Secrets In Savannah (Phantom Knights)

by Amalie Vantana

  “I spent two years acting like I was Guinevere at the Holy Order meetings while she was sent out on missions, until last year when I was able to break free from Harvey,” Hannah said, and astonished us all.

  “That was why Levitas took your sister,” I voiced.

  Hannah nodded. “I followed Guinevere to Philadelphia and had my own spies alert me to her movements.”

  Remembering the day when Bess and I went riding with Guinevere, and Hannah raced her across the field, her sudden appearance was explained. She had followed us there. It also explained how she knew so much about the Phantoms. She had been following us without us knowing it. Unless Levi knew it, which I did not doubt.

  “Where are the artifacts now?” Hannah’s curiosity was suspicious to me, but it did not appear so to Guinevere.

  “About that,” Bess said, and seeing my sister’s expression, my stomach knotted. Bess appeared like one who was guilty of a mischief. “I did not think it wise to leave them in the house, not with Mother there alone.”

  “They are here?” Guinevere clasped her hands. “Could you bring them into the parlor? I believe it is time for me to show you their importance.”

  Bess and Guinevere went in different directions leaving Leo, Hannah, and I to wait for them.

  “Do you know about this?” I asked Hannah as I paced the room.

  “The secrets? Some,” she replied as she leaned back at her ease.

  What she was not saying was what I knew. Guinevere would never tell all of the secrets. The fact that she would show us even one meant that she was coming to trust us. To see us as her family.

  Guinevere entered the room with an ink stand, and Bess followed with a sack and a hatbox. Bess removed the small sword from the sack, and the dagger of secrets and book of incantations from the hatbox.

  Guinevere took the dagger of secrets, unsheathed it, and ran her finger over the raised marks on the blade.

  Pouring out some ink onto a piece of parchment, she laid the blade in the ink then transferred it to a clean sheet and pressed the blade. She rocked the blade until all of it had touched the paper. She repeated the process with the opposite side of the blade, but when she moved it to the parchment, she turned the dagger and pressed it across the paper. As she began to remove the blade, letters that had been broken up by the raised marks and the grooves came together, but there were some missing.

  Guinevere took the ring that Bess had found at the plantation and dipped it in the ink. When she placed it where the missing letters were, the writing became decipherable.

  Bess read it even though the letters were in Danish. “Fidelity to the one, my Lord, my King.” As if struck with knowledge, Bess gasped, taking a step away from the parchment. “If that ring came from your country, as I suspect it did, how did my father get it in his possession?”

  Guinevere did not waver as she replied, “He stole it.”

  “From who?” Bess inquired further.

  “Ma belle.”

  Bess gave one final push, asking, “And who is Ma belle?”

  “My sovereign.”

  Guinevere had just awarded us with three new secrets, all larger than the rest.

  Guinevere’s sovereign was a woman, Ma belle was the rightful heir to Guinevere’s home country, and she was hiding in America.

  CHAPTER 25

  GUINEVERE

  After I had shown them the artifacts and told them about Ma belle it felt as if their determination and Phantom spirit was renewed. The light was again in Jack’s eyes that had not been there since Philadelphia.

  Jack thought that George could be hiding in a place that we had not even considered. Lucas’s house. If that were the case, then all they were awaiting was my uncle’s arrival.

  All I knew was that somewhere in this city George had my sister. If it meant tearing every board of Lucas’s house apart to find her, that was what we would do. Or Jack would do since he refused to let me go with him, Leo, and Sam. He claimed that it was due to my needing a rest after witnessing Lucas’s death, but the truth was he was trying to protect me. I knew it, he knew it, and Bess knew it.

  In the parlor, I was not alone five minutes when Bess entered with a tray in hand. She set it down before me then took a cup and sat across from me.

  “Can you tell me about my brother? How long has he worked for you?” Bess asked, and I knew she did not mean Jack.

  “From the day that he rescued me from an attacker,” I said, watching for her reaction.

