Ears ringing, head pounding, the taste of blood trickled into his mouth.
Suddenly, Eliza’s scream climbed two octaves. “Fire! The house is on fire!”
All his senses collaborated in a second. The acrid smell of burning wood filled his nose and his ears honed in on the crackling that grew ever louder. The flames devoured the wood and made their way across the floor toward the walls.
Powerful reservoirs of strength flooded into Thomas’s arms and legs. He thrust his knees into Samuel’s chest, shoving him to the side. His assailant’s grip loosened and Thomas pried Samuel’s hands away from his neck. He leaped to his feet and took an aggressive stance, ready for another attack.
Eliza tried to beat the spreading flames with a cloak while Kitty helped Nathaniel to his feet.
“Get out of here, all of you!” Thomas yelled. “Get out now!”
Samuel ran toward him, snarling and sweating. Thomas jabbed his knee into Samuel’s groin sending him writhing backward.
Eliza dropped the cloak as Kitty and Nathaniel made their way out the back, her face twisted with worry, before escaping into the freedom of the field.
Thomas turned to Samuel just before another blistering punch to his stomach bent Thomas at the waist.
The charring smoke swirled around him, burning his lungs. His muscles ached for air, forcing him to take deep breaths of the soot-clogged gasses.
Samuel launched again, this time bellowing and clawing. Thomas deviated Samuel’s aggressive arms and landed a fist in the center of his face. Blood splashed from Samuel’s nose, but the pain he must have felt only seemed to heighten his ferocity. Samuel attacked again and again, releasing a kind of demon into his continuous blows.
The flames licked up the walls as several portraits fell to the ground. Thomas shielded his eyes fr
om the vicious heat. “Samuel, quit this! We must get out of here before we’re burned alive!”
“Burned alive? So be it.” Samuel wiped another stream of blood from his nose and streaked it up his face.
Perspiration dripped from Thomas’s every pour and trailed over his muscles. The oppressive heat drained the remaining reserves of strength in his weakening limbs. The flames consumed the room at terrifying speed and the smoke annihilated the breathable air.
Thomas stepped backward to dodge another fist when his foot knocked something hard.
The sword.
In one quick motion he bowed to pick it up, but instantly tossed the scorching metal aside. The sword flew, lodging the handle in an open crevice between the wall and the floor. The blade stuck out into the room at a forty-five degree angle only inches from where they fought.
Samuel plowed his fist into Thomas’s jaw. He reeled backward, shaking his head to make the smoky orange room stay still.
“Thomas! Samuel! Get out of there!”
Both men turned at the sound of Eliza’s voice. She stood in the opening of the back door while the dangerous blaze swayed fatally close to her skirts.
Rage split Thomas’s skull. “Eliza, what are you doing—”
“Thomas, look out!”
He whirled around to see Samuel charging toward him, screaming like a mad man with the fire poker raised above his head. With less than a second to react, Thomas jumped to the side and shoved Samuel away before the poker met his chest.
The following seconds moved slow, dream-like. The sword, still jammed in place, glowed from the reflecting flames. Samuel pitched and slammed onto the waiting blade. It popped through him with sickening ease, splattering blood into the air. His body went immediately limp and heaved forward.
He was dead.
“Samuel!” Eliza’s shrill cry stabbed through the smoke and ravenous flames.
Thomas stared at the gruesome sight, heedless of the fire that threatened to consume him.
“Thomas! Thomas, get out!” Eliza’s voice called to him again.
He twisted toward her, his lungs shriveling from smoke, his limbs quaking.