Captive Surrender Read Online Free PDF

If she hadn’t watched him for the last
few minutes she would have considered him a figment of her
over-active imagination. As it was, she knew now that Levant and
his men were watching them.
    Panic threatened to
overwhelm her. She felt hunted, as though she didn’t know which way
to turn and knew that whichever way she went, the outcome would be
the same. Her thoughts immediately turned to her mother. Had the
man seen Agatha out in the garden? She swallowed. Had he been
watching her from the trees even then? The thought filled her with
horror and she shivered. He had been so close yet she hadn’t known
it. The realisation made her want to cry. She snapped the window
shutters closed and flicked the catch, before she hurried around
the room and repeated the process at each of the four windows. Once
she had done, she scurried to her mother’s room to close the
shutters there too, and then moved on to Robbie’s, before she
called to her sisters downstairs.
    “ Come and
help,” she yelled, only vaguely aware of her mother’s disconcerted
rambling from the other side of the bedroom door.
“Quickly!”
    “ What is it?
What’s happened?” Georgiana gasped as she practically flew up the
stairs.
    “ Close the
shutters to the house,” Prudence ordered Georgiana and Eloisa and
Maggie, who had appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “Hurry
up.”
    “ Why? What’s
wrong?”
    “ Just do it.
I will explain in a minute.”
    Amid many bangs and a lot
of grumbling, the house was shuttered and locked. The sudden slam
of a loose shutter against the outside brickwork made them all jump
and they made their way down to the library to wait for Prudence to
join them and explain.
    “ Where is
father’s old hunting rifle?” Prudence demanded and hurried past the
library to the study to search for the wretched item before anyone
could reply. Although she was busy pulling out drawers, she was
aware that everyone had followed her into the study and stood just
inside the door watching her.
    “ What on
earth is going on, Prudence?” Madeline demanded, her eyes filled
with fear.
    Prudence spent several
moments searching cupboards for their late father’s old hunting gun
and bit back a sigh of impatience when it was nowhere to be
found.
    “ It’s
upstairs in the attics, I think,” Eloisa suggested, her own concern
rising at the worry on her eldest sister’s face. “Prudence, I
insist that you tell us what has happened at once.” The stern
rebuke in her voice was enough to make Prudence pause. She turned
to her sisters and only then realised that she had just scared her
entire family.
    “ I am sorry,”
she paused and contemplated the wisdom of telling them what she had
seen. A quick glance at the curiosity on Robbie’s face was enough
to caution her not to spare them the details. “I saw someone
outside. He was one of Levant’s men and he was watching the
house.”
    “ What?”
    “ When?”
    “ Which
one?”
    “ What is he
after?”
    “ Is he still
there now?” Robbie piped up. The eagerness in his voice drew
everyone’s attention. When he tried to move to the window, Eloisa
grabbed the collar of his shirt and drew him to a halt.
    “ Don’t you
dare, Robert Freestone. You keep away from those
windows.”
    “ I was just
going to see if he is still there,” Robbie whined.
    “ He has
gone,” Prudence declared flatly. She glared at Robbie. “You will
not go outside, and you will not touch the shutters at that window
or any of the others, do you understand Robert Freestone?” She
watched hurt fill Robbie’s eyes and immediately felt awful for
being so heavy handed with him but she knew that if she didn’t, he
would have his boots on and would be charging toward the copse
without a care in the word, or any fear of the danger that might
lurk within.
    “ Where are
you going?” Maddie demanded when Prudence flew out of the room and
ran upstairs.
    “ The attics,”
Prudence gasped. She hated the attics. It was by far