Survival lesson number two: never underestimate your opponent, their allies, or the size of their arsenal.
The next step was the gag. Using my handkerchief that was tucked up my sleeve, I gagged the man then picked up his legs and Jack grabbed his arms. We carried him into the woods, far enough away from the road that no one would hear him yelling through the gag. I went for his horse. That slug I tied in the woods but away from the trussed up man.
We moved back to the horses, but when Jack said that I would ride his mount, I looked up at the animal and knew that I could not. Now that the excitement of battle was at an end, the aches struck me with full force.
“I will walk,” I said, but there must have been some pain come through my voice for Jack dropped the reins to the horse and came toward me.
“Did that dog strike you?”
Clenching my teeth, I nodded. Jack demanded to know where so I pointed to my shoulder and then my leg.
“You are coming with me,” Jack said, wrapping his arm about my waist. “I will see you to the cottage and tend to those wounds.”
Before we could take two steps, Bess ran out of the forest. She slowed when she saw Jack.
“I should have known,” Jack said to his sister.
“Yes, you should have,” Bess retorted. “You thought to leave me behind, but this is as much my war as yours. Abe was my friend. Luther has my mother.”
“Luther has Nell?” I demanded, breaking into their staring.
Jack pressed me forward. “According to Mrs. Stanton.”
“Wait,” I said, pulling away from Jack’s arm. “My aunt is here?”
“As are Jericho and Mariah, former members of my team.”
“Our team,” Bess interposed without rancor.
“Yes, I saw them outside the courtyard before Levi took me away from there.”
“How is the scamp?” There was a great deal of affection in Bess’s voice.
“Weary, I would say, but well.”
Bess nodded thoughtfully, as Jack began to guide me down the path. Bess fell in step beside us.
Bess guided the two horses as we walked. It was not long before we reached the main road. Not seeing anyone else, I suspected that Sam and Bess had been successful in taking out the other guards. Arthur said that he had counted five. I did not know where the others were, but that was a paltry number when I thought of my uncle’s vanity. He would require a garrison to guard him, thinking himself that important.
“I know how we can draw out the rest of Luther’s guards.” Bess’s words did not cause Jack to halt, but he did look up at his sister with quiet inquiry.
“See Guinevere to Levi’s cottage,” Bess said, smiling, “and tell him to prepare for a party.”
CHAPTER 18
JACK
Guinevere and I arrived at Levi’s cottage not twenty minutes after departing the forest. Dropping off of Brutus’s back, I reached up and Guinevere slid into my arms. She winced, which brought on a fresh wave of fury. I wanted to ride back into the forest and finish off that guard more thoroughly for having the audacity to harm my wife. Only the door opening and my brother emerging from the cottage kept me from enacting that thought.
Levi’s grin dawned as soon as he saw me, and then he was moving toward me with a skip in his step.
Meeting him in the yard, we pounded each other upon the back as we embraced. “I have missed you, little brother.”
Levi smiled at me with complete boyish charm. His green eyes were bright, his black hair was wild, and I had never seen him look better.
With a hand to the back of his neck, I shook him lightly. Levi laughed.
“I have missed leading you into brambles, Jack, I do admit it.”
Laughing, I pushed him back. “You truly are the scamp that Bess calls you.”
“I learned from the best, brother.”
When Levi looked to Guinevere, he warned her that her sisters were not best pleased with her running off.
As if conjured up by his words, Rose and Edith emerged from the house, knocking Levi out of their way as they approached my wife.
Edith tried to hug Guinevere, giving thanks that she was alive, but Guinevere’s soft moan caused her to pull away. “You are hurt!”
“Come into the house at one,” Rose said as she took Guinevere’s arm and led her into the cottage.
Holding Levi back, I said, “Bess told me to tell you to prepare for a party.”
Levi scratched his scalp as his eyes took on mischief. “All of the Phantoms together again. This calls for a grand celebration.” Levi winked at me before leading the way into the cottage.