  She looked up slowly from her cup, her hand shaking the tiniest bit.

  There was no shame in either of our gazes, only a sort of understanding. We had each gone through the same thing, by the same person’s vile assault.

  “It was him, was it not?”

  When I nodded, she glanced away, breathing deeply.

  “Then we both have reasons to be grateful to Harvey that he can never do the same to someone less fortunate than we were.” She sipped the coffee from her cup.

  “How do you remain so strong, Bess?” I asked, and she bit her lip, like she wanted to laugh or grin.

  “Love,” she said simply, and when I showed my confusion, she expounded. “Love makes me strong. It gives me encouragement, determination, even stubbornness. I am strong because the people that I love are strong, no matter if they cannot see it in themselves. So when I feel like I cannot go on, I look at Sam, or Jack, or my mother and I allow their strength to carry me, replenish me. I see them, and I want to be strong.”

  I wondered if it was the same for Jack because he was the strongest person that I knew.

  “What makes you strong, Guinevere?”

  Snapping out of my thoughts, I grimaced. “I am not strong, Bess. I am terrified,” I exclaimed before I thought to guard my tongue.

  Bess laughed, then choked it off with her hand to her mouth. She cleared her voice. “What I meant was what makes you feel your strongest?”

  There was no question in my mind. Jack made me feel my strongest.

  “Whatever it is, hold on to it. Keep it close, and draw on it when you feel terrified. You are a strong woman, Guinevere. Perhaps the strongest woman alive, even if you cannot see it yourself.”

  What Bess thought she saw as my strength was truly my fear. It pushed me on for years. Fear for my sister’s safety, and that our past would find us. That I would fail, and my family would pay the price. For years I had kept that fear close at hand because it was what drove me on. It built the determination within me to accomplish tasks that no woman could have or should have been able to complete. It was not until Jack came storming into my life that I understood true strength. He made me want to be a person worthy of his love.

  “I never apologized to you, Bess, for Levitas, and for Charleston. I do, most sincerely. It was never my wish to bring you harm.” I felt as if more explanation was required. “In Philadelphia, I wanted to keep you from being branded. I was prepared to rescue you, when Richard threatened to have your mother take your place if I involved myself.”

  Bess’s face softened. “Thank you, Guinevere.”

  As capturing her in Charleston was done by a purely selfish motive, I did not mention that. Harvey had been having me followed, he knew that I was near to quitting the Holy Order. When Bess chased me to the warehouse and got herself involved, there was but one choice. Harvey’s men were watching the warehouse. They would have seen and reported had I not captured her and my plan to leave the Holy Order would have been ruined, for Harvey would have locked me up.

  Hannah came tripping into the room. “Our shadow has returned.”

  At the window, she pointed him out. He was leaning against a tree in the green, watching the house and not looking away. Something about the way he was dressed sparked a conviction in my mind.

  “Hannah, will you take a turn with me about the square?” I asked.

  “This should be amusing,” Hannah replied as agreement.

  Together, we left the house, strolling down the streets that made up W
arren Square.

  “Does our shadow follow?”

  As we crossed a street, Hannah glanced behind us. She grinned, and I motioned her to follow me down a path between two houses.

  As we hurried down the path, our shadow hastened past the opening.

  At the back of the houses, Hannah opened a door and went in, leading the way across a kitchen. It became apparent that Hannah had done this before, when we passed a maid and cook who smiled as they bobbed curtseys.

  Hannah led the way toward the parlor, and when she swept into the room, Dudley Stanton was standing beside the fireplace with a glass in hand. He saw us, and dropped his glass, the red contents spilling down the front of his elegant waistcoat and white shirt.

  “Blast!”

  “Dudley, decorum,” Mrs. Stanton sighed from her place on a settee. “To what do we owe this visit, my dears?”

  “I confess that I do not know,” Hannah said, but got no more out for a man burst into the house.

