Under Her Brass Corset

by Brenda Williamson

  “Well, Blackthorn, where is it?” Eric demanded.

  Jasper pulled what she’d once called her snow globe from his pocket. With her final trust in its powers and her acceptance that immortality existed, the small glass sphere was more important than the trinket she once thought it to be.

  “This?” Jasper held the Crystal Compass in the palm of his hand.

  “That’s no compass,” Eric scoffed.

  Jasper spit on the ball and a pattern of lights flew out, arcing in all direction.

  “Give it to me.” Eric’s grip on her arm loosened.

  “Come get it.” Jasper sat the Compass on a table and moved away.

  Eric pulled his pistol out and aimed it at her as he advanced on the Crystal Compass. When the men had exchanged places, Eric stood between Jasper and Adam. He picked up the Compass and peered inside it with awe at the intricate gears. She knew the mesmerized feeling of amazement. Such detail to the design would flabbergast anyone. She heard his sigh of astonishment when he shook the globe and the tiny particles of glittering energy swirled inside.

  Even she was caught off guard when Jasper leaped at Eric. Not so much because of the ruckus; that was to be expected. The pain in her stomach, however, had a crippling effect on her stance. Darkness narrowed her vision.

  Jasper wrestled with Eric, ripping his opponent’s artificial arm from the leather harness strapped over his shoulder. Eric swung at him with his good limb, connecting with the Compass. The glass ball flew from his grip and hit his head. Jasper felt the impact and heard a crack. He hoped it was his skull and not the glass sphere.

  “Jasper!” Adam yelled, leaping over Jasper and grappling for control of Eric.

  “Sort of busy.” Jasper grabbed the Compass from the floor and got to his feet. “Here, hold this while I kill the bastard.” He turned, tossed the Compass to Adam and moved to go after Eric, who was already fleeing the house. His brief glimpse of an alarming image on the floor by Adam stopped him and he turned back.

  Edward held Abigail slumped in his arms. The light green of her dress enhanced a red stain spreading over her midsection.

  “Eric’s bullet hit her, Jasp,” Edward muttered in shock. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. You got to know that, boy. She’s my granddaughter.”

  Jasper rushed to her. “Abigail?” He placed his fingers on the side of her neck. “She still has a pulse.”

  He took the Compass from Adam and spit on it. The moisture activated the device. He felt the vibration of the tiny gears turning inside the glass. When the light arced from the crystal, he looked out the door.

  “That’s the direction of Ocracoke Island.” He tucked the compass in his pocket and lifted Abigail in his arms. “I have to get her back there as quick as possible.”

  “I’m going with you.” Edward hurried ahead, kicking debris out of the way.

  “No.” Jasper hurried through the doorway and then turned back to Edward. “You better pray she doesn’t die, because I swear, I’ll kill you and have your head hanging from my yardarm until the birds pick your skull clean.”

  He and Adam made their way to the beach where they’d left the little rowboat hidden in the sea oats. A storm approached. The water had white caps even in the bay.

  “Here, we’ll take that one.” Adam pointed out where someone had tied a larger boat to the pylon of a wood dock. “It’ll move faster across the rough water.

  Adam took Abigail and held her while Jasper jumped into the boat. Jasper reached up and took her back into his arms and settled on the backseat to let Adam row them out to the Illusion.

  “Abigail, can you hear me?” Jasper cradled her close, feeling her heart beating where he pressed his hand against her wound. “Abigail, I’m going to fix this.”

  She made an incoherent sound, nothing more. Adam pushed them from the dock and took up the oars. It seemed to take forever for the boat to get to his ship. Even longer was the climb up the rope ladder while toting Abigail on his shoulder.

  “I think I can manage getting the rowboat cradled. You take her below and make her comfortable. Keep pressure on that wound.”

  Jasper went straight to attending Abigail on the main deck. He laid her on the wood and pulled his shirt off over his head.

  “Abigail?” He knelt next to her and tore at the hole the bullet had made in her dress.

  She moaned when he pressed the wadded shirt against the gash.

  “Abby, everything will be all right. Trust me.”

  “Thank you, sir. I trust you,” she mumbled. “You always make everything all right.”

  “Isn’t she being formal,” Adam commented, stooping down. “I’d sail your ship, but I’m afraid I don’t know the working of this one-man vessel. You get us going and I’ll take care of her.”

