Far From Broken Read Online Free PDF

no one to greet him at the door either, not even Murphy.
    Leaving his overcoat hanging off the newel post at the bottom of the staircase, he headed up with weary steps.
    Something wasn’t right. He felt the wrongness in his bones, a thudding, tight ache that threatened to rip his chest in two. He began to move faster, taking the last few steps two at a time and then rushing down the hall to their bedchamber. He threw open the door. “Callie?”
    She wasn’t there.
    The bedding lay strewn across the floor as if someone had been sleeping. Sleeping, and perhaps… dragged out of the bed.
    His blood turned colder as he tore through every room, looking for her, calling her name.
    When he ran back down the stairs, he followed a muffled banging noise to the pantry closet just inside the kitchen. The servants had been bound and gagged and stuffed inside it. Malcolm was there too, unconscious with a deep, nasty gash in his head that had bled onto the floor.
    He untied them and forced Malcolm awake, all the while his heart hammering with a desperate fear. Where was Callie?
    “What happened here?” he asked, unable to control the terse, frantic tone of his voice.
    Cook twisted her hands together, tears running down her plump cheeks. “My lord, ’twas a band of thieves. They hid in the stables and attacked Mr. Malcolm here when he went to check an’ see why young John hadn’t come in fer dinner. We didn’t know what were happenin’, but suddenly we heard Lady Carlisle screamin’ in her chamber. One o’ ’em dragged her down the stairs by her hair and the others held guns to our heads and threatened to kill us all.”
    Malcolm groaned and touched a hand to his temple, swearing when it came back sticky with blood. “Colonel, it’s my fault,” he said. “They should never have been able to take me off guard.”
    He shook his head in impatience. “Never mind that now. What did they do with Lady Carlisle? Where’s Callie?”
    His wife’s young maid piped in, “She bargained for us, my lord. She tole the demons that if they left us alone, they could take her.”
    Oh God.
    “How long ago?”
    The cook and the maid glanced at each other with wide eyes. “Not sure, my l-l-lord,” Cook stuttered. “But I’d say we were probably locked up in there at least three hours.”
    No. That was too long. Three hours was long enough for them to have done just about anything to her.
    He couldn’t think about that. Not yet. Find her first. “Malcolm, get my shotgun.”
    “Right away, Colonel.” The man had already struggled to his feet, and now stood tall and strong, ready at Jasper’s side like he’d been on the first day they’d donned army colors together.
    “My lord.” The light-haired maid stopped him before he made it to the hallway, her voice cracking. “Did ye find our John?”
    “He wasn’t in the stables. You and the others search for him while I’m gone.” He kept moving, meeting Malcolm in the front hall. “What about Murphy, where is he?” The lieutenant had disappeared from his side shortly after the gunfight started. Jasper hadn’t been too worried at the time. Murphy was nothing if not resourceful, and he’d assumed the man had taken cover and made his way back home on his own.
    “He arrived two nights ago, but took himself off early this afternoon.”
    “Why?”
    “Not sure.” Malcolm shrugged. “But he’s been hot for the new serving girl at the inn.”
    Grabbing the weapon from Malcolm, Jasper walked out into the night. “I don’t care how long it takes. We don’t come back without her,” he said, his voice filled with the ice that rushed through his veins.
    Malcolm nodded. “Agreed.”
     
     
    They’d just saddled two horses and were halfway down the lane that would take them to the main road when Jasper saw movement. He pulled his horse to a stop and jumped down. “John, is that you?”
    A figure hunched over, clutching his belly as he stumbled toward them. Jasper called over his