“I will not have you playing games.” Warren spoke calm, but a roar of warning rumbled in his tone. He stepped forward. “Let me take her away and you two men can finish what you began.”
Laughing, Paul tilted his head back. “Nay, this has all become far too amusing.” He quieted and struck William with a glare. “I should like us all to hear this confession. Tell her Henry, who you really are and what you have done.”
Anna quivered, her complexion slipping to gray as she looked from Warren back to William.
This could not be happening. Inside, a call to battle drummed, but William reserved the urge to attack while Anna stood between him and the man who would have him dead. He kept his eyes on Paul but spoke to Warren. “Take her away. Now.”
Warren stepped forward and Anna jumped back with a strained cry. “No!”
Warren stopped and glanced to William, tension tightening his mouth. The unvoiced question of how to proceed shouted in his eyes.
“Trust me, Anna. Go with him.” The command came out with more bite than he’d wished. “I will not have you—”
“You will not have her learn the truth of you, is that it, Henry?” Paul pushed from the door and stepped behind Anna, inclining his head to her ear. “He is not what you believe.” He stood and spoke louder. “Will you tell her or shall I?”
William’s limbs turned to stone at the sight of Anna’s quivering hands and white lips. Groaning under the weight of his deceit, he opened his mouth but Paul’s bellowing sound emerged first.
“He, my dear, is none other than the honorable Captain Henry Donaldson.” Paul looked to him, then Anna, a surprised grin matching the laugh that followed. “How remarkable, is it not? That the very man you had wished to find made you his bride.” He tisked and shook his head. “But I must believe he did not tell you of his past. No…for the name he offered is not his at all.” Paul stalked forward, his wicked stare trained on William. “Henry Donaldson. A man able to deceive many into believing he is good.”
Fists quivering from the exertion not to employ them, William growled his reply. “That’s enough, Paul—”
“It is not enough!” Paul yelled, his face crimson and his arms rigid as the charade of civility vanished. He snarled and spit when he spoke. “You are a traitor! You are not worthy to live!”
He reached for his weapon, but William drew his first. Warren raced to Anna, grabbing her around the shoulders and pulling her away. The men stood motionless, pistols aimed, hatred already warring in their eyes.
“William!”
Anna’s cry pulled William’s vision toward her and worry stole a measure of his strength, but Warren tugged her nearer to the safety of the door. “Come child, you are not safe.”
“Nay! I will not!” She struggled against him. “Let me go.”
“Anna, please!” William kept both his stare and his weapon on Paul while his soul reached for the woman he loved. “Go with him now.”
“Yes, go with him,” Paul said. “You would not wish to see this traitor trembling in fear, begging for his life like a child.”
Child.
“You!” Rage jolted through him, his outstretched arm rigid as iron. “You killed that boy!”
“I did what had to be done! More rebels only means more war and suffering for us all.” Gun still pointed at William’s chest, Paul’s face twitched and he yanked at his shirt, revealing a circular red scar. “You did this to me!” he yelled, his face contorted. Clamping his jaw shut he inhaled through his nose, but the even tone belied the undercurrent of loathing. He released his shirt. “As you see, I cannot be killed. But you can.”
William’s frame went solid when Paul’s finger reached for the trigger. Time slowed, like the strained motion of a disquieting dream. Anna pulled from Warren’s grasp and hurled herself against Paul as both guns exploded the same instant. With a pained cry she gripped her side and William yelled for her. Dropping his weapon, he lunged for Anna as she tumbled backward, hitting her head against the bench and crumpling to the ground.
The room faded around him, all commotion no more than a tinkling bell compared to the blaring shock that numbed him. Darkness shrouded all but her motionless form and the blood that stained her bodice. What have I d
one? Dear God, what have I done?
Paul charged through the gun smoke and the speed of life returned like the shot of a cannon. He tackled William away from his wife and into the ground. A blow to his jaw shot a blinding pain through William’s head. With a giant heave, William thrust Paul to the side and scrambled to his feet, vaguely aware that Warren knelt beside Anna.
Paul sneered and pushed to standing. He flicked aside his coat and gripped the dagger at his hip. “I enjoy a bit of sparring.” He snapped the weapon forward. “Let us finish this.”
William lunged and grabbed Paul’s wrist, gripping and twisting. Paul’s eyes blackened, his hot breath heaving as he struggled against William’s resistance.
“If she dies, I will make you pay with your life.” With a heave strengthened by hate, William shoved Paul back.
From behind, Warren’s voice cracked through the air. “Dear God, I fear she is dead!”
No! William’s vision wavered. Lord, she cannot be gone from me!