  Jasper hesitated. The last woman he’d left in Adam’s care had died.

  “Go on, Jasp.” Adam pushed his shoulder. “Things don’t have to end the same for her as it did for Isabel and the baby.”

  Jasper got up and hurried to the boiler room. The furnace never had so much wood packed into its belly at one time before. Then he went through the paces of hoisting the anchor, raising the sails and navigating them out of the bay. All the while, what Abigail had said gnawed at his thoughts.

  The fall on the stoop where she’d dropped the roses.

  The thorn in her finger that he had plucked free.

  The puppy hiding under the bushes where she couldn’t reach.

  How many times had he told her to trust him? That everything would be all right. Her brave answer was always, “Thank you, sir. I trust you.” Did she remember him?

  He anchored the Illusion as close to Ocracoke Island as he dared. Then he picked up Abigail while Adam took over dropping the boat into the water. The rain held off, but the winds became fierce. He rode the platform down and stepped into the boat Adam held steady below him. Once he sat, Adam rowed them to shore. There he took her straight to where he remembered the patch of wet sand.

  He knelt, sitting Abigail on the ground and holding her propped in the cradle of his arm as he felt around. “It’s dry.”

  “Use the Compass,” Adam suggested.

  He took it from his pocket and spit on it. The light arced away from them, farther south of the island.

  “We’ll never find a source in time.” Jasper dropped the Compass in the sand and hugged Abigail. “I’m sorry. If I had stayed out of your life, you’d be safe in England.”

  “Jasper.” Abigail coughed and blood sputtered from her lips.

  “Abby, me beauty. I’ve failed you.” He wiped her mouth with his hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” She touched his face. “I wouldn’t have changed anything about my life. You were always there, even when I didn’t know it. I remember times I felt so content, so happy, and it’s you I recall. I only wish you had made yourself known to me before I accepted an engagement to Randolph, before he and I—”

  Jasper kissed her into silence. “The past is where it should be left, behind us.”

  Abigail stretched out her arm toward the sand and picked up the Compass. “Keep me with you, Jasper. Make me immortal.”

  “It’s too late. We’re too far from any water from a spring of Avalon.” His tears fell on the Compass.

  Abigail watched the Compass come to life. A smile formed on her lips and that endearing sparkle of happiness appeared in her dying eyes. He didn’t want to lose her. Angry because he couldn’t save her, he took the globe and threw it away from them.

  An unfurling mist traveling across the sea came ashore and began engulfing them. Then a figure materialized and stepped out of the dense haze.

  “Morgan,” Jasper breathed the name with hope. “Can you heal her?”

  “Is that what you want, Abigail?” Morgan played with the Compass, tossing it back and forth from one hand to the other.

  “Yes. I want to know Jasper forever.”

  “Are you sure?” Jasper asked.

&n
bsp; “I love you, Jasper, and I want you to know love isn’t an illusion.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  “No, after that, about love being an illusion.”

  “I read your poem. I felt the pain in your words. I don’t want you to ever suffer like that again.”

  He kissed her on the forehead. “It wasn’t the loss of Isabel that stirred me to write that, Abby. It was you.”

  “You don’t have to say that. I know you must have loved her very much.” She touched the ring in his ear.

  “She was another life.” He took the ring off and threw it into the surf. “I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to know your love. The thought of living an eternity without the joy of hearing your laugh or feeling your arms around me was depressing.” He looked up at Morgan. “She’s not strong enough to travel to a source of the water of Avalon. Isn’t there something you can do? You said the Crystal Compass was mine so that I might help someone dear to me. What good is it if I can’t do anything for the woman I love?”

  “But the Compass has helped you, my dear friend. It has brought you two together.”

  “That’s not enough. I need the magic that comes from the water from the spring of Avalon.”

  “The magic, as you call it, has always been with you, Jasper. Love in itself is powerful. If it’s true and pure, then all you need is to look inside yourself.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Abigail, kiss his tears away if you truly want to embrace immortality.” Morgan backed into the fading mist, still playing with the Compass as her voice floated out to him one last time. “And tell Merlin I’m still working on that little problem he has.”

  “Well I’ll be damned,” Adam muttered. “If what she said is true, then—”

  “I don’t understand.” Tears dripped from Jasper’s cheeks. “What is she talking about?”

