phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware

by Amalie Vantana

  Running down the stairs, I heard when they got the door open.

  Reaching the parlor, it was empty, but the window was open.

  The sounds of shouting drew me to the window. My sister, the elegant Rose Eldridge, was on the green expanse of grass in the middle of the square, fighting like a lion. Four guards were on the ground with different wounds while Rose faced the final guard.

  Shouts from behind me had me launching myself through the window. A hand caught the hem of my gown and pulled me back. Twisting around, the guard had a hand wrapped around my gown. I slammed the iron against his cheek, ignoring the sound of the crack followed by his shouts and curses.

  Pulling my gown free, I ran across the road.

  We were drawing attention from some of the neighbors, but I had a feeling that was Rose’s intention by drawing the fight out of doors.

  Rose took out the final guard with a knife slash against his back, tearing his coat to shreds before the knife disappeared from her hand.

  A shot fired and I leapt toward my sister, knocking her to the ground as my heart twisted into a painful mass. Rose shoved me off her, jumping up, but we were surrounded, though not too close. They were wary of us, and I suspected we had Uncle Luther to thank for that as well.

  They all had weapons raised toward us, but I knew they would not use them. They wanted us alive, especially Rose. They would have to try to take us by force.

  “Lower your weapons before you hurt someone,” Rose demanded in her queen voice. “Though, with your lack of intelligence you would most probably shoot each other, so perhaps I should allow you to get on with it so we can return to our tea.”

  Charlie came toward me and placed the barrel of his pistol against my forehead. “We were ordered not to harm you,” he said to Rose. “He never said anything about her.” The pressure increased against my head as he pushed the barrel harder. “If I shoot her, I suspect your grief will be too great for you to do more than wail. With the she-cat out of the way, you’ll be compliable.”

  Rose’s shoulders straightened even more than her usual stance and her impressive neck raised, almost like an ostrich. She stared down her nose at the insolent man.

  “Remove your weapon from her head or I assure you that when we reach my uncle I will have him remove your head from your body.”

  The man’s insolence faltered under Rose’s stare, as if he believed she would do just as she claimed. He should believe her, for she would do it if he harmed me.

  “Will you come with us without more fuss?” Charlie asked.

  Rose huffed out an annoyed breath. “We will.”

  He lowered his weapon and opened his mouth to say something.

  An arrow struck him in the chest.

  I felt as wrung out as a damp rag as my breath whooshed out of me.

  The men were looking around us, but there was no sign of the archer, only a general direction. I knew at once from where it had come, but not who had taken that perfect shot.

  Another arrow flew through the air toward the men and they scattered like ants. Rose pulled me behind a tree as arrows flew toward the men.

  From across the road a large figure emerged, running at a full speed across the green. He was like a charging bull as he ran toward one guard and hit him in the stomach with his shoulder. At the second guard, his arms wrapped around the guard’s sides and then he shoved. The guard went flying through the air, landing on his back on the road beyond.

  Dudley Stanton was impressive, and rather terrifying, as he charged around the green, but with the feet of a dancer. He leapt in the air, his feet connecting with the chest of one of the guards. They both fell to the ground, but Dudley was back on his feet in an instant. The final guard was running toward his carriage. Dudley exclaimed something that sounded like ‘no you will not.’

  Dudley picked up a stone from the ground and lobbed it with perfect aim at the man’s head. The guard fell back from where he had his foot on the first step up to the box seat of the carriage. He landed on the road, striking his head and not getting up.

  Dudley stretched out his shoulders then turned and trotted toward us. He bowed before Rose. “Milady, it is a pleasure to serve you.”

  Rose smiled magnanimously upon him and even allowed him to shake her hand. “We thank you, Mr. Stanton, for your timely appearance.”

  Dudley smiled, red on his cheeks. “It was nothing, ma’am.” He cracked his knuckles as he looked at the men strewn around the green.

