phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware (13 page)

For some reason, still unknown to me, I began to laugh. My laughter grew and I had to clutch my stomach.

“Well, you have finally done it, Jack. Driven the poor girl to madness,” Bess said as she climbed her way onto the dock.

“Believe me, Bess, when I say that this madness predates me,” Jack retorted as he watched me. I could not tell if he was still angry as my vision of him blurred in a stream of tears that covered my eyes.

Forcing myself to gulp in air, my body began shaking as hiccups overtook me.

“Bess!” Sam shouted, and Bess forgot all about us as she caught up her skirt and ran toward her husband.

Wiping away my tears, I scanned the harbor, seeing Leo and Rose standing together beside a cannon.

“You are cold,” Jack said, drawing my attention back to him. He shoved his way out of his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders.

“No!” Bess screamed in violent agony, drawing my attention toward her, and then my feet followed, but Jack caught me with an arm hooked around my waist and pulled me against him.

As Bess dropped down to her knees, clutching her middle, I turned in Jack’s arms.

“What has happened?” Then it struck me that Jack should not have known where I had gone. He had gone out to find the artifact with Freddy and the others. Wait, where was Freddy? William? “Did you not find the artifact? Where are the others?”

Jack reached up and touched my face with his hand. There was grief in his eyes that made me want to step back. Made me want to run away and not hear what he was about to say.

“It was an ambush, and…” Jack looked away, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed thickly.

“And what, Jack?” I did not realize that I was shaking him until he gripped my wrists between us. “And what?” I whispered.

The grief in his eyes nearly broke me, and then he said, “Abe was murdered.”

CHAPTER 10

JACK

S
am and Leo were the ones to remain behind at the harbor to wait for the constable and report what had happened.

The rest of us made our way back to my sister’s house where we found Dudley nursing Hannah’s wounds in the book room.

Bess and Guinevere had been silent during the carriage ride, but the moment that Bess stepped into the book room and saw Dudley and Hannah, she exclaimed.

“Why is she not abed? She was struck on the head. She needs rest.”

“She is resting,” Dudley answered.

Hannah was spread across the chaise as Dudley pressed a cloth to her head. She was pale but awake.

“Dearest Bess, allow me to offer my deepest sympathy,” Hannah said feebly. “Abraham was a good man and a great Phantom.” There was sincerity in Hannah’s words, but Bess turned her back on Hannah and stalked from the room.

“You must give her some time,” I said as I stepped over books that were upon the floor. The book room appeared as a battleground with some of the books torn apart.

Guinevere knelt and began picking up books and replacing them on the shelves. She said nothing as I joined her.

We were finished with one shelf when Bess stomped into the room with all of her maids and footmen behind her.

“I want this room to be put to rights this night. I do not care how long it takes.”

They did not say anything as they set to work for the force in Bess’s voice was enough to frighten even me. That was how Bess dealt with grief. She did not sulk, or cry for long, or go to bed for days. Bess went to work. She said that it helped her to overcome her grief. I thought that it helped her not to think about it. If one tried to speak with her about what had transpired, she would toss them a glare with so much fire in it that they would immediately back down. Except for me. When I thought she was able, I would press her until she shouted at me about it. Once I got her shouting at me, I knew we were getting somewhere.

This was not the night for shouting.

Rose had checked on the artifacts and found them unharmed. Bess had told us that she convinced them that her mother had taken the artifacts with her to Baltimore. That was why they were taking Bess with them. Only she could lead them to her mother.

We had most of the room set to rights by the time Sam and Leo arrived, followed by William.

Sam and William spoke for a few minutes alone before they joined the rest of us in the book room. I knew that they were speaking of what William had done with Abe’s body. When Sam came in, he whispered to Bess, but I heard him.

“He is being buried at the plantation.”

Bess nodded but said nothing. When Sam sat at his chair, Bess dismissed the servants from the room and closed the door.

“We should speak about what comes next,” William said first.

