phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware (29 page)

The tapestry that hung behind them moved, and then I saw Levi and Betsy’s faces peeking out. The guards were focused on Jericho, Mariah, and me, so they did not notice when Levi and Betsy moved forward.

“Place her feet on the floor, and I will allow you to live,” I repeated, trying to keep their attention upon me.

Levi grabbed one guard around the neck and pulled him back while Betsy jumped onto the back of the other guard and pulled at his head with a hand to his forehead. He took a step back, dropping Melly in the process.

Melly hit the wooden rail with her legs dangling over the edge, but she was able to pull herself up and back to safety.

Jericho ran to assist Betsy, and soon Betsy was leading Melly away from the guards. I ran up the stairs and joined them.

“Thank you all,” Melly said, blinking away the tears in her eyes. “If you will come with me, I believe that I have what you want.”

Mariah, Betsy, Jericho, Levi and I followed Melly into the lowest regions of the house. As we descended on a narrow staircase, the air changed, turning cooler. We were beneath the house in what appeared to be a cellar. Melly led us past the room that held canned goods and into a darker room, filled with doors.

Melly unlocked the nearest door and stepped back. From the darkness came a voice.

“Have you come to gloat, Jack?”

The voice belonged to the widow woman.

Glancing at Levi, he shrugged. He did not understand this any more than I did.

Moving into the dark room, I addressed the woman. “I have not come to gloat.”

“That is right, for what right do you have to gloat? What right do you have to claim victory? None!

“Only I could have orchestrated such a coup. Bess captured for Harvey? Me. Henry Shultz’s death? Me.”

My body was a block of incredulous ice for a second before I released a long breath. She had killed Henry, and placed the blame on Bess. She set it all up so Bess would take the blame. But why?

“Though that plan did not go off as it should. That Madison boy did not act as he should. Imagine him escorting her home after he finds her with a corpse. Unnatural if you ask me.”

Mariah and Betsy exchanged curious glances beside me, but Levi had stiffened all over.

From the darkness emerged the body of the black widow. Her mask and veil were gone and we could fully see her face.

Slowly, my fingers curled into my palms making two tight fists. The heat that was rolling off of me could have boiled water, so raging were my emotions.

“Martha?” Levi exclaimed, before jumping toward her. His expression was so murderous that I pulled him back and held him as Martha shrieked and cowered.

“This is no time for hysterics,” I told Levi as I released him and then stomped with deliberate menace toward Martha, being sure that my intent was clearly writ upon my face.

I wanted her to cower. To beg for mercy, but none would be shown her. No aid would come her way. I wanted her to know fear, to know its bitter taste. To know that there was no hope for one such as her. She had done the unpardonable sin, and now she must surrender to her fate.

Martha watched me, but there was no fear in her eyes … yet. Reaching down, I clasped her arm in my tight grip, and pulled her into the narrow hall.

Without saying a word to my fellow Phantoms, I pulled Martha with me up the stairs and into the great hall and then out of the house.

There was debris scattered all over the yard, but I pulled Martha through it, uncaring if she stumbled. It was as if any compassion that I had felt died when I discovered that she had been the one who had harmed so many.

At a set of saddled horses, everyone caught up with me, having followed us from the house.

“Whatever you are meaning to do, Jack, you must not,” Mariah said, standing her ground firmly.

“I will do what I should have done months ago,” I said as I untied the nearest horse.

“I cannot allow you to do this,” Jericho had the temerity to say to me.

Shoving Martha away from me, she landed in a heap on the grass. Turning, I stomped up to Jericho. He was taller and wider, but I did not care, for I was in the mood for a fight. Jericho stood stock still, but his body was tensed for an attack. He was prepared to fight me should I take it that far.

“You cannot stop me, Jericho,” I ground out. “Charlotte and my mother are gone because of her. Henry is dead because of her. I must finish this, and this is the only way.”

Jericho’s face softened a fraction, but he still stood resolute. He did not want me to do what I planned. He knew, without my having to tell him, what I planned. It would not have been difficult to understand.

