Corey McFadden (46 page)

“You’re right. But Radford will still be on the floor at least. It’s Maude who may have slipped down. Open the door slowly, son, and look in. At the first sign that anything is amiss, jump back and I’ll shoot.”

Very slowly, willing his hand not to shake, John reached for the latch.

* * * *

Inside the coach, in the dim light filtering in from the lantern, Maude held Radford’s eye, drawing courage from the steely resolve she saw there. They had arranged themselves as they had been left by John, Radford having to guess at his own position. He lay on the floor crouched on his side, the gun in his hand hidden by the bag. Maude lay on the seat as Radford told her he remembered seeing her. The ropes were draped across their wrists and ankles, looking as if they were still tied securely. She had her orders not to move, to lie still as if she were still asleep. She prayed she’d be able to obey, but she’d not lie quiet if through some fluke John got the upper hand.

They had been able to overhear most of what had passed between John and his mother. Now Maude knew her aunt’s detectives hadn’t found her at all but then she had suppressed a gasp when she realized Claire would be holding a gun trained on the door. Radford held her gaze, communicating through the glint in his eye that he cared nothing for Claire and her pistol. God grant that he be right, prayed Maude as she lay still, hardly daring to breathe, lest her heaving chest give away her agitation. As she heard the door latch rattle, she shut her eyes to slits, praying now fervently. The light shot into the coach as the door opened. For a split second Maude held her breath.

“They haven’t moved a muscle, Mama!” she heard John call out in triumph. She waited.

“Reach for the bag, son. Get the chloroform!” urged Claire.

Maude heard a scrabbling sound and watched as John lifted the bag from the floor and swung it to the ground. Since the light slanted into the coach at an angle, he did not notice the pistol in Radford’s hand.

“Put it down quickly, precious! Get the chloroform before the cold air revives them!”

Claire spoke excitedly, but Maude could see nothing beyond the door. Suddenly she saw Radford lunge and she heard a strangled cry from John. Unable to stop herself, Maude sprang up. She could see that Radford knelt just inside the doorway, his arm around John’s throat, pistol at his neck. John half stood and half knelt on the ground outside. Beyond them, her face twisted in a mask of fury, stood Claire, her pistol raised and pointed at Radford’s head. They hung in the misty lamplight, as if caught in a ghastly, frozen tableau.

For a moment no one broke the silence of the night. Then through a grimace like a death’s rictus, Claire spoke. “Let him go, Radford, or I’ll blow a large hole through your face.” She smiled slowly at him, a terrible smile. “And maybe you’ll live long enough to hear what I’ll do to your pretty plaything before she dies.”

“You overestimate your hand, madam.” Radford’s voice was insultingly cool. As if taunting her he moved his head behind John's. “You could not shoot me before I squeezed the trigger against your son’s neck. Which is it to be, madam? John dead or surrender?” Beneath his arm, he could feel John shaking convulsively.

“Mama?” There was panic in John’s quavering voice. “Mama, you’ll kill us both if you shoot.”

“I’ll never let you win, Radford,” Claire snarled, as if she hadn’t heard John at all. Her eyes glittered with all the madness she had suppressed for so long. “For years you and your gracious family have lorded it over me, barely acknowledging my existence, and all because you had the blind luck to be born with money instead of without. Well, I’ll show you what really counts in this world, your lordship,” Claire spat out the title as if it were an insult. “Brains. Brains and guts.”

Slowly, deliberately, Claire raised the pistol in front of her and took aim.

With a scream of pure terror, John lunged, pulling himself and Radford to the side just as Claire’s pistol discharged with a thunderous roar and a blast of smoke. The horses reared in fright and the carriage lurched, swaying wildly. Feeling the sudden shift in weight against their harness, the horses pawed at the wet, slippery mud, losing ground as the bank began to give way beneath their frantic hooves. The carriage heeled, and with a tearing shriek, the bolts ripped from the struts, freeing the scrambling horses from the coach. As the horses scrambled away, the shift in weight caused the coach to plunge down the bank into the rushing water. Radford, caught just inside the door, pulled John down with him.

