“No one blackmails me,” he said coldly. “Now get up.”

She stared at him with disbelief, unable to believe anyone could be so cold. “But—”

“Shall I shoot your father too? Would that make you more agreeable?” he asked grimly.

“Hardly,” she snapped, her shock giving way to anger. “You wouldn’t be able to get me to do a damned thing if he was dead.”

“I didn’t say I’d kill him, I said shoot him,” Jeremy pointed out calmly. “A warning shot in the arm, perhaps?”

Suzette got abruptly to her feet, and then turned to help her father up as well, when he was incapable of doing it on his own with his arms bound behind his back.

Once they were both upright, Jeremy caught her arm and jerked her so that her back was to him. “Hands behind your back.”

Suzette hesitated, but supposed she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t risk his shooting her father, so slid her hands behind her back, her mouth tightening when she felt him binding them with some sort of cloth. His cravat, she realized when he finished and moved up beside her.

“Now, start walking,” he ordered, gesturing with his pistol.

Suzette hesitated, her eyes sliding to the horses. “What about the horse? He will suffocate to death if we just leave him.”

“That’s his problem,” Jeremy said with unconcern. “Thanks to your foolish attempt to escape, he’s useless to me now anyway. His death can be on your conscience.”

Suzette didn’t respond, but she scowled and thought bastard very loudly in her mind as she began to walk.

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Why are we slowing?” Daniel asked with a frown, leaning to the window to peer out. It was full night now, but with a new moon that cast the landscape in shades of gray. Still, he didn’t at first see anything that would cause them to stop.

“It looks like there has been an accident,” Richard said, peering out the opposite window.

Daniel slid along the bench seat to peer out the window Richard was looking out. Sure enough there was an overturned carriage on the side of the road ahead.

“You don’t think it could be Danvers’s carriage, do you?” Robert asked, slipping from the bench seat he and Richard were sharing to crouch on the floor and look out as well.

Daniel frowned at the suggestion and banged on the wall of the carriage to signal his driver to stop. This time he did not leave Richard or Robert to get out while he waited in the carriage. Daniel had the door open and was climbing out the moment the carriage stopped. He even managed to do it without grunting in pain, though he would have liked to. Damn, his back hurt.

“All right?” Richard asked with concern as he followed him out.

Daniel ground his teeth together, but nodded and started toward the overturned carriage.

“What is it?”