LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter One

      Scotland—September 1816

      The thundering of a thousand horses’ hooves, the roar of the charge, the screams of the injured pounded across Lucas Johns-Ives’s brain. He slashed at the French soldiers, so many caught off guard by the British cavalry, easy prey for their sabres. The charge had begun in glory, but now it was slaughter—blood everywhere, men crying out in agony, horses falling.

      Dimly, the sound of a bugle reached Lucas’s ears. Ta-ta-ta. Ta-ta-ta. Over and over. The signal to retreat. They’d ridden far enough. Done enough. Killed enough. Time to retreat.

      Where was Bradleigh?

      Lucas searched for his brother and spied him still waving his sword, his eyes bulging, a maniacal grimace on his face. He’d been so angry at Bradleigh, angry enough to refuse to ride next to him. Let his brother fight on his own for once.

      But now Lucas shouted in a voice thick with panic, ‘Bradleigh! Bradleigh! Retreat! We’ve ridden too far. Bradleigh!’

      From the corner of his eye, Lucas saw a thousand French cavalry on fresh horses galloping closer, swords drawn.

      His brother took no heed.

      ‘Bradleigh! Bradleigh!’

      Bradleigh impaled a blue-coated French soldier through the neck, pulled back his sword, dripping with the man’s blood. He laughed like a madman.

      Lucas spurred his horse to catch up to him. He’d pull his brother out of danger, just as he’d promised their father. Drag him back to the Allied lines. He’d save Bradleigh from himself.

      He was almost there, almost at his brother’s side, but then suddenly a French cuirassier on a huge black horse roared between them. Lucas pulled on his horse’s reins to avoid crashing into the man and beast. The cuirassier charged to his brother, raised his sword and ran it through his brother’s chest.

      ‘No!’ Lucas cried as his brother’s blood spurted and his body fell from his horse. ‘No!’

      * * *

      ‘I love the stone circle.’ The melodic voice of a young girl broke into Lucas’s reverie, melting away the sounds and sights of the battle.

      The girlish voice laughed. ‘Remember how we played here?’

      Lucas shook his head. It could not be. This was Belgium, was it not? Where was the battle? Where was his brother?

      Suddenly the air smelled of wet grass and a breeze cooled his burning skin. He’d been walking, he remembered. He’d felt light-headed and queasy—nothing another bottle of fine Scottish whisky couldn’t cure. Had the drink caused the dream? Was this a dream? If so, which was the dream: the battle or the melodic voice?

      ‘That was when we were mere children,’ another voice answered. A boy’s voice this time. ‘Or at least when I was a child. You still are one.’

      ‘I am not,’ the girl protested. ‘Fourteen is not a child.’

      ‘Ha!’ the boy responded. ‘Wait until you are sixteen. Then you will know fourteen is a child.’

      The girl harrumphed. ‘Oh, yes. You are so grown up.’ Her voice changed. ‘Niven, look! There is a man in the circle.’

      ‘Where?’ he answered.

      ‘There. On the ground beneath one of the larger stones.’

      Lucas heard them move closer.

      ‘Who is it?’ the boy asked.

      ‘I do not know,’ the girl replied. ‘He’s a stranger.’

      ‘Stuff!’ the boy said. ‘There are no strangers hereabouts. Not on our land, anyway. We know everybody.’

      Their land? Where was he, if not Belgium? Where had the stench of blood and gunpowder gone?

      Lucas struggled to open his eyes, but the light stung them. He braced himself against the stone at his back and tried to rise. ‘Bradleigh.’

      His legs wouldn’t hold him. He collapsed, scraping his head as he fell.

      Their footsteps scrambled towards him and he forced his eyes open a slit. Two young people, a girl and a boy, floated into view, like apparitions.

      ‘Sir! Sir! Are you hurt?’ The girl leaned down to him, but she was just a blur.

      Lucas tried to speak, but the darkness overtook him.

      * * *

      Mairi Wallace shook the dirt from her apron and lifted the basket of beets, carrots and radishes that she’d gathered from the kitchen garden. What a scolding she’d receive if her mother knew she’d been digging in the dirt.

      ‘Now, Mairi,’ her mother would say in her most patient but disapproving voice. ‘It is not fitting for a baron’s daughter to gather vegetables. If you must put yourself out in the sun, cut flowers. You are not a kitchen maid, after all.’

      Except that all the kitchen maids except Evie had left. So many of their servants had bolted for positions that actually paid their wages that the household was woefully understaffed. Only two housemaids remained and two footmen. Mairi did not mind taking on some of their work. She rather liked the sun and fresh air on such a fine Scottish day.

      She turned and gazed over the wall and caught sight of her younger brother, Niven, running down the hill as if the devil himself was after him.

      Mairi frowned. Had he not gone for a walk with Davina? Mairi’s heart beat faster. Where was Davina?

      She dropped the basket and ran through the gate.

      ‘Mairi! Mairi!’ Niven called. ‘Come quick! I need you!’

      Mairi rushed to his side. ‘What is it? Is it Davina?’

      ‘No. Well, a little.’ He fought to catch his breath. ‘Oh, just come with me. Now.’

      Niven, at sixteen, was old enough to have some sense, but he was as impulsive and impractical as their father. This would not be the first time Mairi had had to pull him out of a scrape. But Davina, their younger sister, was typically more prudent. Slightly.

      What did he mean, a little? Was she hurt? If something had happened to Davina, she could not bear it!

      Mairi followed Niven over the hill and to a part of their land that remained rustic and wild. They rushed

Скачать книгу