Inside the coach, Maude was thrown against the far door which mercifully held shut against her sudden weight, the water pushing against the other side. The carriage landed on its side, and began to sink quickly into the rushing water. The window flap near Maude’s face tore open against the pressure and the water poured in. Gasping against the torrent, Maude tried to push her head up away from the door. She could see nothing in the swirling dark but she could hear John’s screams and could feel wild thrashing and kicking around her.

The water was rising quickly now; the carriage compartment was filling fast. Maude, struggling wildly upward, her skirts becoming heavier every second with water, tried to claw her way free and find the far door. The water rushed around her, up to her chest, past her neck. Her scream ended in a gurgle as the deadly water closed over her head. Suddenly she felt hands reaching for her, groping at her, grabbing her by the shoulders.

She was pulled up, her shoulder hitting against something that felt like the side of the carriage door. She reached out with her hands and caught the sides of the door, pulling herself through the opening as the unknown hands helped to lift her. Her face hit the air just as her lungs convulsed and drew in a mouthful of water.

Choking and retching, she looked around wildly, seeing nothing in the blackness, praying that it was Radford who held her and not John. Rushing water swirled around her as she climbed out and clung to the side of the carriage which was now mostly underwater and rocked precariously in the current.

Maude knelt on her hands and knees, gasping for air, hardly daring to look up, lest she gaze into the face of her cousin beside her. There were screams still; a woman was screaming from the riverbank, and a man, also, close by, fighting to stay afloat in the swirling water. It was John.

“Save him! Save him! He can’t swim!” Claire shrieked.

Maude felt the carriage heave and heard a splash as Radford leaped from her side into the river. She leaned over the side of the carriage and peered into the dark waters. In the faint light of the lantern on the riverbank, she could now make out two figures in the water and heard Radford’s voice shouting over John’s screams. John was clinging to a thin piece of wood that had nearly broken loose from the carriage. His head bobbed up and down in the churning water and he sputtered and choked between his screams. Radford reached out for John, shouting for him to grab on to him. Instead, John batted frantically at Radford’s hands and he clawed at the board he held, trying to pull himself against the current, closer to the carriage. The motion pulled the board free and John was borne away downstream by the swirling current, shrieking and choking as he went under and fought his way to the surface again.

There was an agonized scream from the riverbank, then a flash of color as Claire threw herself into the water, screaming for John to hold on until she could get to him. At the same time, Radford struck out, half swimming, half being carried by the current downstream. Shrieks came from Claire now. Weighted down by her voluminous wet skirts, she was having trouble staying afloat. John had disappeared into the black, racing waters downstream and Maude could barely make out Claire’s head bobbing.

Suddenly, a thunderous jolt hit the carriage. Maude had time to see a large floating tree limb tangle itself in the loosening frame of the carriage as it shifted suddenly in the water, tipping nearly over onto its roof and tumbling her into the current.

The icy water was a shock all over again, and Maude rose to the surface gasping, trying to grasp at any part of the carriage she could hold onto. Although she could swim, her skirts filled quickly with water and pulled her down. Panic ripped a scream from her throat as her hands tore loose from the window flap she had grabbed onto.

Now the current had her in its deadly flow, and she fought to keep her head up as the swirling water sucked her down. The waters closed over her head, and she pushed desperately with her arms to get her head above the water, feeling her treacherous skirts drag her back down. She caught a glimpse of the silk of Claire’s dress in the darkness ahead of her. Again the waters pulled her down and again she fought her way back up, choking on the mouthfuls she had half swallowed, half inhaled. Mama! Oh God, this was how Mama had died! And it was so terrifying, so dark and so cold!

“Papa! Papa!” Maude cried into the blackness as she was drawn down again, unaware that her terror had torn away so many years of hiding from the pain of losing her father and mother.

The dark waters closed over her head and this time there was no strength left in her arms or in her soul to push her way back to the surface. Alone in the cold blackness, no air left in her lungs, she heard a loud rushing in her ears and she felt her awareness drift away. She had a moment’s hope that she would lose consciousness before she felt the terrible, killing water being drawn into her chest.

