The Counterfeit Lady by Alina K. Field

Author:Alina K. Field
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 2018-04-02T18:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

T he coastal path and the fields behind were dark and silent. The only noise was the crashing surf.

Anger reared in her. Bloody Fox—he wasn’t coming.

Perry yanked Pip around. The skiff with the other villains had disappeared round a point. They were quite alone with this villain.

And they must save themselves.

“Do as I do, Pip,” she whispered, easing him closer to the cliff edge. He planned to shoot and push them over.

“Very good.” The Frenchman sounded pleased. “Now you will kneel. I should have liked more time with you, cherie, but I must be off. I am good at what I do. You and the boy will feel no pain.”

“I can swim,” she whispered. “On three.” She put a foot back and bent her other knee, pretending to kneel.

“One, two, three.”

They catapulted off, and heard both shots before hitting the water.

BLOODY HELL. He’d been almost too late.

Fox ran to the promontory, shifting the hot pistol to his other hand and pulling out a knife. He skirted the dark-clad body and ran to the edge.

His heart all but stopped. The Frenchman had got off one shot. Perry or Pip, he couldn’t bear seeing either hit.

One shot wouldn’t have pushed them over this cliff. They’d jumped―in time, he hoped.

Perry’s head crested the surface, and his heart started again. She gulped air, thrashing, fighting to stay afloat, pulling at the boy who finally surfaced.

Fox bent to the Frenchman and sliced his throat, neat and deep. He dropped pistols, knives and coats, tore off his boots, and jumped.

Bloody hell, the cold.

He’d cannonballed, bounced off the mercifully deep enough bottom and shot up again. Currents grabbed him, pulling fiercely while he fought, and gulped air, and spat water.

There. She and the boy had been pushed further out. He grabbed the force of a retreating wave and shredded through water, every muscle in his arms and chest and legs moving and kicking.

He grabbed for her, and the current pulled her away.

A swell massed behind them. He treaded water, waiting, waiting, and “Kick!” he shouted.

The wave launched them up. He shot toward them and snagged the boy’s arm.

“Kick, Pip.”

“I am.” The boy snorted up water. “It’s too far.”

“We’ll get there. Are you all right, Perry?”

Her teeth chattered. “Y-yes.”

The next wave sent them in closer, close enough for him to stand neck high, the rocks cutting into his stockings and feet. He hoisted the boy onto his hip, and braced against the retreating current, until it shifted. They staggered the rest of the way out of the water, Perry dragging along with them by her tether to Pip.

Perry pulled a knife from her boot, hands shaking.

“Let me.” He pried the knife from her grip and sawed at their bindings. Dark fluid trickled down her head. That was blood.

“He hit you,” he said through clenched teeth.

Perry’s shivering kicked up to a frantic pace, shock overtaking her.

God’s blood, she’d almost died.

“Who was he, Pip?”

“I don’t know,” he rattled out quickly, “Some Frenchie.” The boy glanced up at the promontory. “He got away.

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