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

There wasn’t anything she could say so Mallory followed the men in stoic silence, all the way down the stairs until they reached the back door overlooking a small yard. Within seconds, Niall drew a cart to a halt before them.

“We have the loan of it until tomorrow,” he explained. “We should be able to get him to the safe house and return it to the woman by then.”

Mallory eyed the cart. It looked as aged as the old woman who had helped them hide in the courtyard. She didn’t doubt that was who Niall had turned to for help. With a mental nod of thanks, Mallory stood back to watch the men lift Sir Hugo into the back of the vehicle.

“Get up beside me,” Callum ordered her.

When she didn’t immediately move, Oliver lifted her onto the bench seat.

“Wait!” Mallory cried.

Oliver swore. Callum glared at her, but Mallory was too busy clambering into the back to kneel beside Sir Hugo.

“Give me that blanket, please,” she asked of Niall, who dutifully stepped forward to hand her a blanket he had purloined from somewhere.

Mallory draped it over Sir Hugo before she tore another piece of material off her skirt and swapped it with the now blooded one covering Sir Hugo’s wound. When she was satisfied that she had done all she could to make him more comfortable, she nodded at Callum.

“We can go now,” she murmured quietly.

When she looked at him, she placed a hand over Sir Hugo’s wound again, effectively doing everything she could to stem the flow of blood.

Callum shared a look with his colleagues. None of them said a word as they stepped back to allow Callum to nudge the carriage into motion. While the men fetched Horace and the rest of the horses, Callum guided the carriage through the village toward the safe house.

This journey was unlike any other Mallory had ever undertaken. It was solemn but everyone was watchful and tense. They all knew the dangers of being in a slow-moving vehicle while Melrose’s men were about.

“I will go on ahead and get the doctor at the house for when you arrive,” Phillip offered.

“It is going to take an hour or two. We don’t know if he has broken anything, so we must take it steady. I daren’t drive any faster in case I injure him some more,” Callum said. “Just make sure that we don’t have anyone lurking in the undergrowth, eh?”

Phillip nodded and cantered off leaving the rest of the men to surround the carriage as best they could given there were only a handful of them.

“Wait! Why is he going anywhere alone?” Will demanded as he squinted at Phillip’s back.

Oliver paused and turned to look at his colleague.

“Look at what they have done to Sir Hugo. He is one of the best of men, yet they have beaten him into a bloodied pulp. Maybe this was done by that mob we cut down in the street, maybe there is another mob out there. We don’t know. What kind of bloody fool rides off, even to fetch a doctor, when Melrose can do this to us? Don’t you think there is safety in numbers? Don’t you think it is best that we all stick together? Once Sir Hugo is at the safe house, we can send three men out to fetch the doctor. Right now, we stay together, Oliver. It isn’t safe for Phillip, or any of us for that matter, to go out by ourselves. The last thing we need is two men dead.” Will glared at his colleague even though he knew it wasn’t Oliver’s fault that Melrose had gotten the better of them this time.

Oliver didn’t take it personally. He knew and understood Will’s frustration. They all felt the same way.

“How are you doing back there?” Callum asked of Mallory.

“Fine,” she replied. “The blood from this wound seems to be easing a little.”

Callum turned to have a look. Indeed, there didn’t seem to be so much blood oozing from the hole now that Sir Hugo was lying down.

“Keep putting pressure on it,” he said.

Mallory had no intention of doing anything else.

“I am going with Phillip,” Will announced suddenly.

Before anyone could say otherwise, he nudged his horse into a canter and disappeared.

Callum shared a knowing look with Oliver. They both knew that they were riding into danger. It was going to come at them from any quarter at any given moment. All they could do was hope they reached their destination alive.

Callum threw a look over his shoulder at Mallory. There was little he could do to protect her right now. One look was all it would take for Melrose to know that she was with the Star Elite, and alive and well. Melrose would do everything possible to get her off the back of the cart, but there was no place she could hide. She was a sitting target.

“There is no alternative,” Oliver said, as if he had just read Callum’s thoughts.