I spent the next hour conversing with Gideon Reid, my former mentor, and a founder of the Phantoms. He had gone away with Levi and Edith in Savannah so we had much to discuss. Mostly my father. Gideon was not surprised to hear that Monroe had my father arrested. Gideon had known that my father was alive, perhaps all along.
“I will lay you a monkey that William Martin is free before the week’s end,” I said as I leaned back in my chair with my legs stretched out before me. My wife had been carried off to some other part of the house with her sisters, but I knew that she was safe so I felt as if I could relax, for a few minutes at the least.
“My dear fellow,” Gideon responded, “a man of the cloth should never gamble, and a man of sense should never bet against a certainty.”
It was an hour later when everyone else began to arrive. Sam and Bess were the first into the house. As Bess embraced Levi, Sam told me that they had taken out seven of Luther’s guards, but there were at least fourteen more in and around the house. He had left Arthur, the Monroe guards, and the constables there to watch the house and take out any more should they find the opportunity.
Mariah was the next to come into the house, at the same moment that Guinevere was coming down the stairs toward the parlor.
Taking my wife’s hand, I guided her to Mariah.
“You remember Guinevere, I am sure. My wife.” I spoke in a voice that would brook no discussion. She was my wife and everyone would have to accept that.
Mariah looked Guinevere over from her dark hair to her brown boots. “I suppose, since Jack married you and Levi approves of you that I cannot hate you for all of the trouble you caused us last year. Let me say this.” Mariah took a step forward and I stepped between the two, uncertain of Mariah’s intent. “You may be who you claim, time will out, but should you fall back into your sinister ways, I never miss my target when my aim is guided by betrayal.”
Levi let out a soft whistle from where he leaned against the door frame into the parlor. I opened my mouth to chastise Mariah, but Guinevere’s hand on my arm visibly tightened. She met Mariah’s gaze fully. “I understand and I would expect nothing less. Phantoms are family, and I do hope you can one day see me, if not as a friend, at least as an ally.”
Dudley and Hannah’s entrance broke the tense silence that followed the confrontation.
“Young Levi, you here?” Dudley asked jovially when he and Hannah tried to crowd into the foyer.
“So it would seem,” Levi said, much to Dudley’s confusion.
When Levi saw Hannah, he recoiled with a wary look on his face.
“Are we being invaded?” Levi asked in a low voice to me.
“Levi, it gives me the height of pleasure to introduce you to Mrs. Hannah Stanton,” I said with a laugh.
“Lawks.” Levi looked at me. “It’s a conspiracy.”
“It is lovely to see you again, Levi,” Hannah said kindly.
“Is it?” Levi’s voice was full of suspicion, and he kept a safe distance between them for the rest of the day.
The house was filling quickly when Freddy came inside.
“Mariah! How delightful it is to see you again, and without your shadow.” Freddy made to kiss her hand but she swiped both of her hands behind her back.
“You may sneer all you wish at my husband, Frederick Nolan, but he is still worth a hundred of you,” Mariah
retorted. Her vehemence surprised everyone except Freddy. He moved on with a chuckle to Bess, whom he had not seen since we arrived in Delaware.
“Bess, my heart.” He kissed the back of her hand. “What, no hovering husband to threaten to shoot me? I find that I am disappointed.”
“If threats are what you wish, Frederick, I have two pistols begging to be used,” Sam called from the parlor. Freddy released Bess’s hand as he smiled as if all was right in the world.
“Enough of your false pleasantries, Freddy,” Rose said as she and Edith came down the stairs.
As soon as Edith’s feet touched the foyer floor, she threw her hand forward, slapping Freddy’s cheek with a loud crack. His head jerked to the side and then back.
Edith said nothing as she turned on her heel and glided out the back door of the house.
Freddy gingerly felt his cheek. “Have you put a ring on that yet, Levi?”
“You shall be the first to know when I do,” Levi said, drawing a contemptuous look from Rose as he followed Edith from the house.
