by Hilly Mason
Isla pushed herself through the crowd as she searched for the cat. She ran into Gregory instead.
“That damned beast is gone!” he said in a panic.
“How?” Isla demanded. “I put her in her cage!”
“It must not have been locked.”
Isla cursed and scanned her surroundings. She thought she detected movement towards the nearby park and took off running. There were footsteps following closely behind her but she did not bother to turn around. The only thing that mattered to her was to make sure her lion was safe.
It was dark. Isla had no lantern to light her way and instead had to rely on the half-moon that revealed itself through the clouds now and again. She didn’t know how long she had been running, but eventually the buildings and roads transformed into trees and grass. She stumbled a few times over rocks, reopening the cuts already on her hands as well as creating new ones, but she pressed on. The footsteps that were following her had long since faded.
Ahead of her she heard a flap of an owl’s wings. She looked up at the bird, a dark shadow in the sky, and a particular tingling sensation went up her spine, the same feeling from when she saw fairies long ago in Scotland. Was this an American fairy? she wondered as she began to follow it.
Isla continued walking for a mile or more before the owl quickly took off. The sound of rushing water revealed a river nearby. When the moon illuminated the riverbed Isla crouched beside it, splashing her face with the cold water. As she lifted her head, Isla thought she could hear a low growl from an animal. She turned around slowly and blinked at a dark shadow a few yards away from her. As Isla stood up, the growling became louder.
“Golden, it’s me,” she coaxed as she walked closer to the lion. The cat’s teeth flashed white in the moonlight.
“It’s all right, Golden,” Isla murmured, although her heart was beating erratically. Thankfully, the lion seemed to calm down as Isla wrapped her arms around the cat’s neck and held her, listening to the animal’s quick but steady heartbeat.
“Jack?” Isla asked softly as she heard footsteps approach their sanctuary.
“It’s me.”
She relaxed. “How the devil did ye manage to find me?”
“Well, it wasn’t easy. I have a few cuts and bruises from falling into what I think was blackberry bush, and I suspect I’m bleeding quite a bit.”
“You didn’t have to follow me.”
“I know.”
They paused, staring at each other under the white light of the moon.
“Well, what do ye expect, for me to fall in your arms in relief?”
Jack shoved his hands into his pockets. “I dunno.”
“Well, you’re welcome to leave.”
She didn’t know why she was being so churlish. Despite her words, the man made no move to leave.
“This reminds me of our time in the kitchen,” she admitted.
His chuckle was deep and rumbling, and it made Isla smile.
“Life seemed so much simpler then, being stuck on that tiny ship,” he told her.
“Do you think our lovemaking was just an amusement to pass the time?”
“No, I don’t think so. Was it for you?”
“No,” she admitted.
When Jack lightly touched her arm she shivered. She wanted be able to clearly see his face, but there was something about being in almost complete darkness that enticed her in a way she never knew.
“What are we doing, Jack?” she asked. “What are we doing here in America? We are so far from home.”
“You are not happy living with your parents?”
“Do you ever think that it’s better to never ken something, to keep imagining it, but never know the truth? I think I was happier without the knowledge that my parents still lived. Does that make me a terrible person?”
She hadn’t realized she had been crying until Jack gently brushed his fingers on her cheek, wiping the tears away. “No,” he told her. “I don’t think that at all.”
She looked up at him and reached to find his face, cupping his cheek with her hand, feeling his coarse whiskers on her palm.
“I want you, Jack,” she whispered breathlessly, shifting her body so that she was pressed against him. His arms circled her waist, like they had been made to fit there. She sighed as she breathed in his musky scent. “You’re not running from me any longer.”
She listened to Jack’s long exhale as she rested her ear against his chest. His heartbeat was strong, like her own. In the darkness there is no separation. In the darkness we are both one, she thought feverishly as she quickly took off her ruined dress.
Jack, unable to keep his hands off of her, began to work the lacings of her stays. Her mother’s maid had tightened the laces as though afraid Isla would take the damn thing off at the last minute and perform only in her chemise. She laughed as Jack struggled, but finally, the laces fell away and soon, too, did the chemise. Isla gasped softly as the cool air hit her bare flesh.
She then blindly reached her arms out and found a handful of Jack’s shirt and pulled it over his head. Losing her balance, she fell onto Jack, and they both landed hard on the ground, with her on top of him, causing Golden to lift her head up and stare at them questioningly. As they giggled like naughty adolescents, Isla could feel Jack’s arousal pressing against her lower abdomen, hot through the fabric of his trousers. The sudden jolt of her desire making her decidedly impatient, she unbuckled his belt and popped the buttons of his trousers open.
“Christ, what I wouldn’t give to see you fully,” Jack murmured, as she slid down his pants. His large hands cupped the round flesh of her buttocks, forcing her to press harder against his body. Isla nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck as he gently pulled her legs apart, settling her sensitive flesh against his.
“Jack,” she murmured, but he didn’t enter her yet. His hands slid from her buttocks down to her inner thigh, stroking the folds of her sex nestled underneath her red curls. She squirmed, but he held her down firmly with his other hand as his lips found hers.
