The penny finally dropped for Eidos. He didn’t have time to tango with me in the library when there was the imminent threat of the police arriving at the mansion soon. They were only here to kill Felipe – that was the goal that would ensure them their respective cut of the other suitor’s bid. I would need to speak with Beatrice about the other people who lobbied to marry her later, as they were all key suspects who could have hired the gang to try and kill him.

I cleaned my bloody hands on some nearby curtains and planned my next move.

Two of the people I noted earlier in the hall were dead. If I was assuming that all of them were on Eidos’ payroll, that meant that five remained including him. I had enough bullets to confidently fight back against all of them split between two different guns – but there were other factors to consider. It would be foolish to presume that there were only five gunmen left over. Given their level of access to the property, they could pass people through the front gate and get control of the exterior and gardens.

Combine that with their large collection of very important hostages, and it wouldn’t be a shock if the police were paralyzed when they arrived on the scene. Things were going to get messy if and when they launched an attack to retake the house. The only upside was that Eidos wanted to be away from the scene before that happened. They could bring a lot of men and arms to bear, and that would fill them with confidence once they understood the situation more. Not to mention some of their biggest tippers potentially dying in the chaos...

Eidos was going to run and get some more help. Odds were everything – he was smart enough to figure out that much. Now that he had a head start over me, there was no way for me to intercept him and stop him from rounding up more men to try and kill me. I started moving back towards where I hid Felipe. My feet were starting to hurt from all of this running. Some practical shoes would have worked wonders, but all of the people I’d killed were much larger than me. I couldn’t slip my dainty little noble feet into their boots.

When I finally reached the room, I knocked twice to make sure that he knew it was me.

There was just one problem. Felipe wasn’t in the room anymore.

“Felipe!” I groaned. I even ducked down and checked under the desk.

There was no sign of him.

Why the hell did people find it so hard to follow clear and simple orders? The only person he was putting at risk was himself!

“Where the hell did you go?” I murmured. There were no clues to be found.

I approached the window and peered through a gap in the curtains. I could see the shadow of a man lurking on the edge of the property by the fence. I clicked my tongue. Eidos did have more people than I expected. That would make things harder. They were holding firm even with the sound of gunfire emerging from inside. They were capable of following orders, unlike Felipe.

It wasn’t going to do me any good standing there and scowling. I had to find him fast before someone else did and put a bullet between his eyes. The hall was the safest bet. I could only imagine that Felipe was trying to get back to Beatrice and the others for whatever reason.

The main lobby was safer than going back the way I came. I turned left instead of right and headed towards the front side of the manor. The lobby was dangerous as a place to hide, but I could use it to pass through and reach the hall without making things too predictable. It was every lobby I’d seen in every mansion owned by every family. A huge, empty room with a sitting area that nobody ever used and an overblown staircase that dominated the centre. The Bookers had even installed white Greco-Roman pillars to sell the illusion.

There was no time to do my usual due diligence. I almost swore out loud as I came face to face with another gun-toting goon. My reactions were faster, and I chose to use them by dodging out of the way behind the nearest stone pillar before he could pull the trigger. There were two other men standing behind him, neither of whom could shoot through his body for fear of friendly fire.

A few seconds after there was a hail of gunfire shot around the corner to try and hit me through my cover. This house was built solid, and they failed to make much headway. A shower of white dust and fragments surrounded me and threatened to fill my lungs.

“That’s the girl that Eidos was talking about, kill her!”

He didn’t need to say it when their intent was already so clear. I was in a tough spot. I couldn’t move from my hiding place without exposing myself to their fire. I gripped both of my revolvers tight and quickly spun around to face my attackers, firing three shots in rapid succession. The first two struck one of the men in the chest and sent him to the floor, while the third missed and ripped through a set of metal armour that rested against the back wall, sending the pieces collapsing off the stand.

“Where the hell is Eidos?” one of them cried.

“He ran off to try and find the Escobarus kid!”

I ducked out of the way as another bullet struck the pillar and stripped away even more of the structure. They’d run out of ammunition before successfully breaking through it, but a two-pronged attack would put me in an even bigger bind. Expecting such a sophisticated strategy from two people in over their heads was a fool’s errand. While they were busy arguing, I rounded the other side of the pillar and blasted one of them to the ground with a single shot.

The last man standing aimed his rifle and tried to hit me, but his shaking hands caused the bullet to go astray and smash one of the front windows. I used both pistols and put him down with another double tap. I hissed through my teeth as the strong recoil of the guns tested the upper limits of my strength. It was a good thing I didn’t need to shoot again. It took me a few seconds to reset my aim after it was pushed up into the air.

Stolen story; please report.

I stood there frozen and took a moment to catch my breath. A stray piece of the stone pillar gave way and crumbled next to me. It was a short fight but it made a serious mess of the lobby. I heard the banging of doors upstairs on the balcony, and two more gunmen charged out, using the railings as cover and raining down even more fire from above. There was no time to evade the shots. I spun on my heel and did my best to aim with both guns at long range.

I had eight bullets left between them, but as I peppered them with return fire I realised that I wasn’t going to hit them at this range. I stopped shooting as they pulled back. Sensing my chance, I leapt towards one of the bodies on the ground and pushed him up to use as makeshift cover. The rifle he dropped was next to him. I dropped the revolvers and grabbed it, using his shoulder as a brace and waiting for them to peek out again.

