Lady of Greystoke (Sequel to "At all costs")

The Aftermath

'Father!' Alice yelled after she saw him fall down. In her mind, the world moved in slow motion, and as her father fell to the ground, she heard a deafening sound. She looked to her side, at Samuel, who had picked up the gun and shot the man attacking his master.

Not expecting an attack from the young girl Samuel didn't put up a fight as Alice took the gun from him, hit him across the face with its handle, and ran towards her father. She kneeled down next to him, and gasped as she realized how much blood had already soaked into her father's shirt. She put the gun beside her on the floor and reached for her father's shoulder, turning him slightly to see where he was hit. She sighed of relief as she saw that Samuel had not been a very good shot. The bullet had not killed her father, only caught him off guard, and made him lose his balance. She carefully laid her hand on her Father's bleeding shoulder and blinked back her tears, a slight smile on her face.

'Do not worry, my love.' John mumbled. 'The wound will not kill me, and we will be able to take you home. All will be well.' He smiled, although it did not hide from Alice in how much pain he was, but she was happy that he was there. Alice smiled as her father put his hand on her cheek and wiped the tears away with his thumb. But the gentle moment was short lived. She heard foot steps behind her and quickly turned around holding up the gun. She looked into Samuel's eyes.

'You could have killed him.' She stated, an icy force in her tone of voice.

'He attacked my master.' Samuel replied dryly, no remorse obvious in his voice about his act of violence.

'Well your master is a monster.' Alice spat out. The bottled up emotions from the past weeks had reached its boiling point, and Alice could no longer hold back her tears, or anger. She continued yelling as she held Samuel at gun point. 'A monster who had abused and violated young girls, and was keeping me prisoner here. And now you have attempted to murder a Lord. My father might be punished for breaking into your Master's home, but the law will be graceful to him. I fear it will not be so to you.'

'Your father broke into my master's house...'

'Your master held my prisoner for weeks!' Alice yelled, cutting Samuel off, unable to deal with his neutral and calm tone. 'My father had every right to break in and rescue me!'

John listened as his daughter argued with the people of the house, trying his best to stay awake and be there with her. But he could feel himself slipping away, realizing he had apparently lost too much blood. As he felt his eyes close, and the sound of voices seeming more and more far away for him, his head lulled to the side and he passed out.

When John awoke again he was lying in a clean bed, in an unfamiliar room. His wound was cleaned, and when he looked to the side, he saw Alice sitting by the bed.

'Alice!' He gasped, and sat up quickly, wanting to wrap her in his arms, not sure whether they were safe. But he found that his movements were restricted by bandages wrapped around his shoulder and chest. He lay back down with a sigh and remembered the fight, the gunshot, and the bloody wound on his shoulder. Outside the window, the sky was lighter than it had been when he attacked the Coldon home, and John realized he had been sleeping for hours after passing out. He looked around the room he was in. It was simple, filled with plain wooden furniture, but clean. It was likely the room at an inn in town. 'Alice...' He said softly, looking at his daughter. 'What happened?'

Alice smiled slightly. 'The police came; Coldon's butler had apparently called them. He has pressed charges against you, but most of the servants have made statements that they have been held against their will at the Coldon house, as well as supporting my own claim about being kidnapped and being held prisoner there. They have contacted Scotland yard, who have confirmed that your told them about this, although they would not listen. A long story short, Coldon will press charges, but seeing that there are many more charges against him, it is likely that he will drop them, in exchange for a lesser punishment.'

John took a deep breath and nodded. 'But we not have any proof of who kidnapped you...'

Alice shook her head sadly. 'I am afraid we do not, Father. However, Officer Jones states that by promising a lesser punishment, they believe they can get Coldon to give the names of the people who asked for me to be taken.'

John nodded. 'That's good.' He smiled. 'I am just happy to have my daughter back.' He extended his arm and smiled as Alice bent down, leaning into his arms and hugged him.

'We're going home, Alice my Love. Everything will be alright. We'll go home'

A/N

So, we're getting close to the end, probably only 1 maybe 2 chapters left. I hope you enjoyed this chapter ;)