The jailers had faded into the distance but she knew, without bothering to stop and study the area more closely, that they were not too far away.
“Why have the jailers pulled back?” Hetty called when she glanced back only to find them considerably further away. “Are we running into an ambush?”
She studied the empty landscape. It was difficult to tell for certain. There was simply nobody around. It felt as if everyone had suddenly vanished, and she and Charlie were the only ones in the country.
There were no farm buildings; no carriages; not even a farmer leading his cattle to market; absolutely nothing. It was more than a little disconcerting.
“There is a small village over that hill,” Charlie gasped. “It isn’t much, but we should be able to change the horses at a coaching inn, if we can find one. We have to go this way first though, then we can double back so that we –”
“We are not doubling back,” Hetty declared firmly. She reined her horse
into a trot and pulled up alongside him. “I will not double back, and risk being caught by those jailers. We don’t double back. We keep going. Our horses are tired, but so will theirs be. It’s foolish to keep pushing them at the rate we are; we have to slow down and let the horses catch their breaths. Whatever we do, we are most definitely not turning back on ourselves.”
Charlie lifted his brows and looked at her. The fierce glint of anger in her eyes warmed him, and he found himself smiling at her, in spite of the fact that this was effectively their first argument.
“Fair enough,” he agreed somewhat cautiously.
Right then he would have given anything she wanted. If she didn’t want to double back, even to change horses, then he wasn’t going to argue with her.
God, she is beautiful when she is angry, he mused. She looked so vibrant, so full of vim and vigour, that he wanted to sweep her into his arms for a hug and kiss the life out of her.
He winced at that mental analogy. Given what had very nearly happened only this time yesterday, he didn’t want to think about anyone losing their lives, and hurriedly turned his attention back to their current predicament.
“We can’t go to the safe house right now,” Charlie declared firmly. He nodded in the direction they had last seen the jailers. “It’s too risky. We can’t bring that lot to Afferley. Sir Hugo isn’t due until tomorrow, and we can’t hold off half of Derby overnight. Wally and Simon are there. While we are being chased, they are safe.”
“Where is it? This, Afferley.” Hetty asked as she glanced around them. “I have no idea where we are.”
If he was honest neither did he, but he wasn’t going to say as much to her. “We are a few miles away, I think. We must find some way we can change the horses. Then we need to find a way to get to the safe house without being seen.”
“Won’t they search this far out?”
“I think they will now, yes. They just haven’t searched this far yet.”
“I hope to God, Mabel and your friends are alright,” Hetty declared firmly.
“My colleagues are very capable men. If anyone can get Mabel out of that town, it is Marcus, Barnaby, and the others.”
“What then? I mean, we can’t just keep riding around evading capture.”
Charlie looked at her. “We have to change the horses first. Once we are on fresh animals, we can find a way around to Afferley. Once Sir Hugo is in Derby, we will be safe because nobody would dare challenge him; not even Meldrew. I have no doubt that Sir Hugo will ensure that he has the relevant documentation, and authority, to remove Meldrew from office with immediate effect. In light of the fact that innocent people are being put to death, Sir Hugo won’t waste time. We just have to give him time to get here.”
Hetty gave him a measured look. “I hope Meldrew will listen to your Sir Hugo.”
Charlie knew that she doubted that Sir Hugo had the authority to deal with Meldrew, but Charlie had no qualms about placing his trust in his boss.
“Sir Hugo can call in the red coats if he needs to,” he confided, and smiled at her shocked gasp. “He has done so before, when we were dealing with some Cornish smugglers. Even Meldrew and his thugs cannot fight the army.”
“Seriously?”
Charlie nodded. “We need to go.”
Hetty froze at the sudden evasive look in his eye. She didn’t want to take a look behind them, but was driven to. When she did, she immediately wished that she hadn’t. A small group of jailers were charging over the hill behind them, relentless in their dogged determination to capture them.
When she turned to face forward, she gasped in horror.
A small group of men were blocking their escape route, and thundering toward them on horses that were evidently fresher than their own.
“This way,” Charlie snapped, and hauled a sharp right.