“We all know what comes next. We find Luther and kill him,” Bess replied vehemently.

Glancing at my wife, she said nothing, but Rose’s thin brows rose as she looked from Bess to her sister.

Rose and Guinevere knew what would be the inevitable outcome, especially with Abe’s death, but I knew that my wife and her sister had their own plans for how it would end. Plans they had yet to share with me. I knew that from the moment she walked into that cabin on her uncle’s ship to rescue me. From the moment that Rose acted as if she meant to banish her sister. Which I now understood was an act. Rose needed Guinevere as much as Guinevere needed Rose. Even if Guinevere would not admit to needing anyone other than me. Together we could finish this as I had said to her, but after Abe’s death, I could not put my wife at risk. I had to protect her first, for she was my north star, and without her I would be lost. Guinevere was not going to agree with my plan, but I would rather risk her anger later and know that we have a later than risk losing her now just to keep from offending her.

“What do you say, my son,” William asked, drawing my attention away from my wife and her sister. He saw that I had not been paying attention, so he repeated Sam’s words to me.

“Sam says that we leave on the morrow. A few of the men from this night were captured and loosened their lips with a little persuasion.”

We all knew what kind of persuasion William would have used.

“They were to take Bess to Baltimore, which is where we should go first.”

“I agree,” I replied.

“Then it is settled,” Bess said, pushing away from the door. “We will leave on the morrow.”

“Not we, Bess,” Sam rasped, and instantly the heat of the room dropped to an icy chill.

Bess stared across the room at her husband. “Most assuredly we.”

“You are not coming,” Sam looked at the other women in the room. “In fact, none of the women are coming. This mission is one for the men.”

Oh, no.

“For the
men
?” Bess’s voice was bitter and scathing, her brown eyes narrowed in aggression.

Sam leaned his spread fingers onto his desk, his stance as one prepared to pounce into a fight, but knowing that he will win. “Do not make this into a battle of wills, Elizabeth, for this is one battle that you will not win.”

Even I knew that when Sam called her Elizabeth there was trouble afoot. Bess was Bess to her family, friends, and anyone who did not wish to risk her ire. Only our mother persisted in calling her Elizabeth.

Bess’s hands clenched into two fists at her sides, but she released them after a moment. Much to my shock and awe. She had truly changed since marrying Sam.

“I am for bed,” Bess said, opening the door and moving out, but she paused and looked over her shoulder at Sam. “Alone!” With that, she slammed the door with enough force to rattle some of the books on the shelves.

“If you are quite finished giving your orders,” Rose said, rising from her chair, “we should speak about what to do.”

“I was not playacting and risking my wife’s ire without cause, Rose. You will not be coming with us,” Sam whispered.

“I would like to see you try to keep me away,” Rose said politely.

My wife cast me an imploring glance, so I took up the reins and laid before them my plans. Ones that should appease everyone.

“The women will be going,” I said, to which Sam rose again, but I raised my hand and continued on, “because we need all of the trained Phantoms that we can find. Do not believe for one moment that Luther will not have himself surrounded by the very best of his guards. We can only fight the best with the best. Anything less and we risk losing more of our friends, our family.”

Sam’s jaw firmed, but he nodded his understanding.

“What do you suggest, Jack?” Dudley asked from his place beside Hannah on the chaise.

“We split up into two camps, and we scour the land for those who will fight with us. We build up our army until we outnumber Luther.”

“Where do you suggest we begin this search?” Sam demanded, crossing his arms across his chest. He had never had to follow my lead before. It would be an education for him.

“Washington, where I know Monroe’s guards will join us.”

“All of us to Washington?” William asked.

Smiling at him, I shook my head, and then focused my attention upon Hannah.

She stared back at me for a long moment, and then sighed. “And to think that my father thought he was retired.”

“So some of us go to Washington and the rest to Pierre,” Dudley said with a satisfied nod, but then his brow clouded. “How do we decide who goes with whom?”

“Oh, I believe that is rather obvious,” Rose said, and then issued everyone a solemn good night.

