phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware (30 page)

Arthur left, and Aunt Johanna had me assist her in removing Bess’s boots, stockings, hat, and gloves. She unbuttoned the waistcoat that Bess wore beneath her simple black coat. There was nothing else we could do, for neither of us wanted to touch her coat and risk waking her. Aunt Johanna said that it was best if she rested, so long as her breathing did not halt.

I told her about what had transpired and how Bess had come to be injured. When I mentioned the blood, Aunt Johanna turned away and left the bedchamber without a word.

Pouring some water from the basin into the wash bowl, I dipped a cloth into it and began cleansing Bess’s brow and face, pleading, as I had done so many times as a child, that if there be a Lord, that He not allow Bess to die.

Sometime later there was a thundering in the yard, and then the front door burst open. I heard several voices at once, and then someone was running up the stairs.

As the door flew open, Sam stood there, his face seeking out his wife. He moved toward her as if in a daze, before dropping to his knees beside her bed and lifting her hand to his lips. There her hand remained even when the doctor appeared in the doorway.

Listing Bess’s injuries for him, I faltered when it came to the blood. Sam’s gaze never wavered from Bess’s face, but he did lower her hand to her side.

The doctor thanked me and told me that I could go. I did, but at the door I paused when Sam told the doctor that he was remaining in the room with his wife. And should the doctor think to try to force him out, he would find himself tossed out the window.

Closing the door, I leaned against it, allowing my eyes to drift closed.

When I opened my eyes, Betsy, Mariah, Jericho, and Leo had joined me.

“How is she?” Mariah asked, her gaze focused upon the closed door at my back.

I motioned down the stairs and everyone went to the parlor where we found James Wilson seated with my aunt.

“Her arm was grazed when the she was shot at, but I am afraid that her most painful injuries came when she fell from her horse.”

No one spoke for several minutes. Jericho sat with his arm around his wife’s shoulders as she gripped the front of his coat. Betsy and James sat beside each other, their hands clasped. Leo paced before the window, clenching and unclenching his hands.

“Where is Jack?” I asked when the silence lengthened.

Leo would not look at me. Betsy gazed down at her hands. Mariah kept her eyes focused upon the stairs. Only Jericho favored me with a reply.

“I am afraid that he is still a prisoner.”

That could not be. We were taking out the guards. My uncle had ran. We were winning the battle.

A door creaked above and everyone sat forward. When the doctor appeared, everyone rose in anticipation.

His expression was grave as he took us all in. “Mrs. Mason will live,” he said first, and there seemed to be a unanimous sigh of relief.

“She suffered some contusions to her spine and back, but when she awoke she was able to lean up. There is a lump upon the base of her head, and a graze upon her arm, but they are minor in comparison.”

“Comparison to what?” Leo surprised me by asking. His blue eyes were intent upon the doctor, as if he was soaking in every word, processing them to find a different conclusion.

The doctor met my gaze, and my heart lurched. “I am afraid that Mrs. Mason has lost her child.”

Biting my lip, I fought the tears that wanted to fall. The injustice of it all settled upon me. Why was it that when I was knocked down by that guard that my child was spared, but Bess, who had only ever wanted a family of her own, had lost her child? I was grateful that my child was still alive within me, and that made me feel selfish.

“You should know that as a physician I am often called to make difficult observations. I am only telling you this because, as her family, it will help you to assist her in her grief. In such cases as these, it is unlikely that she will conceive again.”

Mariah gasped before burying her face against Jericho’s chest. Leo grasped the wall behind him. Betsy’s tears fell in silence.

Aunt Johanna rose and walked with the doctor to see him out of the house. I heard him tell her that he would return after checking on his other patient.

Grief was mounting as a builder would stack bricks to form a wall. Making a fist, I struck against the arm of my chair as the injustice surrounded me.

“No.” I did not mean to say it aloud, but it drew everyone’s attention. With their eyes upon me I had to go on. “This has gone too far, and I, for one, will see to it that it stops at once. My uncle wants a fight? A fight he will receive. Are you with me?”