When Leo, Betsy and James arrived, everyone convened to the rear yard. Tables had been placed in a line across the yard and a fine spread had been laid. Since the cottage was not large enough to hold all of us, Levi decided we would dine beneath the stars.
Once dinner had commenced, we each of us took turns telling stories about our adventures as Phantoms. Everyone who had not heard some of our adventures laughed merrily.
“Then he kissed me,” Bess was saying, about her first time meeting Sam, “and I, dressed as a man.”
“I knew of you, my heart, even if you did not know me from any man walking the street,” Sam said across the table to Bess. He cast her a longing look that caused Bess’s cheeks to tinge with color.
“Uh!” Levi exclaimed. “No love looks, Sam, I beg of you. Enough to make a man ill, so it is.”
“I find you giving such looks, young Levi,” Gideon interposed, causing Edith to blush and Levi to grin.
I laughed along with the others, but Levi interposed, “I do not know why you laugh so, Jack. From the moment Guinevere first chased you, it has been bellows to mend with you.”
Leaning my arm across the back of my wife’s chair, I smirked across the table at my brother. “Can you blame me? She knocked me off my high horse … literally.”
“Straight into a pond,” Guinevere added, causing more laughter.
“See, Levi,” Edith said to him. “At least I did not knock you into a pond.”
“No, my dear, only shaved off part of my hair with that knife,” Levi replied as he passed her a basket of rolls. Levi told a story about trying to teach Edith to fight with a knife. She caught on faster than he expected. When they engaged in a light fight, she swung the knife at him, forcing him to duck, but he did not make it far enough down before the blade took off some of his hair.
“At least Mary does not fight with bloody forks,” Rose said, casting a look down the table toward Guinevere.
“Bloody forks?” Hannah asked, appearing far too interested.
“That was two times, Rose, and I washed those forks after the first fight.” Guinevere retorted with more heat than mere teasing would draw.
Beside me, Mariah glanced down as an uncomfortable silence settled around the table.
All of us had weapons hidden beneath the table in anticipation of a battle, but one between sisters was not what we expected.
“How do you suppose leather tastes?” Mariah suddenly asked.
“Like cow,” Jericho said.
“Chewy like venison,” I assured them, not really focusing on the conversation.
“You said that with great knowledge. Been chewing on boots lately, Jackal?” Mariah quipped.
I tossed her a smirk. “It would taste better than that roasted turkey that you cooked in fifteen outside of Baltimore, I wager.”
Mariah’s face darkened and she quickly glanced around, then scooped up a roll and threw it at my head. “That was not my fault!”
“Of course not,” Leo said, speaking for the first time since we had sat at the table. When I glanced toward him, there was a twinkle of teasing in his blue eyes. “You only roasted it.”
“Burnt it is more like it,” Levi interposed, and received Mariah’s second roll against the side of his head.
“Who was responsible to see to the removal, but was off chasing pigeons through the meadow?” Mariah demanded.
Levi huffed. “They were larks, not pigeons, and you did not have to leave it burning on the fire as revenge. Burnt a perfectly good bird to a crisp out of pique. Women! Think the way to repay a man’s supposed carelessness is by burning or ruining his dinner. Sacrilege says I!” Levi shook his head in disgust.
“Nothing but your just desserts,” Mariah retorted.
Levi sighed as he stared down the table. “Dessert.” He moaned. There had been no desserts set out besides different fruits. Levi’s gaze focused on people who had not been on our team. “Do you know Mariah squashed a perfectly good chocolate cake once out of pique? With five layers of fudge.”
“Now that is sacrilege,” Sam murmured, causing laughter to cover the table again.
More stories were exchanged, but when we were finishing off the roasted duck, Dudley was telling us a story about his numerous encounters with deranged ducks.
“Really birds of any kind. Without sense, the lot of them. They are always pecking one. And do not get me started upon the mothers,” Dudley said before he delicately bit a piece of asparagus.
Guinevere and I exchanged an amused glance before she asked, “What mothers?”
