Page 84 of A Remarkable Rogue

“He can piss ’is pants fer all—”

“What was that?” Sydney suddenly shrieked and pointed toward the door. “I heard a noise outside. Oh, thank God, someone’s come to save us! We’re in here!”

She jabbed her finger emphatically and drew their attention away from her. Then she scooped up the stone at her feet and hid it in the folds of her skirt.

Miss Jenner raced to the window. “If someone’s out there—”

“Shut up!” the man growled. “There was no noise.”

“You’d better go outside and check anyway.” Miss Jenner turned her head from side to side for a better view out the window, but her vision was blocked by the shutter at every angle. “If we get caught here with a baroness and that boy, we’ll both hang. I want out of this mess alive.”

The man’s face darkened. Cursing loudly, he stalked to the door. He flung it open but paused in the doorway.

“Go on,” Miss Jenner urged. She nodded toward Sydney and Robert. “I’ll keep an eye on them.”

With a grumble, the kidnapper stepped outside and disappeared from sight as he circled the cottage. Miss Jenner stayed at the window and strained to see outside, lifting up onto her toes for a better view.

Sydney lunged. She grasped the large rock in both hands and raised it over her head, then slammed it down into the back of Miss Jenner’s skull. A sickening thud echoed through the cottage. The woman fell to her knees with a loud moan.

“Run!” Sydney screamed at Robbie.

He flew from the cottage and straight on into the thick woods just as she’d instructed, not slowing down, not looking back. He was following his soldier’s orders to the letter and running like the wind.

Sydney dropped the rock and ran. She headed away from Robbie in the opposite direction and yelled at the top of her lungs as she went to catch the attention of the kidnapper. As she’d hoped, the man didn’t see Robbie and came after her.

Hitching up her skirt, she ran as fast as she could. Shehadto put as much distance between herself and her son as possible,hadto draw the killer away from him to give him time to find help. Her legs shook and her lungs burned as she gasped for breath, but somehow she found the inner strength to keep running over the moss-dampened ground beneath the trees and through the undergrowth. Each footstep put more distance between her and Robbie, and even one extra stride might just save his life.

She slowed to risk a glance over her shoulder—the kidnapper wasn’t there!

She halted, turned back, and saw him running through the trees in the opposite direction. After Robbie.

“No!” she screamed. The man was too far away. She could never reach him in time if she ran back.

She raised her arms over her head and waved them wildly to get the man’s attention.

“I know who you are!” she yelled, her voice screaming itself raw. “I know who you are, and I will tell the authorities!”

The man froze in his steps, then hesitated a moment as if torn between running after Robbie or going back after her. He looked over his shoulder and met her gaze through the trees.

“I will tell them,” she promised as loudly as she could, “and you will hang!”

An evil, cold smile spread across his face. Then he started after her.

Sydney fled for her life.

His long strides quickly closed the distance between them even as she darted through the trees and bushes. Her long skirt snagged on the brambly undergrowth and slowed her down, and the fabric ripped as she twisted to free herself and stumble on. She heard heavy footsteps pounding up behind her. Only seconds now, and he would catch her. Only heartbeats—

She snatched up a tree limb from the ground and swung it in a circle with a groan of exertion to strike him on the head as hard as she could. But the rotten limb snapped in two, and the glancing blow only grazed his jaw.

“Bitch!”

He grabbed her arm and twisted hard, and the pain shot up into her shoulder. She fell helplessly to the ground with a scream. He kicked her. She ducked but too late, and his boot caught the side of her head.

With a cry of pain, she fell backward, and he pounced on top of her, straddling her waist and holding her pinned beneath him. She struggled fiercely to free herself, kicking her legs and flailing her arms in violent desperation, but he was too heavy and strong.

He grabbed both her wrists in one large hand and pinned her arms to the ground over her head. Baring his teeth at her, he yanked a knife from his belt and flashed it at her throat.

“I’m gonna kill the boy. I’ll find him an’ break his little neck. But first, I’m gonna gut you.” He pricked the tip of the knife against the flesh at the base of her throat and traced it down her front between her breasts, and she closed her eyes against the terror. “From neck t’ belly like a fish.”