Isla moaned at the pleasurable sensation. She felt her nipples harden against Jack’s solid chest as she started kissing his neck, then slowly she trailed her tongue up to his ear. She bit his earlobe gently as his fingers entered her body. Not being able to help herself, she started wiggling her hips, rubbing her body up and down his member as his fingers worked inside her.
Jack cursed under his breath. “You’re going to make me come before I’m even inside you,” he told her hoarsely.
“Aye, so?” Isla whispered as she dared to move her body a little bit more. She felt her climax coming as well, yet she realized she wanted him to be buried deep in her before that happened. Taking a deep breath, she moved his hands away, lifted her hips, and settled herself down on him, taking him inside her down to the shaft.
“Isla!” Jack cried out just before she felt his release. Isla came too, her body tense at first, before her body began to relax in rhythmic waves of pleasure. She leaned down and kissed him feverishly. As he returned her kisses, a cool wind began to pick up, making the leaves on the trees sound like the waves of the ocean and causing gooseflesh to ripple down Isla’s body.
“You’re cold,” Jack said hoarsely. He was obviously reluctantly to pull away from Isla, but he grabbed his coat and threw it over her body as she settled beside him.
Isla did not know what time it was. The moon was no longer above them, and the night was now completely silent save for the river and the slow steady breathing of the slumbering cat.
“I hope you find your brother.” Isla said as she stared up at the stars that peeked through the tops of the trees. She idly ran her fingers along the dark hair on Jack’s chest.
“Oh, I’ve already have.” Jack replied.
“What? Is he all right, then?”
“He’s well enough.”
Isla noticed the strain in his voice. “This is about Gregory, isn’t it?”
A heavy silence fell between them,
which was an answer in itself. “Can we talk about this tomorrow? Right now, I just want to be in your arms and savor the moment.”
The way he said that made it seem like he believed this was their last moment together. Nonetheless, Isla acquiesced and snuggled back into his arms, only realizing now how tired she was. She pulled the coat closer around her body, for a moment forgetting about all of her worries. All of it was gone, stifled by Jack’s warm embrace. One final thought guided her to a restful sleep.
He said he loved me…
Chapter Sixteen
She woke up the next morning to Jack gently shaking her shoulder. She blinked her eyes open and gave him a wide smile as she turned over, tucking herself back under his arm and closing her eyes.
“We should leave now before someone finds us,” she heard Jack say.
Isla groaned and rolled over onto her stomach, her buttocks exposed for Jack and all the world to see. She smiled as she heard a quick intake a breath.
“That’s not fair.”
She glanced coyly over her shoulder. “Oh? How so?”
Jack was halfway from pulling his trousers back on, so she could clearly see that he was aroused.
“You know damn well what you’re doing,” he said through gritted teeth. “Do you want my ballocks to burst?”
“Aye, well ye better come here and do something about that then,” she said, wiggling her arse at him.
He complied.
Afterwards, Isla took a dip in a shallow area of the water and quickly washed her hair. Golden had been lying in the sun, on her back, enjoying the warm rays as Jack got dressed.
“We really should be going,” he told her.
“Verra well.” Isla stepped out of the river and started brushing her hair with her fingers. She looked at her pile of clothes distastefully. “Guess I have no other choice but to put this back on,” she said, kicking the ruined dress.
Jack wasn’t very talkative during their walk back to town, which, of course, made Isla nervous and thus more talkative than ever.
“My parents are going to wonder where I’ve been. And my mother is going to faint when she sees what happened to my dress.” She grinned at him, but he remained unresponsive. Her grin faltered. “What happened between you and my parents?” Isla asked, hoping to get some sort of response from him. “You said you were going to talk to me about it.”
“I killed for them,” he said bluntly.
Isla’s blood turned to ice. Jack stopped walking and looked down at his hands, as though he could read the story of what he had done on his palms like a fortune teller. “There was a man who assaulted Mrs. Murray. Mr. Murray ordered me to kill this man based on the vague characteristics that Mrs. Murray remembered. He pointed the man out and said he would kill me, my brother, and his wife if I didn’t do it. I was so frightened for their lives that I never questioned why Mr. Murray wouldn’t do it himself. Now I know that he is just as much of a coward as I am.
“But he came with me and pointed the man out. I had a pistol in my hand, but couldn’t pull the trigger. At that time I realized what I was doing and lowered the gun. I turned to Mr. Murray and told him I couldn’t do it. But it was too late, the man had heard a noise and had drawn nearer to us. When he shined his lantern on us, he saw the gun, stumbled backward from shock, and fell into the river. I wanted to save him, but your father held me back. The man drowned.” At least, that was what Mr. Murray had told him. The memory of that night was hazy, like a halfway conceptualized dream.
“He wasn’t even the same man who attacked your mother. He was completely innocent,” he finished.
“How do ye ken that?”
“He was a friend, and a loving husband to his wife.” Jack cleared his throat and continued. “Soon after my brother stole from the Murrays and was then taken to jail. You see, taking you to America wasn’t just to save my brother’s arse. I was also saving my own. The Murrays were so angry about my brother’s theft that they were threatening to turn me in for murder if I didn’t bring you back from England.”