  “Sir, they disappeared—” Dudley’s manservant came running into the room, but broke off as he saw us. His face colored, but it was nothing to Dudley’s which matched the red stain on his front.

  With an exasperated exclamation, Dudley sent the man away, and sat his glass aside.

  Leaning his arm along the fireplace mantle, Dudley pursed his lips. “Oh, a twisted fate we do live, when we live to twist the fates of others,” Dudley murmured. “I trust that you had a pleasant stroll the other morning, Mrs. Martin.”

  Ah, so that was it. “I did, thank you, and I trust that you had an enjoyable stroll as well, Mr. Stanton.”

  “You play a deep game, ma’am,” Dudley told me as if I did not know.

  “You have no idea what games I play, Mr. Stanton,” I replied with feigned sweetness, “but your mother does. Tell me, did Harvey instruct you to have me followed or was that of your own brilliance?”

  Dudley’s face reddened again; Hannah gasped, but Mrs. Stanton laughed.

  “My dear girl, Harvey is losing control of the Order and he knows it. We of the twelve act as we deem proper. Which is why I am here.”

  “Would it not be more efficient to work with me than to follow me?” I inquired.

  Dudley shifted his weight.

  “If it is aid that you require, speak to Frederick,” Mrs. Stanton said with laughter edging her words.

  A knock fell upon the door, and when a portly butler led Frederick into the room, I had a feeling that Mrs. Stanton held more control than Harvey was willing to admit.

  “Ah, dearest, just the woman I require,” Frederick said as he took my hand. He kissed it then drew a letter from his pocket and placed it against my palm.

  Unfolding the letter, there were two pieces of parchment. One was a sheet that had holes cut out of it, and the other was a letter writ in Harvey’s hand.

  Sitting on a chair, I placed the mask over the letter. It was written in a code that Harvey created long ago. The letter was written in Danish, which Frederick and most people could not read. The holes in the mask revealed a pattern of letters. The letters were then to be matched up to a list of phrases. To make it more complex, only two people knew the phrases on the list. Harvey, and myself.

  If someone received such a letter, they would bring it to me to be translated. I had the list memorized, and as I knew the letters, I read the message with no difficulty.

  “Harvey is on his way. He will arrive within the week and requests a meeting of your court.” I halted and glanced at Hannah then at Frederick. I was not sure that he wanted the rest to be said before her.

  Frederick grinned in his lazy manner. “There is no reason to mistrust Hannah. Is there, Mrs. Stanton?”

  Dudley’s mother blinked before turning to Hannah. “I believe he is speaking to you.”

  When those words sunk into my thoughts, a slow grin tugged up my lips. Hannah and Dudley were married. She winked at me before she moved to kiss Dudley’s cheek.

  “How long?” I asked, and both Dudley and Hannah smiled wistfully.

  “Two years.”

  My astonishment overtook me for a full minute. Frederick had to snap his fingers to bring me back to task.

  “If Harvey is on his way, my court shall convene on Wednesday next, and that is when you will fulfill your end of our bargain,” Frederick said with a satisfied nod.

  A little while later after Frederick had left the house, and Dudley and Hannah were engaged in a flirtation, Mrs. Stanton invited me to sit beside her.

  “There was more to that letter than you led on,” Mrs. Stanton said, her knowing gaze disconcerting me.

  The next part of the letter was specifically for me alone, but I felt a strange desire to trust Mrs. Stanton. With her being one of the twelve lords, perhaps she could provide some clarity about Harvey’s cryptic words. “Harvey says the time has come.” My words struck Mrs. Stanton so forcefully that she leaned back, fanning herself.

  “What does it mean?” I demanded.

  Mrs. Stanton cast a glance at Hannah and Dudley before leaning toward me. “It means that Harvey is about to declare war.”

  CHAPTER 26

  JACK

  Lucas’s house was deserted when we arrived, his guards having left it in disarray after his death. There was no sign that either George or Edith had stayed there.

  During our search of the house, Sam had told me what he learned from Charlotte. She had told Lucas about the artifacts, and the places that she thought they might be hidden.

