“I am so pleased to have so many friends here tonight. Many of you, I am sure, remember one of our favorite bankers and a member of the financial community, the late Mr. Jacob Davis.
“Recently, I had the privilege of attending the wedding of his lovely daughter, Claudia. Tonight’s ball has been organized as an occasion to introduce you all to her and her handsome husband. If you will join me in welcoming them, I would like to introduce our guests of honor, Mr. and Mrs. Micah Andrew Turner.”
As a ripple of whispered conversation slid through the crowd, Micah held Claudia’s elbow and they ascended the dais, his grip letting her know he was not pleased with her.
They acknowledged the warm greeting of applause from those around them. Then the orchestra started a waltz. The crowd in front of them separated and Micah led her down onto the ballroom floor. Taking her into his arms, he guided her around the room to the strains of the music.
Despite his ire at her machinations over the gown, holding Claudia in his arms felt more right than anything else ever had in his life. He wished this night were over so he could whisk her back to the safety of the town house and the privacy of their bedroom.
Only a few times in her life had Claudia danced, but after several hesitant first steps under Micah’s guidance, she relaxed and floated around the room to the strains of Strauss’ waltz. Soon, other couples joined them until the room swirled in a rainbow of colors. In all her dreams as a child, none ever came close to the beauty of this night.
When the dance ended, Micah led her over to stand next to Mrs. Thompkins. The Congressman’s wife introduced her to many people, all claiming a former association with her father.
Throughout the night, Claudia danced several more dances with Micah. His mere presence at her side, with his arm loosely draped behind her back, prevented the other gentlemen in the room from attempting to secure her for a partner—much to Claudia’s relief. She was sure she wouldn’t fare as well with a less-skilled partner out on the ballroom floor.
After their light dinner, she found herself once again in line for introductions to numerous guests. Claudia noticed an unusual pattern as she stood, shaking hands with those introduced to her. Many of the people at the ball were also in some way connected to the opium houses they’d been visiting. Mentally, she checked off their names until all except the main conspirators and General Wallace were accounted for.
Just as she proved her theory, Colonel Duncan joined her and Micah. In fact, the more people she connected with her list, the more apparent it became that both men guarded her flanks. They expected some sort of trouble.
As if on cue, the sea of humanity before them parted to allow a trio to approach. Claudia’s heart jumped as she recognized the tall, thin man with raven hair parted to one side, and curled mustache matching in color. Jonathan Gibson.
The beautiful woman with him had hair the color of spun silver, ice-blue eyes, and skin so pale it reminded Claudia of paste. Despite the woman’s thin frame, she still retained a voluptuous figure, drawing looks from most men in the room.
Behind them was a man bearing similar coloring to Gibson, but shorter and heavier. His eyes and nose held the rheumy appearance she’d seen on her father’s face when too far into his cups. This must be David Gibson.
Claudia felt Micah tense beside her. Reaching out, he drew her closer to him, his arm securely holding her waist.
“Micah, you should have let the family know you were planning to take a wife.” The woman’s voice dripped with venom. “And such a quaint little thing she is. Aren’t you going to introduce us, darling?”
“Claudia this is my stepmother, Julia Turner. Her escort is Jonathan Gibson, formerly of Georgia.” Micah nodded to the man at his stepmother’s side. “May I present my wife, Claudia Davis Turner.”
“What a lovely wife you’ve gained, Turner. Your fortunes have vastly improved since the war.” Jonathan Gibson reached forward to grasp Claudia’s hand. “If you will permit me, I would like to share a dance with her. Certainly you have no objections to her taking a turn on the floor with an old comrade in arms?”
His eyes raked over her body, making her wish she were clad in brown burlap sacks or finely honed armor, anything but the thin layers of silk in her scandalous dress. Her skin crawled as if she’d just had a snake slither across it and she fought back the urge to snatch her hand away.
Claudia looked up at her husband. Surely Micah wouldn’t allow the man such a liberty?
