Shattered Dreams (32 page)

“
Everyone up! The house is on fire!” Barnaby bellowed as he
raced through the house banging on doors, and tugging his shirt on
as he went.

Harry
threw himself out of bed, and hurriedly dragged his trousers on
before he raced to the door.

“
Stay close to me darling,” he ordered, and waited only long
enough to help her with her laces before they rushed downstairs to
join the others.

The
house fell into pandemonium as the men raced to assess the flames
and gather as many buckets and receptacles as they could, while
Barnaby and Marcus kept guard over Suzanna and Zack.

Tilly
stared at the chaos around her as Marcus and Barnaby checked their
weapons. Harry did the same before he grabbed Tilly’s wrist in a
firm grip.

“
Whatever you do darling, stay close to me. Don’t go anywhere.
Keep one hand on me at all times.” He turned and cupped her chin in
his hand as he stared hard into her eyes. “Promise me.”

“
I promise,” Tilly assured him. She had no intention of going
anywhere without him.

“
Come on then,” Harry urged as he turned to the front
door.

“
Wait!” She rushed into sitting room and grabbed a poker, a
pair of tongues, and a fire scraper before she hurried back to
him.

Harry
lifted is brows in astonishment.

“
For protection,” she told him, and handed Zack the tongues,
and Suzanna the scraper.

The
smoke began to thicken alarmingly. The steady stream of grey fog
began to darken at the same time that crackling started to eat the
servants’ door that led to the kitchen.

“
The door is starting to burn,” Harry gasped. He waved
everyone to the front door. “Let’s get out of here.”

“
It’s all in the kitchen,” Barnaby growled. “We don’t know if
the range has caught alight or whether someone has started it
deliberately.”

“
We need to get to the well,” Harry growled. He shared a
knowing look with Barnaby. They both knew that this was a
deliberate act of arson, and they both knew who was
responsible.

Zack
began to cough when the acrid stench of burning wood began to
attack the backs of their throats.

Joseph
cautiously opened the door to the kitchen, but was met with a wall
of hungry flames that forced him to immediately slam it shut
again.

“
It’s not possible to get in there through here. The flames
are too high. We need to go around the back.”

Harry
stood for a moment and contemplated what to do. If the fire was
deliberate, it could only be a desperate attempt to draw Tilly,
Suzanna and Zack out into the open.

“
Who was on watch?” Harry growled with a frown.

“
Me,” Joseph growled. “It was fine when I went on my rounds.
By the time I got back, the back of the house was on fire. Leaves
and twigs had been piled by the back door. It was too high to put
out.”

“
If we don’t do something, the house is going to burn down
around our ears,” Tilly snapped.

Harry
hated to take her out there but they really had no choice. “Joseph,
Jacob, Barnaby, you fill the buckets. Pass them down the line,”
Harry ordered. He pointed to Zack. “You stand beside Barnaby.
Suzanna, you stand beside Joshua. Tilly, you stay with me. We will
ferry the buckets to the back door and pass them to Joseph, who can
throw them into the fire. Nobody steps out of the line.”

They all
made their way out of the door and hurried around to the back of
the house. They glanced at the crimson and orange flames that
licked at the windows in the kitchen, and a grim silence settled
over everyone as they set to work.

Several
minutes later, Harry cursed when he realised that he had left his
gun inside. He passed a bucket along the line; and another bucket
in the opposite direction before he turned to Barnaby.

“
We are not going to win this battle,” Joseph called when they
had been ferrying buckets for several minutes, but the flames
continued to grow higher.

In spite
of this, they continued to pass the buckets for several more
minutes, but it was clear from the thicker smoke, that the fire was
growing steadily worse.

Harry
swore in disgust but, like the others, was determined not to give
up. “Keep going for now. Let’s see what happens.”

He hated
to think that the Dandridges’ had gotten the better of him so
easily.

“
You need to get that evidence, Harry,” Barnaby snapped. “If
this place burns, all of the work we have done will be for
nothing.”

They
both knew the accounts ledgers, and the house inventory, were in
the safe. Although it was the best place for it, they couldn’t risk
any of it being damaged.

“
Are you going to be alright for a minute?” He asked Barnaby
quietly and waited for his friend’s brisk nod.

“
Wait! You can’t be thinking about going back in there,” Tilly
cried. “It is full of smoke.”

“
I have to get the paperwork that will ensure the Dandridges’
don’t evade justice. I will only be a few minutes.”

“
Harry –” she protested, but knew from the look on his face
that he was going to go anyway. She stared at him in horror but
struggled to find some convincing argument to persuade him to stay
with her.

He
handed her a bucket and looked her in the eye. “I am only going to
be two minutes, darling.”

She
opened her mouth to speak only to stare after him in dismay as he
turned around without waiting for her to answer, and disappeared
around the corner of the house.

Harry
coughed as he stepped through the front door, into the heavy smoke.
He buried his nose into his shirt and felt his eyes water, but
wasted no time finding his safe and retrieving all of the paperwork
he needed. After placing it all carefully into his satchel, he
opened his desk drawer and removed all of the Rectory seal, and
tucked that into his satchel as well, just in case any of the
Dandridges’ hoped to get back into the house and help themselves to
it.

He
wasn’t sure if the fire was going to get as far as the study but,
if they weren’t able to put it out, it was entirely feasible that
his study would be consumed.

Cursing
the Dandridges’, and Cruickshank, for their determination, he made
his way out of the house. It was a relief to get outside and into
the clean, early-morning air and he took a moment to suck in
several large lungs full of air.