  “If you love me…” Abigail’s voice weakened. She reached up and pulled his face down close to hers. “Do you truly love me, Jasper?”

  “I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you. Never,” he said hoarsely, choking on his emotions. “I’ve watched you your entire life, never knowing our fates were tied. Under the brass corset you love to wear is the beautiful spirit of a woman more dear to me than life. I’ll love you forever.”

  He leaned farther, letting Abigail kiss over his eyes, across his cheeks and along his jaw, chasing the stream of tears rolling down his face. Then her wet lips pressed his. He felt strength in her kiss. The energy of rejuvenation radiated from her cold body, making her fingers warm and tingly where she touched his face.

  “Abigail, you’re healing.” Jasper pulled her up and hugged her.

  “Jasp, it’s your tears,” Adam explained. “What Morgan said in her riddling way is if your love is real, then your tears will work as a source of the water of Avalon.”

  “Then why give me the Compass and not just tell me the secret?”

  “I think the plan was for you two to meet,” Adam said. “And you did notice she took the Compass with her.”

  “I suppose it isn’t the best idea to divulge an important secret of our existence,” Jasper agreed.

  “Well, I sure wouldn’t want some scalawag torturing me until I cry just so he can get his fill of my tears. If we know what’s good for us, we won’t be telling anyone about our newfound ability.”

  “I think the key ingredient for it to work is love, Mr. Sutterby.” Abigail hugged Jasper.

  “Yes, and I don’t see Eric ever loving anyone, even an immortal. So we should be safe from that prospect.” Jasper heaved a relieved breath.

  “Don’t underestimate love, Jasper. It’s possible even for Eric to find someone.” Abigail smiled.

  “Enough about that cutthroat.” He kissed her tenderly, feeling her grow stronger as her wound finished healing.

  Faintly he heard Adam mumbling something about leaving them alone.

  “I thought I was going to lose you.” He smiled.

  Abigail brushed at his cheek, wiping away the remnants of his tears. “Can we go home now?”

  “To your house in England?” He scooped her off the sand and stood with her in his arms.

  “Eventually.” She twirled strands of his hair around her fingers. “For now, take me to the Illusion and make love to me as if there’s no tomorrow.”

  “Me beauty, there will be many tomorrows for us.” He swung her around, happy to hear her laughter. “And we’ll rename and rechristen the ship from every cabin to mark the start of our life together. I’ve wanted to call it the Abigail for a long time now.”

  “I’m honored, but won’t that get confusing? How will I know when you’re talking about me? I don’t want to be worrying over comments like, ‘Abigail is getting old and worn-looking.’”

  “That can’t happen now that you’re immortal, me beauty, and just to differentiate, I’ll always call you Abby. And should Merlin ever shake the spell on him and become human again—”

  “Oh no, Merlin,” she gasped. “He really is a man?”

  “A sorcerer trapped in a shape-shifter spell he and Morgan cooked up.”

  “Oh, how could he!”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “That cat watched me bathe in your tub.”

  “He what? I’ll kill him. I’ll toss Merlin overboard just as soon as I get ahold of his mangy hide.”

  Abigail’s sudden burst of laughter stopped him from listing all the ways in which he’d skin the beast.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I’m alive and immortal, and I have you. I don’t want to waste a second on being angry. Besides, think of all the things I could do to poor Merlin if he doesn’t know I’m immortal for, say, the next couple of decades.” She laughed again.

  He kissed her, letting the sound of her laughter fade into a contented sigh against his.

  “I love you so much, Jasper,” she murmured against his lips. “So very much.”

  He vowed to tell her the same again, just as soon as she let him have a breath.

  About the Author

  Brenda Williamson is single, has one son and lives in the USA in the beautiful state of Alabama. When not working as a self-employed online retailer, the other half of her day is spent writing love stories. When she has time, she loves to read true-crime and historical reference books. She also loves to cook and experiment with new recipes. While she has a love for all animals, her favorite is cats and she’s always had at least a half dozen of them. She has published over forty romance books and also writes gay romance under the name Sineth Killiri. Her memberships include: The Authors Guild; Novelists, Inc.; and the Romance Writers of America, including several of its sub-chapters.

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  ISBN: 978-1-4268-9329-2

  Copyright © 2012 by Brenda Williamson

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