Mariah wiped away her tears with the back of her hand as she stood. Jericho jumped up to stand with her. Betsy rose quietly with James at her side. Leo moved to my side and nodded his agreement.

“Leo, do you still hold that key?”

He produced it from his pocket.

It was time to go find my husband, and end my uncle’s tyranny.

****

We rode to the house through the woods, following a path that Leo had found earlier in the day. We came to a place where Leo said that we would have to finish the journey on foot.

It was on that path that we met Dudley and Hannah, being pursued by five of my uncle’s guards.

Tired of this endless chase, I pulled a handful of knives from my belt. Dudley and Hannah leapt over a fallen log, saw us, and split in two directions. Gripping a knife in my hand, I took a slight step forward and threw the blade. It struck home in one man’s leg.

Knife after knife was thrown at the two guards cowering behind a tree. When my last knife was thrown, they came around the tree. Two arrows flew toward the men, but did not harm them. The arrows struck their coat sleeves, and then buried in the tree trunks behind them, holding the guards against the trees. Two silver discs hurled across the distance from Hannah, striking one man’s arm and another’s thigh.

When the five guards were otherwise engaged, I questioned Dudley and Hannah.

“Where are the others?”

“Five of our group are dead,” Hannah said as she swiped a hair from dangling in her eyes.

Dudley was huffing as he drew in a breath. “Two of Monroe’s, one constable, and one of them who came with your sister.”

“There they are,” someone shouted through the trees.

“Yes, about that,” Dudley said quickly, “the rest of your uncle’s guards are on our trail.”

Searching our surroundings, my eyes fell upon a good climbing tree. “Make haste,” I said as I grabbed at the nearest branch and pulled myself up.

Without a word of protest, the others began swinging their forms into the trees. Climbing higher, I kept going until I was high enough that the men below could not see me well enough to shoot me.

“I know they’re in here somewhere. Spread out and find her. The others don’t matter. Just the girl.”

My branch shook as a form struck it. Jerking, I barely kept myself from falling out of the tree.

“What are you doing,” I hissed to Leo. “Find your own tree.”

“It is my duty to protect you, your highness. Even if it be in a tree.”

The branch below us shook, and then Jericho’s head appeared between us. He was standing on his branch. He grinned up at me as he leaned his arms over my branch.

“You showed yourself to advantage, Guinevere. Almost as if you have done this before.” When Jericho smiled you could see that smile all the way to his eyes. I understood why Mariah had fallen for him, though he was too broad for my taste.

“I have been doing so since I was eleven. It was my refuge, a place that they could not find me,” I replied softly.

“They who? Harvey?”

“The instructors hired by Harvey. To teach me how to become the white phantom.”

“Will you two be still,” Hannah admonished from her tree next to ours. “You will give us away with your adorable and heartrending chatter.”

“She’s right you know,” came Dudley’s voice from next to Hannah.

“How did you get up there, Dudley?” Jericho asked in a voice just above a whisper.

“Climbed, old fellow, though I’m sure I have a splinter.”

“Over here,” shouted a voice not far from our trees that silenced us. “I heard something.”

“I believe it is time for a wolf attack,” Jericho whispered before pulling on his wolf mask and swinging himself down the tree as if he had been raised with monkeys.

Mariah appeared in Jericho’s place. “In Jericho’s mother’s tribe, the warriors did much of their hunting from trees.”

“Tribe?” I asked.

“Jericho’s mother was a native of America.”

“An Indian?” My voice came out more stringent than I meant. “Forgive me. It is just that in all of my time in America I have never met a real Indian.”

Mariah smiled with understanding. “He does not speak of that time in his life. It is too difficult with what happened to his parents.”

A body striking the ground drew our attention. Jericho had leapt from the tree, landing atop two guards. Jericho spun around as if guided by wind, taking out several guards with his knives and fists.

“I believe it is time for us to intervene, before Wolfy has all the fun,” Leo said, and then swung himself down much as Jericho had.

