Chapter 26

AN: Rated M for a reason, this chapter does have violent themes. Please do not read if sensitive to M content.

William kept reading a re-reading the ransom note they had received not some 12 hours ago, he was lying in bed, but couldn't sleep, for the thoughts of the plan for tomorrow were still running rampant in his head. He had to find them. He had to. He was so angry with himself, that he had let them be missing for this long. He missed her, so much his heart ached with physical pain as he let himself drift back into the memories they had shared, in bed together, walks in the park, the subtle glances at work. His eyes welled up. He forced himself to blink away the tears. He would find her, he would have his Julia back.

He awoke the next morning with his head pounding with the start of a headache. Today was the day that the ransom had to be made. He was stern faced and stoic as he let the house with a pitying look from Mrs. Kitchen following his out the door, the cold winter wind bit at his face and hands as he made his journey to work, where he would be met by Mr. Ogden with the $5000 for the 9am train to Hamilton. George would be making the drop, as he had refused to let anyone get in the way of finding ruby, and William would change into plain clothes and tail whoever picked up the bag. George was scheduled to leave the train at the second stop, but would then get back on a few carriages down, and make his way to join Murdoch a few carriages up. Both men would then wait to see who picked up the bag with the ransom and then tail them to wherever they got off the train and then go. Murdoch arrived outside the station and tied up his bike by the side, just as Mr. Ogden's carriage pulled up. He stepped out with a large duffel bag in hand and nodded to William and then headed inside to join the other men to put the plan into motion.

By 8.30, Murdoch, George, And the Inspector were all travelling by carriage to Union station to let George and Murdoch board the train. Mr. Ogden's carriage was following behind a little way, and then behind that was another carriage with Police constables on standby. The plan was to follow the train by carriage, led by the Inspector and Mr. Ogden, and the rest of the constables, as best they could and then wait at the station that the assailant leaves the train at. They arrived a little way from the station to let Crabtree and Murdoch go their separate ways as not to arouse suspicions. George had thrown the large haversack over his shoulder and boarded the train to go and find the seat that had been specified in the letter. William had chosen a seat next to a door that gave him perfect view of George and whoever then replaced him when he leaves to retried the ransom.

Almost 10 minutes into the journey, nothing untoward had been spotted by either George or Murdoch, but they still kept their eyes carefully roving over everyone on the carriages. They were a few minutes away from Dawn station, and George kicked his bag further under the seat as not to cause questions when he left it behind. The train came to a halt and he gave a casual glance towards William, and their eyes met for a fraction of a second then he left the train. William had pulled out a book and was reading it at eye level as excuse to casually be looking in peoples direction. It was a good few minutes before anyone moved seats again, and they were soon approaching the next station. People came and sat in the seat but no-one touched the bag. However on the second to last station a man came and sat in the seat and carefully pushed out the bag from underneath it and moved it in between his feet as though it was his. William scrutinized every inch of the man from his well hidden viewing spot. He could see nothing untoward. He looked positively average in fact.

They arrived at Hamilton Station not half an hour later and William put on his hat and gloves and pulled his scarf and coat in tighter, as not to alert the man of his presence. The man picked up the bag and quickly left the train, and headed directly for the exit of the station. And he looked to see the carriage of Mr. Ogden, trailing a little way behind it. Deciding not to loose sight of the man, he took the carriage that was waiting directly behind his and asked the driver to trail the preceding carriage with caution.

The carriage was a few minutes ahead of him, but just about in sight. It was continuing to trail down a windy, country road, where the houses, buildings and people became fewer. It continued like this for almost another 40 minutes, and William was starting to wonder if their plan had failed. But just as the thoughts popped into his head the carriage appeared to disappear left down another winding track, but this one was barely used by the looks of it, there was just a small mud and snowy slush trail where carriages had obviously used to come down here, but no longer it seemed. William signalled the driver to slow down to a stop a he could see the carriage up front had stopped and pulled into what looked like a small cattle shed, or shack of some sort. The detective then asked the driver to leave and to tell the carriage behind with Mr. Ogden and the other constables where he had left him, and that they should continue on foot, any more carriage disturbances would arouse the suspicions of the kidnappers.

William crept along the hedgerow as not to be seen, and carefully peered round the corner of the small entrance into the shack. It seemed empty. Deserted even. He heard a wooden door bang against the latch from somewhere around the back of the building. William continued to hug the hedgerow on the opposite side, until he reached the back of the property, peering through the hedge he couldn't see any more signs of life than the front of the house, but then a small light flickered on, in what appeared to be a small windowed room at the back of the house. William squeezed himself through the hedgerow and quickly crept down the side of the house, using the shadow to conceal his presence. He quickly glanced behind him to see if anyone had come out of the entrance and to his surprise he saw Georges head poking through the hedgerow, followed by the inspector and a handful of other constables that were hidden behind the thick bracken. He signalled them to stay back and to keep a watch from the front of the rickety house.

The deep snow hand made his feet numb and wet, but he kept low to the wall straining his ears for the slightest noise or voice. He could hear the baritone notes of male voices drift in the biting winter air, but the wind was howling round the old shack and the words were impossible to make out, the odd word drifted by by they were nothing that William could string together properly. Then he heard the door bang open again, and his hear was thudding in his ears, The could her the men clear as day now, and he thought if they listened hard enough they could hear his pulsing heart in his chest. 'You gad a ligh'?' one of the men said, they had obviously come outside to smoke. 'Yea bud, here...' the other,younger sounding man replied. 'Wher's Shaw too then? Though' he was comin fer th' money? said the older man gruffly, with a slight sucking sound as he dragged on whatever they were smoking. 'He'l be here don't ye worry, if he wan's the girls then he better be! If not, the five G's is ours...' the younger one said with slight anger in his voice. 'Were ther' any sign of coppers at th' station?' One of the men asked. 'Naw, I though' someone was tailin' me but I lost em' in the station.'