  Lucas was gone, but that did not mean that he had not sent that information to Guinevere’s uncle.

  The three artifacts that I had were the ones Bess had brought from Charleston, and the three that Guinevere had were with people she said she trusted. There was a seventh artifact somewhere, but Guinevere said she knew where it was and that it was safe.

  When our search was complete, and we had returned home, Guinevere told me about Frederick’s letter from Harvey. He meant to declare war, but on whom and why Guinevere could not tell me for she did not know. She said it could be the royal guards, or it could be the Phantoms. One thing she knew for sure was that Harvey would strike those he thought were against him.

  After our evening meal, I spent time writing a second letter to Jericho and Mariah before spending the rest of the night with my wife.

  When morning came, my wife and I decided that if war was to come to us, we needed at least one day to ourselves. A day without talk of spies, war, tyrannical uncles, or old leaders who had gone off the edge.

  We set out on foot toward the marketplace. She needed some time away from the chaos of what had happened at the plantation, and the constant worry of when George would arrive.

  “I have been thinking about when this battle is at an end, what I would like for us to do.”

  She looked up at me with her extraordinary eyes full of interest.

  “I would like for us to go away on our own for a time. We could live in New York, or Boston since I take it you never lived in Boston as you told me.”

  She smiled almost innocently. “I did live in Boston for a month while Harvey was setting up the Philadelphia branch of Levitas, but I never lived there with my family.”

  “Where else have you lived?” I was intrigued by my wife and all she had done in her eighteen years.

  “I lived in New York for a few months when we first arrived, and then we moved to Baltimore where I underwent training. Once my guardian thought I was prepared, he moved me to Charleston, to put my skills to use.”

  I pressed her hand lightly. “One day soon we must speak of your guardian.”

  “We will, one day. You must understand that I was trained never to tell stories that were not my own. It will take me some time to get my mind past that way of thinking.” For a moment, I thought she might cry, but she only shook her head. “From the time that I was twelve, my guardian trained me to be whom he wanted me to be. Now that I am no longer the white phantom, I am unsure of who I truly am.”

 
“I can tell you that,” I said at once.

  She gazed up at me, and it took all of my restraint to keep from turning us around and taking her home to spend another kind of time together.

  “You are Guinevere-Constance Martin. A woman who can be whoever she wishes. With an exceedingly handsome husband who loves her no matter whom she chooses to be.”

  We moved down the road, and I knew by the smile on her face that I had put her mind more at ease.

  “Where did you go from Charleston?” I asked; both curious and wanting to hear her voice for it was what put me at ease.

  “General Harvey thought it was time to place me in Levitas, to keep a rein on Richard’s activities,” she glanced up at me, “and we heard about your having left the area to help out in Washington. The timing was perfect.”

  I was silent for a few moments as we walked along the brick roads, passing houses and well-kept greens in the center of the squares. “Was Levi the one giving reports of our activities?”

  “Not until after I was living in Philadelphia, did Levi begin to report to us.” She smiled whimsically. “You should know that he gave only false reports, but General Harvey has his spies everywhere. The man is well to do, and money can open one’s lips faster than the bottle if the price is high enough.”

  Levi had been the youngest on our team, but more than that, he was our brother, adopted when my father brought him home to join the Phantoms. So, when he had blamed Bess and me for his capture and branding by Levitas, it had broken a part of us.

  It turned out that Levi had not joined the Holy Order, but was using his post with them to save Bess.

  Guinevere touched my cheek. “You will see him again,” she said as if she could read my thoughts.

  We continued our walk, and I took Guinevere to the market district where people were selling their wares. All along the market streets were carts of different foods, most harvested from the nearby plantations. I chose some fruit and paid for it while Guinevere had a look around. Milliners with hats, women selling reed baskets, men offering to shine boots, hand carved walking sticks, jewelry of every shape and color, and it was all accompanied with loud singing.