One of them got lucky. He took as little time as possible and fired wildly in my direction, striking the corpse and splattering his blood all over my face and hands. I maintained my focus and hit him in the head with a precise piece of marksmanship. I pulled the lever and loaded the next shell, ejecting the empty casing with a loud pinging sound. His friend didn’t get another chance. I fired between the gap in the stone railings and hit him in the stomach.

I reached forward and checked my new friend’s pockets for anything I could use, finding a selection of spare cartridges and some more revolver shots to replace the ones I’d spent. I pushed him aside and wiped the gore from my eyes. Luckily, I was wearing red – perfect for hiding bloodstains and spilt wine. I had confirmation that Eidos brought more than seven men with him now. Two were dead in the library, one was unconscious in the bathroom, and five were guarding the lobby.

All this just to kill one teenager? They must have been worried about the security measures. They took control of the situation by bribing someone and getting their names pushed to the top of the list. They had enough guns to give to a small army, and they had even more men waiting outside of the estate to ward away the police.

I released the cylinder on the revolvers and struggled to force the bullets inside with my still-slick fingers. Give me a magazine-fed weapon any day! Much to my annoyance, the other revolver was break-action too, meaning I had to force the barrel assembly forward to reveal the chamber. I was halfway through fishing for the other bullets before giving up and tossing it away.

The rifle would serve me just fine, thank you very much. Oh, would you look at that – one of them even had a pistol holster that I could steal. I was geared up and ready to go. I must have looked extremely stupid in my red ball dress, with a leather pistol holster, rifle and blood all over me.

I may have thinned the herd but I still didn’t know where Eidos was skulking around. The hall was a risky prospect for my cover as a noble girl, but I didn’t have to go inside to figure out where Felipe was. Defending Felipe was the priority here, and killing all of the gunmen may have been the fastest way to resolve the situation. There were too many plates spinning and no way for me to control them.

Getting control of the house sounded like a good place to start.

----------------------------------------

“Claudius, where are we going?” Felipe whispered. The sounds of gunshots grew more and more frequent. After an initial sequence of several being fired in close proximity, the entire house descended into all-out warfare as dozens and dozens were exchanged between the hostage-takers and an unseen adversary. Leaving the office and moving under such circumstances was an idea that Felipe couldn’t abide by.

Just as she did before, Maria reacted quickly and calmly, taking him away from the washroom and hiding him away from the attackers who sought to end his life. Claudius hadn’t demonstrated the same clear and concise thinking, instead demanding that he accompany him to find somewhere even safer than that. Felipe refused, but Claudius made such a terrible racket about it that he veered dangerously close to exposing their hiding place.

“Upstairs, of course. There’s no safer place in the house than the second floor.”

“Based on what, exactly?”

“You’re statistically more likely to survive a robbery incident by remaining upstairs and avoiding confrontation. My Father told me that once.”

“This isn’t a robbery, they’re trying to kill me!”

“And how do you know that?”

“Maria said so. They must have asked for me in the main hall.”

Claudius smirked, “I see. But what if Maria is an accessory to their villainous scheme? She was very eager to whisk you away to a room on the outskirts of the building, away from the eyes of any of your family or friends. What would happen if they came upon you and nobody was around to witness it?”

“I don’t think it would matter at that point! They’d just shoot me, you damnable fool!”

The smell of gunpowder and smoke was getting stronger and stronger as they approached the main lobby. An unsettled feeling started to emerge as Felipe realised the implication of what he was sensing. Claudius charged ahead with no regard for that, skidding to a halt on the tiled floor. The scene could only be described as the purest expression of carnage. Three bodies lay in pools of their own blood. Empty gun casings littered the floor. Felipe could barely keep down the fancy lunch he’d eaten just an hour earlier.

“Goddess above! What happened here?” He turned away and tried to keep it down, but no matter where his gaze landed there was more evidence of the brutality. Pieces of the wall were shattered into piles of rubble, windows were shattered, and family heirlooms were left in tatters.

“Did one of your guards do this?” Claudius muttered.

Felipe shook his head, “Surely not.”

It was a response with no basis in fact, perhaps if all of them together decided to launch an attack on the enemy. He gathered his nerve and turned to face the bodies once more, noticing that they were all wearing the uniform of the house staff. These were the men that Beatrice’s father hired to keep the party safe! As a matter of fact – the one who ambushed him outside of the washroom was the same. That anxiety was eating at him with increased ferocity.

“I don’t think we have a friend left, I’m afraid.”

“What do you mean?”

“These men were all hired to guard the party, but they were the ones who started all of this trouble. They must have infiltrated the manor by applying for the position. The Bookers never had a need for a permanent security solution until now.”

Claudius was left scratching his head; “So if all of the guards are in on it, who killed them? It even looks like they stole one of their weapons too.” There was only one girl whom Claudius had witnessed carrying a weapon, and that was Maria. Claudius flung many accusations at her, but he couldn’t imagine her being capable of unleashing a whirlwind of violence such as this.

“I don’t know, but we’d better leave before someone comes to investigate the noise.” He was in too deep to return to his old hiding place now. He crossed his fingers and hoped that the upper floor would provide more safety.

“R-Right...”

Claudius nodded and ascended the stairs behind him, avoiding stepping over another two non-uniformed bodies that hid at the top.