“You should allow the constables to deal with her. You do not want her blood upon your hands,” he said, as if trying to find my compassion. If I had any left, it would not have been wasted on the black widow.

“She deserves worse,” I rasped out through gritted teeth. “Nothing they do to her will be enough, for it will not bring Henry back. But this will assure that no more of our family is harmed by her.”

“You cannot know that, Jack. What if she is not enough? What if you do this and crave more justice as you call it. We need to stay together on this. We cannot stray from our path.”

“I do not want any of you harmed,” I told the group at large. They were my Phantoms family and it was my duty to keep them safe.

“You cannot stop us from going with you, Jack,” Levi said resolutely. “We began this together, and now let us finish it together.”

There was no way to deny them, for they would have followed me regardless of what I said. “Then mount up.”

“You wish to assist me, Levi?” I said, and Levi’s black eyebrows rose. “Bind her hands,” I looked over my shoulder at Martha, “and use a long rope.”

As I went to climb onto my horse, Levi did as I asked. Levi’s knots, I knew, were intricate enough that Martha would not escape.

When Leo approached Martha with a long coil of rope, she struck at him with a knife, then bounded to her feet as if to run. Quickly angling my horse toward her, I cut off her escape. With the threat of making the horse kick her, she stilled, fear finally showing on her face. It did nothing to alleviate my fury with the woman.

Pulling a pistol from my holster, I pointed it at Martha’s head while Levi went to work binding her hands.

When he finished, he brought me the end of the rope. I looped it around part of my saddle until I had enough that Martha would not be able to fall too far behind.

Looking at Martha, I made sure to keep my fury in my eyes and my words. “You will keep up. If you fall, I will drag you. Do you understand?”

Martha raised her chin in the air and looked away. That was reply enough.

“Are you certain, Jack?” Mariah asked as she moved her horse closer to mine.

I was not certain that things would end satisfactorily, but I knew that Martha would never harm any of my family again and with that I had to be content.

I kneed my horse into a cantor.

What I meant to do was something that I would have never considered hours before.

As we neared the wooden scaffold, Martha spoke up for the first time.

“Please, Jack. Please, do not do this. There is still time to depart from this path. Leave Delaware. Forget you ever met Constance and Arabella.”

The woman had to know what she said was not possible. I could no more turn my back on my wife than I could forget about her. She, no matter what had happened or would happen, was the best part of my heart. Without her, my life was not worth living.

“My life is not my own,” I said, remembering what Guinevere had said to Nicholas Mansfield and Richard last year at Stark Manor.

“Do not be an imbecile. You do not know, none of you understand what awaits you if Luther discovers what you are doing to me. It is enough to turn the tide of your futures. Only death awaits all who join forces against Luther.”

“As opposed to joining forces with you? Are you not the same woman who tried to murder Arabella and Constance? The very girls that you swore to protect,” Levi spat at Martha.

The closer we got to the scaffold, the more desperate Martha became, pleading, crying, and shouting for us to choose a different path.

When she begged that I spare her, I lost control of my temper.

“Spare you! Did you spare Henry? Did you spare Bess, who had never been anything but kind to you?” We reached the scaffold and when I pulled up on my horse, Martha dropped to her knees as if that would protect her from her fate.

Climbing down from my horse’s back, I walked toward Martha. She recoiled, but could not go far for the rope binding her to the horse. When I got close, I knelt before her.

“You do not know. You do not understand,” she moaned.

“Oh,” I said with a sinister voice that would make William proud, “I do understand, rather better than you. Now, stand!”

She slowly rose.

“You think you are so clever, you Phantoms, but you are no match for what you will find when you reach Lutania,” Martha shouted.

I uncoiled the rope from the saddle and pulled it toward the scaffold. When Martha dug her heels into the dirt, I gave a great tug on the rope. Martha was jerked forward and fell onto her face at the foot of the stairs. She looked up at me with her hair askew and a wild terror in her eyes.

“You cannot possibly know what you face, or you would not be here,” she said.

