This is a fan made story. I don't own the rights to SHIELD, any of its characters or any characters within the MCU… Much to my disappointment. This is a Regency Era based AU and I will be pulling characters from all over the MCU. Fair warning. Constructive criticism is welcome but if you don't like it simply because you don't like the line of thinking, please don't attack me for it.
Author's Note: Thank you for the complement then, Sapphire2994. I am of the personal opinion that all characters should be developed enough that you can see their motives, otherwise their actions may fall a bit flat.
Chapter 16: The Storm
That very evening, Sir Coulson happily announced Daisy's engagement to Maj. Triplett, quickly followed by Mr. Romanoff doing the same for Natasha and Dr. Banner. As they were all among friends, there was a large amount of well wishes and congratulations occurring. This meant that the majority of those present went to bed rather late.
In the morning, Daisy and Natasha reluctantly rose early for their morning exercise. Already, Peggy and Stephanie had excused themselves from the exercises due to the fact that they had found themselves in a family way, this however didn't stop them from watching as Maj. Triplett and Col. MacKenzie learnt Chinese fighting techniques from the Imperial Guards and showed English methods. The lady friends of Daisy had long since grown tired of Daisy translating for them and taken to attempting to learn Chinese with varying degrees of success. Natasha having nearly mastered the language, quickly persuaded one of the guards to show her how to handle a Dao, as a single edged sword of Chinese make was called.
Mrs. Triplett, who had made a brief appearance to convince Daisy to desist with her 'violent' tendencies as her soon to be daughter-in-law, fainted at the sight of a lady attempting to learn how to handle a sword. This brought about some concern for Mrs. Triplett and brought an early end to an otherwise rather uneventful exercise. Once the lady in question was revived, she was promised that Daisy would not endeavor to learn to handle a sword. It was a promise that Mrs. Triplett was insistent of having to ensure a scandal didn't occur and Daisy gave to assist in settling the distraught women.
It wasn't until breakfast however, that Sir Coulson appeared, and much to Daisy and Leo's surprise, without their mother. When asked about it, he simply stated that Melinda had had a difficult journey this time and was resting. He assured them both that all was well, though his concerned expression said otherwise.
Phil Coulson managed to convince Daisy and Natasha they should forgo checking on Lady Coulson in favor of beginning preparations for their weddings. Mostly this was for Natasha's benefit as Daisy already had all the fabrics needed for her wedding dress and they could easily hold the wedding in a week's time if it wouldn't cause concern of a scandal. As such, Daisy and Natasha went out for a walk to Dartford, an easy two miles' walk for such healthy young ladies. The morning was fine and with little concern for any potential threats, only one of the Imperial Guards accompanied them. Sir Phillip did insist that the man be armed with one of the new revolving pistols that Leo had made as a precaution.
Daisy and Natasha made easy time along the main road to Dartford, expecting to reach the small town within an hour of departing from St. Agnes. Alas, this was not to be. As they rounded a corner that was sheltered by a cluster of trees, a gunshot sounded just as a carriage came into sight. Daisy and Natasha only startled slightly, and it wasn't until glancing towards the guard at their back that they realized what had happened.
As the guard collapsed to the ground in as he clutched his hand to where the blood flowed from it, he managed to utter only a few words, "Run Princess, flee now!" The man tried to assert as he dropped to the ground.
Daisy and Natasha did no such thing of course, instead attempting to aid him. This was quickly proven pointless, however, as the wound was directly over his heart and he managed only another groan before he stopped breathing. This wasn't the first time that Daisy had seen an Imperial Guard die. The first time had been just outside the Forbidden City during the kidnapping attempt by the French when she was in China, after that it was the pirate attack on the ship as she returned to England. She didn't even have time to stand before hearing the click of the hammer of a pistol being cocked.
What happened was a bit startling for Daisy to witness. Natasha, who had maintained her poise up until this point went into hysterics and draped herself over the now dead guard's body and began sobbing. Daisy wasn't sure what to do until the voice of the person who was standing behind Daisy and Natasha snapped at them both.
