The Dream Read Free

it his God-given duty to save her harlot’s soul.
    Emily shuddered.
    Thank God, both men now rotted in hell.
    Battles had been waged and lost, and she still awoke in the dead of night terrified she’d forgotten something, that she’d done something wrong, that she would have to face the consequences to some imagined slight to God or husband.
    The muscles in her neck tightened.
    Colonel Ludlow mumbled and shifted, and she jumped at the sound.
    Tears stung the backs of her eyes.
    One day. One day she would be the strong girl she had been. The girl who used to run through the fields, the girl who stood up for her mother and sister. The girl who wasn’t afraid. One day she would find that lost person and maybe then she could forget.
    She patted the pocket of her cloak, the thick bundle of letters tucked safely inside. They were too precious to put in her bag, which had been tied to the back of the coach.
    So intent on her musings, it took a moment for the noise outside to register.
    Shots.
    Shots were being fired.
    The colonel jerked upright in his seat. “Bloody hell.”
    “Stand and deliver!” a shout came from outside.
    “What’s happening?” she asked.
    “Highwaymen. I don’t believe it. Don’t you worry, Mrs. Smith, I’ll not let the blackguards harm you. Stay back in the shadows.”
    The carriage halted, and the door was thrown open.
    Colonel Ludlow barreled out. Emily sat motionless in the dark interior. She could see nothing past the dim glow of outer lamps on the carriage’s side.
    The Colonel’s back was to her. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked.
    “We thought we’d stop you for some pleasant conversation,” a voice replied. “Now empty your pockets while my partner retrieves the cargo.”
    “Utterly outrageous. The Dragoons will be crawling all over this land by morning. When I report this…”
    “You,” said another voice, “unfortunately, won’t have such a worry.”
    Another shot rang, the silence that followed heavy and still. She watched as Colonel Ludlow weaved and fell to the ground.
    She fisted her hand against her mouth. Oh dear God. She did not come all this way to die.
    The door was jerked back open and a man with a large hat, pulled low over his face, motioned for her to move. “Come, my pretty, no need to hide.”
    Her muscles froze. The man smiled, she saw the flash of his teeth.
    “Come.” He reached for her and she struck out at him.
    Did the man think her simpleminded? There was no way she was about to get out so he could shoot her.
    “Mademoiselle, I tire of this game.”
    She kicked out at him, but he leaned in.
    Someone shouted from outside. “Let’s be away, mon ami .” Another shot sounded and she heard a moan before something, or someone, thudded off the driver’s box.
    The carriage lurched at the gun’s report, and the man tried to clamber halfway inside. He mumbled in another language. French maybe? She’d heard it occasionally before.
    The coach picked up speed and the man hurried to climb up the open doorway. They hit a bump and the carriage jolted. Emily slammed against the side, throwing her arm out to catch herself.
    The man was muttering and climbing up the outside of the coach. Oaths mumbled on the air and his booted foot thumped against the windowsill. What was he doing? His dark form disappeared from the carriage doorway. The horses. The unlatched door banged open and closed against the coach.
    His booted foot disappeared from the windowsill and she heard him above. What would happen when he did slow the coach and gain control of the cattle? He would shoot her. They’d shot everyone else.
    The carriage slowed. His loud shouts reached her over the clattering wheels.
    Emily stood and braced herself, looking out the open doorway. She was not about to let the man shoot her or worse, and she’d been through worse. There was simply no way she could endure that again.
    The ground, glowing from the carriage lamps, blurred beneath her.
    The man’s