The Uncharted Series Omnibus

by Keely Brooke Keith

  Connor nodded. “So it doesn’t seem like evacuation would be an option. And we have no defensive weapons—”

  Levi held up a fist and grinned.

  Connor chuckled. “Useless against modern weapons. Most military vessels could obliterate this village without a single crewman leaving the ship. Maybe your dad is right.”

  The mention of his father’s diplomatic tactics irritated Levi. He took a deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest. “Should we build a tower near the place where the founders ran ashore and—every year on the equinox—sit out there and keep watch?”

  “Don’t forget I dropped out of the sky, and so did that satellite debris. If anyone is in a watchtower, I suggest they look up.” Connor shook his head. “Like I said—I don’t have the answers. All I can do is drag the debris into the shed and hope we can make something useful out of it.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Mandy folded a dishtowel in half and pulled a hot pan of biscuits from the oven. She closed the oven door and dropped the pan onto the stovetop with a clang. Moving around her mother, she reached into the cupboard for plates. She wondered if the casual dinner would include the whole Colburn household and looked at her mother. “Seven or eight?”

  Roseanna plopped a chunk of butter onto her best butter dish and shook her head. “Just the four of us and John. Isabella says she is too tired to go out in the evenings, and Connor and Lydia are enjoying time to themselves.” She glanced at the darkened kitchen window. “Everett should be finished in the barn soon. I told him we’re having company.”

  Mandy reached into the cupboard and took down five plates. “What about Bethany?”

  “She’s sleeping at her friend’s house tonight.” Roseanna took the butter to the table and wiped her hands on her apron as she walked back to Mandy. “John didn’t mention Levi—maybe he’s coming, too. Go ahead and set six places.”

  Mandy’s stomach fluttered. She had not seen Levi since their argument in the shed a week prior and had relived their conversation many times in her mind. Each mental reenactment presented a new angle and a new set of emotions. He had asked if she felt only gratitude toward him, and she had failed to answer. Now she regretted it. Lydia had advised her to tell him how she felt, but Mandy knew he would be obligated to reject her because of her past. But the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if Lydia were right: even if Levi rejected her, he deserved to know how she felt. He had loved her for years, and he had saved her life. If he rejected her, she would add that to the mountain of punishment her choices had already accrued.

  As Mandy set the places at the table, her father opened the front door. She held her breath as Samuel let John in the house, but Levi was not with him. Roseanna nudged her. “Sorry, Amanda. I shouldn’t have raised your hopes.”

  Mandy walked back to the stove. As she pulled the biscuits from the pan and piled them into a basket, she glanced at her mother. “Am I that obvious?”

  “You are to me, darling, but probably not to Levi, or he would be here.”

  Mandy tried to ignore the downward pull of regret. She felt caged in the hot kitchen and fanned her face with her hands as she stepped away from the stove. She listened to her father and John conversing in the parlor and decided to confirm Levi’s absence for herself. She stepped around the corner and looked into the parlor where the men sat in armchairs near the unlit fireplace. Framing her mouth with a polite smile, she interrupted their conversation. “Excuse me, Father, Mr. Colburn. Are we just waiting for Everett, or will Levi be joining us as well?”

  John shook his head. “Levi was anxious to get back to work after spending a week hauling debris from the shore. I have not seen him today. I assume he is still working at his house.” He tilted his head a degree and looked at her with the intense gaze he used when he detected deeper desires. “I apologize for his absence.”

  Mandy realized her smile had wilted, and she tried her best to bring it back. Her father glanced up at her. Immediately, she turned and walked to the kitchen, feeling exposed.

  Roseanna kept the food warm a while longer and waited for Everett. Finally, she paced to the window, heaved a sigh, and said they should go ahead and eat. Samuel and John came into the kitchen and sat at either end of the table. Mandy sat across from her mother and between two empty chairs. She could hear Shep in front of the house barking and wondered when Everett would come inside. John prayed before the food was served, and in the brief silence between Amen and the chorus of clinking knives and serving spoons, Mandy heard something peculiar outside. The noise came from the front of the house and sounded like a cry—not of an animal but of a man. She held still while the others filled their plates and then she heard another, louder noise. The room fell silent as the sounds of a scuffle became clear—grunting and a dull thud repeated over and over.