Dudley speared his wing on his plate with his fork. “As if I would harm baby ducklings. I only wanted to catch one. Ephraim had his dog that would ride in his carriage with him, and Henry Tuckford collected cats, so I thought what better pet to outshine the lot of them.”
“Did not Paul Jonas have a raccoon?” I asked. “I distinctly remember you trying to harness the creature and walk him around the park.”
“Did not the creature bite you?” Levi questioned with a grin.
Dudley scowled. “The dratted creature tried. Quite deranged he was, and so I told Paul. Do you know what the fellow said? He said it was my fault that his rodent tried to bite me. As if everyone knows that you should not pull their tail.” Dudley ate a big bite of the duck. “I wonder how raccoon fricassee would taste.”
“With a lovely white wine sauce,” Hannah suggested, receiving an approving nod from Dud.
Shortly after the duck, everyone moved either into the house or around the yard. All were carrying weapons, but they kept to groups in the event that Luther’s guards tried to ambush us.
“When do you believe William will arrive?” Jericho asked. Levi had told him and Mariah about our father’s reappearance when they had arrived in Delaware.
“By the week’s end if I have my guess.” Releasing a soft sigh, I moved around utensils on the table.
“You are not alone in your distrust of him. He abandoned us all. He is not our leader or our ally. As far as Mariah and I are concerned, you are our leader.”
“This looks cozy,” Hannah said from the doorway into the house. When I looked toward her, she was smirking at Jericho.
She sauntered out and took the seat across from Jericho, smiling her most charming. “My, if I had known you were this handsome, I may have allowed you another kiss.”
I started to rise, not in a mood to listen to one of Hannah’s flirtations, but Jericho tugged me back into my seat with his hand to my arm. The smile he turned upon Hannah was wolfish.
“We could give it another go if you are so inclined.” Jericho rose and moved toward her like a wolf stalking his prey.
Hannah’s eyes grew round for a moment before they narrowed. “Where is your wife?”
“Where is your husband?” Jericho countered.
Jericho and Hannah stared at each other for a long moment before Hannah released a gurgle of laughter.
�
�A rogue after my own heart.”
Jericho smiled before moving back to his chair.
When Hannah moved away I leaned toward Jericho. “How did you know she would not accept your offer?”
Jericho smiled. “I took her measure in a moment. She’s bluster, but it is a front to hide her fears.”
Jericho and I went in different directions after Hannah had sauntered off. I found Levi in the parlor with Bess.
Wanting to know Levi’s story from him, I asked him to tell us everything.
“It began one night in Philadelphia when I came home after working with Freddy. Mother was there to greet me. I unburdened my troubles to her over things happening. George was not acting as he should, and Freddy had his own plans for the Phantoms.”
Levi walked to the window and leaned his back against it, putting as much distance between us as he could. I knew that movement. What he was about to say was going to upset me.
“Mother told me that she suspected that the Holy Order was going to target Bess, and so she sent me, Gideon, and Jeanne with Bess to Charleston in the hope of protecting her. She also sent me with another objective. To find Harvey and get the truth from him. What truth she meant I did not understand, until I walked into the plantation.”
Levi looked down at his hands, smiling a little. “He did not expect me, and he called me son before he knew what he was about.” Levi looked up. “It was then that I knew.”
“You knew, and didn’t tell me?” Bess’s voice was shrill.
“He explained it all to me, and made me vow not to tell you anything. He said that he was awaiting the opportune moment. And then he sent me to Philadelphia to retrieve Mary Edith. I suspected that he had some plans at play, so I left Silas there to watch over Bess. If I had known…”
He did not need to say more. It was not Levi’s fault that Bess was nearly ravaged. That fault existed only with our father. He should have known that his guard was despicable, untrustworthy, and depraved. How had he not seen the man’s intent? Was he so caught up in his game that he overlooked his own child’s safety? The answer to that was a large, glaring yes.
phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware Page 18