Havens, one of Ben's men, cracked open the window a bit to see what was happening outside. "There's at least three more of them. And they stole the money."
"Then why don't they just leave?" Ben pondered our loud.
"They are here to kill us all." Caleb said quietly, accepting defeat.
Havens opened his mouth to say something but he never got to finish because he was shot through the open window.
"Queen's Rangers... we are basically dead." Said the other man whose name Isabella didn't know.
"No we're not." Isabella said, standing taller. "They clearly don't have a strategy on their side or we would all be dead by now, but we aren't. We can make an easy escape if we all put our brains together."
"Miss Washington is right." Ben said, smiling at Isabella. "I've had worse odds."
"Well we better hurry and think of a way out because I think they plan on smoking us out like rats," the unknown man said after looking through a slat in the window.
Ben then eyed a hatch of some sort in the floor. He opened it up and looked at everybody with a grin. "It's a tunnel they leads under the mill and to the outside. With this, somebody can sneak behind them and create a flank."
"Yeah, that'll work well with our five versus their eight." The man said with a sneer.
"Actually, our six to their eight." Caleb piped up, gesturing to the dead man on the floor.
Isabella shared a knowing smile with Ben. They knew exactly what Caleb meant.
"I'll sneak behind their lines." Abe offered.
Everybody was surprised but nobody objected. If anybody had the heart to shoot a man right now, it would be Abe out of pure revenge.
Ben nodded and everybody set out to work. Isabella kept guard while Abe snuck through the tunnel and Ben helped Caleb with the dead body.
After ten minutes, everything was all set up, they were just waiting for the signal from Abe.
"We can't wait much longer," Isabella said.
Ben nodded and handed a gun to each remaining man. He turned to Isabella and put his hands on her shoulders. "Would you listen to me if I told you to hide in the cellar and wait for me to come get you?"
"Absolutely not."
He smiled. The Isabella that he knew and loved was back.
He handed her a gun. "Take the window in the attic and target them from above." He told her.
She smiled and ran to the attic where she could see almost everything.
Without warning, Ben kicked open the door and reveal the corpse to the Rangers. As they shot at the dead body, Ben, Caleb, and the remaining man charged at them while Abe fired from the back.
A man targeted Caleb and Isabella used her vantage point to stop him before he could further hurt Caleb. While most everybody was preoccupied, a ranger ran off with the bag of money in his hand. Abe followed after him down to the beach.
The fight was won almost as quickly as it was started. With no rangers left, Isabella ran down from the attic to her friends. She embraced Ben, a feeling she had been craving for months. How she wanted to stay in his arms forever.
"Where's Abe?" She asked, breaking away from the hug.
"Oh god." Caleb said, thinking the worst.
"I'm sure that didn't happen. I'll go look for him." Isabella offered. She began walking towards the beach where the rangers probably came from.
As she made her way down to the beach, he came running back.
"Abe! What are you doing?" She shouted at him.
He simply held his neck with one hand and the bag of money with the other.
She understood immediately. "Let's get you back to the wagon." She put her arm around him to keep him stable.
When the two rejoined the others, Ben looked concerned. "What happened, Abe?"
"I chased down the ranger that took the money and he almost killed me." Abe kept out the part where an unknown man killed him because he was afraid people would think he was crazy.
"We'll get some rest in the wagon and we'll take you back to camp where you can get treated properly." Ben said.
Ben and Isabella helped Caleb into the wagon and then did the same for Abe. Abe eyed the body of his father that was covered by a tarp and closed his eyes.
Isabella hoisted herself onto the back of the wagon and Ben locked it all up so nobody would fall out.
He took his place on the bench and nudged the horses to go. Soon, Isabella would be back at camp. Never had she missed camp so much.
~~~
The wagon steadily rolled into camp and Isabella was immediately taken away from her friends and to her tent where she could be treated. She didn't plan on telling anybody what happened to her in that prison but Anne forced it out of her.
"Oh you poor girl," Anne said, hugging her.
"Please, don't tell anybody. Please. Especially not my uncle, Hamilton, Lafayette, or Ben." She begged the older woman.
Anne sighed, "I won't. But don't make a habit of me keeping secrets."
"I won't, Anne, I promise."
Anne finished bandaging Isabella up and left her tent so that she may have visitors.
Her uncle was the first to visit. It was exactly what she expected. I scolding for running away and then him telling her how glad he was that she was okay.
Then came Hamilton and Lafayette. They were overjoyed to have her back and she was happy to see them again. They vowed that they would make the British rats pay for what they did to her.
Just when she thought the one person she wanted to see wasn't coming, she heard a knock on the wooden post of her door. "Isabella, it's Ben. May I come it?"
"Of course," She said. She placed her hair expertly so it wouldn't show her bruises and cuts.
"How are you doing?" He day at the edge of her cot. She moved so that she was sitting next to him and he put his arm around her.
"I'm alright. I can't be as bad as Caleb. How is he?"
"You are the most selfless person ever... and Caleb is doing just fine. The doctor said the medical attention you gave him probably saved his life."
Isabella smiled and looked down. Ben put his fingers under her chin and tilted her head up so they were eye to eye.
He placed his lips on hers and pulled her closer. The two kissed passionately. Ben broke away from the kiss and muttered "God, how I've missed you."
Isabella kissed him back but gasped when he moved his hands up her back to the cut Anne had just bandaged.
"What's wrong? Did I hurt you?" He asked, worriedly.
"No, no don't worry." She responded too quickly.
"Isabella are you hurt?" He said with authority.
"No." She said back with equal authority.
He didn't believe her. At all. He moved her hair out of the way to expose the small cuts and bruises all over her neck and back. He uncovered the section of her back that Anne bandaged.
"What did they do to you, Bella?" He asked, worry evident in all of his features. "Did they... take advantage of you at all?" He asked gently.
Isabella stayed silent and willed the tears not to flow. She didn't want to tell Ben they didn't and lie to him but she didn't want him to worry.
"They did. Didn't they?" He asked and stated all at once.
The tears came. Isabella couldn't hold it back anymore. She nodded and threw herself into Ben's arms. He hugged her to his chest and kissed the top of her head lightly.
"I will never let another bad thing happen to you as long as I live. Isabella Washington, I love you more than words can express and with every power in me, I will keep you safe." He said to her as he continued to comfort the woman he loved.
"Thank you, Ben. I love you. I always have and it was idiotic of me to ever leave you. You mean the world to me and the months I spent without you were more painful than the days I spent in that prison." She admitted.
He held her closer and kissed her with as much passion as he could muster. And she did the same back.