”

“You are a thief,” Tuppence snapped. “You really thought that you could steal my life out from under me and I was going to face justice for a crime that you committed.” Outraged, and aware that she was the cause of all the damage to Isaac’s house and family, Tuppence stepped away from the clock. She shook off Harriett’s restraining hands and glared at her nemesis. Tuppence knew that if she didn’t square up to Glover like this, he was going to steal her life anyway regardless of whether he swung for his crimes or not.

“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Glover sneered. He lifted his handgun and pointed it straight at her head.

Tuppence’s gaze fell to the man’s trigger finger. She saw it twitch but didn’t flinch. Down the long barrel of the gun that could end her life, Tuppence stared into the cold, hard eyes of the man who had brought her so much pain and misery while he had also inadvertently helped her secure a better future.

“I am going to have a future. It will be of my choosing. You are not going to keep targeting me, damaging me, or bullying me. I will not allow you to do this to me, these innocent people, or anybody else just because you want to feel more important than you really are. You are small. You are a criminal. You are nothing more than a cold-blooded killer too stupid and ignorant to do anything better with your life. Glover, you are a snivelling coward if you hide behind a gun to pretend to be clever. It serves you right when the judge hangs you for your crimes. Mr Lewis and Mr Richmond did nothing to you. I have done nothing to you to deserve this. Mrs Girdling did nothing to you, but then nobody needs to do anything to you for you to target them, do they? You are greedy and selfish and have no qualms about helping yourself to anything other people have because it is easier for you than having to work hard to earn things yourself. It is far easier for you to destroy lives because it is simpler than you having to be like everyone else and live your life and accept your lot in life. Put the gun down because I can assure you that you will leave this house in irons. You will be arrested for what you have done to me, and every other victim you have bullied and murdered, lied to and about, and attacked. You are going to hang for your crimes and rightly so. I have no mercy on you. People like you get what you deserve.”

Tuppence continued to ramble on and on about justice, and the man’s selfishness. She talked to incessantly, so coldly, and so quickly while her gaze remained locked on Glover’s trigger finger, that she couldn’t even remember what she said. But she suspected Mr Glover remembered every word. When she thought she saw his finger twitch, his arm began to lower, but she didn’t stop talking. What Glover wasn’t aware of was Isaac creeping steadily toward him with a large fire poker over his shoulder. As soon as he was within arm’s reach, Isaac lifted the poker. Tuppence immediately threw herself onto the floor while Isaac brought the poker down onto the top of Mr Glover’s head. The instinctive jerk of the gunman’s hand as he was struck a mortal blow released a bullet, but it embedded itself in the large front door, far away from everyone who was stuck in the hallway.

A heavy silence fell over everyone.

Isaac stepped over the gunman and swept the gun off the floor. Mark fell to his knees and checked Glover for more weapons before checking for life, but the open eyed, glassy stare of the dead man assured them all that Glover’s murderous ways were over.

“Well, at least we won’t have to sit through hours of a trial now,” Mark muttered, yanking the dead man’s jacket off before draping it over the corpse’s head. He used the spare material of the jacket to mop up the steady stream of blood oozing from the gash on Glover’s head. “Sorry about your floor, old man.”

“I don’t care. Damage can be repaired. The holes in the walls can be filled in and repainted, and the windows can be replaced. If it means that this damned idiot can’t harm any of us, the damage is worth it.” Isaac hauled Tuppence off the floor and held her firmly against him while he savoured the fact that she was alive and unharmed. He turned when the sitting room door opened, and a shaken Sir Reginald and Gertrude appeared in the doorway.