“I have a most independent wife, Gibson. She makes her own decisions.” As removed his arm from her waist, Micah’s eyes never left Julia.
For a moment, she could only stare at her husband. Then her blood raged to a full boil. She might not be as beautiful as Julia, but she expected her husband not to humiliate her in front of others by ogling his own stepmother openly! And he was quite right. She could make her own decisions, and she was very capable of handling one man in a room full of people.
“I’d be delighted to share a dance with you—Mr. Gibson, was it?” Despite the apprehension that shivered through her at his touch, Claudia bestowed one of her sweetest smiles on the man as he led her out onto the dance floor.
“You really must tell me how you and my old friend Micah met.” Gibson eased her into a waltz, almost as elegantly as Micah had.
Unlike Micah’s warmth, she had to fight the shiver of cold revulsion Gibson elicited.
“Micah saw me a year ago, and just moved into my life like a whirlwind.” Claudia bent the truth just enough to throw Gibson off balance. She recognized a weasel scratching out information when she saw one. “You might say he gave me no choice but to marry him. And I did.”
“That’s unusual for the Captain Turner I knew.” Gibson had been keeping their dance in the center of the room, but now guided her toward the edge of the swirling couples. He drew her closer and closer to the doorway leading into the conservatory garden. “He was always cautious, planning every move very carefully before executing them. But then it has been a long time since I’ve seen him.”
“I believe he was looking for a wife and any woman would do. I was just the most convenient female at the time.”
Appearing not to notice his intentions, Claudia allowed the slimy man to escort her into the warm, dark room of the Thompkins conservatory. She smelled jasmine, oranges, and lemons in the muggy air. Her stomach rebelled at the combination of smells and her repulsive escort. The man was after something and she planned to play along until she found out what.
“I have the impression that my husband is pining away for an unrequited love from his past. Whoever it was, she hurt him terribly. In fact, I believe she still has a hold on him I can’t ever hope to break.”
“I can’t believe he would prefer a dream over a flesh-and-blood woman such as yourself.” Gibson led her over to a bench, pulling her down to sit beside him. “What makes you think this?”
“It’s nothing I can put my finger on, you understand.” She allowed the rejection from moments before their dance to surface. She took a deep sigh and wiped at the tears that suddenly appeared. “It’s just a feeling I have.”
“Do tell.” Gibson’s interest in her husband’s possible secret made her stomach roil with nausea.
“Sometimes, when he thinks I’m asleep, he leaves the house and is gone for hours. When he returns, he smells of the most unusual odor. It isn’t exactly perfume. In fact I can’t place the odor at all.” Claudia repeated the story Micah had concocted for her to give anyone trying to find out why he was in town, hinting that he may have his own need for opium.
“There, there, ma’am.” Gibson patted her shoulders in a mock show of sympathy. “Whatever his intrigues, it is obvious your husband is still concerned with your welfare. See, he’s come looking for you, even as we speak. Now, wouldn’t you say he cares for you?”
Claudia glanced up at the massive form of her husband.
Now he remembers he has a wife to look after. After he spent time ogling his own stepmother and leav
ing me at the mercy of this snake.
His dismissal in the ballroom still stung.
Well, two can play this ogling game. I came here to find out information, and I’m not leaving until I have some.
“Tell me what brings you to Washington, Mr. Gibson.” She turned her shoulder to the approaching figure.
“Darling,” Micah’s voice came from behind her. It sounded scratchy in the thick air of the room. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
“You said I could make my own decisions, dear,” she replied with false sweetness. “I’ve decided to sit with Mr. Gibson.”
“I thought we might share another dance.” His massive hand wrapped around her arm none too gently as he dragged her off the bench and into his arms. He crushed her to himself so tightly all the air rushed from her lungs. He circled the conservatory once, rather clumsily, before she could gasp in more air. Given the extra moments to think, she realized the man holding her was not her husband, despite the similarity of voice, size, coloring and similar dark suit.
