Conquest of the Victorian Era ( The Open Novella Contest)

Chapter Thirteen- Secrets Kept Hidden

"They're with Thadeus," Rhys whispered to me from behind.

I nodded slightly, noticing that only three of them had Sentaurius weapons. The other two had rifles.

I suddenly heard Charlie whinny, turning around to see one of the three officers behind me quickly grab onto his reigns as well as the two other horses.

"Hey!" I yelled, running towards them. "He's mine!"

One man behind the officer who was holding Charlie held his gun up to my face and I instantly froze. "Keep, your pistol down, Gypsy..."

He had rather long blond hair under his hat and I couldn't help but wonder if I had seen him somewhere before.

"Look," Aries said holding up his hands in surrender, "We'd be happy to give you the horses back. Just take the two. But the draft horse is ours."

I heard a distant thunder in the sky.

"Thieves don't own anything. You all are going to Jail." The second man spoke again.

"Tell me travellers," The first officer spoke again, staring Aries down with his gun and taking a single step forward with each of his words. "What... were you doing... that far out in the country side... without horses in the first place?" he asked, standing in front of Aries.

Aries paused, thinking about his question.

He knows.

Aries must have caught his words too, realising this police officer must have been clued in about their arrival from Thadeus. And in one quick movement, he decided the conversation was over.

"It's them!" The first officer yelled out, still holding his gun at Aries. "Grab them all—Oof—"

A low pitched gunshot suddenly rang out as Aries ducked down and kicked the gun out of the officer's hand. Aries quickly got back up and elbowed him in the face. The second guy made the mistake of running in to assist his partner. Aries was on top of him before he could hold his rifle up again.

In that instant, the man with the blond hair looked back from what was happening, and fired his gun at me. I rolled out of the way as Violet shot back at the blond hair man with her own weapon. He and another man dived behind the alleyway wall to take cover from her shots. The third one was still trying to drag the horses with all our stuff out of there.

Rhys quickly darted off into a blocked off laneway that was joined to the one we were all standing in. I followed him as he shot at the men from behind the wall, aiming just above the heads of the men and trying not to hit the horses that stood in between us. Soon, Violet quickly joined us around the corner.

"We all go for the two men with Aries," Violet said, "We take them both out. That will leave us our escape. We'll have to back track to lose them though."

"We can't just leave the horses!" I said, worried about Charlie. I could still hear them rearing up over the noise and commotion.

"I'm sorry, Ivy," She looked at me with guilt in her eyes. It was the first time I had heard her use my name. "We have to leave them... Just for now..."

"Ivy, we need to get out of here." Rhys said looking worried, "We can't save James if we get killed."

"I'll cover you," Violet said, "Get to Aries, and take the other two out. Meet back behind the stall where that Irish boy sold us that paper."

Rhys nodded at her.

I wasn't sure what to do. I knew we had to get out of there. I knew how dangerous this whole thing was. But I couldn't just leave Charlie. And I couldn't leave James's letters.