Barely aware, almost as if she were dreaming, she felt arms around her, lifting her, pulling her up into the precious air. Her head broke free, and by reflex, she drew a deep breath into her starved lungs.

“I’ve got you, Maude, don’t fight me, go limp!” Radford commanded over the rush of the water.

She could feel one of his arms holding her tightly around the chest and felt the hard kicks of his legs as he fought the vicious current. She felt a hard tug at her waist and a tear as her skirts and then her petticoat were ripped loose.

“There,” he gasped, “I’ve torn the filthy stuff free. See if you can rip it all the way off before it drowns us both!”

Sobbing and choking, Maude tore at the heavy material with her waning strength. Radford turned slightly in the water so that the current would work for her. Gradually, she felt the heavy skirts slide over her hips as the current took them. Then the deadly weight was gone and her legs were free again.

“Good,” she heard him grunt. “Now we should be able to make it to the bank.”

He struck out with his free arm, pulling her along on her back. Maude was near exhaustion but she kicked her legs to help. Between the two of them, they made progress against the current. She felt him strike land, then her feet stumbled against the river bottom. Pulling her up into his arms, he carried her up onto the riverbank, then sank to the mud, cradling her against his heaving chest.

For a moment they sat quiet. There were no more screams, just the noise of the rushing water. Over Radford’s shoulder Maude could see the horses, still tethered together, standing patiently in the dark. Her tears mingled with the river water running from her hair as she stared into the dark water and saw no sign of John or Claire. She was shivering convulsively in the chill winter night, wearing nothing but the remnants of her bodice and her shift.

“Let’s get you warmed up, my love,” Radford whispered into her hair, his hands rubbing her icy skin.

He sat up, pushing her forward for a minute, while he took off his jacket and wrapped it around her. It was warm from his body in spite of the wet, and Maude leaned back against his chest. She was so tired and so sad. She thought she could fall asleep right there and never wake up again. Radford picked her up and, swinging her into his arms, strode toward the Romney carriage.

“Are they...did they drown?” she brought herself to ask in a tiny shivering voice against his chest.

He nuzzled the top of her head. There was a long pause before he answered. “I saw John go down and I didn’t see him come back up again. While I was trying to get to him, I could see that your aunt was being pulled under. Then before I could reach her, I heard the carriage go over and saw you fall.”

There was another silence. She could feel his heart beating against his chest.

“I could only save one of you, Maude, and it had to be you.” There was sorrow in his voice, and perhaps failure.

They reached the coach, and Radford set her down as he pulled open the door. She crawled in and found a carriage rug and wrapped it around her, holding it open for him to crawl under with her. She was barely shivering now, held warm in the heat from his body.

The dim light shown on him as he climbed in beside her. He was so beautiful, with his wet hair curling about his face and his eyes full of concern. She had thought she would die tonight, a cold, violent death, a death such as her mother and father had had, and, instead, this man had saved her life and he held her safe still. This man who now ached with the failure to do what was not humanly possible.

Maude reached up and pushed the straggling, dripping hair away from his face. He looked down at her and smiled, all the love in the world in his eyes. She smiled back.

“You couldn’t have saved either of them, you know. It was impossible,” she whispered.

He nodded, expecting her to say it, but grateful all the same.

“And it may be crass of me to point it out, but they did try to kill us.”

He nodded again, a slight smile playing now on his lips.

“And I suppose it would be more crass still for me to mention that, given a choice, one would rather drown than hang?”

He gave a great guffaw and wrapped her in a bear hug. She laughed with him, then hiccuped as the tears came again.

“Maude, I love you so much, I can’t think what there was to enjoy about life before you came along,” he murmured against her neck. He was relieved to feel the warmth returning to her skin.

“Well, there was Bella, as I recall, not to mention any of the others I’ve heard about over the years.” She gave a quick bite to his ear lobe to emphasize the point.

“Bella who?” he asked, nipping a bit harder at her ear lobe. Maude squealed. “There will be no more Bellas in my life, Maude, I will promise you that.”