  Some of the guards were beginning to rise, but not before a trio of constables rode up to the green. As they dismounted, they raised weapons toward the men on the ground.

  “What has happened here? We received a report that two women were being accosted.”

  “Allow me to handle this.” Dudley moved over to speak with the constable.

  Rose wrapped an arm around me and forced my head against her shoulder. “Cry,” she hissed.

  “Why?” I retorted, equally soft.

  “Men cannot abide a watery female, now do as I say.”

  Giving it my best, I sobbed into Rose’s shoulder, loud and mournful.

  Dudley explained, with hand gestures as well as loud exclamations, what had transpired. The constables looked askance when Dudley pointed to us and said something. Rose angled me away from the men, and patted my back.

  “I hate being the weak one,” I hissed at my sister.

  There was humor in her voice when she replied. “You are as far from a weak damsel as there is, Constance, so hush and play your part. If you could conjure up some real tears it would go lengths toward aiding us.” Her hand moved against my arm.

  “If you dare to pinch me it will be you in tears and no mistake.”

  Rose giggled as she turned me in her arms and walked us toward the constables.

  They put a few questions to us, but they believed whatever Dudley had told them. Soon the guards were bound and loaded into a wagon that another constable had driven to the green. They had told us that one of the neighbors had seen us and ran for help. She told them that we were being ravished, and that sent them at once to our rescue.

  When we were back inside the house and had checked on Mrs. Short, we moved to the parlor. Dudley sat upon a chair with a contented sigh.

  “Where is Jack?”

  “He went to search the Pirates House.”

  Dudley’s expression turned grim. “Afraid I sent him on a fruitless task. Those same men are the ones who attacked you here.”

  “That was all of them?” Rose asked, sitting perfectly upright without the least sign of fatigue.

  “All that m’mother could find.” Dudley stretched out his legs and tucked his hands behind his head as he leaned back against the chair. “I believe it is time to make a hasty exit from Savannah. Can you be ready to depart in an hour?”

  “Yes. Is your mother ready?” Rose asked.

  I was not at all easy like the other occupants of the parlor. My heart was beating hard, my skin felt worn too thin, my bones aching.

  Dudley smiled. “When is that woman ever not ready? It was her suggestion. The others have been apprised of it.”

  “Are you and Hannah prepared to accompany us to Charleston, Dudley?”

  “That we are. I am ready to see my friends again, and I hear that Sam’s library is the best to be seen for miles around.”

  “Your friends?” Rose asked with humor.

  “The Phantoms,” Dudley said and rose. “If I am to choose sides, you may be sure I will choose the side of those whom I trust the most.”

  “You mean that you do not trust your mother or your wife?” Rose asked.

  Dudley shuddered. “Would you?”

  He went to the door, but paused and turned. “You should know that someone has made contact. Someone who will want to speak with you when we arrive in Charleston.”

  Rose nodded, and Dudley left the house.

  “Do you know who it is?” I questioned my sister the moment Dudley was gone.

&n
bsp; Rose smiled. “When I stayed behind in Charleston after you and Jack went to rescue Mary Edith, there was a man who began following me about the city. I believe he is to be our visitor.”

  “Who?”

  “Our uncle.”

  CHAPTER 4

  JACK

  Leo and I returned to my mother’s house with no more information than when we left. The Pirates House had been empty of any men matching the descriptions of the royal guards.

  When we entered the house, it was to find two men pulling trunks to the door and Mrs. Short standing guard.

  “Oh, Mr. Martin, such goings on as I ‘ave never seen,” Mrs. Short exclaimed. “The parlor is in shambles and do not get me started on the state of that bedchamber. And bloody forks! Why, I never in all my days…”

  The rest of what she said was lost to me by my sudden urge to find my wife. Bloody forks? Stomping further into the house, I got a glance at the parlor. The chairs were upturned, the sofa on its back. Running up the stairs, Leo was on my heels as I hit the hall and swung around the door frame to enter my chamber. It was chaos. Trunks were open, clothing was spewing out of them, boxes and books were in disorderly stacks. Turning, I moved to Guinevere’s chamber and pushed open the door. A gown flew across the room, landing at my feet. Her chamber was in the same state as my own. She had fewer trunks than me, but hers were packed to the top.