  Mandy dropped her napkin onto her chair and dashed to the front door to look out. She cracked it open, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. In front of the house a man lay on the ground. Everett hovered over him, beating the man with his fists. Even in the pale moonlight she recognized the man on the ground. A scream stung her throat and she jumped back from the door. She turned toward the kitchen table. “It’s him! It’s Harvey!” Looking back outside, she covered her mouth as she sucked in a breath. A ruckus of chairs scooted in the kitchen, and then footsteps rushed behind her. John gently pushed her away from the door as he and Samuel hurried outside.

  Roseanna put her hands on Mandy’s shoulders. “Look away, Amanda!”

  Mandy ignored her mother’s order and stayed there at the door. Her gaze was fixed on Harvey’s bloodied face as Everett pounded him into the ground. Samuel and John struggled to get a grip on Everett and pull him away from the man. With his last release of fury, Everett planted his foot firmly into Harvey’s throat and left it there. Mandy took one last look at Harvey’s motionless body; he was dead.

  She staggered back out of the doorway, shocked at what she had witnessed. Roseanna pulled her close in a motherly embrace, but Mandy’s arms hung limp at her sides. She heard the men discussing what to do with the body. Then John came into the house and put a hand on her back as he told her mother to take her into the bedroom and barricade the door behind them. He said something about Felix’s unknown whereabouts, but Mandy could only hear the sound of her heartbeat thumping in her ears. It matched the rhythm of the pounding blows Everett had delivered to the man who had apparently come to take her again.

  Roseanna ushered her into the bedroom as John had instructed. Mandy knelt by the window and peeled back a corner of the gauzy curtain to look out while her mother pushed a small dresser against the closed bedroom door.

  “Get away from the window, Amanda.”

  Mandy ignored her mother’s demand. She watched as Everett slipped his hands beneath Harvey’s shoulders, lifted the body, and dragged it away. Harvey’s head lolled to the side, and Mandy’s stomach churned. Her father was following Everett, and she pressed the side of her face against the glass to see them until they went around the house and out of sight.

  John walked briskly toward the road. He glanced from side to side as if he expected Felix to attack at any moment. “Mr. Colburn is leaving.” She looked back at her mother. “Where is he going?”

  “Probably to get Levi.” Roseanna knelt on the floor beside Mandy and rubbed her arm. “You should not have watched that. It will give you nightmares.”

  Mandy thought of the images that had plagued her sleep during the past two months. She shook her head. “No, Mother, I believe it will end my nightmares. I just watched the death of the man who attacked me. I’m not ashamed to admit I feel relieved.”

  Roseanna picked up the opposite edge of the curtain and looked outside too. “I hope John is able to find Levi quickly. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”

  Mandy thought of Everett beating Harvey to death and felt a wicked grin curve her mouth. “If Everett gets a chance to fight Felix, there will be
no one left to hurt us.”

  “Amanda Grace, you should not say such things.” Roseanna’s parental scold lacked sincerity. “Though I agree it’s a relief to know the man who took you is now dead.”

  “Everett told me he would kill Harvey for what he did to me. I knew his rage was pure, but I did not imagine he would get the chance to beat Harvey to death.”

  “They all wanted a chance—the men in our family, the Colburns, probably every man in this village. They all wanted a chance to fight for you… especially Levi.” Roseanna let her corner of the curtain fall closed. The moonlight lit half of her face, washing away the creases in her skin. “You should be with him. You and Levi belong together. Do you know you should be with him?”

  “Mother,” Mandy sighed.

  “I’m serious, Amanda. You should not be here, curled up by a window, barricaded in your father’s house for safety. You should be in your own home, protected by a husband. Levi loves you and he wants to protect you. He is waiting for you to let him love you. I can see it in the way he watches you. He wants you by his side—and not just in these rare moments of terror—he wants you as his wife.”