"Shut her UP! Stand up now!" Ward growled out as he stepped closer.
Daisy stiffly did as he ordered, turning to face her would be abductor with steel in her eyes as Natasha remained sobbing over the dead man. Ward growled again when Natasha didn't respond.
"Shut her up and get her standing or I shoot her, Miss Coulson," Ward was clearly annoyed, and Daisy had little doubt that the man would go through with his threat.
She glared at him for a moment before gently crouching and pulling Natasha from the dead guard, "Natasha, we have to heed him for the moment, please." Natasha nodded as she stood, her expression one of fear and shock. Daisy was baffled by her friend's reaction due to her general nature but helped her to stand.
"Good God, you are taking forever! Alright, drop your purses and pull your fancy little hair ornament weapons out and drop those as well," Ward gestured to their heads with the gun. "Slowly. No sudden movements."
Daisy positioned herself between Ward and Natasha, knowing full well that the man was less likely to shoot her at the moment. She attempted to remove Natasha's bonnet to obey his demands. As she did this, she realized that Natasha used Daisy's body to shield herself from the view of Ward and slide something that she had been clutching in her arms into a hidden pocket in her skirts with a wink. Daisy relaxed slightly, realizing Natasha had been faking the hysterics to put Ward off his guard and finished removing the other lady's bonnet and letting down her hair, sliding an ornament into the same pocket with care so that Ward wouldn't see and tossing the others away from them.
Daisy then turned to Ward and undid her hair as she had Natasha's. Natasha remained in a defensive manner, portraying the terrified young lady as Ward waved them towards a nearby waiting carriage. The driver of the carriage seemed unnervingly unfazed by the fact that he had just witnessed his employer kill a man. Daisy easily concluded that the man was clearly from the class of the shadiest of characters. Ward roughly opened the door to the enclosed carriage and gestured with the pistol for them to climb in.
Daisy assisted Natasha into the carriage before climbing in herself. Ward entered it last, sitting opposite them both before rapping on the side of the carriage with his knuckles to indicate that the driver should get moving. Daisy glared at him silently before turning to Natasha and pretending to comfort the 'upset' woman who had gathered a bit of blood on her dress in her effort of faking hysterics.
They rode in silence for a good two hours, passing through Dartford and going well beyond. The carriage speed was going a good deal faster than what could be considered necessarily safe too. These things hinted to Daisy that they weren't heading to London as they would be if this was a kidnapping with the intention of an elopement. They were heading toward Weymouth. Heading towards that port meant either they were heading there for a faster route north to Scotland or, more likely, they weren't heading to Scotland at all.
"I must admit, I didn't expect Miss Romanoff to react so violently towards seeing a man die, especially after what happened at Lord Talbot's Ball," Ward remarked, putting the pistol away since they hadn't resisted at all. "You perhaps, after all he was your guard but not Miss Romanoff."
"She has never seen a dead man before. He isn't the first man I have seen die, nor, I suspect, the last. Tell me, how much are the French paying you for my abduction? At first, I thought this might be some forced elopement, but you wouldn't have killed a man if you wished to claim my fortune," Daisy's response was with absolute ice in her voice.
"Is that so? Well, Miss Coulson, you certainly have hidden depths don't you. I can only guess when you saw a man die before but can only assume it would be in that oh so barbaric country of China. As for how much they are paying me, I suppose it would be amusing to tell you. I am personally gaining fifty thousand pounds. True it isn't quite as much as I would gain from marrying you on the long term but I concluded that you might be a bit too much effort to deal with in the marriage bed," He leered at her as he spoke. "As much as I am sure breaking you in would be enjoyable, I never did enjoy being tied down to a woman anyways."