“You no longer have the right to speak,” I said to her, and then looked to Levi. “String her up.”

Levi took the rope and pulled Martha onto the scaffold. She was sobbing as Levi removed the rope from her hands and made a loop to place around her neck.

She contemplated running, for I could see it in her eyes, but I held my pistol upon her. If she tried, I would shoot her.

Once Levi had strung the rope, he mounted his horse, leaving me alone on the scaffold with Martha.

“Martha, formerly of Lutania,” I said, drawing her terrified gaze toward me, “your crimes have led you to this place of execution. May your sins be purged in death, and may God have mercy upon your soul.”

With the eyes of the Phantoms upon me, I reached for the lever that would plunge Martha to her death.

Hesitation rose within me. Could I truly do this? Could I kill a woman? She had enacted so much deceit, not only upon me and my family but upon Guinevere’s family. The family that she had taken an oath to protect. Martha had been a lady in waiting to Guinevere’s mother. She had journeyed with the girls to America. She had chaperoned Guinevere for years, stayed with her when the girls were separated. So why would she choose to betray them? What had changed?

It struck me like a sudden wind. It was me. I had come into Guinevere’s life, and she no longer relied upon Martha. I had married Guinevere, taken her away from Martha, and disbanded the Holy Order, banishing Martha from America, but by then the damage had already been done. At what point had she changed sides? I knew that she had not been working with him for years, for he would have found the girls long before now.

Why would she set Bess up to take the fall for Henry’s death? Why would she want Bess to be ostracized from Philadelphia? That, too, struck me a blow. The answer had been in my mother’s journal. Martha was Marta. She had been a childhood friend of my father’s. He had gained her employment in the palace, and she had contrived to keep my parents apart. She had wanted my father. But Mother had won him in the end.

Could a person hold a grudge that long?

Glancing over to Martha’s face, I had my answer. One definitely could.

She had been spurned in love, but that was not reason enough to exempt her from her crimes.

With my decision made, my hand began to slowly pull on the lever. There was still time to back away, to not have her blood on my hands, but I would not. I would never allow her to hurt my wife and my family again.

The air crackled and exploded in gunshots.

“Guards!” Jericho, Levi, and Betsy had pistols out in an instant, returning shots. A ball flew past my face, stealing my breath. Dropping down onto my stomach, I shouted at the others.

“Go!”

Levi was off his horse at once, running up the steps. “Get them away,” he demanded of Jericho, and then grabbed my arm, pulling me up.

Levi and I fired upon the approaching men on horseback, drawing their attention to us so that the others could escape.

The guards were surrounding a carriage. As it thundered past us, I saw Luther’s face, and then my mother’s in the window. Relief was pure and sweet as it filled me, for a moment.

The guards rode toward us.

“Lower your weapon, Levi.”

Levi shot me a defiant glance, but I dropped my pistol onto the scaffold and raised my hands in the air. The guards dismounted and ran toward us. When they reached us, I did not struggle, but Levi did. Four of the guards wrestled against him, one striking his gut. I moved forward instinctively, and received a blow to the back of the head that made everything go dark.

CHAPTER 23

GUINEVERE

A
rthur had seen us when Monroe’s guards were chasing Luther’s carriage, and he had turned his horse around and come back. As soon as he saw Bess, he slid from his horse and began checking her wounds. When he pronounced that no bones were broken, he helped me to get Bess upon a horse, though she clenched her teeth against moans and sobs the whole time. Arthur decided to ride with Bess to ensure that she did not fall off her horse and injure herself further. We rode to the cottage that Bess had been staying at, and when we stopped outside the door, it opened at once and my aunt appeared.

“What has happened? Constance?”

Arthur shot me a confused glance as he helped Bess from the horse. She took one step toward the house, and then collapsed.

“Bess!”

Arthur caught her before she hit the ground. Scooping her up into his arms, he carried her into the cottage and up the stairs to the second bedchamber. When he laid her upon the bed, my aunt and I hovered over her.

“Fetch the doctor, and her husband, at once,” Aunt Johanna instructed.