Chapter 27 #3
“Roll out of the way, Susanna! Move!” Adam cried, hurling her with all his might off his body one way and then wrenching a side table down on top of himself to use as a shield just as Dominick struck the first blow.
Sent tumbling across the floor, the room spinning crazily around her until she pitched into the desk, Susanna lay dazed while the sounds of servants yelling in the hall, vehement curses, and splintering wood rang around her.
Gasping for breath, her entire body aching, she managed to roll onto her side.
Her eyes widened in stark horror at the sight of Dominick hacking wildly at what little remained of the tabletop that Adam, pinned to the floor by the crazed fury of his attacker’s onslaught, held in front of him.
“No! Stop it!” she screamed, hauling herself to her feet and running at Dominick, who paused only long enough to fling her away from him.
She fell on all fours, tears stinging her eyes, but she wiped them away when she spied the pistol only a few feet from her.
As she clawed for it, her only thought was to get the weapon back to Adam before it was too late.
She heard him yell out in pain at the same moment that her hand closed around the engraved butt, and she twisted to find Dominick’s bloodied sword coming down for a final blow.
“Damn you, Dominick! No!” A deafening report echoed around her. Her hand vibrated and acrid powder smoke burned her eyes just as Elias rushed into the room and lunged at Dominick, who, clutching his shoulder, crumpled to his knees and collapsed unconscious onto Adam.
“Get him off! Get him off!” she cried, dropping the pistol to scramble on hands and bruised knees to Adam’s side.
As the huge black man lifted Dominick bodily and threw him against the wall, she saw that Adam had been slashed diagonally across the chest. Bright red blood seeped from the wound visible through the torn edges of his clothing.
“No, God, no,” she moaned, ripping away his waistcoat and shirt to expose the eight-inch gash. Quickly she tore off a wide piece of her linen skirt to staunch the flow of blood.
“It’s all right, love,” she heard him say hoarsely, and was astonished that he was speaking at all. He tried to smile at her, grimacing instead. “I don’t think…he cut me very deep.”
“Oh, Adam,” she whispered, her heart aching. “You told me you were going to Williamsburg—”
“I was, Susanna, but with Dominick. I wanted to see the bastard’s face when he realized that he’d lost… I wanted to take him with me to court so we would face the magistrate together…”
As he groaned raggedly and then fell silent, his head lolling back on the floor, Susanna realized with heightened fear that he had lost consciousness. Seized by sheer panic that he might die, she pressed harder upon the wound, which wouldn’t stop bleeding.
“Let me help, Mistress Camille. I want to help,” came Corliss’s teary voice beside her while Elias’s deep baritone made her jump.
“Mr. Spencer’s out cold, Mistress Camille. He won’t be getting up and going nowhere, but I’ll call for some men to come in and watch him just the same. Then I’m going to ride like the devil to Yorktown and fetch the physician.”
“Yes, go! Go as quickly as you can, Elias!” she pleaded, caressing Adam’s pale cheek with trembling, bloodstained fingers while Corliss applied her wadded apron to Adam’s chest. “I’m so sorry, my love…
” She choked, overwhelmed with inexpressible regret as she glanced back to where he had been wounded.
“So sorry for causing this terrible thing to happen. I shouldn’t have run into the room, but I was so frightened for you—”
“Susanna,” broke in Ertha’s shaky yet urgent voice next to her ear.
“There’s a lady just arrived, and she’s asking for Camille.
I’ll stay here with Master Thornton…his wound looks bad, but he’s as strong as they come.
He’ll pull through this well enough.” Ertha tugged upon her arm.
“Did you hear me, Susanna? I think you’d best go out and greet her before she comes in here. I have a feeling it’s important—”
“Who’s Susanna?” Corliss exclaimed in confusion. “Lordy, Ertha, don’t give out on us, too! You’re talking to Mistress Camille!”
“No, I want to stay here,” Susanna insisted, ignoring her maid’s outburst and wondering how the housekeeper could dare ask her to leave Adam’s side at a time like this. “I have to stay with him—”
“Will someone kindly tell me what is going on…Good heavens, Susanna Guthrie, is that you? I should have known you’d be in the center of this melee!”
Her heart seeming to stop, Susanna incredulously lifted her eyes to Lady Redmayne’s indignant gaze.
“Well, young woman, what do you have to say to explain this horrible mess? And where’s Camille?
Where’s her husband, Adam Thornton? I’ve never been so relieved as when I heard of their marriage from the constable in Yorktown—then I come here to find their household in a total uproar!
Why, it looks as if I’ve stumbled onto a battlefield!
Now I want an explanation, and I want it this very instant! ”
Her whole world crumbling around her, Susanna could only murmur numbly, “Oh bloody, bloody hell…”