Where Micah was strong—yet gentle—this man was a boorish bear. Micah had been an excellent dancer. This man had two left feet. Her husband never drank that she knew of, but this man reeked of alcohol.
Stephen.
And he was leading her to the back door of the conservatory, away from the ball.
Panic reared its head and Claudia knew she no longer played a game. She opened her mouth to scream, only to have a thick fist smash into her jaw. Immediate pain, then total darkness enveloped her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
With his peripheral vision, Micah watched Claudia and Gibson circle the dance floor, never taking his attention off Julia—a feat of supreme self-control. What he wanted to do was strangle the bitch in front of him, storm after his wife, and drag Claudia home to the safety of their home.
None of that would help him rescue Patrice or stop the storm of sedition threatening the country. He’d taken every precaution to protect Claudia and he had to play out his part in this little drama.
He was very glad Claudia had chosen the colors and material she had for her gown—if not necessarily the design. The distinct color, matched with her own glorious riot of hair and unusual height for a woman, made her easy to follow. He also knew many of Cain’s men as well as Henderson, the boys, Simon and Kelly milled through the crowd to ensure her safety.
“Really, Micah. How gauche of you to bring such a strumpet into our family.” Julia opened her fan, lightly waving it back and forth in front of her face as she spoke. Despite the South’s loss in the war, she still maintained the motions of the southern belle she pretended to be.
Only Micah knew her for the poor imitation of a lady that she was.
“One must meet his baser needs when possible, Julia. I believe you were the one that taught me that adage.” He tried to keep the bitter edge out of his voice as well as control his temper. He wanted to keep her talking he needed information from her.
“But darling, you should have just come home to Grand Oaks. It wasn’t necessary to take a wife.” She lightly tapped his arm with her fan.
“I could have done so, but you see I have needs that can only be met here in Washington at the moment.” He needed to convince them he was dependent on their drug and that Claudia meant nothing to him. He needed to be their target, not her.
“Something you couldn’t find in your blessed mountains?”
“I may not be able to ever return to my mountains, Julia.”
“Why ever not?”
“You will recall my injuries from the war.”
“The one that nearly took your life?”
“I never really got over the pain that bullet left with me. There are things I need that I can only find here in the cities. Things that will ease my suffering.” He watched her lick her lips, as if she could taste the opium he alluded to. He had her attention now. “So you see, I had to find an excuse to stay here in Washington without drawing attention to my real reason for returning from the west. I need to be near the one thing in this life that will keep me going. Even the pleasure of the gold I found out west can’t compare to the release from my torment I get here in the east.”
“Gold?” Now he had David Gibson’s attention as well.
Good.
“A small vein. Enough to keep me happy and free of work the rest of my life.” A movement of green through the conservatory doors caught his peripheral vision.
Damn it! Where was Claudia going with Gibson? His eyes met Cain’s over their prey’s heads and the other man excused himself for a supposed drink.
“Did you play it all out?” There was a hardness in the younger Gibson’s voice.
“No, I couldn’t.” Claudia had better be all right or he was going to throttle Gibson regardless of the consequences. “I couldn’t work in such pain any longer. The assay report suggested it to be much larger than I was able to bring out.”
Micah watched Cain signal to Kelly who was working the room as a servant, to head for the conservatory room. He needed to get away from these two vultures and help find his wife. He appeared to scan the room as if looking for someone, while Julia drawled on about his good fortune in finding gold. Congressman Thompkins stood near the door. He would do nicely. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with the Congressman and his wife.”
He knew he shouldn’t have let Gibson dance with Claudia. What an idiotic thing to do.
Extricating himself from the two leeches, he tried to keep his pace as calm as possible. He wove his way through the crowd, speaking to those he passed as briefly as possible, hoping his desperation didn’t show.
When he reached the Congressman’s side, he glanced into the dark conservatory hoping to glimpse some sort of sign of Claudia or Cain or Kelly.
