The two soldiers approached the wagon and dismounted.
“Well well, hello dolly,” one of them said to Anabel, “what appears to be the problem.”
Anabel stood coyly next to the wagon with her hands behind her back and said, “Good day sir, my wagon wheel is broken. I’m from the city and I’m afraid I haven’t much experience with this sort of thing.”
“Let’s take a look shall we,” one soldier said as they both looked over the damaged wheel.
Anabel glanced my way towards the brush with an expression that read, ‘Don’t you move.’
“My my, yes, that certainly is some bad damage. But it’s not going to be free to fix dolly.”
The two soldiers turned and took a few steps towards Anabel, and I didn’t like where this was going.
She took a step back as one of the soldiers got closer to her and reached for her hand.
Swiftly, she recoiled and slapped the soldier across the face with her other hand.
The other soldier laughed while the freshly slapped one rubbed his face.
“That’s gonna cost extra dolly,” he said as he lunged towards her trying to grab her shoulder and waist. It all happened so fast, I wanted to do something despite her insistence I stayed hidden. But before I could react, she drew her pistol and fired.
I closed my eyes and cringed at the loud bang only to open them and see that the soldier hadn’t been struck. She missed! Her trigger finger must have squeezed during the tussle and fired in the air. Now she just stood in front of the flinching men with smoke billowing from the pistol's barrel.
The two men recomposed themselves. The one in front of her angrily grabbed her. Anabel screamed. The other grabbed a rope from his horse's saddle and said, “Now you’ve done it dolly. Striking an officer and attempting to shoot him. You’re not good enough for the firing squad. You’ll swing by your neck till you’re dead, wench!”
One soldier tied her hands behind her back and wrapped a noose around her neck then threw the other end of a tree limb while the other retrieved his musket from his horse and fixed the bayonet to it.
“Let’s pin her while she hangs and see if city girls drain blood as quickly as country girls do,” he said, before laying his rifle down and moving to help the other soldier leverage her in the air with the rope.
Enough was enough. I didn’t care about staying hidden. I had to do something. I didn’t plan on these guys staying alive long enough to tip anyone off about me anyway. I reached down and grabbed the knife Moreau gave me and crawled towards the men right as they hoisted Anabel off her feet. No time to think, I slashed the achilles tendon of the nearest soldier.
He screamed out in pain with blood splashing on the grass as he fell down on his side.
Before the other soldier could react, he lost grip of the rope and Anabel was released down. Meanwhile, I sprang to my feet, rushed over to pick up the rifle and charged directly at the standing soldier who was rubbing his rope burned hands. The bayonet went right into his lower chest region but I kept running until I pinned him to the tree that Anabel had been hanging from.
Not thinking twice, I pulled the trigger and unloaded the musket right into the man's midsection.
Anabel, who had released the rope from her neck and got to her feet, finished coughing and then began stomping a mudhole into the wounded soldier on the ground with her riding boots.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The man let out a wail from the pain of her kicks as well as his bleeding tendon. Once I had pulled back the bayonet from the dead soldier in front of me, I turned around and watched for a moment as Anabel kicked the living shit out of this guy. Not enough force to deliver a fatal blow but enough to keep the wounded man down. I walked over, turned the rifle upside down and with as much force as I could swatted the man over the head with the butt of the gun like a crude club. I’m fairly positive that killed him instantly.
Anabel, with blood on her boots and a little on the bottom of her dress, started bawling her eyes out as she rubbed the slight burn marks on her neck from the rope. Thankfully, she hadn’t hung long enough to do any serious damage.
“Are you alright?” I asked as I dropped the rifle.
“Stupid,” she said with tears in her eyes, “that was really stupid what you did. You risked making it to the Capital, and endangered the future of the movement…”
She paused for a moment and sniffled before continuing, “...though I must say. I’m grateful for what you did for me…come on. We don’t have much time before someone comes along. Let’s unhitch our horses and get out of here.”
“I already told you; I don’t know how to ride.”
“Well, looks like you’re just gonna have to learn along the way,” she said with a forced smile on her face and bloodshot eyes.
* * *
We gathered what supplies we could and piled them onto our horses. Put the bodies of the soldiers in the brush and then sent their horses riding off in random directions. I used the wagon and Anabel’s guiding hand to mount my horse for the first time. We took off ahead in the direction we were going, slowly at first, so she could lead my horse alongside hers until I could get a grasp of things. We rode and rode all day long until evening.
“There ya go,” she uttered, “you’re starting to get it. Let’s find an Inn for the night this time. I think we’ve had enough excitement for one day. If we rest well, we can ride all day and night tomorrow to make up time and possibly gain some. And we’ll be back on our night riding schedule.”
Just before dark we found a small hamlet in the countryside. Anabel said there was an Inn sympathetic to The Order suitable for letting our horses rest while we did the same. I guess I didn’t realize that having never rode a horse before I’d be as beaten and sore as I was. Since ice wasn’t exactly readily available outside of major cities in this era, I ended up having to soak in cold water. Even just traveling around in this world felt like I could be killed easily.
After washing up and turning in for the night I was about to turn off my lantern when I heard a tapping at my door.
“Eric, can I come in,” said Anabel in a muffled voice from the other side.
“Sure, come on in.”
The door opened slowly, and Anabel came in wearing a nightgown and her hair let down. It’s the first time I’d seen it without her little bonnet since she wore that even while we camped out. She stepped in slowly with her hands behind her back as she looked down. She turned and closed the door behind her before coming over to me as I sat on the edge of the bed.
“How’s your neck?” I asked.
“It’s good. I used some tea leaves to soothe it. I can hardly feel it now.” “Great. It’s not really all that visible anymore either,” I gleefully proclaimed.
“And how about your soreness?” she asked.
“Ha. Well, I suppose it could be worse. But at least I know how to ride a horse now!”
A moment of quiet filled the air before I asked, “So, is there something you needed?”
“Well, you see,” she started timidly, “I never properly thanked you for your help back there. I kinda halfway berated you for endangering the mission and just said I was grateful as an afterthought. So, I wanted to give you a more appropriate thanks.”
She blushed and started walking towards me. What was this? Was she seriously about to give herself to me for saving her life? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was attracted to her but then I thought about Stephanie. My goal was to win her back. We had history together. We were in love at one point. I don’t really doubt that she still loved me, but I understood why she left me at that point in my life. But this, this right here wouldn’t be right. Not that there was some rule that we couldn’t see other people, I’m certain Stephanie had seen other people. But for me to do this right in the midst of trying to win her back with everything going. The inheritance, the magic well, the devil king…
Anabel stopped right in front of me, still sitting on the bed, leaned down and gave me a slight kiss on the lips. Not open mouth or anything. Just a simple kiss. All I could think about then was…Stephanie who?
Before I could make any kind of move, Anabel straightened back up, turned around and headed out of the room.
“Thank you,” she said as she stepped out and waved goodnight.
Of course. I got the Mario Brothers ending. What was I thinking? This is the early 1800s. Of course, she wasn’t going to throw herself at me after knowing me for a couple of days, even if I had saved her. Shame on me for thinking otherwise.
I turned out the light and went to sleep. The next day we would get up, have breakfast and ride as far as we could before the horses needed rest. My ass was pretty swollen from being horse broken, but I’d just have to work through it.