“Quiet!” Henry yelled. The thundering of hoof beats rumbled against the ground and Henry’s pulse thumped like a war drum. He paused and turned toward the road. Soldiers? Had this been a trap after all?
The stranger jumped forward and grabbed the woman, pulling her against him. “Leave now, and let me take the woman. I promise no harm will come to her.”
The woman’s tear stained face crumbled, and the fingers of her fettered hand strained. “No! Please don’t make me go with him!”
Racing against the approaching riders, Henry lunged and jammed the butt of his pistol against the man’s skull. He dropped to the ground and rolled on his back, a trickle of blood streaming past his ear to the ground.
“Come with me.” Henry grabbed the woman’s arm and dashed to a large bush three yards from the road just as the riders came into view. He slid to the dirt and pulled her in front of him, whispering into her hair. “Do not make a sound.”
She nodded and her body tensed. The sound of her breathing stopped.
His heart began a savage beat and threatened to break from his chest as the r
iders halted beside the carriage. Their red coats and white breeches told Henry all he needed to know.
A trap.
He squinted and moved his head down and to the side to catch a better glimpse in the slots of light between the round leaves.
All privates. None familiar. But from what regiment?
“What’s happened here?” The first soldier jumped from his mount. “A man’s been hurt!”
“Quickly, Baker, retrieve your sack and pull out the napkin.”
Henry tried to follow their movement. Flashes of red and white and brown were as much as he could make out.
Two of the men crouched beside the attacker. “What’s happened to you?”
Henry tensed. The man was conscious?
The woman shook her head and pressed her back into him as if she feared the same. He tightened his grip around her and spoke so low he wondered if even she could hear him. “Pray.”
The man began to speak. “I was traveling with my daughter when a man came and took her from me.”
“What man?”
“Where did he go?”
“I…I don’t know. He hit me and vanished.”
Another barrage of questions followed.
“How long ago was this? Was he traveling alone?”
“Was there anyone else with you in the carriage?”
Henry whispered into the woman’s ear while the others continued talking. “Is that man your father?”
“Nay,” she whispered back, a waver in her voice. “I’ve never seen him before today.”
From the way her petite body trembled, he believed she feared the man whether she spoke true or not.
Again, he answered in a tone so quiet his voice barely carried over the sound of his pulse. “I will not let them harm you.”
“Baker, Winslow—you check the woods to the left, Marcus and I will check here.”
“Aye, sir.”