At
first, he didn’t pay any attention to the shouting he could hear at
the back of the house. He just thought it was Joseph, or one of his
colleagues, shouting orders to the others.

However,
when he turned the corner of the building, he realised that in
those few brief moments that he had been away, matters had taken
another surprising twist.

His
heart began to pound in his chest as he studied the abandoned well
where, moments earlier, he had left Joseph hefting buckets. He
scanned the gardens at the side of the house in search of Tilly,
but couldn’t see her. Rather than move forward, he stayed perfectly
still and scanned the trees around him while he listened to what
was being said.

“
We just want what is rightfully ours,” Dandridge
replied.

“
She married me. She is my wife. All I want is my wife back,”
Cruickshank growled.

“
As if I would ever marry you,” Tilly declared with a snort of
disgust. “You are an oaf who cannot even kidnap someone
successfully.”

In spite
of the tension of the situation, Harry grinned. Aware that enough
of his colleagues were with her this time, and were perfectly
capable of keeping her safe, Harry quietly made his way around to
the other side of the house.

Unsurprisingly, there, at the side of the building, with her
back toward him, was none other than Mrs Dandridge. Her tall,
cadaverously thin figure faced away from him and, thankfully, she
was engrossed in what was happening at the back of the house to
notice Harry creep up behind her.

Tilly
caught sight of Harry seconds before Mrs Dandridge’s eyes suddenly
widened, and she was yanked off her feet with a large palm across
her mouth.

She
coughed loudly in an attempt to cover any noise the older woman
made, and smiled secretly to herself as she mentally applauded
Harry’s tactics. It made her inordinately proud to be a part of his
life, and she straightened her spine as confidence replaced her
fears.

Harry’s
abilities were the only thing that could save them now because,
what Harry couldn’t see were the wicked looking pistols Dandridge
and Cruickshank had trained on Tilly, Zack and Suzanna. It was the
only thing that kept the men from the Star Elite from striking the
would-be abductors out of action.

However,
now that her worry had faded, and she was able to think logically
again, she became aware that Dandridge and Cruickshank were
hopelessly outnumbered; especially so given that Tilly, Suzanna and
Zack were also armed.

“
You three come here,” Dandridge demanded, and waved his gun
threateningly in their direction.

Zack
took a step forward to do as he was told, only for Tilly to grab
his elbow and keep him still.

“
No,” she declared defiantly. She kept her defiant gaze locked
firmly on Dandridge, and hefted her poker threateningly as she
stared challengingly at him. “We are not going
anywhere.”

She felt
Suzanna and Zack stare at her, but they too eventually realised
that the men before them, although armed and dangerous, were not
really in control of the situation. Within seconds, they had
mimicked Tilly’s stance, and hefted their own weapons threateningly
as they stared at the intruders.

“
Get behind us, or I will shoot you.”

Tilly
shorted disparagingly. “Well, that will do you a lot of good, won’t
it? I mean, you want to trade us. What good will our bodies be to
anyone if we are riddled with shot?” She lifted her brows and
studied Dandridge dismissively. “If you shoot us, your pistols will
be empty. Then what will you do because, unless my counting isn’t
as good as I think it is you are hopelessly
outnumbered.”

She
glanced meaningfully at the men from the Star Elite, who stood at
various positions around the garden.

In that
moment, Dandridge noticed Harry, who moved into the gap between the
house and the outbuildings where his wife had once been. For a
moment, he appeared completely flummoxed, and it was all the
distraction Joseph needed.

With one
swift kick, the gun flew out of Dandridge’s hand at the same time
that Joshua practically flew at Cruickshank, and tackled him to the
ground.

Before
Tilly could see anything else, she was immediately grabbed around
the waist and swung off her feet in a high arch. She landed with a
heavy thump on the unforgiving ground at the same time that chaos
descended over the garden. Before she opened her eyes, she knew
that the man lying protectively over her was Harry, but she
couldn’t be angry at him. His large palms were covering her head,
and his body used as a shield against the bullet that flew when
someone’s gun was fired.

“
Stay still,” Harry whispered into her ear.

She
wrapped her arms around him tightly, and began to pray that he
wouldn’t get hit.

“
Are you alright?” She asked shakily after several moments
when nothing more seemed to happen. She opened her eyes and looked
across the garden. Cruickshank’s gun was just being removed from
his desperate fingers by a determined Joseph, and Dandridge was
being rolled over by Barnaby, who was threatening him with dire
consequences if he moved.

“
Did he hit you?” Tilly demanded as she patted his sides and
back for any sign of injury.

Harry
looked down at her and placed a tender kiss on her lips. “I am
alright darling. I am sorry I hurt you when we fell, but there was
nothing else I could do.”

“
It’s alright,” she whispered, but drew in a deep breath when
he immediately hauled himself to his feet.

She
accepted his hand gratefully when he reached down to help her up,
and turned to stare at the scuffle that had broken out between
Dandridge and Barnaby.

In spite
of the fact that it was clear to everyone that Dandridge was going
nowhere, the man continued to struggle against the hard hands that
kept him pinned to the ground. However, he was no match for Joseph
and Barnaby’s strengths combined and, before long; he too was
hauled to his feet before he was shoved roughly against the
outbuilding wall.

“
Thank heavens for that,” Tilly whispered as she watched
Dandridge’s hands being tied behind his back.

Harry
gave her a squeeze and winked down at her.

“
Right, back to the fire,” Harry growled and, together with
the others, turned his attention to putting the fire
out.

Two
hours later, the last of the embers finally died and everyone was
able to take stock of what was left of the house.