The Willows (53 page)

As she spoke, one of the drunks
stumbled over a vine, landing on his face in the mud. It wasn’t
quite quicksand, but the muck was deep thick enough to give him
trouble getting free.

Other than looks of disgust, his
companions paid them no heed, intent upon encircling the fortress.
Seeing Jim head straight for a trap, Jude mentally urged him
forward.

She couldn’t suppress a small cry of
victory, as he went timely into the deep, Bush covered
whole.

Muttering, father called others to help
them out of the hole. Too soon, Jim was pulled to the surface, wet
and muddy and meaner than ever. Impatiently, father gestured toward
the fortress. Jim marched forward slowly, but the other complied
with lot less aggression.

Father seem to have the Devil’s own
luck in invading the traps, but his companions managed to trip
another, sending a shower a water in rotting leaves down from the
trees. Sputtering, cursing, they stumbled forward, only to trip
another vine, this time raining stones down upon their heads. Jude
and Christopher shared a laugh as the two drunks stagger forward,
dazed and clearly unstable.

Their humor was short-lived as father
rallied his forces, leading a siding, frenzied charge at the
fortress. “Quick, shoot!” Jude shouted to her brothers.

They began pelting the intruders. It is
not score many hits, but then, they had never been able to practice
on moving targets. Still, they did slow them down, and Jude even
managed to hit one. He went down to his knees, grabbing his
crotch.

His companion stopped to gaze up at the
fortress, as if it housed wild, unpredictable beasts. To foster
that impression, Jude gave a high-pitched scream, graining as the
sound echoed through the war swamp.

The first two men decided to run away.
Unfortunately, father and Jim kept coming, more determined than
ever. Glancing down, Jude saw Patrick, still struggling with the
long oak of plank. Without in place blocking the door, two grown
men, shoving their shoulders against the wood, could easily break
down the door.

“
Keep shooting,” she shouted
to others as she raced down the ladder to help Patrick.

“
The wood must have swollen
from yesterday’s rain. I couldn’t get to fit. The latch broke when
I try to force it.”

Jude stared at the metal latch,
dangling from his hand. A hammer and nails would have fixed it, but
they had neither. When Jude try to figure a way to fix it, it was
already too late. Father stood, standing over Jude just before
him.

Luck had finally reached them. Michael
stood on the path, his rifle aimed at where their father’s heart
should be.

***

Michael muttered his own oaths as
Morteau swung Jude in front of them. Had gotten here a few moments
earlier, the coward would not have his own children to hide behind,
and Michael would have a clear shot. He could have put an end to
the menace that was known as Morteau, once and for all.

“
Put down the rifle,” the
man sneered. “Unless you want to hurt the boy.”

Michael could not risk hitting Jude,
nor could he chance what the monster might do to her, especially
should he learned she was a girl. Knowing he must be careful both
in what he did and said, Michael slowly, reluctantly lowered the
rifle from his shoulder.

Morteau laughed. “I’m going now, with
the boy, and you’re going to let me,” he said smugly. “That is the
difference between us, Michael, and the reason you will never get
the best of me. In your place, I would have taken the
shot.”

It made Michael sick, watching the man
uses child as a shield, knowing he could do nothing to stop him.
Morteau step backward, keeping Jude in front of them, while Michael
waited for the chance to charge and ring the man’s neck. “Let Jude
go,” he said, more to keep the man occupied than with any real hope
of compliance. “You know I will track you down and make you pay for
this.”

“
It is all right, Michael,”
she said suddenly.

“
Jude-“

“
No, I mean it,” she
insisted in a strange voice. Her eyes kept darting to the right, as
if she meant to tell him something. “I want to go with him. A child
belongs with his father.”

Michael saw the branches and remember
the holes they dug to trap intruders.

“
Pretty speech,” Morteau old
Jude, “but don’t think you can make things easy for yourself. What
happened to your mother will seem tame in comparison to what I
planned for you.”

Intent on his revenge, he didn’t seem
to hear the crackling of branches at his feet. Jude, on the other
hand, was braced and ready. Reacting instantly, she pushed her
behind backward with all their might.

Stunned, Morteau barely had time to
widen his eyes before he lost both his balance and his grip on the
girl, and went toppling backward into the pit alone. As Jude
slammed into the ground on her hands and knees, his ungodly scream
filled the air. Then, with a loud splash, there was utter
silence.

Michael went straight to Jude, her
brothers a pace behind him. Holding on a hand to help her up, he
asked if she was all right. “I am fine. But Father-“

Shuddering, she gazed back at the
whole. Michael grip the rifle tighter as he turned and went to the
edge. Twenty feet down, bobbing on the water, his head at an odd
angle to a shoulders, floated Morteau.

Jude stepped up beside them, her voice
trembling and thin. “I can’t believe it’s over. That
he’s-“

Michael reached out but it are around
her slender shoulder. “Is not your fault. He did this to
himself.”

She shook her head. “It’s not like we
will be sad over him. He never seem like our father anyway. You are
more like a father than he ever was.” She looked up to him, tears
falling from her eyes.

If Michael ever had regrets about
taking on the raising of these children, they were banished in that
moment. His relief at finding them alive swelled into pride. “That
was clever work, Jude, backing into that whole. You are amazing.”
He looked at all of them. “You all are amazing.”

“
Yeah, but we would have
made it here, if not for-“Christopher broke off, his eyes looking
around. “Jude, remember? We got a go find Gwen.”

She stiffened, glancing around them
with alarm. “I forgot she was lost in the bayou. We better find her
before its dark.”

“
She is not lost.”
Remembering what Jervis had told him, Michael was hardly able to
hide his irritation. The woman had deserted those poor children,
and left them to worry about her. “I am told she’s on her way to a
father’s plantation get married.”

