phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware (25 page)

In my distraction with Jack, one of the men came close to me. Throwing my hand against his chest, the prongs of a fork dug into him. He shouted as I released the fork, and hit him over the head with the lid.

“There be no need for violence,” said the second man as he inched around the table.

Throwing the lid at his head, he ducked. I grabbed a dish of left over gravy and threw it at him. It was not as hot as when it was made, but it was a fair distraction. Running forward when his eyes were covered, I stabbed both legs with my forks. I kicked a chair into the third man who was charging toward me, having left Jack.

Jumping back, I grabbed plates and began throwing them toward the guards’ heads. They smashed as they hit the wall of the house.

Grabbing the dish of leftover duck, I threw the remains on the table and then threw the dish at a rising guard. It hit his chest and bounced off. The wine glasses on my end of the table were the next to get thrown. I was not trying to defeat them. I was trying to keep them occupied until the others were taken care of in the front yard.

Picking up two apples, I thought back to Levi and Jack fighting in the Charleston market and a smile turned up my lips as I turned toward the untouched guard. He jumped up on the table.

Harvey always told me that I had an enviable arm.

Clenching the apple, I pulled back my arm then threw it forward, the apple striking the man where it was sure to hurt him. It wasn’t enough to stop him as he leapt toward me. Jack intercepted him from behind, knocking him away from me. Rolling on the ground against each other, Jack threw a punishing left to the man’s face and I was certain that I heard a bone break.

Grabbing the coffee pot, I tipped back the lid and threw the hot contents at the head of the guard who Jack had struck. He swore loud and long as it hit his face, neck, and the front of his coat.

Hearing a man behind me, I swept around in an arc, stabbing the man in three places with my two remaining forks.

While he howled, we swiped up the thrown butter knives and faced the men who were moaning, groaning, and wiping food from their faces.

Jack cleared his throat and they all looked toward us. “Who sent you?”

The man who I had stabbed with the first fork smiled, not at all abashed that he had been bested. He said nothing, only stood there smiling.

An arrow engulfed in flames landed at his feet and he jumped back, yelping.

“Answer his question or the next one goes through your chest,” Mariah announced with an arrow strung on her bow. She looked like a wood nymph with that bow raised and her dark hair wild around her shoulders.

He stared at Mariah with hostility before focusing on me. “My lord sends his greetings to the Phantoms, and a message.”

“Yes?” I was undisturbed by my uncle sending his men to attack us. It was what we had been expecting.

“He now has three,” he said as he sneered at me.

When Jericho and Dudley joined us, Jericho and Mariah took up sentry over the men while Dudley motioned for us to follow him quickly.

When we emerged upon the front lawn, it was chaos. Rocks had been kicked up, bodies of unconscious or injured men were on the ground, and all of the bushes had been broken. But that was not what caused me to gasp and Jack to shout. Leo was kneeling on the ground beside an unconscious Rose.

“Dudley, go for the doctor at once! Leo, get Rose upstairs.” Leo swept Rose into his arms and carried her into the house. I began to follow, until I heard a carriage and a wagon traveling down the drive toward the cottage. Levi, Dudley and Jack raised guns, pointed at the men seated on the ground until the wagon halted and four of our constable friends jumped down. When the carriage stopped beside Jack the door opened and who should step down but William Martin.

“I have brought the doctor,” William said by way of greeting.

“How did you know?” Jack demanded.

“Father has spies everywhere,” Levi said as he walked past Jack, helping a constable move a guard into the wagon.

The constables got all of the men loaded into the wagon when the doctor joined me. I led him into the cottage and up the stairs to where Leo was kneeling beside Rose’s bed. The doctor and Leo banished me from the room as they worked to revive her. Edith came running up the stairs with Bess, beside herself in worry.

Bess promised to fetch me the moment the doctor emerged and I ran down the stairs and back out into the yard, in time to hear Jack say, “Where is Freddy?”

“You know where he is,” William said without a hint of emotion.

My hands fisted at my sides as Jack took a step toward William. “Luther has him.”