  Mandy started to speak, but her mother gave her arm a squeeze and continued. “You’re a beautiful woman and you enjoy the flattering attention men give you, but all the compliments and desirous looks you collect cannot compare to the adoration that one man—the right man—would give you in marriage. Beauty fades and, my dear, you may not believe this at twenty-four, but it fades rather quickly. Levi would adore you for the rest of your life if you let him. And to him, your beauty will only increase.”

  “Mother, years ago I rejected Levi, and it is now the greatest of my many regrets.” She rubbed her hand across her forehead and wiped away droplets of sweat that had formed without her knowing it. “My life is situated as it is by my own design. I must live with it. I assure you, my heart aches to have that life with Levi, but …it cannot be. And so I have to denounce my longing daily.”

  Roseanna sighed. “I don’t see why.”

  No, her mother would not know why she could not be with Levi, and Mandy planned to keep it that way. She peeled the curtain back again to look out and saw only the grassy front yard and the dark smudge of trees beyond. “How long will we have to wait here?”

  “Until your father comes back and tells us it’s safe.”

  Mandy leaned her shoulder against the wall and pulled a curl of hair into her fingers. The silence that spread through the room did little to ameliorate the tension. She imagined Everett and her father handling Harvey’s dead body and John at Levi’s house telling him what had happened. If Felix had come with Harvey to Good Springs, they were all in danger at the moment, but the men would find him and then it would all be over. But if Harvey had come to the village alone, her freedom would not yet be restored—the overseer and her father and Levi would all demand she remain under guard until the danger was eliminated. She could not bear the thought of spending her life locked away. She twined her curl around and around her finger then freed it and started again.

  * * *

  Levi crouched beside his newly hung bedroom door and screwed a porcelain doorknob into place. Satisfied with the look of the completed hardware in the lamplight, he stood and tested the door’s alignment with the strike plate in the doorframe. He closed the door and opened it again, then he looked around the empty room. Mandy had once asked why he would put a door on the bedroom if he planned on living in the house alone. He gathered his tools and picked up the lantern before walking to the kitchen. He set the screwdriver and chisels on the countertop as he thought of the honest answer to her question—he did not plan to live there alone. He had been determined to leave his father’s house—even though tradition stated he should stay and inherit the house and his father’s work—but he had never planned to live in his new house alone. He had dreamed of making Mandy his wife. He did not care if tradition forbade marrying a woman who was not a virgin. After a week of thought, he had yet to devise a way to marry her without exposing her past with the traditional vows, but the determination remained.

  Levi walked into the front room and set the lantern on the mantel. Scanning the house from that angle, he realized he owned a nearly completed—yet still empty—house. He would soon bring in the new table and chairs that were varnished and drying outside the back door, and he planned to build a new bed, though furniture alone would hardly make the house a home.

  The long summer nights had passed, and soon he would light the gray leaf log that waited in the grate. Despite the days spent searching for Mandy and the week spent removing satellite debris from the shore, he had still been able to complete the house before the winter began. Requests for his carpentry work were plentiful and would keep him busy through the cold months ahead.

  He reached down to straighten the grate in the fireplace and closed the screen. A faint sound outside made him glance at the back door. It was probably the wind blowing against the varnished furniture that was drying on the porch. He decided to go check on it and walked out of the front room to the short hallway. As he passed the kitchen, the back door flew open. Felix moved through the doorway and lunged at Levi. Levi swung, planting his fist into the side of Felix’s face. Before Felix recovered his forward momentum, Levi leveled him with a blow to the gut, forcing the air from his lungs. Felix grunted and dived at him.