  “What is going on here?”

  “Jack!” She twisted then flew across the room much as the gown had, but she landed in my arms. “We are going to stay with Sam and Bess,” she mumbled into my coat where her face was pressed. She did not appear harmed.

  “What is this about?”

  “Uncle Luther sent his guards to escort us to him, but Rose and I fought them.”

  “That explains the bloody forks,” I said, and Guinevere tossed me an enticing smirk as she went back to her packing. “It was one fork! The guards nearly had us, but Dudley came to our rescue.”

  “Dudley?”

  Guinevere folded three of my shirts that she had commandeered and tossed them in her trunk then slammed the lid. “He shot arrows at them then charged across the yard like a raging bull.”

  Surprise dotted my mind so I had Guinevere halt her packing to tell me what happened. She halted for a minute while she explained what had transpired, but she could not keep idle hands so she went back to packing the second trunk.

  “Why is it that I am never present when you show your talent with forks,” I lamented, and won a smile from Guinevere.

  “Now is not the time for jests, Jack. Dudley is bringing the carriage to the door in a few minutes and I am not near to being ready to depart.”

  I folded her gown that had landed at my feet and placed it in the trunk then collected all of the contents off her dressing table. “Is Dudley to accompany us?”

  “Dudley, Hannah, Freddy, Mrs. Stanton, and your father. We are leaving Savannah for good.” She closed the empty wardrobe with a snap. She moved to kneel beside the bed, looking beneath it and coming out with a selection of knives. She plucked four more from beneath a pillow on the bed then placed all of them in the trunk. I moved them to the bottom, beneath her work boots, so that they would not cut her gowns. She was too concerned with finding everything to worry about how she packed.

  When we had her chamber packed, we hurried across to mine where Mrs. Short and two housemaids that I had never before laid eyes upon were packing for us. Mrs. Short was still complaining about the state of the dining parlor and her frayed nerves over the men coming into the house and trying to grab her.

  Guinevere was throwing things into my trunks, but I halted her when she nearly tossed my books.

  “My love, one does not throw books into the trunk as if they were burlap sacks of potatoes. It is sacrilege, and it hurts my heart. One handles them with tenderness and care. Now, hand me that cloth bag.”

  Guinevere was laughing as she did as I asked, and her laughter rose when I placed each book in the cloth bag to protect them. Once they were safe in the trunk, and Guinevere was occupied packing a different trunk, I closed the lid and locked it, unwilling to risk my wife throwing weapons on top of my books.

  When all of the trunks were packed, we pulled them into the hall where Leo was taking trips up and down the stairs, hauling the trunks to a waiting carriage outside.

  Rose was in the midst of trying to carry one down the stairs when Leo came into the house. He instantly ran up the stairs and grabbed the trunk.

  “My lady, you should not be doing such things.”

  Guinevere and I paused to watch them. We had spoken of Rose and Leo’s feelings for each other a few times, but my wife said that her sister was unwilling to do anything about her love for Leo. She said that it was up to Leo to speak first. Knowing my quiet friend as well as I did, I knew that would not happen. Guinevere knew it as well, but that did not keep her from trying to press him into a profession. I had given up telling her not to meddle.

  Rose released the trunk but huffed as she blew a strand of hair from her face. “I am not an invalid, nor have I ever been milady to you.”

  “You will always be my lady to me,” Leo said, almost as if the words were wrenched from somewhere deep inside him.

  “Is that the truth, Leo?” Rose asked, sounding rather breathless. I doubted it was from carrying the trunk so much as the way Leo was gazing at her. I had often thought that my friend could see everything in a glance. He was unwilling to do anything about their mutual love.

  “It must be the truth. I know my place.” Leo turned away, moving down the stairs with the trunk.

