Page 10 of For the Love of the Quest

They skidded to a stop before her, all four pistols trained on her immediately.

“Well, that’s really not necessary,” she said, fighting to keep her horse facing the right way. “We’re more than willing to cooperate.”

“Out of the way,” said the burly one up front who just so happened to be the chief inspector.

“Where are your manners, sir?” Edith said.

“Now.” The chief cocked his pistol. Edith, apparently lacking in any survival instinct, scoffed indignantly and remained planted where she was.

Thomasin threw a quick command over her shoulder, telling Jay and Worthing to stay put, then clicked her tongue and urged her horse forward before Edith could get herself killed. It obviously hadn’t occurred to her that, in her current dress and with her choice of company, it would not be clear to these men that she was a wellborn lady.

Thomasin smirked at the chief as she fell in line with Edith. She said the first thing she could think of that would pull their attention from Edith to her. “How’s your wife?”

It worked a little too well. The man snarled and fired a recklessly aimed shot at her, which she dodged easily. Thomasin wished she could say that she hadn’t known that the woman she’d seduced at the market was the chief inspector’s wife. But she had known, and that had made everything more fun. It wasn’t like she had done anything bad to Grace. In fact, she’d probably given her the best night of her life. But that didn’t seem to dampen the inspector’s ire.

“That is no way to treat a lady!” Edith shouted, her face turning red with indignation.

They ignored Edith entirely, and Thomasin only had a moment to be grateful that Edith couldn’t seem to figure out how to make her horse approach the constables, because another shot fired, and Thomasin’s horse buckled underneath her. She leapt from the saddle before the horse could fall and take her down too. When she hit the ground, she rolled into a crouch, pistol in one hand, knife in the other.

Red filled her vision as she saw the chief take aim at Edith, who was still dressing down the men with a loud lecture on respect.

Thomasin sprinted toward her, then pulled Edith from the saddle. The bullet zoomed through the air where Edith’s head had been mere heartbeats before. Thomasin shoved Edith in the direction of Worthing and Jay, pushing her head down in a silent command to keep low.

“Wait.” Edith grabbed her wrist. “Don’t kill them! I can handle this properly!”

Thomasin took Edith’s biceps in a firm hold, forcing the other woman to look at her. “You hired me to do this, so let me do it.”

“I hired you to protect me from ruffians! These are constables. Good, reasonable men.”

“They just fucking shot at you!”

“It was an accident!”

Thomasin growled, and then the growl became an aggressive string of curses when Edith slammed her heeled boot down on Thomasin’s toe. Shocked, her grip on Edith faltered for just a second, but it was enough for Edith to wiggle away and sidestep Thomasin.

“Good sirs, we are out of London, and therefore out of your jurisdiction. Furthermore, I have never once committed even the smallest of crimes. The same cannot be said for my friend here, but I vouch for her, and I promise you that as long as she is under my employ, there will be no wrongdoing whatsoever. Now, if you will just allow us to continue on our way—”

“Shut your peasant mouth, bitch,” the chief inspector spat. “I don’t care how innocent you are. I’ll shoot whoever stands between me and that whore.”

“You wouldn’t! That’s against the law!”

“Iamthe law.” The chief fired at Edith’s heart, but Thomasin was there, ready to yank her out of harm’s way. They took cover behind her now-dead horse.

“Still think that was an accident?” Thomasin roared over the cacophony of gunfire.

“Obviously not!”

“Get yourself to Worthing, and try not to get shot,” Thomasin ordered, pushing Edith in the right direction before rising to her feet and vaulting over the dead horse.

Thomasin stalked toward the constables, grateful for the narrow, tree-lined pass that kept them from flanking her. She didn’t think, she just fired. One bullet went right through the forehead of the closest constable. His body slumped sideways, and his horsegalloped forward in a confused frenzy. Thomasin didn’t flinch as a bullet grazed her shoulder, nor as one flew so close to her head, she could hear it slice through the air.

The next constable dismounted his horse to get a better shot at her. She feinted left, sidestepped around him, and sliced her knife across the man’s throat. She held his body against her to block the shots raining down on her from the chief and his last remaining constable.

With all her strength, she shoved the dead body at the feet of the constable’s horse, which startled the horse enough to buck off his rider. There was a bullet in his heart before he hit the ground.

Her pistol had one bullet left. She turned to aim it at the chief, but all she saw was a cloud of dust. Once it cleared, she could just make out the retreating form of the chief inspector atop his horse as he galloped full speed back to safety.

She sighed and wiped her bloody hands on her pants. She ambled back toward her companions. Worthing and Jay waited on their respective horses. Jay looked vaguely bored, while Worthing was nothing but smug.