So there were at least two, probably more. He had two footmen and two coachmen, along with two men on horses, one of them Pynch. Six men in all. But how many robbers?
“D’you hear me? Get out o’ there!” the second voice shouted. One would be holding a gun on the coachman to kee koacontp him from moving the carriage. Another would be covering the outriders. A third would be in charge of relieving them of any valuables—that is, if there were only three. If there were more—
“Dammit! Come out or I’m coming in, and I’ll be shooting when I do!”
Melisande’s maid moaned, low and fearful, Mouse struggled, but his dear wife held him firmly and was silent. A smart robber would start killing the servants outside one by one to force them to emerge. But this highwayman might just be stupid enough to—
The carriage door was flung open, and a man holding a pistol leaned into the carriage. Jasper grabbed his gun arm and pulled hard. The gun went off, shattering the opposite carriage window. The maid screamed. The robber half fell into the carriage. Jasper twisted the pistol away from him.
“Don’t look,” he said to Melisande, and slammed the pistol grip down on the man’s temple, shattering the bone. He did it quickly again, three more times, vicious and hard, just to make sure the man was dead, then dropped the pistol. He hated handling guns.
From outside came a shout and then a gunshot.
“Damn. Get down,” he ordered Melisande and the girl. A bullet could blow right through the wood of the carriage. She didn’t protest and lay across her seat with the maid and the dog.
Running footsteps came nearer, and Jasper moved in front of the women, bracing himself.
“My lord!” Pynch’s broad face peered into the carriage door. “Are you safe, my lord? Are the women—?”
“Yes, I think so.” Jasper turned to Melisande, running his hands over her face and hair in the dark. “Are you all right, my dearest love?”
“Y-yes.” She straightened immediately, her back as straight as ever, and a pang tore at his heart. If ever she were hurt, if ever he could not protect her . . .
The maid was trembling violently. Melisande let go of the dog and pulled the girl into her arms, patting her back comfortingly. “It’s all right. Lord Vale and Mr. Pynch have kept us safe.”
Mouse jumped to the floor of the carriage and growled at the dead robber.
Pynch cleared his throat. “We’ve captured one of the highwaymen, my lord. The other galloped away.”
Jasper looked at him. Gunpowder blackened half of Pynch’s face. Jasper grinned. His valet had always been an excellent shot.
“Help me get this one out of the carriage,” he told Pynch. “Melisande, please stay here until we are sure it’s safe.”
She nodded bravely, her chin up. “Of course.”
And even though Pynch and the maid were watching, Jasper couldn’t help leaning over to kiss her hard. It had all happened so fast. If things had turned out a little differently, he might’ve lost her.
Jasper scrambled from the carriage, eager to meet the man who’d put his sweet wife in danger. First, though, he helped Pynch pull the kyncmbldead robber out of the carriage. He hoped Melisande hadn’t looked too closely. He’d crushed the robber’s cheekbone and temple.
Mouse jumped down from the carriage.
Jasper straightened. “Where is he?”
“Over here, my lord.” Pynch gestured to a tree by the side of the road where several footmen stood over a recumbent figure. Mouse trailed behind them, sniffing the ground.
Jasper nodded and asked as they walked to the group, “Anyone shot?”
“Bob the footman has a graze on his arm,” Pynch reported. “No one else was hit.”
“You’ve checked?” In the dark, with all the excitement, sometimes a man could be shot and not even know it.
But Pynch had been in the army as well. “Yes, my lord.”
Jasper nodded. “Good man. Have a footman light some more lanterns. Light drives away all manner of vermin.”
“Yes, my lord.” Pynch headed back to the carriage.
“And what have we here?” Jasper asked as he came on the group of footmen.