  When his back was to her, Rose leaned a hand against the wall as if she needed the support to keep herself standing.

  Guinevere took my hand, lacing her fingers with mine. When I turned toward her, she was sad.

  She pulled me with her back down the hall so that Rose would not see us watching her. When Rose had walked down the stairs, Guinevere and I went to the foyer.

  Leo and I had spoken much about his past in the last few weeks. He had only taken the post as Phantom so that he could help my father protect Guinevere and Edith. George and Sam were the ones protecting Rose, until my father enacted his death and George moved to Philadelphia.

  George was never taken into my father’s confidence about Rose being the queen, but Sam was upon the occasion when they first met. It was during the war when my father met with him, and it was what my father told him that brought Sam back to Charleston to take the reins of the Charleston Phantoms when George was moving.

  When I asked Leo if he was going to go with Rose now that I knew who he was, he grimaced. “I would never choose to abandon you, Jack, but my first duty is to my sovereign.”

  So it should be, though I would miss my friend.

  Dudley came in the house and I hailed him.

  “I hear that I owe you my thanks for protecting my wife and Mrs. Eldridge.”

  Dudley grinned. “No thanks needed. Doing my duty, you know.”

  After my father and Freddy arrived, and we had said our farewells to Mrs. Short, two carriages set out for the harbor.

  During the trip to Charleston, my father and I never spoke to each other beyond the necessary pleasantries. There were always people around and I was not yet prepared for the coming confrontation.

  We arrived at the Charleston harbor on the evening of the twenty-fourth. Since we had not sent word ahead that we were coming, I did not expect to see my sister or Sam awaiting us.

  As it happened, Guinevere was the one to point out Sam. He was standing before his warehouse where he stored shipments coming in and prepared cargo that would be transported on one of his many ships to locations all over the coast.

  Turning to speak with Leo, I was interrupted by my wife’s exclamation of horror.

  “No!” She was moving toward the gangplank before I could ask her what the matter was.

  Freddy was squinting at the warehouse. “Is that smoke?”

  Spinn
ing around, I took in the warehouse and, just as Freddy had said, smoke was coming from the crack in the closed door. Sam was not in sight, but my wife was running toward the burning building.

  “Fire. Go for the fire brigade. At once!” I did not wait to see Freddy go, but turned and ran down the gangplank and across the way toward Sam’s warehouse.

  The air at the harbor was always foul, smelling of sewage, rotten fish, unwashed bodies, and mixing with salty air. As I sniffed the air, there was a distinct smell that overshadowed the stench of rot. Oil.

  The front door had a large lock in place so I ran down the alley beside the warehouse, following where my wife had run. She was already inside when I reached the open side door.

  There were loud crashes coming from the other side of the warehouse as I found my wife. She was hunched down beside a crate, looking around the side. The smell of oil was thicker inside the warehouse, mixed with a quickly gathering cloud of smoke. The smoke was trying to find an escape, through cracks in the large door, but also moving toward the open side door.

  Grabbing Guinevere’s arm, I tried to pull her toward the door, but she fought me. “Sam is in here.” The words knocked me off my course to the door. “I saw two men hit him and drag him inside. They are the ones who set the fire.”

  Guinevere’s purple eyes were alight with anger and determination, so I followed her further into the warehouse.

  There was a maze of crates, bolts of fabric, and barrels that were marked for transport. The warehouse was fuller than normal. It appeared that Sam had taken on more shipments of late.

  Once George Crawford, Sam’s uncle, had died, Sam thought that the responsibility of providing for all of the former Phantoms fell upon his shoulders. The truth was that it was my father who formed the Phantoms and it was to my family that the responsibility of offering recompense to the Phantoms belonged. My mother and sister had told him as much, but Sam was an honorable man. He felt his uncle’s betrayal keenly and was trying find a way to make up for George’s final actions.

  “That’s enough,” called a voice from the other side of the crates that were stacked three high.