Damsel in Disguise by Susan Gee Heino Read Free Book Online Page B

trained on the driver while the other man grasped a young woman by the hair, poking his pistol at the crying bundle she clutched desperately. Julia clenched her fist. What monsters, to threaten an innocent babe like that! By God, if Rastmoor didn’t do something pretty soon, she would.
    “This was supposed to be ’is lordship’s carriage,” the man at the horses said.
    “Well, it ain’t,” the other replied. “We must have missed him. Damn. The boss ain’t goin’ to like that.”
    “What are we going to do?” the first man asked. Even from this distance, Julia could see his gun hand shaking.
    “What do you think we’re going to do? His nibs likely don’t want no witnesses.”
    The woman with the baby made a frightened little squeak, and now another woman appeared in the window of the carriage. She let fly a string of words Julia had never heard come from a woman—she was quite impressed by it, really—until the man simply reached through the window and smashed his fist into the woman’s face. The tirade stopped immediately, though the baby’s mother made more squeaking sounds. Her child began crying again.
    “He’s going to kill them!” Julia hissed to Rastmoor, glad for the baby’s distracting cries.
    “No. Here’s what we’ll do,” Rastmoor said, leaning in very close so that his voice was hardly a whisper. “I’ll take the man at the horses. You step out and aim this at the other man.”
    From somewhere he pulled out a gun. It looked huge and heavy and frightening. He handed it to Julia. She shook her head violently.
    “No, it’s too dangerous!” she protested.
    “You’d rather stand back and watch innocent people die?”
    “No.”
    “Good. Can you handle a pistol?”
    “No!”
    “Of course not. All right, I’ll set it to ready for you. Now, damn it, be careful where you aim, then pull the trigger.”
    “All right,” she said, but it sounded more like she was being strangled than preparing to boldly overpower the enemy.
    He growled out a sigh. “Miss Darshaw certainly got a bargain with you, didn’t she, St. Clement?”
    “You have no idea,” she replied, but wasn’t sure he heard.
    Rastmoor was already moving away, pushing slowly and silently through the bushes. Julia didn’t want to, but she followed. The minute he stepped out into the open, he’d have two guns aimed at him, and as far as she could tell, he’d just handed her his only weapon. If she didn’t get herself out there and convince those bloodthirsty highwaymen she knew what she was about, Rastmoor would soon be shot full of holes.
    Likely they’d all end up that way.
    Rastmoor made his move. Julia had no idea a highborn gentleman could move so fast or so silently. Almost before she knew what was happening, he leapt out of their cover and dove at the first highwayman. They tumbled to the ground. Julia was vaguely conscious of the encouraging fact that there was no immediate responding gunshot, but she couldn’t get too hopeful. There was still another man with an evil-looking pistol nearby, and she’d better do something to subdue him.
    “What the hell?” the man near the carriage yelled as Rastmoor grappled with his friend.
    Julia watched as he leveled that evil pistol in Rastmoor’s direction, and she tried to replicate his quick and stealthy movement. Crouching to make herself less visible—not to mention a smaller target—she scurried out of the brush.
    And managed to trip over her own ungainly boots.
    With an unmanly cry, she crumpled to the ground. Drat, she was mucking this up already! Rastmoor would likely curse her up one side and down the other. If he lived long enough to curse anyone, that was.
    Her clumsy actions had one unaccounted benefit. Both highwaymen were immediately distracted. This gave Rastmoor the opportunity to gain the advantage and take possession of his opponent’s gun. In an instant he was on his feet, the weapon aimed squarely at his foe.
    The downside of this was that now