Her hand clenched her side as her run became a jog.She looked backward to see that the man was still following her and getting closer.The angle of his knife looked even more menacing.But she was a Stringham, and Stringhams didn’t give up without a fight.With the last of her strength, she made a sprint for the edge of a stone fence and climbed it.She kept moving forward as quickly as she could.Breathing hard, she saw a rider in the distance.She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Help!”
The horseman altered his direction to come toward her, but the thief would get to her first if she didn’t keep going.Half sobbing, half breathing, Mantheria jogged and walked and stumbled toward her would-be rescuer.For a moment, she thought that she could make it.But then her braid was pulled from behind, and she fell hard onto her backside.The thief jumped on top of her, caging her body with his legs and arms, his sour breath against her face.It was even worse than his scent.“Perhaps I’ll have a bit of fun with you first.Your face is rather pretty.Perhaps I’ll carve it up like a ham.”
A surge of fear and adrenaline ran through her veins.She pushed at his shoulders, but his body didn’t budge.He laughed in her face and brought the knife against her cheek.“Every time you fight me, I’ll give you another cut.No gentleman rider is going to stop for a lightskirt like you.”
Mantheria remembered the gun wound that she’d given him on the side of his torso.She made her right hand into a fist and punched the bleeding area as hard as she could.The thief jerked back, and she rolled away from underneath him.Getting to her knees, she scrambled to get to her feet when she felt the man tug on the bottom of her skirt.She fell face-first into the mud and tried to kick at him with her boots.
The thief got to his feet, his jagged knife in one hand and a handful of her skirt in the other.He leered at her, and Mantheria was frozen by fear.He brought his knife down toward her face, and she closed her eyes.
16
Sunny thought that his heart was going to explode before he reached Mantheria.He urged his horse to go faster and forgot to breathe as the man got on top of her.
“Faster!”he yelled and kicked the sides of his horse.
Mantheria had escaped her attacker’s clutches only to be caught a second time.The villain held his sinister-looking knife over her body as if about to stab her.Sunny didn’t have time to think.He wasn’t a cavalry officer with a bayonet at his disposal to stab the man as he rode by.In fact, he had no weapon at all.He had only his clothes and his boots that she’d helped him pull on that morning.
Right before he reached the attacker, Sunny stuck out his boot, hitting the man square in the belly, and he toppled backward and away from Mantheria.The force of the kick caused Sunny to fall off his horse and hard onto his back, knocking the wind out of him.But he couldn’t wait for air; Mantheria was in mortal danger.He got to his knees and then to his feet and stumbled on unsteady pegs toward the ruffian.
There was a sharp jab to his jaw and another to his left eye before Sunny remembered to protect himself.At least the fellow didn’t still have his knife.Sunny blocked the assailant’s next couple of blows and even managed to get a jab to the man’s nose that bled freely.Mantheria screamed, and Sunny turned to look at her as another punch hit his neck and nearly knocked the wind out of him a second time.Staggering back, he saw that Mantheria had picked up the assailant’s knife.She was no longer unprotected if he did not win this fight.
Sunny barreled into the man, and they both fell to the mud, with Sunny on top.He got to his knees and punched the assailant’s face with both fists until the man was knocked out cold and Sunny’s knuckles were raw and bloody.Gingerly, Sunny got to his feet and walked toward Mantheria, favoring one leg over the other—the one that had not kicked the assailant.One of his eyes was already swollen and hard to see through.It would probably turn black.But neither hurt as much as the pain in his neck.
“Are you all right?”Mantheria asked.
Every part of his body ached, but Sunny would never tell her that.“I’m fine.I’m only sorry that I didn’t arrive sooner, sweetheart.”
She ran into his arms and nearly knocked the wind out of him for a third time.He heard the thud of the knife falling to the ground when she wrapped both of her arms tightly around his waist.With a feeling of elation strengthening him, Sunny thought that he could get used to this sort of pain.
“I was so very scared,” Mantheria said, sniffing.“Oh, Sunny, if you hadn’t come when you did, I?—”
She didn’t finish her sentence but rather cried into his coat.He rested his sore chin against her curls.“I’ll always come, darling.”
Mantheria nodded against his chest.
Sunny’s sore neck and sorer head couldn’t think of the right words.So he merely patted her back and kept repeating, “There, there.”
After a few blissful minutes, Mantheria leaned back to look him in the eye.Her arms were still around his waist, just where he wanted them to be.“That horrible man had Andrew tied up in the abandoned barn.I can’t imagine what he might have done to my son if I hadn’t arrived any sooner.I was able to untie Andrew and told him to take my horse.He went toward Bristol Road, so I suppose that we should start walking in that direction.I told him to go home—it’s at least fifteen miles from here.Do you think he made it?”
“I am certain that he made it to Chewton Mendip,” Sunny said, keeping an arm around her shoulders and guiding her back to the road.He wished that his horse had not run off, but there was nothing that he could do now but walk.
They had nearly reached the road when Sunny saw a group of riders coming fast in their direction.He felt Mantheria tense beside him, but he was certain that Andrew had sent rescuers for them.The boy was smart.
Mantheria breathed heavily and leaned against him as the horse riders not only stopped to meet them but surrounded them in a circle.His lips twitched, pulling at his sore eye.He recognized every one of them: Wick was on his black stallion, Matthew was on a showy chestnut, Becca rode her beautiful gray, beside her was the annoyingly handsome Earl of Norwich, who didn’t have a speck of dirt on his riding coat or boots, then the Duke and Duchess of Hampford, with Andrew between them.
Gasping, Mantheria broke from Sunny and ran to her son.Sunny recognized that Andrew was still atop Mantheria’s hack.She touched his closest leg and let out a sob, which he assumed was one of relief.“I was so worried about you, Andrew.You must promise to never leave on an adventure without me again.”
Tears ran down Andrew’s dirty cheeks as he slid down the side of the horse and into his mother’s arms.“I won’t, Mama.I promise.”
Mantheria cried freely and nodded at her son, holding him close to her.The duke and duchess dismounted and encircled them both in a tight embrace.It was a tender scene that highlighted how much the Hampfords loved their children.Sunny was both touched and a bit envious.His mother would never have attempted to come to his rescue, nor would she have embraced him so lovingly.What his father would have done, Sunny would never know, since the late duke had been fonder of the bottle than of his own family.
Wick dismounted and hugged Sunny almost as tightly as Mantheria had.“Thank you for helping my sister.You truly are the best man I know.”
“But you look terrible,” Matthew said from behind him.Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that his best friend’s little brother was smirking from on top of his horse.
“You have perfect timing as usual, Matthew,” Sunny said, shaking his head.“You always turn up after the fight.”
“If I turned up before it, I might have had to participate myself instead of letting you and Wick fight all of my battles for me.”