“Yes. He has plans for Frederick. Plans against the Phantoms. Against peace.” William’s face was without concern when he asked, “What are you prepared to do about it?”

“What I must.”

That he would not. Not if it meant that Jack would be harmed.

William nodded in approval, but my attention was quickly gained by Dudley coming up to me.

“You should see this before Levi does.” Dudley handed me a folded piece of paper.

As I flipped it open, I read the words with a rush of confusion.

We have Princess Mary.

After showing the note to Jack and William, the men began making plans, excluding me wholly.

When they decided to bring their plans ahead, to surround my uncle on the morrow, I tried to interpose that someone should get inside the house first, to discover just how many men my uncle had. I was ignored, until William told me that I should check on my sister’s health and leave the planning to the men.

They did not know me well if they thought I was used to following orders. Harvey issued his orders but in the last year I had grown accustomed to following my own rules. Well, those and Rose’s when she sent me some. We may have only seen each other a few times a year, but we corresponded every few months. I kept her abreast of most of my activities. Ever since the time that the royal guards had cornered me in Baltimore. Which was the reason that Harvey had moved me to Philadelphia. He could have taken care of Levitas and Richard Hamilton himself, but he was trying to keep me safe. As safe as he could without exerting himself.

When they moved their planning indoors, I stomped around to the rear of the house and up the back stairs to the bedchamber that I shared with Mary Edith and Rose. Rose had been placed in Leo’s bedchamber, so ours was empty. I opened one of my trunks and pulled out an assortment of weapons. After changing my raiment for more suitable clothing, I strapped on my belt and left my chamber. I met Leo in the passage.

“Has she wakened?”

“Where are you going?”

Leo and I asked our questions at the same moment. He was the first to reply.

“No. The doctor thinks she may be unconscious for a while yet. He is going to sit with her until she wakes. It was a blow to the head when she tried to stop Freddy’s capture.”

“So Uncle Luther does have him.”

“Yes. Which I suspect is where you are sneaking off to.”

Shrugging, there was no need for words, for Leo knew me well enough to know what I was about.

“Wait by the barn for me.” Leo went back into his bedchamber and I hurried from the house. By the time that I had saddled both of our horses that Levi was allowing us to use, Leo joined me.

We rode away from the house through the back woods, cutting across the countryside in the direction of the house where my uncle was barricading himself.

Leaving our horses in a dense part of the forest, we traveled on foot until my uncle’s hideaway came into view. My breath caught as I took in the country house. It was rambling, stone, and something out of a fairytale.

“What is this place?” I whispered.

Leo did not respond, but moved forward, out of the forest and onto the lawn. We ran across the lawn to the side of the house where we leaned against the house beside a window. Leo motioned for me to follow him as we skimmed across the side of the house and around the back. There was a door, which Leo opened without reserve. No guards were around to halt us as we stepped into the house.

We entered into a stone hall that was narrow with doors on each of the four walls. Leo motioned me to the left as he went to the right. With pistols out, we each opened the nearest doors. Mine led into an empty and small bedchamber that would belong to a servant.

Leo’s led into the kitchen. We moved as one toward the third door, which Leo opened while I held my pistol ready to fire should the need arise.

It led to a staircase, narrow with worn stone steps.

At the top of the stairs we entered into a hall that was filled with paintings of foreboding looking people. Faded wallpaper was hanging from the walls, and the rug covering the floor was frayed and dirty.

The end of the hall was open to a large, formal staircase, and a balcony that overlooked a large room. Leo motioned to some heavy damask curtains hanging beside a pair of doors on the balcony. Ducking behind one, Leo placed a finger over his lips and then touched his ear. He wanted to listen for a while.

Leaning against the wooden wall at my back, my finger played with a piece of fringe that ran along the edge of the curtain.

“I will not be party to your sinister dealings!” Freddy shouted in Danish, though that was my interpretation of what he said.

“You will or you will end your days long before I suspect that you had planned,” came a voice that I would know at any moment. It had been in my nightmares enough. Uncle Luther.