“
No,” Peter interrupted.
“The other man, Lance, has taken her.”

“
He doesn’t even like her,”
Paul added. “We heard him yelling at her. All he wants is the
Willows. That’s why he helped father burned down the
cabin.”

Jude stepped up beside her brother, her
eyes widening. “I know your mad at her, but I really think she
needs us. All of us, banded together. We are her
family.”

He try to be mad, but Michael’s love
for her was undeniable. A small grin came across his lips as he
grabbed for his rifle. “Let’s go.”

Chapter 24

The two woman had been running through
the entire house. Mrs. Tibbs was being held by lance just as she
was and became his prisoner in his fight for power. When the
doorbell rung both woman knew it was the time for their escape.
They waited until Lance left the main quarters and made a run for
it. Gwen knew this house and led the way until they had finally
reached the kitchen.

“
There is a path behind the
kitchens that lead us to the family cemetery. You should find my
family there for my father’s ceremony. I will try my best to stall
Lance, you need to bring someone to help.”

Mrs. Tibbs frowned as if she meant to
argue, but there was another plan, she said nothing as she made her
way to the window. But before she made her escape the woman pointed
outside.

Being so messed up and confused in
their attempt to escape, Gwen did not realize there is a man
outside her home. “Michael?” She said softly, unable to believe her
eyes.

“
Oh, I see now why you want
him. That’s one handsome devil.” Mrs. Tibbs nudged her arm. “Go on,
go out to him, before that dreadful Lance hurts anyone
else.”

Gwen needed no further of a push, still
clutching the knife Michael had given to her in the swamps, telling
Mrs. Tibbs to go at once to the funeral, she turned to race to the
door.

Standing on the porch, and
Gwen felt on the verge of tears, overwhelmed by the miracle of
seeing Michael again.
He is
alive
, was all she could think as she drank
in the sight of him. Healthy and strong and more beautiful than
ever.

Yet when she would run to him, throw
herself in his arms to shower him with kisses, she saw Lance in the
doorway say,

“
go home, Michael. You’re
not wanted here.”

lance stood with his back to her, yet
she could see the pistol pointed at Michael’s heart.

“
Go where, Lance?” A rifle
lay and Michael’s fee, and his gaze kept straying toward it. “You
burn down my home, remember?”

Lance said nothing. He just stood there
with the grin across his face.

“
On top of everything else.
Now it seems you have stolen my wife.”

Gwen stayed where she was, torn by
indecision. She wanted to charge Lance and take him to the ground,
but she could see that he was holding one of the boys between him
and Michael. Should she go and risk it all or let it play out? It
was a decision she could not make.

***

Seeing Patrick, so still stuck in
lance’s grasp, Michael cursed silently. He told the boy and
Christopher to wait at the docks, until Jude arrived with the
sheriff. Patrick, it clearly had his own ideas. He must have been
grabbed quickly by lance, but where was his brother? Would be hard
enough getting one of the boys out of this; Michael had less hope
if Lance got hold of Christopher, too.

Then, as if to prove his situation
could get no worse, Gwen stepped out onto the porch.

As he gazed in her eyes, images flashed
through his brain-Gwen cleaning fish, handing him the wooden sword
and dubbing them King Arthur; Gwen coming to him at the top, lying
down next to him in the moonlight. Together, they’d shared some of
the happiest moments in his life. He couldn’t walk away from such
memories come more easily forget them. Neither of them.

Maybe was time to forget the facts, and
add up the emotions instead, and every instinct he own insisted
that this was his woman. He could feel it in his gut. His heart.
This time, dammit, he was going to claim her as his own. There was
no way he would let her walk away this time.

Gwen was about to make her move when
the voice of another her attention and everyone else.

“
What in the hell is going
on here?” Said another, unknown voice, and Michael looked up to
find a short, older woman, standing on the porch.

“
Oh, Mrs. Tibbs,” Gwen
cried. “I told you to go for help.”

“
Tibbs?” Lanced asked,
suddenly edgy.

“
Yes, part owner of the firm
Barclay and Tibbs, as a matter of fact. The bank that holds a
sizable mortgage on Belle Oaks. Now, unless you want me foreclosing
on you, I suggest you put that gun down, young man.”

Lance laughed. ‘What do I want with
Belle Oaks, when I will soon be running The Willows? Do you think
some old bat will stand in my way?”

As Lance waved his pistol, Michael eyed
his rifle, weighing his chances of reaching it while Lance’s
attention was diverted. He eased his hand slowly toward the
ground.

Mere inches from the rifle, he heard
the click of the pistol’s hammer. “Not so fast Michael,” Lance
said. “I would be only too happy to put one of these bullets in
your head.”

“
Not before I put this in
your black heart.” Raising her hand, Gwen rammed the blade towards
him, managing to stab the fleshy part of his arm. Yelping, Lance
grabbed for the blade.

Knowing he would never have a better
opportunity, Michael rushed Lance and wrestled him to the
ground.

“
Stop right there “commanded
yet another new voice. “I don’t want to shoot you.”

Recognizing Ben Cooper, the local
Sheriff, Michael held up his hands in surrender. Cooper approached
him, his gun aimed and Michael. “All right, Gwen, suppose you tell
me what is going on here? Those children told me you had been
kidnapped.”

“
Children?” Gwen cried, “Are
they all right? Where are they?”

“
All four of them are fine.
We met up with Edith and Hamilton on the way up to the drive. I
asked them to stay with the children, while I came up here to
investigate.”

Rising to his feet, Michael’s took a
breath of relief and stood.

“
About this kidnapping,
rumor has it Michael here is the one who took you.”