Guinevere followed her sister from the room and then everyone else broke up to seek out their beds. It would be dawn in a short time and we had a long day ahead of us.

William stopped me when we were in the foyer.

“You were in the right when you said that Luther would surround himself with the best. You have already lost one great fighter. How do you hope to find enough to take on Luther and his guards?”

“How you taught us. Divide, distract, and detonate. From the inside. If we divide and distract his guards, we will draw him out, and then we will detonate our greatest threat.”

William was silent for a moment as he watched me through eyes that were not truly seeing me. Three years had not decreased my ability to know when he was looking at me or looking through me. His mind was calculating my plan. Weighing all outcomes that his mind could create.

“The probability of losing more of them has never been higher,” William said at last. “This night’s loss is only the beginning.” He touched my shoulder and then made his way out of the house, going to Rose’s house I did not doubt.

My father’s words were heavy upon my mind as I climbed the stairs and found Sam seated on the floor with his back against his bedchamber door.

“Tell me, Jack,” Sam said without opening his eyes or lifting his head from where it rested against the door. “Has your sister always displayed great anger in place of her grief?”

“When you consider the amount of grief that she has endured, believe me when I say that her anger is better than the alternative.”

He opened his eyes. “Which is?”

“Brokenness.”

“She is with child, Jack,” Sam whispered.

My joy for my sister filled my chest, until I realized the danger to not only Bess but to her child.

“When you told me that you wanted to marry my sister I agreed because I knew that you were a man who would allow her to be who she is. This is who she is, Sam.”

He closed his eyes again. “I cannot risk her life and the life of our child so that she can fulfill some vow.”

“Tell her of your fears. You may be certain that she does not wish to hurt you, but she also does not want to be left behind. She loved Abe. She wants to do her part.”

“If I allow her to go she will be with us,” Sam whispered, staring straight into my eyes.

“For every moment of this journey,” I vowed.

Stepping over Sam’s outstretched legs, I made my way to the bedchamber that I shared with my wife.

Guinevere was brushing out her short hair. Taking her brush, I sat behind her and began to run it through her hair.

“I want you to travel with me,” I told her as she rubbed her hand over my leg in idle circles.

Her hand stalled. “I have been considering that, and I believe the best course would be for me to travel with Rose.”

Halting the brush, I set it aside and then turned her until she was straddling me. “Guinevere…”

Leaning forward, she kissed me. When her hands moved beneath my coat, she tried to push it off my shoulders. Rising up, I assisted her to remove my coat, waistcoat, and then my shirt. Her kisses became longer, filled with her passion, and I lost myself in her embrace.

Laying her on her back, I leaned over her, entwining our fingers over her head.

“I love you,” she whispered as she tried to lean forward and kiss me.

Smiling, I pressed my lips against her neck and then down. She squirmed beneath me.

“
Jack
…” There was a plea in her voice so I brought my mouth back to hers.

Taking my time, I caressed all of her until she was whispering my name frantically.

Some time later as I held her in my arms, she told me why she thought she should travel with her sister. She insisted that Rose needed Constance to keep her from swaying from our plan.

“I will agree, but only if you give me your vow that you will not approach your uncle without me by your side.”

She said nothing as she playing with my fingers.

“I require that vow, Constance, or I shall not let you out of my sight.”

She leaned her head back to look into my eyes. “You have it, Jack. I vow not to approach Luther without you by my side.”

Kissing her, she caressed my cheek with her fingers. Capturing her hand, I held it between us as I told her about Bess’s condition. She placed a new light on Bess’s situation by saying that Bess and Sam had something to anticipate which should help them in their grief.

Constance spoke of her family’s home in Lutania for a while, and I could hear the yearning in her voice. She was all smiles as she drifted off to sleep. I laid awake for an hour, watching her and asking myself what I would do to keep her safe. The better question was what would I not do, and that truth brought me a whole new plan. One where I faced Luther alone, and ended this battle before we could lose another one of our family.