And with that, William heard the shuffling of feet and the door bang again as the men went back inside. He slowly stuck his head round the corner and crept closer the door, there was a window just before it, and he carefully stood up and peered through the dirty window. He hoped the grime would conceal him slightly as he peered in. His hand was still wrapped around his gun holster if the time arose to draw his firearm. The view inside wasn't clear but he could make out one man sat in the darkened room, With from what he could see was Ruby sat on the floor with her hands and feet tied, gagged against the wall furthest away from him. Julia was nowhere in sight and his heart was pounding because of it. Then all of a sudden he could hear screams. He looked back to Ruby and saw she was crying...but not screaming with the gag in her mouth. There was only one woman those screams could be coming from. He took out his gun, cocked it and stood to full height. He opened the door and before the man inside could even whip round to look who had come in he was on the floor and pinned with a gun to his back. William growled under his breath for him to not make a sound 'Or it will be the last sound you ever make.' William let the man up and walked him outside moving the gun from his back to the back of his head. George and the inspector were directly outside the door waiting with a gag and handcuffs. William picked up the man's dropped gun and handed it to George 'Shaw has just gone down to the basement with his other henchman.' was all he said to William in barely a whisper. And went went straight to Ruby's side. He pulled away the gag and told her so say nothing. He clasped her head gently between his hands and kissed her forehead. She buried her head in his chest and cried holding her swollen belly. William signalled for them to make no sound and Georges head snapped up when they heard the blood curdling screams again. Ruby continued to sob silently putting her hands over her ears. 'George, Get the Inspector,' He whispered urgently through the screams.

Julia screamed. She screamed until she felt she would choke. The larger of the two men had her arms behind her head and was holding her in an iron grip facing towards the younger, scrawny man, she now knew as Mr. Shaw. She was kicking and screaming the tears were flooding down her face. Her mind was telling her the only scenario she could think up in a situation like this. She knew what he wanted to do. The leering, lustful look that Shaw had on his face made her feel sick to her stomach. He was undoing his tie and taking off his gloves. He walked over to her, mere inches away from her face. 'Now..Now...Such a lot of noise out of such a deliciously pretty little thing like you...?' He leered gently stroking the side of her face and down to her neck and dangerously close to her waist. He gave a twisted smile and cackled and she screamed again as loud as she could in his face. He let out a glancing blow with the back of his hand across her face. 'Any more noise and you wont see the light of day again. But..If you are a quiet little mouse, and co-operate then I may let you go...' He said letting his eyes rove over her which made her skin crawl. 'Seeing as I can't make use of your sister...your just going to have to make up for the both of you...' He said in a drawl.

He grabbed the front of her shirt and tugged, the ornate buttons flying off in all directions leaving her corset exposed. He ripped and pulled until she was barely covered with scraps of her shirt. 'Let her go!' He demanded, the excitement in his voice was sickening. The man holding her up released her and she fell onto her knees on the floor, sobbing. Her voice would no longer scream. There was no one here to help her. The inevitable was right in front of her. And the helplessness made her feel numb. 'Get up!' Shaw bellowed again giving her another glancing blow in the ribs with his boot. She could feel at least two of her ribs shatter the instant his boot made contact. She collapsed in a heap, face against the hard stone floor as the taste of blood filled her mouth. She knew she couldn't take much more. She could hear Shaw move over to her and his presence sit down next to her, over her, she could feel his weight on top of her and his breath on her neck his tongue on her face. Her vision was beginning to come back and she tried with all the might she had left to fight, to push him off, to get his hands away, she clawed at his face and he recoiled she scrambled to her feet and felt herself slam into the wall, grasping onto air for support, she stumbled and Shaw launched himself at her again. Pinned against the wall his hand pinning her throat. she knew this was it. He was wrenching at her skirt at every chance he got. She was not about to give in, not even if it killed her. She gave out one more strangled scream, but the lack of air was almost rendering her unconscious. Shaw was laughing and she almost fell limp. She had no fight left to give.

There was a sudden commotion on the other side of the room and she could hear shots being fired. The room was swimming, but she still held her feet. She would not crumble. She would not give in. The pressure on her neck suddenly went and she gasped like she had never tasted air before. She was still trapped by the pressure of someone in front of her. Keeping her against the wall. People were yelling, shooting, her brain was having trouble even locating the people in her swimming vision of hazy darkness. She could barely see over the shoulder of the person who she presumed was still Shaw trying to claim his 'payment'. The shooting stopped and she could only hear the sound of men fighting, and lots of them by the sounds of things. She just closed her eyes, wanting the pain to go away but at the same time stopping herself from passing out because of it. She didn't even struggle at her captor who had her still against the wall. Suddenly a familiar smell piqued her awareness and she tried to comprehend in her agonising stupor. It was right under her nose and she burst into tears because of it. 'William..' She sobbed. It was William holding her safe. Away from the shooting, away from the fighting. Away from Shaw. Her head fell forward and rested on the back of his neck the tears flowing freely from her. She was going to be alright, and she had never known happiness like it.

Ok, im a complete muppet! i wrote this chapter like 2 weeks ago, and for some reason never bothered to upload it! XD anyway, hope that the M themes werent too much for some people, let me know what you think! :D next chapter shall be up very soon! :D

PLEASE R&R! :D