  Rage engulfed Levi as Felix wrestled him through the hallway and into the front room. He did not have to think of his mother’s death or the robbery on the road or the attack on Mandy and Bethany to motivate his fury. He drew back from Felix and swung, delivering a punch with the intent of killing the malicious intruder. Matched in size and anger, Felix used his strength to try and trap him, but Levi countered every attempt, releasing the fullness of his wrath on Felix for every infraction he and his sons had committed. Felix’s age made Levi think it would be a short fight, but Felix was unaffected by his force. They fought with neither man subduing the other until Levi’s endurance gave him the upper hand. Felix’s breath sounded short and shallow, and Levi drew his fist back when the front door swung open. He assumed it was Harvey coming to join the attack. He spun on his heel ready to hit to the younger of his two enemies but pulled his punch within an inch of John’s face. As Levi and John both paused in shock, Felix scurried out the back door and ran toward the forest path.

  Levi breathed through his mouth as he looked away from his father. Then he tore through the house and out the back door after Felix. He leapt from the porch and landed on the ground with a thud. The branches of the gray leaf trees rustled unnaturally at the eastern edge of his property. Though he could not see Felix, he ran across the yard and onto the forest path, following the sound toward the bluffs. Determined not to let Felix get away, he dodged the low-lying limbs as he hurried down the path. The sound of the nearby ocean grew as he approached the bluffs. It began to muffle the sounds of Felix fleeing ahead. John’s voice came from behind Levi, and it obscured the stirring branches and heavy breathing of Felix’s flight. Irritation added to Levi’s anger. He continued his chase down the forest path until he could no longer hear Felix.

  He listened intently but heard only his father’s footsteps behind him and the soft and steady hum of the waves breaking in the distance. He rushed to the edge of the forest, where he stopped and scanned the rocky terrain between the forest and the sharp drop of the cliff above the sea. Moonlight enabled him to watch for any movement, any shadow, but he saw no sign of Felix. He felt heavy with the weight of regret and bent forward, resting his hands on his knees. His mind clouded with disbelief. Felix had been in his house within reach and had gotten away. He tasted his disgust and spat on the ground, wishing he had been prepared. He straightened his spine as his father caught up to him.

  Blowing out a wordless curse, Levi pushed his hands through his hair. “I thought you were Harvey when you came through the door. That’s the only reason I did not kill him. Now Felix has fled. I had my chance to fini
sh him off and I lost him.” He shook his head with disappointment. “I thought you were Harvey.”

  “I know, son. I came to warn you.”

  “Warn me? How did you know Felix was coming?”

  “Harvey—”

  “Is Harvey here too?” He growled the question with such rage John flinched.

  “He is dead.” John looked from side to side then leaned in. “Harvey approached the Fosters’ house a few moments ago. Everett beat him to death in their yard. I was inside with Samuel and Roseanna when Mandy heard the fight. It was over quickly. I did not ask Everett for his account of the incident, but I am certain his actions were justified.”

  Levi looked across the bluffs again, his eyes still searching for Felix. He felt a slight sense of relief knowing Harvey was dead—even pride that Everett had delivered justice. But with Felix still out there, he felt defeated. He stepped back and glared at his father. “I had my chance. I wanted Felix dead. I still do, but I lost him.”

  John looked at the ocean then settled his gaze on Levi. “We only have one enemy left, and there are two of us. We can find him and—”

  “And what, Father?” Levi interrupted, perturbed. “Give him a strong rebuke? I’m too disgusted with myself for losing him to be angered by your pacifism. Felix deserves death. He has murdered and he has kidnapped. Even scripture prescribes a sentence of death for those crimes.” His tone softened as he spoke, not from calm but from defeat. “It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. Go ahead, Father, scold me if you wish. I’m doomed to live with Felix tormenting my village and hurting the women I love and no matter how hard I hit him, he will escape and then return to do it all again.”

  John did not reply. Levi waited for it, certain of his father’s disappointment. He turned away and looked behind him into the forest, briefly wondering if Felix could have circled back to the village. Though his heart still pounded rapidly, coursing energy through his body, his beaten-down spirit convinced him there was nothing more he could do. As the bleakness of defeat sank in, he covered his face with his hands.