Daisy burst into laughter, clearly laughing at him. This earned her an odd look from Natasha and an irate one from Ward. She calmed enough that her reason became obvious, "You are accepting a measly fifty thousand pounds for my abduction?! Well you are the world's largest fool then. The French will gain six times that in ransoming me to my great uncle or cousin and even more for selling me to one of their enemies to be used for humiliation."
Ward's eyes widened a little before he rolled them and glared at her in disbelief, "Please, no one would pay three hundred thousand pounds for one woman, regardless of her connections."
"Oh, this is too precious. You really don't know? I had thought that with the level of persistence you showed in pursuing me that you had to know," Daisy was smirking, her confidence had snapped Natasha out of her acting and only Ward's irritation meant that he wasn't aware of the change in her demeanor.
"What don't I know?" Ward growled out, his hand shifting towards where he kept his pistol.
"My marriage to an Englishman renews the ties and treaties with China that my mother's marriage to my father set into place. Foremost among those is the promise that the Chinese won't sell their superior black powder to any of England's enemies, the French and Americans included. It is a treaty that must be signed before the current Emperor passes and his son takes the throne. I am a favorite with both my great uncle and his son. The news of my kidnapping would be devastating enough that it could very well be a death stroke to my uncle in his advanced age. A normal woman perhaps wouldn't be worth three hundred thousand pounds but the linchpin to an extremely valuable treaty between countries which could very well damage France's chance of conquering Europe? That is an entirely different story," Daisy sat back into her seat as she watched Ward's mind process the information.
If the French wanted her, she had every intention of making them pay through the nose for her. If it resulted in difficulties for all parties involved in her kidnapping than so much the better. It was clear to her now that Ward was little more than a pawn of most likely Gen. Garret. Natasha looked at Daisy with both awe and confusion. Daisy had, of course, shared this information with her friends but it had been impressed upon them the importance of keeping it quiet.
This revelation of information brought about another fifteen minutes of silence before the carriage jerked to a sudden halt. Ward, who was already irate over the idea of being cheated of his fair share, looked ready to murder someone. He ordered both the women to stay exactly where they were before exiting the carriage to find out what was going on.
At around the time that Daisy and Natasha were being forced into a carriage, Melinda Coulson finally joined the rest of those in residence at St. Agnes. Her composed manner seemed to bely Sir Coulson's concern. The only oddity that Leo noted in his stepmother was her avoiding foods that she had expressed enjoyment of in the past. She had made an immediate inquiry about Daisy's location and seemed a bit annoyed that Natasha and Daisy had gone walking with only one guard. She immediately ordered the second guard who was to attend to Daisy to find and join them immediately.
This, the Imperial guard did without argument but also with little haste, he had had nine months of easy service with little threat of violence after the ship had landed and saw little reason for concern. He walked at an easy pace, only slightly faster than he would expect the ladies to go so that he might catch up with them as they reached the town and the potential for any real threat. He walked along the route he knew the others would have taken towards the town.
It was halfway to Dartford that the guard realized the full potential of his mistake. His deceased comrade only got enough attention to determine that he was dead but still warm and unarmed despite having been given the revolving pistol earlier. A glance around revealed the ladies' bonnets, hair ornaments and purses on the ground nearby. With no further evidence of what happened, the Imperial guard turned and thanked the long training he had endured as he ran at a fast, steady pace, covering the mile of distance in just under seven minutes.
Thanks to his fit state, he was able to find Sir Phillip immediate and convey to him the dire situation with a mixture of broken English and Chinese. Fortunately, due to the late night before, most of those in the home were still in the breakfast room. This meant that Sir Phillip Coulson could translate that the girls had been abducted and the other guard dead to all the men in residence immediately.
"Phil, it was the French, wasn't it?" A very pale Melinda Coulson asked her husband, a hand pressed to her stomach in concern. "We need to get her back immediately. Before my brother arrives. If he receives the news that there was a successful kidnapping and we don't retrieve her immediately, the Emperor will insist she is returned to China and marry there."