“Where is your lovely wife, Mr. Turner?” Mrs. Thompkins glanced around.
“I must apologize for her, ma’am. She’s developed a severe headache, and I’m taking her home. Colonel Duncan has escorted her to the front so I could make our apologies to you both. I do hope you understand.”
As he spoke, Micah watched Jonathan Gibson rejoin his brother and Julia, a self satisfied grin on his rotten face. Kelly appeared on the other side of the conservatory door, signaling him to come.
Taking a moment to lift Mrs. Thompkins’ hand to his lips in farewell, he excused his next actions, “This crowd is so great, I think I’ll leave through the conservatory. That is, if there is an exit there?”
“Of course. It’s straight back. And do take Mrs. Turner home and put some cool cloths on her head. That and a darkened room always help me.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Micah slipped out the doorway, then ran to the end of the room where Kelly awaited him, holding the door. The two men ran down the path to the front of the house.
Damn Gibson, if anything happened to her, he’d kill them all, information and country be damned.
Cain had two horses ready, while Henderson brought up the carriage with Simon and Joey already inside. Kelly climbed into the vehicle. Micah threw himself into his saddle, kicking the black into a gallop behind Cain.
“Who took her, Cain?”
“If I didn’t know better, Micah, I’d swear it was you.”
“Stephen.”
Cain barely heard the name in the wind and clatter of hooves, but the way Micah said it made the hair on his neck stand up. “She wasn’t putting up much of a fight when they threw her into the carriage. I was too far away to get to her, but Adam jumped onto the back of their carriage as it rolled down the drive. That’s his lantern just up ahead. Good thing we were prepared for such an occurrence.”
“Not prepared enough, it would seem. They took my wife instead of me.”
“They’re heading for the Potomac, Micah. Are we stopping them before they reach their destination?”
“No.”
They slowed their horses enough to follow the carriage, without alerting the passengers of their presence. Micah wanted the
m to arrive safely and allow Claudia time to regain consciousness before he took her out of there. An awake, cooperative wife was much easier to rescue than a drugged one.
Moving through the docks, the carriage halted in front of the clipper ship, The Stargazer. The driver hopped down, opened the door of the carriage, and removed a limp bundle.
Micah and Cain dismounted close enough to see what was going on. Adam had turned out the lantern as soon as he saw them hide behind a group of large crates. They signaled the boy to remain hidden on the back of the carriage.
The driver lifted the bundle onto his shoulder and carried it up the gangplank to the moored ship. Two rough-looking sailors approached to see what he carried.
“Hey there, Captain,” one of them greeted the man. “What’s in the blanket? Another guest for the cargo hold?”
“Eventually, One Eye, eventually.”
Micah urged himself to remain calm at the meaning of Stephen’s words. His traitorous brother headed for the midsection where the captain’s quarters were located. “But before you boys get a chance to sample her, I have a few plans of my own for this one.”
The two sailors behind him laughed as he disappeared below. Micah fought the desire to storm onto the ship, brandishing his pistol and knives. But he wanted to get Claudia out without anything happening to her, or give away his knowledge of the group’s operations. He also wanted a look down in that cargo hold.
Quiet footsteps sounded behind them. Henderson, Kelly and Simon crouched down next to Micah and Cain.
“We left Joseph with the animals, ready to go,” Henderson whispered. “Is she on board the clipper?”
“I’m afraid so, but as of now, she’s still unconscious. Kelly, I want you to take Joey’s place with the carriage. Have him join Adam on the other one. I want to know where to find Claudia’s kidnapper when I get her entrenched at home.”
“Gotcha, Captain.” The sergeant ran back to the carriage.
Micah watched a shadow dart out into the dark and onto the back of the lead carriage, landing beside Adam. He turned his attention back to the activity on board the ship as Claudia’s kidnapper emerged from the captain’s quarters. In the lamp light on the deck, they were all able to get a good view of the man. Three sets of eyes turned to stare at Micah. His never left the man leaving the ship.
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