Bliss’s legs would not support her at first; she stumbled and fell twice in her desperate scramble to reach Jamie. To stop him.

Reeve got to him before she did, dropping his rifle to the ground in an effort to break Jamie’s hold on Pipher, but it was useless. In his all-consuming fury, Jamie was impervious.

Increase’s eyes had rolled back into his head and his face was a crimson purple.

“In the name of God, Jamie,” Reeve bellowed, “stop before one of these troopers shoots you!”

Bliss looked around her in a frantic twist of her neck and saw the captain and some of his men. Increase’s people were already under control and now, sure enough, the soldiers’ rifles were fixed on Jamie’s back.

Sliding under the outstretched arm that held Increase suspended in the air, grasping the front of her dress in place with one hand, Bliss positioned herself directly in front of Jamie and raised gentle fingers to her husband’s filthy, beard-stubbled face.

“Jamie,” she cried. “Jamie, listen to me—if they don’t shoot you, they’ll hang you—and—and there won’t be any redheaded babies!”

A strange expression crossed Jamie’s face; he looked as though he’d just been wrenched back inside himself from somewhere far away. He released his hold on Increase and the man toppled, unconscious, to the ground.

Jamie’s eyes glistened and his hands trembled as he reached for Bliss and drew her close, so blessedly close, to him. “Thank God you’re safe,” he said thickly, his breath ruffling her hair. “Thank God.”

Even when he turned to look at Reeve, Jamie didn’t release Bliss, and that was fine with her, because she didn’t ever want to be separated from him again. His eyes were bright with questions that had apparently been cut off at his throat.

Reeve laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I found your blade along the road—catchin’ the sunlight, it was—and right after that, the captain and ’is lads caught up to me. I don’t mind tellin’ you, little brother, that it was glad I was to see them.”

Jamie’s voice was almost gone. “These soldiers—will they be takin’ me away, then?”

Bliss tensed for the answer to that question; her breath stopped and she would have sworn that her heart did, too.

But Reeve shook his head. “No, Jamie. You’re a free man now.”

“I’ll never be able to repay the debt I owe you,” Jamie told his brother as the soldiers gathered Increase’s men into custody. Pipher, just recovering consciousness, had been left on the ground.

It was assumed that the battle was over, and no one, including Increase himself, who was now sitting up, was prepared for what happened next.

Walter Davis produced a small handgun from his coat pocket and, seeing this, Jamie thrust Bliss roughly behind him, acting as a barrier. Everyone was stricken to silence, except for the captain, who said calmly, “Give me the gun, lad.”

Walter didn’t seem to hear—or to see anyone but Increase, who was whimpering now, as he’d hoped to make Jamie do. “Hateful—vicious—” Walter seemed to be reciting the words or reading them from a book. “You made her scream. I can still hear her screaming—I will always hear her—screaming, screaming—”