phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware Read Online Free PDF Page B

clock.
    It was not difficult to hear the carriages that were coming down the road.
    Standing, I walked to the window, squinting to see the driver of a carriage that had halted before the house. It was not Dudley’s man, or anyone I recognized.
    When a second carriage stopped behind the first, and two outriders besides, Rose shoved me away from the window. We leaned against the wall before any of the men climbing out of the carriages could see us.
    “Who are they?”
    Rose said nothing as she grabbed one of Jack’s belts and pulled several knives from the sheaths.
    When the knocker sounded on the door, Mrs. Short appeared, wiping her hands on her apron.
    “Mrs. Short! Do not open that door,” I demanded as I charged into the foyer.
    Mrs. Short glanced at me after she had pulled back the bolt, but the door opened from the outside, and several men came into the house.
    “Run!” I shouted at the stout woman as I shoved her back toward the door to the kitchen.
    One of the men reached for her and she shrieked. He grabbed her arm, and she threw her wide hip against him. She wrenched herself free and fairly flew to the back of the house and down the stairs to the kitchen.
    There were ten men who came into the house.
    “What do you want?” Rose demanded regally from the doorway to the parlor.
    “We’ve come to escort you to where my lord is awaiting you,” one of the men replied. His name, if I remembered right, was Charlie. He had been one of Lucas’s guards.
    “Where is Luther?” I asked, sizing up my opponents. They would not take me willingly. If they took me, Jack would return home and think the worst had happened.
    “Will you come willingly or do you mean to resist?” Charlie asked.
    Rose laughed melodiously. The guards smiled at her, seeing before them a regal, elegant, stunningly beautiful woman, whom, I had no doubt, Luther told them not to touch. “My dear sir, you show your idiocy with such a question. The fact that you consider it a question at all tells us everything we need to know about the state of your intellect.”
    He stared at Rose, but the others began to understand. Rose met my eyes … and winked.
    Pushing away from the wall, I ran up the stairs and straight into the bedchamber where all of the weapons were to be found. Kicking closed the door, I quickly threw open a trunk and pulled out all of the weapons that my arms could carry. Dropping them behind the trunk, I raised a knife. As the door flew open, I threw the knife. The blade buried itself in the wood, beside the first guard’s face.
    He got one look at the weapons surrounding me and raised his hands. “There be no need for violence, Miss, if you will come with us willing.” He smiled as if trying to appear as a friend. Fool.
    Throwing the remained of my knives one after another, he used the door to shield him from the flying weapons of certain pain.
    Swiping up an iron rod and a hair dagger, I charged. The first guard dodged around my swinging arm, making his way into the bedchamber. Using the ball on the end of the rod, I smacked it against the second guard’s hand that was gripping the door. He screamed and I leapt against his shoulder, stabbing the man behind him in the shoulder with the hair dagger.
    The first guard grabbed me by my hair, pulling me toward him. He twisted me in his arms until my body was pressed against his.
    “You have fire for such a little thing,” he said as he smiled. The stench of his breath could make flowers wilt.
    Smiling up at him, his smile increased, until I threw up my hand and slammed the ball of the iron against his temple. He released me as he swayed and I leapt toward the bed, rolling across it and landing on my feet on the other side. Three more guards crowded into the bedchamber, trying to approach me.
    Glancing down toward where Rose’s leftover tray from breakfast still sat, I swiped up the silver lid and threw it at the closest guard. He knocked it away with his arm as I threw the plate at