Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
Selena withdrew the uncapped ink bottle from her skirt pocket and flung its contents at the colonel’s smug face.
He gasped, startled, as black ink splashed him in the eyes.
Selena took advantage of this reprieve to grab her letter opener from her pocket and, springing forward, she stabbed the thin, sharp blade into the colonel’s hand.
He gasped in agony and outrage. The revolver fell from his grasp, spun across the floor, and vanished beneath the sarcophagus.
Dropping to her knees, Selena reached under the stone coffin, desperately feeling for the gun with her fingers.
If she fled without the gun, he would find it and come after her, firing.
But the colonel grabbed her from behind, wrestled her to face him, and pressed his hands forcefully against her throat.
“Goodbye, Miss Taylor.” His face flushed and his jaw clenched as he pronounced the fatal words.
Selena clawed at him, struggling to break free, but he was far stronger, and she couldn’t breathe.
The pressure of his fingers on her throat was the most intense pain Selena had ever felt.
Spots appeared before her eyes and her ears began to ring.
Is this how it ends? she wondered. Is this how and where I die?
All at once, the colonel’s hands took leave of her throat and—somehow—he was tumbling sideways. Choking and gasping, Selena drank in precious oxygen. It took a few moments before her head and vision cleared and she perceived that someone else was in the chamber.
Dr. Dalton.
The two men were grappling on the floor, fighting for their lives. A second lantern stood nearby. Selena’s mind whirled. What was Dr. Dalton doing here? But there was no time to process the notion.
Selena reached under the sarcophagus, but to her frustration, the gun was just out of reach.
She needed a weapon—a way to knock out the colonel.
Her glance fell on her lantern. It was framed in brass and fitted with glass.
That will do. She nabbed it, waiting for the right moment as the men struggled.
Before she could act, however, the grappling duo rolled up against the sarcophagus.
The colonel reached under it and half a second later, he had the gun in his hand and was leveling it at Dr. Dalton.
It’s now or never. Selena bashed the lantern with all her might onto Colonel Blackwood’s skull.
Glass shattered and flew. The colonel slid to the floor and lay still.
Dr. Dalton, breathing hard, rose to his knees. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” Selena’s pulse pounded and her entire body began to quake as she stared down at the colonel’s insensible form. “Is he?” Although he had just tried to murder them both, she hoped she hadn’t killed him.
Dr. Dalton used his fingertips to check the colonel’s pulse. “He’ll live.” His frock coat was streaked with dirt and his boots were caked in mire. “I can’t believe it was him.”
Selena struggled to clear her head. “The Webster siblings’ theory was a bust. Colonel Blackwood has been behind everything—he wanted the money.”
The doctor caught sight of the bloodied, fallen letter opener and stared down at the man on the floor. “Is that ink on his face? And did you stab his hand?”
“I did. And I brought this to tie him up with, just in case.” She untied the ribbon she had wrapped around her waist and offered it to him.
“Good thinking.” The doctor took the ribbon and began binding the unconscious man’s hands behind his back.
The room started turning again and Selena blinked hard to make it go away. “You’ll be happy to know—I found the money.”
He finished tying the colonel’s wrists and stared up at her, his eyes huge. “What? You found it? Where?”
“Under the dragon.” She gestured to the sarcophagus.
Dr. Dalton turned to study the carvings on the side of the stone coffin. A grin lit up his face. “Well, what do you know? St. George was a popular man.”
“He was.” Selena rested against the sarcophagus to keep from falling over. “The pouch is in his coat.”
The doctor fished out the purse from the colonel’s pocket and glanced inside. Relief and joy lit his face. “Thank you for finding this.”
“Thank you for saving my life.”
“Thank you for saving mine. In more ways than one.” He stood up, holding the money pouch to his chest as if it were manna from heaven.
“I can go back to my life now with my name and debts cleared.” Sliding the purse into his own pocket, he crossed to Selena and briefly touched the side of her throat, cringing at whatever he saw there.
“I’m sorry he hurt you. I wish I’d been here sooner. ”
The touch of his fingertips sent a jolt through Selena’s being. “I wish you’d never left at all.” She reached up, yearning to touch him as well, but stopped short at the sight of bright-red blood dripping down from his forehead. “Your head is bleeding.”
“That can wait. We should leave this place.” He blinked as blood dripped into his eye.
“Let me take care of this first.” Selena cradled his neck with her hand and urged him to bend his head down towards her. She parted his hair to reveal a wound that was leaking blood. “Stay still. There’s a piece of glass stuck in here.”
He complied. As Selena carefully maneuvered the small piece of glass out of the wound—unable to bear the suspense any longer—she asked, “Why are you here?” She didn’t dare to guess the answer. “When I heard you’d left, I thought you would take the first train out.”
“That was my plan,” he admitted. “But on my miserable hike to the village, trudging through muck and mire, I had a lot of time to think. How was it, I wondered, that I had come to this? The only wrong I had done was to lie about my identity and motives for a few days—which, although inexcusable, are not criminal offenses.”
“True.” She inspected his scalp wound for any remaining shards, then withdrew a handkerchief from her pocket and quickly mopped his brow. “I think I got all the glass.”
“Thank you.” A frown took over his face. “Still, my responsibility seemed clear. I had to go back to London, turn myself in, and face debtors’ prison. I learned that a train was expected within the hour. But as I waited for that train … I thought of you.”
Selena pressed the handkerchief tightly against his head to staunch the flow of blood, her pulse thumping like a runaway locomotive. “Of me?”
“Yes, you. I knew a villain was still out there, someone who had warned us off repeatedly and had attempted to kill you—or us—several times. Even though I knew you thought the worst of me—that I was a scoundrel and a thief—”
“I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge,” she interjected, remorse gnawing at her insides. “I’m so sorry. I—”
“Let me finish.” He took over the job of pressing on his scalp wound himself. “I couldn’t leave you here, unprotected, when you might be in peril at any moment. So regardless of your low opinion of me, I came back to protect you if I could.”
Tears burned behind Selena’s eyes. “Thank you. But how did you know where I’d gone?”
“I checked your room and found the note you’d written, in your rubbish bin.
I was relieved by your change of heart but panicked.
I figured that you might have come back here to look for the dragon tomb.
A maid told me she had seen Colonel Blackwood heading for the chapel.
That’s when I suspected the awful truth about him, although I still don’t understand why. ”
“I’ll explain it all later.”
“I ran through that passage as if the Devil were after me.” He shook his head at her. “You do know that it was absolutely crazy—and very dangerous—for you to come back here again on your own?”
Sheepishly, she nodded. “I’m not sure I was thinking straight. I did, after all, hit my head yesterday. But you’re right, it was risky.” With a rush of gratitude, she added, “If not for you, I’d be dead.”
The handkerchief dropped from his hand, and he closed the space between them. His eyes sparkled with affection as he said softly, “That’s a thought I cannot bear.” And suddenly, Selena was enveloped in his arms, her cheek pressed against his chest. “I didn’t want to leave you.”
“I didn’t want you to leave,” she murmured breathlessly.
He dipped his head to face her, until their mouths and noses were but a hair’s breadth apart. “Selena,” he said softly.
“Andrew,” she echoed back at him.
His eyes lit up at her usage of his real name. And then he kissed her, hard and fast.
Just then, a groan erupted from the man on the floor beside them. Selena and the doctor broke apart as the colonel began to stir.
“I think,” Dr. Dalton said, “it’s time to get out of here and bring this man to justice.”