A Spinster's Luck (30 page)

With no waste of movement, the duke reached his right hand into his coat and pulled a pistol from his leather belt.

Cocking the weapon before it cleared his coat, Westlake shouted as he took aim: “Johnny! Into the woods! Now!”

The brigand aiming his pistol at Johnny now swung the weapon toward Westlake.

After squeezing the trigger, the duke saw the man drop from his horse a second later.

Seeing Johnny fast disappearing into the dense forest, Westlake risked a quick glance down at his left shoulder. He saw a dark hole in the heavy material of his coat.

“Damn it,” he said through gritted teeth, for he suddenly became aware that his left hand was involuntarily losing its grip on the reins.

“Damn it,” he said again, quickly looking up to see the remaining highwayman reaching into his coat.

Dropping the now useless pistol, the duke took both
reins into his right hand and spurred Zeus as he had never spurred the animal before.

With the horse's massive muscles straining to do his master's bidding, they were instantly crashing through the shrub border of the road into the forest beyond. The duke gave the horse his head and lowered his own against the branches that tore at his face and body.

He had no notion where he was going, only that with his arm soon useless, and the scoundrel behind him almost rearmed, he would be a sitting duck if he did not get far away very quickly.

Zeus's hooves made little noise as he galloped over the thick underbrush, but the duke heard his own heart pounding so loudly he thought anyone within fifty yards would hear it.

What a fool he'd been, he told himself harshly as he hazarded a look at his shoulder again. Though he had not heard of this part of the country having a particular problem with highwaymen, it had been foolish to travel virtually unprotected on such a lonely road. He knew as well as anyone of the growing problem with thieves since the war had ended.

The thoroughbred continued to move swiftly, weaving in and out of the trees, not showing any sign of tiring.

The duke reset his grip on the reins as they continued to gallop through the night. He did not bother to look at his shoulder again, for the moonlight barely reached him under the canopy of trees, but he could feel the blood flowing from the wound beneath his coat. It felt warm next to his skin.

Almost dispassionately, he realized he would not survive this night; he was losing his blood too quickly. He did not think that the ball had shattered the bone, but that was of no import now. He had seen too many men die of blood loss on the battlefield from wounds that could have been treated had there only been time.

On the horse galloped through the eerie, muffled quiet of the forest. After a time the duke noticed he was becoming dizzy. With his last ounce of strength he pulled back the reins, knowing that if Zeus continued at this pace, it
would be impossible to stay in the saddle once he lost consciousness.

He slowed the horse to almost a walk. With a great effort he turned to look back. Wincing from the searing pain in his shoulder, the duke did not see or sense anyone behind him. He looked down and saw that he had dropped the reins. It was as if he were seeing his own hand from a great distance.

In his mind's eye, he saw his mother and two younger sisters, Alice and Louisa. They would miss him. Louisa would be terribly disappointed that he would not be able to walk her down the aisle this coming spring.

He saw young Henry, his dead brother's son and his own heir. At ten, the dark-haired boy was already showing the Westlake penchant for height.

Henry would now be the Duke of Westlake. He felt sorry for the burden his death would put on the boy. He sent up a brief prayer that the boy would recover from whatever accident had befallen him.

The duke's last conscious thought was for Johnny. He hoped his groom would make it back safely to Autley. Johnny was the only one who could tell his family how he had died.

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Award-winning writer, Rhonda Woodward is a native of Arizona and currently lives in Phoenix with her husband, William. She has written five Regency Romances and is working on her sixth.

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