"I know. At least we have men with the right kind of training available. Maj. Triplett, Col. MacKenzie, I trust I will have your cooperation," He looked at his daughter's betrothed and her friend.
"Of course, they will. I can help as well. I was a Naval Captain. I might not be fit for combat on a ship anymore, but I know how to fight," Barnes immediately offer his assistance.
"I might not be the best fighter but you may need a doctor by the end of this and I am a good enough rider that I will be able to keep pace with you," The determined look on Dr. Banner's face spoke volumes.
Marquis Wilson and Mr. Romanoff also easily offered their aid, the latter for obvious reasons. In the end, all the men present volunteered. Peggy and Stephanie attempted to argue that they should be involved in the rescue but were vetoed by all present because of their delicate conditions. Sir Phillip was surprised that Lady Melinda didn't try to argue to go as well, instead she bluntly pointed out that she and Lady Victoria would need to be at St. Agnes when her brother arrived to prevent further issues.
She received several odd looks from Sir Phillip for this, but the coordination needed to be finished. Jemma pointed out that there was a small possibility that the kidnapping was perpetrated by Col. Ward to force an elopement and so after a little more debate, Leo agreed to take one of the Imperial guards and some footmen to follow the road to London just to be certain that wasn't the case.
With all of this, the men all began to file out of the home but not before Peggy could stop her husband, "Darling, I may not be able to participate so I am going to give you one very specific instruction. If there is so much as a scratch on Daisy or Natasha, I want the bollocks of the man responsible for it. Understood?"
Marquis Samuel Wilson smiled and nodded before kissing his wife and following the rest to the stables where the footmen had already saddled all the available riding horses. As the thunder of horses left the estate grounds, two mules were attached to a cart and taken in the direction of the dead guard to collect his body by a few more footmen. An hour after Daisy and Natasha's kidnapping, a small army split at the fork in the road, the smaller group heading towards London and the larger towards Weymouth.
Once Daisy and Natasha were certain that their kidnapper and his driver were distracted with whatever was wrong with the carriage, Daisy turned to Natasha and started speaking in Chinese to keep the villains from understanding the conversation, "Please tell me that you retrieved the pistol from the poor guard."
"Of course, I did. You don't really think I would ruin one of my favorite dresses for pointless dramatics. The issue is finding an opportunity to use it," Natasha smirked as she slid the pistol out just enough to visible.
"Excellent. I suppose I should alert you to the fact that Leo gave me a smaller revolving pistol last night as an engagement present. It is currently secured just above my walking boot. How my brother had time to make so many is a bit baffling but useful at the moment. Mine only has four shots though," Daisy nodded towards her left leg as she shifted her skirts a little to reveal the weapon that was sticking just barely out of a pocket in her stockings clearly designed for holding something else based on the awkward angle it was in.
"Even better," Natasha responded as Daisy fixed her skirts and the carriage door was yanked open.
"STOP nattering on in that blasted weird language and get out of the carriage now," Ward snarled at them, his foul mood evident.
Natasha sighed before moving to do as he ordered. Ward did help her down from the carriage, but he gripped her arm rather than offering a hand and the grip was steel tight. He immediately yanked Natasha to the side where the driver grabbed both her arms and pressed her too close to his body. Natasha grimaced at the stench she could now smell coming off the man. Despite this, she didn't fight him, knowing it would only make the situation worse. Ward was equally rough with Daisy, who had somehow managed to keep her legs concealed through the effort of exiting the carriage.
At this point, Daisy and Natasha were positioned to sit on the ground and ordered to remain in that exact spot. Ward waved around his loaded pistol to make his point, "And to be absolutely clear here, Miss Coulson may be valuable but you, Miss Romanoff, are completely worthless. If either of you attempt to escape, I can and will shoot Miss Romanoff. Am I clear?" He asked as he slid the pistol back into the pocket of his coat.