Mariah laughed as she pulled on her mask and swung down, though with more care for safety.

When I reached the ground, Jericho, Mariah, and Leo were in the midst of a fight while Dudley and Hannah were throwing brown nuts from their tree.

Pulling my iron from my belt, I ran around their tree and struck at the closest guard. He threw a fist at my head before he realized who I was.

Dodging the blow, I cracked his hand with the ball on the end of the iron.

Dancing around another guard, I struck at his side and then arched beneath his swinging arm to come up before his face, striking his chin with the iron and causing his head to fall back. Arms gripped my waist, wrapping around me with a breath stealing force.

“I’ve gotter, boys,” he called out like a fool as he carried me away from the fighting.

He neglected to secure the most important things during a fight. My hands. Throwing my arm back, I struck at his head with the iron again and again until he dropped me to shield his head from my attack. Twisting around, I leapt at him with the iron raised. He cowered back, shielding his face.

Dropping to one knee, I looked up at him until he slowly lowered his hands, confusion on his face, until he glanced down. My iron struck at the side of his knee. His leg gave out under him. He stumbled to keep himself upright. Tossing the iron into my other hand, I struck at his supporting leg, and the man fell like a tree. Jumping up, I kicked at his face. My boot connected with his cheek, and he blinked before he shook his head, dazed.

A hand grabbed my wrist and I swung at them, but my captor had ducked low. Seeing Betsy hunched down, I lowered my weapon.

“Come with us,” she said to me, pulling me with her and James away from the fight. We ran through the forest toward the house, and only paused when we reached the edge of the wood.

Betsy produced the key to the hatch from her coat pocket which Leo must have given to her.

James tugged us both back behind a tree when a horse and rider came into view. Not all of the guards had been chasing Dudley and Hannah.

Luther’s carriage was on the drive, which meant that he had made it back, along with Nell, Freddy, and Charlotte. That fared well for us, if we could get across the lawn and into the house.

The rider moved on without pause and when he was on the other side of the house we made our move. Running across the lawn, we reached the hatch and I unlocked it while Betsy and James kept guard.

Once on the stairs, we went up the winding steps, past the room that Melly had let me and Leo out of, and up until the stairs ended at a plain wood door. It led to the attic which was as wide as the house. Pieces of furniture, trunks, framed art, and much more covered the stifling space.

Sweat trickled down my spine and across my brow as we inched our way across the space, searching for another door. There were windows that overlooked what must have been the front and the back of the house.

“Here,” James said, leading the way down a few stairs to a closed door.

Our pistols were drawn as we entered into a narrow hall with undecorated walls and doors crowding each side of the hall. The first room we approached was a bedchamber.

“Servants’ quarters,” James said with assurance as he passed by with no more than a cursory glance inside.

The heat of the day could be felt, as if we were standing in direct sunlight. “Is it always so stifling in servants’ quarters?” I asked, but immediately felt foolish. That was not a topic that I should have broached.

James’s chuckle was unexpected. “You believe this to be hot?” He and Betsy exchanged an amused glance before walking on down the hall.

“I am from Charleston,” Betsy said, and that was all that she had to say. The heat in Charleston was nearly unbearable. Before Betsy was freed, her family had lived on George’s plantation, where they had to work daily in the sun no matter what the weather became.

“My father came to America upon a ship in the midst of the summer months where three hundred men, women, and children were kept in the hold without fresh air,” James said without a note of malice in his voice.

“You are a first generation American?” I asked.

“On my father’s side. It was a miracle he survived when over half of the people perished.” James grew quiet as we continued down the length of the hall until we came upon the servants’ staircase.

We descended in silence, but when we reached the hall housing the family bedchambers, I spoke.

“This is where we will split up. Betsy, take James with you and see if you can locate Nell and Charlotte. I am going to find my husband.”

Betsy moved off without a word and James followed after her. When they had gone in one direction, I turned in the other. Easing down the hall, I stepped out toward the balcony, and straight into Melly’s line of sight.

She stepped back as if startled, and then a smile spread across her lips. “Cousin.”