“But it was an accident! He fell in!”
“But I held the gun. It was because of me that he became frightened and fell into the river. By all means I killed him.”
“Just as you said, you were frightened for your life, and your family’s life!”
But he didn’t seem to be listening. His sentences became fragmented. “I was friends with the man who died. I hadn’t known who it was at the time. My mind was so muddled. I felt guilty about what I had done that I helped out the Lockhearts any way that I could. I gave them money and companionship. But since my brother is now presumed dead, I can tell the Lockhearts what happened without fearing that the Murrays will go after Milton and his family. But there’s just one thing.”
“Gregory?” Isla asked.
Jack nodded. “Gregory killed my brother’s wife’s family after the Murrays found out that Milton has stolen from them,” Jack explained. Isla felt the blood drain from her face. “He burned down their village and killed them. By the grace of God alone, Milton’s wife was able to escape. She and my brother are now running as far from the Murrays as they can.”
“No,” she whispered, horrified. “That can’t be true.”
“Gregory is dangerous. And you should avoid him at all costs.”
“He’s my parent’s manager. How can I avoid him?”
“I don’t want to force you to run away.”
“But you want me too.” Isla said shrewdly. She laughed mirthlessly. “Aye, I’ll gladly get away from him, and from the Murrays. But first, how do we bring these people to justice?”
“With a family like the Murrays,” Jack said sullenly, “you don’t.”
They continued walking in silence for a few minutes, both of them lost in their own thoughts.
“I have to let the Lockhearts know the truth,” Jack said suddenly. He glanced at her wistfully. “And here I was hoping I would get to make love with you one more time before I’m arrested.”
She stamped her foot. “I’m not letting that happen.”
“Oh, really? How so?”
“I’m the Murrays daughter,” she told him. “They might listen to me.”
“I don’t want to keep it from the Lockhearts any longer...”
“Give me until tonight.”
“Fine,” Jack relented. “I have nothing more to lose.”
It broke her heart the way he said that so matter-of-factly.
“Stay strong, Jackson Craig. Don’t tell the Lockhearts anything until I find a way to get you out of this.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jack saw Isla off at the bottom of the hill that led to the Murray’s estate, under the shady cover of an oak tree.
“Stay out of trouble,” she told him.
“No promises there,” he grumbled.
She broke into a grin, her white teeth dazzling in the sun. But he also saw something more in her gaze, questions that she had not asked, and that he wasn’t sure he would be able to answer.
He needed to do this now, despite what he had promised Isla. He had already waited far too long. Milton and Aki were safe from the Murrays; they had left already to go west, discarding their home as well as their identity as they started their new lives.
I have nothing to lose.
Jack turned on his heels and walked back into Philadelphia, barely noticing the noise and commotion as he traversed to the other side of town where the old windmill stood.
Chloe opened the door after he knocked. Her eyes widened when she realized who it was, and then she ducked her head. “Welcome, Lord Craig,” she said, struggling to contain her excitement.
“Good afternoon, Miss Lockheart. Is your mother in?”
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Yes, she is in the drawing room.” She hesitated, and then puffed up her chest and lifted her chin. “She does not fancy younger men, you know.”
Jack blinked at her, slightly startled. “That’s not why I am here,” he told he
r bluntly.
“Oh,” a look a relief washed over her. “All right, then. Right this way.”
Don’t get too excited, Jack thought as the young woman led her towards the drawing room. Mrs. Lockheart sat on the sofa, her needlework in one hand, and a glass of lemonade in the other. She smiled when Jack walked in.
“Lord Craig, I wasn’t expecting to see you today. Welcome!”
He couldn’t form a smile on his lips. “Please sit, both of you.”
Wanting to quickly get the truth out, Jack immediately began to tell them about the night Mr. Lockheart died. He even mentioned Mr. Murray’s part in the murder as he told the story.
What do I have to lose? he thought. There is no way Isla can find a way to save me from my past.
When he was finished, Mrs. Lockheart brought her hands to her mouth and shook her head in disbelief. Chloe Lockheart ran from the room, crying.
The following words that came out of Mrs. Lockheart’s mouth weren’t a surprise, but they hurt nonetheless:
“You’re not welcome here anymore, Lord Craig.”
Nodding, Jack stood up and walked himself over to the door, but then turned around. Mrs. Lockheart had already buried her face in her hands and was weeping. “I am sorry,” he told her. He couldn’t remember how many times he had said that to her already, but he knew it would never be enough. She never looked up as he left the house.
Now that the truth was finally out, all he had to do was wait and see what happened next. Even though he was faced with the unknown, he still felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
There was another performance that night as he walked past the River Theater towards Madame Truffle’s brothel. By the size of the crowd, the scare from the night before did not cause people to stay in their homes from fear. In fact, they all looked incredibly excited. More than once he heard Isla’s names pass between the lips of aristocrats who managed to get tickets to the coveted show. Street children were lined up by the windows, taking turns to hold each other on their shoulders to peer into the windows to get a glimpse of the wonder and whimsy within.