He and the driver then began to attempt to get the carriage out of a ditch it had slid into due to the poorly maintained road. Daisy leaned in towards Natasha and spoke softly, "Their backs are turned, and they are in clear sight. This is about the best opportunity we could hope for."
Unfortunately, Daisy hadn't spoken quite softly enough, and Ward had heard them speaking in Chinese again. He reacted immediately, storming over and striking Natasha's face with the back of his hand. Natasha barely gave out a gasp and both women glared at him defiantly, "You will remain silent. The only reason you aren't still in that carriage is because we didn't want the extra weight slowing the progress of getting that blasted carriage out of the ditch." Ward hissed at them and struck Natasha a second time for good measure.
He then returned to the carriage with his back turned to them again. This was his biggest mistake for just as he reached the carriage, both ladies had managed to retrieve their respective weapons from the confines of their dress skirts and stood.
"Actually, I don't think that will be happening," Daisy stated coldly, her pistol pointed directly at Ward while Natasha rubbed her cheek and pointed her pistol at the driver. "You see, this is an advantageous opportunity for us to be free of you. I have no intention of being sold off by the French to the highest bidder and I suspect your intentions for Natasha are even less savory when we reach our destination."
Ward and the driver's faces both drained of blood as they realized that the ladies were armed. Natasha allowed Daisy to do the talking as she dabbed at her nose with a kerchief as it started to bleed. Ward and his driver extracted themselves from the ditch as Natasha did so.
"You know, I think I would be a little more concerned by the weapons you hold, after all I do know what your brother was working on, but I don't think you have it in you to fire that pistol, nor the skill as a marksman," Ward attempted to lower the threat he was finding himself in.
Daisy laughed at that comment, "You think I have never fired a pistol before? What, you believe my brother would just gift me with one of his new inventions without knowing that I am capable? I fired my first rifle when I was ten, killed my first deer when I was twelve and first man when a pirate ship attacked as I was returning from China this past year. You might not be a pirate, but you are a murderer and in the eyes of the law, if I fired this pistol, none could argue that it was anything but self-defense. Now, take that pistol of yours and throw it to your left."
Ward looked at her incredulously before doing as she ordered, his movements slow due to the realization that the lady in question wasn't bluffing. The distance of weapon from him was reassuring but Daisy kept her pistol trained on Ward while moving to retrieve it so that he wouldn't have an opportunity to get it back. She slid it into a concealed pocket in her skirts.
"Now, we wait. I doubt it will take them long to realize Natasha and I are missing. You killed a man and neither my betrothed, nor my father are fools. It is likely that they are almost here already," With this, Daisy gestured for the men to sit and she and Natasha did the same, though keeping to weapons trained on the men at all times to keep them from attempting anything. Not much time passed before the thunder of horse hooves could be heard and a group of riders coming down the road.
It was a hard ride for Leo and his group, none of which were very experiences in heavy riding. Their two hours of pressing the horses only resulting in them meeting Ambassador Fang Zhang Wei who had assured his sister's stepson that nothing larger than a farmer and mule had passed him while he and the solicitor had traveled from London. This reassured Leo that it wasn't to London that Daisy's kidnappers had taken her and redirected his group to escorting his uncle and father's solicitor back to St. Agnes.
An hour and half of hard riding for their group had Sir Phillip worried. Surely, they would have encountered the carriage that should be carrying his daughter by now. Instead, they had been met with empty roads for the longest time. They had already passed through two towns besides Dartford and all three had assured him that an unmarked, covered carriage had passed through not long before.
Just as the group was beginning to flag, concern for the abducted ladies reaching a peak, Col. MacKenzie spotted a carriage in the distance and the group that had been trotting until now urged their already tiring horses to gallop towards the carriage stuck in a ditch and four seated people. They realized they were sighted as well since the four people all stood. Maj. Triplett and Dr. Banner were both out of their saddles before any of the others could react and their own horses had even come to a halt.
