Page 7 of Along Came a Rogue

“Get down!” he yelled at Hedley.

A well-trained soldier who had served under him with the Scarlet Scoundrels, Hedley dove behind the wall and crawled toward Grey on his stomach. Hedley scowled, drawing his own pistol. “Seems they don’t like visitors none, Major.”

“Apparently not.” Grey took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. The last thing he’d expected this morning was to be pinned down by gunfire. “Where’s it coming from?”

“The side garden.”

Glancing down the wall just long enough to see that it offered a way to stalk closer to the shooter, he handed his pistol to Hedley. “Keep his attention while I circle behind.”

“Aye, sir!” Hedley snatched Grey’s hat from his head and tossed it high into the air above them.

A shot rang out as a bullet drove through the crown.

Grey stared incredulously. “What the hell—”

“Drawin’ his attention, Major, as ye ordered.” Hedley fought back his laughter but not his grin as he immediately tossed up the hat again, but this time drew no fire.

“Just keep him occupied,” Grey muttered as he snatched up his dead hat from the ground and started forward to circle behind the garden. His hat was ruined, but Hedley’s joke revealed what they needed to know. Whoever was shooting at them had only one gun and needed time to reload.

He moved carefully, half crawling behind the cover of the stones. As he reached the end of the wall, he signaled to Hedley, who pulled the pistol’s trigger and sent a ball shattering into the wall near the house’s roof.

At the answering gunfire, Grey leapt to his feet and ducked around the corner. Keeping his back toward the wall, he circled behind the house and into the cover of the side garden’s overgrown bushes and fruit trees. He crouched low and waited for the next gunshot.

Well, this was a surprise. He and Emily hadn’t parted under the best of circumstances, he’d admit. But while he hadn’t known what to expect this afternoon when he rode up to her door, it sure as hell wasn’t gunfire.

When the next shots sounded, he made his way quickly through the garden. Up ahead, obscured by thick bushes, two figures crouched behind a low garden wall, where they took aim up the drive.

Grey hurled himself forward. A scream filled his ears as he tackled the shooter to the ground, discovering in a flash of confusion—

A woman.

A soft, curvaceous woman in dark blue muslin and white lace with golden-blond hair. Her large, sapphire-blue eyes stared up at him with a mix of fear and fury. Right before she sank her teeth into his forearm.

Blasting a sharp curse, he twisted to pin her arms to the ground and keep her mouth out of biting range, slinging a heavy leg over both of hers to prevent her from kicking. “Stop that!”

“Get off her, you brute!”

The handle of a wooden garden rake struck at his shoulders, and he flinched, ducking his head as an older woman in a servant’s gray dress and white cap swung the rake repeatedly at his head.

“Get off her before you hurt her!” the maid bellowed.

“Hurt her? She shot at me!” he growled, holding the blond woman’s wrists together with one hand so that he could grab at the swinging rake over his head with the other.

“You deserved it!” the blond woman hissed, futilely trying to wiggle her way out from beneath him. “What kind of gentleman would—”

At the sound of her voice, Grey froze. He searched her face as the memories triggered in his mind. “Brat, is that you?”

She ceased struggling. Those same blue eyes he now remembered so vividly widened in stunned surprise. “Captain Grey?” His name was a breathless whisper, as if she couldn’t possibly believe it was him.

He flashed her a crooked grin. “It’s a pleasure to see you again.”

The rake hit him over the head.

“Damnation, woman!” He made another grab for the handle. “Stop that!”

Hedley pounced on the maid from behind, seizing her by the waist and swinging her around in a circle as he yanked the rake from her hands and threw it out of reach. She kicked her legs and tried to hit him with her fists, but he simply lifted the short woman off her feet and dangled her helplessly in midair until she gave up her struggles with an angry humph.

“I got ’er, Major!” the sergeant announced proudly over the top of her head.