“You are a phantom,” Luther said. “You know the way they think. Lead them to me and you may have whatever you wish.”

Freddy spat something in Danish that I had never been told the meaning of. When I was ten I had asked Leo what that word meant. He had told me that it was too terrible for my ears.

There was an audible slap, and then Freddy shouted, “Do not touch her!”

“You still refuse to comply?” There were only sinister notes to Luther’s voice.

“Place me in your dungeon, for I will never comply,” Freddy replied, and I looked around the corner of the curtain in time to see Freddy being led away. When Luther did not come into view, Leo pointed for me to go.

Darting out from behind the curtain, I ran around the corner of the wall, into the hall, and straight into a body.

My body bounced off and I lost my footing. My backside struck the floor, causing pain to echo through me. Groaning, I leaned onto my elbows and looked across from me. A girl was staring back. A girl who did not appear to be a friend.

Her eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth. Shooting forward, I tackled her to the floor, throwing my hand over her mouth.

“Make a sound and risk my wrath,” I whispered harshly.

I felt her lips turn up under my hand, and then pain shot through my finger. Jerking back, I shook out my hand. There were small teeth marks on my finger.

“You
bit
me!”

She smiled as she pushed herself up to sitting. “At least I did not make a sound,” she said, antagonizing me.

My eyes roamed over her, taking in her plain dress, a faded white apron, her brown hair with reddish streaks, and her sparkling brown eyes.

“Are you a servant?”

Those sparkling eyes turned to a blaze as she glared at me. “I am no one’s servant … but I am confined to this house.”

“You are a prisoner?” A prisoner allowed to roam free? What was Luther about?

“You could say that.” She tilted her head and stared at me.

“Guinevere,” Leo hissed from around the corner, and then he appeared, looking from me to the girl. “Friend or foe?”

“I am unsure as of yet,” I said.

“Does it have to be one or the other?” the girl asked. “Can I not be a friendly foe?”

Leo’s scowl caused the girl to lean away from him.

“Melly!” shouted Luther from the large room.

The girl’s face took on a look of pain before she pushed herself up and walked around us.

“Time to go,” Leo said, pulling me up and ushering me down the hall. Each door that we tried was locked, including the door to the stairs that we had used.

“Yes?” the girl called down.

“Who is up there with you?”

The girl looked over her shoulder and met my gaze. She smiled before turning back to look down the stairs. “Why, no one.”

“Are you certain? I heard voices.”

“Quite. Unless you do not believe me. Then come up and look for yourself.”

“I am in no mood for your games.” Luther said nothing for a moment, but then yelled, “And change out of those rags.”

“Yes, sir,” the girl called Melly replied before turning back toward us. When she reached us, she was smiling. “You see, a friendly foe.”

“A friendly foe who is willing to help us find a way out?” Leo asked.

She nodded vigorously. “Follow me.” Melly led us not to the stairs but to one of the locked doors. Pulling a chain with keys from the pocket of the white apron, she unlocked the door and pushed it open for us to enter ahead of her. Leo was having none of that and made plain his distrust of the girl.

Melly followed me into the bedchamber, and then she walked over to a wardrobe and shoved on it. For a moment I thought she was mad, but then the thing began to budge. It was on a track. A gap appeared behind the wardrobe, leading to a stone staircase that went both up and down.

“Take the stairs down and it will lead you to a hatch. The hatch will dump you out into the side yard. This key,” she said, handing a key to Leo, “will unlock the hatch.”

“Thank you, Melly,” I said as I stepped into the opening, but Leo did not follow. He was staring down at the girl.

“I know you,” he said softly, curiously.

Melly sparkled up at him. “One never knows where they will meet a friend … or a foe. Remember that, Kendrick Adamsen.”

Leo’s gaze did not change but I stumbled back, my boots knocking into the stairs and causing me to land hard on my backside again.

She knew his name! She knew his true name. The one he had left behind when he had sailed away from Lutania. None of us had dared to breathe his name in all the years since that night, but this girl had just said it. As if she knew him.