To Have A Heart (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 7)

She prised one eye open and peered at the ground only to start to pray at what she saw. She cowered like a frightened animal when another loud boom of gunshot shattered the silence. Suddenly, the horse swerved to one side and changed direction. He didn’t once falter over the freshly ploughed field.

“What do we do?”

“Keep going. It is all we can do.”

But they couldn’t keep going because the guards knew the area better than Callum and Mallory. When they crested the brow of the next hill, they found several guards charging toward them, trying to head them off.

“They were waiting for us, weren’t they?” Mallory groaned.

Once again, it was on the tip of her tongue to tell Callum to go on without her. It was only the fear of facing the guards alone that compelled her to keep quiet – for now at least.

“You are putting your life in danger to help me.”

“We knew that Melrose would give the order for you to be recaptured at any cost,” Callum replied. “This was expected.”

“Not by me,” she huffed. “I don’t know anything.”

“You know enough to ensure they are convicted for their crimes,” Callum said. “That’s enough.”

Tears stung her eyes. She understood why Callum had pestered her to maintain her pace now. She had wasted so much time pummelling him with questions they were now no closer to escaping than they had been when they had left the sheltered protection of the barn.

“Who are you? Am I to at least know who I am going to die with?”

Callum scowled at her. “You really do seem to have a horrid fixation on dying, don’t you?”

“I am just being honest, or have you not noticed the gangs of heavily armed men trying to capture us. You didn’t hear what they did to the last girl they decided to murder,” Mallory whispered.

Callum didn’t tell her that he was the one who had found the young woman’s corpse. He knew exactly what Melrose and his men had done to her.

At least I know now why Sir Hugo sent me to find her. He knew that once I had seen the state of Jemima, I would do everything possible to stop the sam

e thing happening to Mallory.

“I won’t allow them to do to me what they did to Jemima,” Mallory whispered, more to herself than to Callum.

She wasn’t at all sure he understood until she watched him dig around in his pocket.

“What’s that?”

Silently, Callum opened his palm.

Mallory went still when she saw two bullets in his hand.

“I don’t intend to be tortured to death or swept out of my life and held hostage either,” he replied honestly. “I would rather die. There are contingency plans should our backs ever be to the wall, but neither of us are going to die today.”

“How can you be so sure?” Mallory asked as she watched him tuck both bullets carefully back into his pocket.

Callum looked at her. There was a hint of arrogant scorn in his eyes that was as alarming as it was reassuring.

“Because I don’t want to die today,” he replied calmly but firmly.

Without saying another word, he nudged Horace into a full gallop and focused on keeping Mallory in the saddle before him as he guided the horse through the muddy fields.

“What do we do if there are more of them waiting for us through the next woods, or over the brow of the next hill?”

“We are going to do everything possible to avoid them. I don’t care where we go or what we need to do, we are not going to stop. What we must do is get out of this field. Horace is going to get hurt if he keeps charging through the mud at this speed.”

“I have never felt so useless in my entire life,” Mallory whispered.