Christmas at Devil's Gate by Fenella J Miller

Author:Fenella J Miller [Miller, Fenella J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Honour double-checked that all the shutters and doors were locked on the ground floor and then insisted that everybody went upstairs. 'We need a fire lit in this room, I shall leave that to the girls. The rest of you will keep watch at the windows and let me know immediately if you see any movement.'

She carefully propped the three muskets, and the paraphernalia needed to fire them, against the wall. When she turned to speak to the men that had been left behind she realised someone was missing. 'Where is Fred? Did he go with his lordship after all?'

One of the other young men shook his head. 'No, miss, he went off a while ago on an errand for the master. He said he would be gone a fair while and wouldn't be back until tomorrow or the next day.'

'Thank you for that information, as long as I know he is not missing, I shall not worry about him. Now, do you three know how to fire a musket or would you like me to show you?'

None of them did but they were quick learners and after an hour she was confident they would be able to at least load and fire the weapon even if they couldn't hit a target. One would load whilst the other two fired.

She could probably do more damage herself, but she wanted to keep them occupied. The six girls had split up and returned with several baskets of logs and coal. Soon the chamber was warm enough to consider removing her cloak but she decided against it, just in case she was obliged to go outside for any reason.

'Jed, I should like you to open a window, not too far, just enough so we can hear what is going on outside.'

Sally was taking this in her stride, but then she had travelled all over the world and been involved in all sorts of excitement without upset. 'I'll take these two with me and bring up some refreshments. No need for us to starve whilst we're on sentry-go.'

'Stay away from the windows just in case whoever is out there has managed to creep close without being seen.'

There was too much time to dwell on the situation. She ran over the events of the past few days to see if she would have done anything differently if she had her time over again. She would certainly have been more careful climbing the gate so that she did not fall on top of Ralph. Apart from that, even with the current unfortunate situation, she could see nothing that she could have changed.

One thing did puzzle her – why had her cousin bothered to take away the carriage? With a broken axle it was no use to anyone. The only possible explanation was that he intended to sell it once it was repaired. The vehicle was recently purchased and would no doubt finance some of the men he had hired to find her.

'Miss, miss, did you hear that? I'm certain that I heard the cart returning.

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