The others were still dismounting from their horses when, quite shockingly, Dr. Banner, who had gone immediately to Natasha suddenly swerved from her when he saw her appearance and bolted for Ward. In a flashed, he had the man on the ground and began beating him quite viciously. It took Col. MacKenzie, an Imperial Guard and three footmen to pull the enraged doctor from Col. Ward. Once Dr. Banner returned to his senses, he immediately went to retrieve his medical bag from the back of his horse and brought it over to Natasha and began cleaning her face of the now drying blood from her bloody nose and the small cut on her lip where it split due to Ward striking her the second time.
Dr. Banner moved with absolute tenderness as he ensured that Natasha was otherwise unharmed. He carefully examined her eyes to ensure she wasn't concussed and then evaluated the bruising on both her face and arms. After this, he assessed Daisy's bruising on her arms from the rough handling of her.
Meanwhile, Marquis Wilson eyed the now battered Colonel who was being held firmly by Col. MacKenzie and two footmen secured the driver's hand behind his back. "Dr. Banner, as much as it pains me to say this, you might want to tend to our erstwhile kidnapper here. Otherwise, he might not be fit to survive to see his hanging." Wilson commented with a blank face as the bruising from Dr. Banner's attack appeared quickly along with blood flowing from the cuts caused by particularly harsh hits from the good doctor.
Dr. Banner reluctantly did as he asked to while Sir Phillip ordered a few of the footmen that accompanied them to get the carriage out of the ditch and turned around. Col. MacKenzie and Mr. Romanoff hovered over the doctor as he tended to Col. Ward lest he relapse into another rage. Once the carriage was freed and on the road heading back towards Dartford and St. Agnes, the loaded Col. Ward and the carriage driver into it with Col. MacKenzie as a guard. A footman was assigned to drive the carriage and after some debate, it was decided that Natasha would ride with Dr. Banner to ensure that her injuries would not worsen while Daisy would ride Mulan, which one of the footmen had ridden while they came to rescue them.
The trip returning to St. Agnes was much slower, taking two and a half hours at Dr. Banner's insistence. They reached the estate just as Leo's group returned, Ambassador Fang Zhang Wei in his carriage with him. Daisy noticed the relieved expressions of the other group as she was helped from her horse by Triplett. The two returned ladies were whisked immediately into the drawing room to reassure the waiting ladies.
Natasha immediately garnered the most attention due to the facial bruising and her mother and Mrs. Triplett swiftly dragged her off to her room to rest. This was fortunate because just as those ladies retreated, Col. Ward was carried into the house and laid out in the smaller, currently unoccupied drawing room. This, had Mrs. Triplett seen it, would have sent the woman into a fit of hysterics as the bruising that came from the beating Dr. Banner had given him was now violently obvious to any who did see.
Peggy congratulated Dr. Banner on his swift acting on justice and Stephanie had to prevent her cousin from giving the man too high of praise. Sir Phillip sent a footman to inform the local magistrate of the situation and then had Leo pen a letter to Col. Ward's brother, the Earl, so that the man could get ahead of the scandal the incident would inevitably cause. In the mists of the chaos of sorting everything out, Daisy was taken aside by her uncle and questioned about her betrothed, something that was completely off center from what was going on but she dutifully assured him that Maj. Triplett was a man of the highest level of breeding, great honor and that she did, in fact, love him. Thus, reassured, her uncle left to find Sir Phillip.
To their credit, Daisy's servants managed to calm the chaos with an excellent tea service and things eventually settled down when the magistrate arrived, and Daisy insisted on taking a rest after all the excitement of the morning. In all told, from the time her kidnapping to the time she managed to free herself from the fluttering concerns of others temporarily, not half a day had even passed. Col. Ward's efforts were a complete failure and as soon as the man woke, the magistrate intended on a full interrogation.
Author's Note: I am leaving off here for now because this is already a long chapter and I intend on getting the rest of the story done this week because I am on vacation from work this week (whoot!).