Kidnapped

Bang!

Bang!

Sidney threw himself on the floor as soon as he heard the trigger pull. Although his ears were beeping, he heard a low rumble and looked up. Howard stood there, his eyes widened in shock. He held his arm as before, but the knife had disappeared. It was lying on the floor behind Sidney.

"Unbelievable." 

he muttered as he pulled himself up and ran over to Charlotte. She embraced him without hesitation. But his arms were still tied behind his back and he couldn't close his arms around her. He pressed a kiss on her hair without a word before he turned around and she was able to untie the knot of the tie.

Even before she could say anything, Sidney ran so fast towards Howard, who was completely surprised and lay on the floor the next moment. Furious Sidney struck out and was about to let his fist bang into the face of the creep when he felt her beside him. He paused, stood up and nodded at her. He tied Howard up and then he took the knife.

Charlotte stopped and pressed the gun into Sidney's hand, grabbed his cravat and with slightly cold fingers untied the knot. As he felt her fingers lightly against his skin he exhaled, not realizing that he had held his breath. She pulled it out from under his shirt collar with a jerk, and if the situation they were in wasn't this, he would have grabbed her at that very moment. Charlotte gently dabbed him across the eye and forehead. Fortunately both wounds had stopped bleeding, but the skin around his eye was already turning blue.

"Come on." he said and pulled her behind him up the stairs.

As quietly as possible he opened the door. The sight before them was horrible. Georgiana knelt down next to Otis, who was lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. Sidney pressed Charlotte against the wall by the door.

"You stay here," she raised her eyebrows as if wondering why and opened her mouth to protest, he put the gun back in her hand , he smirked.

"just until you're sure how many we're dealing with."

Before he turned to go he lovingly stroked her face, then she held on to the fabric of his vest, which looked quite battered.

"Sidn..." but by then his lips were already on hers. He flinched briefly at the touch, for he had forgotten the wound on his mouth. Her grip on the vest became tighter and he would have loved to linger with her like this, but he had to save Georgiana. And Otis.

A little dizzy, he left Charlotte standing, pushed the door open further and crept to the benches in the semi-darkness. There he disappeared into the shadows. She pressed her hand over her heart, she couldn't believe that her heart was now beating twice or three times as fast as before in the cellar.

She squinted through the crack of the door and looked around the church. But she could only guess where Sidney was. Two men stood near Georgiana but paid no further attention to her. A third man was sitting on the floor slumped over as if he were terribly tired. He was holding his chin, which looked a little deformed. Charlotte believed that Otis or even Georgiana had done this to him.

Otherwise, the church was empty. Since the roof was partly missing, she could see the stars glittering in the sky. She tried as carefully as before to push the door open further and slip out so she could somehow see what was going on outside. She heard the men talking, but couldn't understand a word they were saying.

When she arrived at the front door, or rather where the door had once been, she peered out. She saw the Parkers' coachman sitting beside the carriage on the ground. His hands were apparently tied to one of the wheels, his chin resting on his chest. She had to try to free him somehow.