“So you joined the Holy Order under Mother’s orders?”
“I never joined the Holy Order. I joined Guinevere. The rest of what happened you know,” Levi said.
Levi worked to protect Mary Edith. Even if he was working for Guinevere, he still kept our father’s secret, and he had fought us in Charleston. When I asked him about that, he laughed.
“Those men with me were part of Richard’s Levitas. Father did not want them knowing that I was his son because that would have ruined his disguise, so I had to act as if I worked for the Holy Order.
“All of those weapons in that building were ones that we had taken from both Luther’s guards and from the different branches of Levitas. Richard had an arsenal in his Baltimore warehouse. Mother gave them to Father and he transported them to Charleston.”
There was not much more to say, so we went outside to join the others at the rear of the house. Jericho, Sam, Leo, and Dudley had decided to spar in the yard.
As Dudley and Jericho were sparring, Hannah was leaning forward in her chair with anxious, excited eyes.
Dudley got a few light taps past Jericho’s guard, but nothing like what Jericho was doing. He was so quick on his feet, that he dodged, bobbed, and swayed around Dudley’s guard almost every time. When Jericho’s fist clipped Dudley’s chin, Dudley stepped back, gingerly feeling the spot.
He stepped forward again, his fists up, and blocked several of Jericho’s attempts to strike.
“Go to it, Duddy,” Hannah called out, and Dudley cast a smile her way. Jericho broke through, using Dudley’s distraction to his advantage. Jericho’s fist tapped Dudley’s stomach.
“Oof,” Dudley exclaimed, before he swatted Jericho’s hand away and danced forward with two consecutive jabs, a right hook, and finally an uppercut that touched its mark, which was Jericho’s chin.
Jericho stumbled back, his eyes widening. “I did not know a man of your bulk could move that swift.” Jericho’s remark was accompanied by a smirk.
“Come again and see what a man of bulk can do,” Dudley offered, standing still and ready.
With a knowing smile, Jericho charged Dudley.
Hannah scooted to the edge of her seat, her hands clasped together over her mouth.
At the last moment, Dudley met Jericho’s body low, using his shoulder and arm to send Jericho flipping over his shoulder and onto his back on the ground.
Hannah exclaimed her glee while Betsy and Guinevere clapped rapturously.
Jericho blinked several times and then began to laugh as Dudley helped him to his feet and dusted off his back.
“Good show, Dudley,” Hannah called to him. Hannah looked at us and added, “He has done that almost as well as I could.”
Jericho heard her remark and said, “Why do you not come out here and give example of your skills, Mrs. Stanton, if they are so superb.”
“No,” shouted three male voices in unison. Sam, Leo, and Dudley all looked at each other and then began to laugh.
“As you can see, Jericho, my skill precedes me.” Hannah sat back in her chair with a satisfied look gracing her face.
“What about you ladies, will you give example of your skills? I know you have some,” Jericho said to Betsy and Guinevere.
“Let the ladies alone, Jericho,” I said as I watched Sam sparring with Leo.
“What is this, Jack? No faith?” Guinevere demanded.
“Too much, dearest wife,” I replied as I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I would like to see,” Dudley put in.
Rose was standing in the doorway, and Guinevere caught her eye.
“Not me, but my sister would be only too happy to show her skill,” Guinevere called out to Jericho.
Hannah and Betsy exchanged a look of mischief, and I sat on the arm of my wife’s wicker chair, prepared for a truly enjoyable time.
“Betsy first I think,” Rose said.
As Betsy stepped forward, James Wilson came to stand beside me. I did not know how he was viewing all of us, but he had laughed along at some of the stories during the meal.
“Perhaps we should…” He motioned toward Betsy.
“Do not fear for her,” I whispered to him. “She was taught by one of the best.”
“Use this,” Betsy called out, and then tossed a knife to Dudley.
His eyes grew round, but he caught the knife by the handle. “Really, Miss Coles, throwing knives at the unsuspecting is not done. Bad form. Bad form indeed.”
Betsy moved forward gracefully, with her shawl draped around her arms as a ward against the evening air. “If you would be so kind as to hold that knife like you are trying to kill me, it would be much appreciated, Mr. Stanton,” Betsy said in her sweet voice.
Dudley held the knife out before him, uncertainly but firmly. Betsy walked toward him as if she were walking in a ballroom. When she was a few steps before him, she threw her shawl over his face. Sidestepping his wriggling form that was trying to knock the shawl from over his eyes, Betsy grabbed his arm that was holding the knife with both of her hands. Watching her movements closely, she had one hand around his forearm and the other around his wrist. She grabbed his thumb and pulled it up. With her other hand, she took the top of the knife handle and forced it down. It fell right from Dudley’s hand into Betsy’s, and Dudley looked down at their hands as if he could not discover how she had done it.
“Jolly good show, Miss Coles. Jolly good,” said Dudley as he bowed low before her.
Rose walked toward Jericho with something in her hand, saying, “Would you be so kind as to give me your aid?”
Jericho went to stand before Rose, watching her warily.
“If you would be so kind as to try to touch my arm, I would appreciate it,” Rose advised.
Jericho reached out tentatively and tried to take Rose’s arm in his hand.
Rose caught Jericho’s hand with the underside of her forearm. Using what I finally could see was a fan, she hit with the bottom of the fan against the back of Jericho’s arm. She swooped her hand with the fan beneath his arm and to the other side. Using her arm that he had tried to grasp, she grabbed the top of the fan and used it to lock his arm between hers. She twisted his arm down using the fan as an anchor, and, in so doing, his whole body. She kept twisting the fan and his arm until he was on the ground. Rose released him, snapping open the fan and calmly fanning herself.
“How—how did you do that?” Jericho demanded.
I quickly looked at Leo, who was smiling broadly as he was watching.
Jericho stood, shaking out his arm and then took Rose’s fan to inspect it. “The spokes are made of iron. Leo, did you construct this weapon of destruction?”
“And where can I procure one?” Hannah said at once, going to see it for herself.
“Leo gave it to me,” Rose announced. “Nell found them in one of Richard Hamilton’s warehouses and gave them to Leo. He has a dozen of them.”
Hannah at once turned on Leo, demanding that she be given one. Leo promised to get her one when next he was in Charleston where he left them. When Dudley’s gaze met Leo’s, Dudley shook his head frantically.
Laughing, I moved to the long tables. I was finishing off my wine when we heard a carriage approaching.
My first thought was that it was Arthur and the other guards, for they had met me earlier in a carriage, and they were to arrive to assist us should Luther send his guards to attack.
Glancing around the yard, I noticed that Rose and Leo were absent.
A gun firing at the front of the house shattered every thought but one. Guinevere!
CHAPTER 19
GUINEVERE
Hearing the gun fire caused me to jump.
Without a word, Gideon and James had Betsy and Edith and were ushering them further into the woods behind the cottage.
Everyone moved around the yard in different levels of shock and fear. I saw Jack at once, as he was following Levi and Dudley into the house.
No thoughts
for the danger, I lifted my skirt and ran after them.
Levi burst through the front door followed by Dudley as I ran into the house.
A curse exploded from someone before Levi shouted Rose’s name. As I ran into the parlor and stopped before the front window, I searched the yard for Rose, but I could not see her.
A carriage was hurrying down the front drive, away from the house.
Pulling a pistol from his belt, Jack fired at it, but it did not halt. Sam had two pistols in his hands as he charged into view and down the drive after the carriage.
When Jack turned toward the fight, Dudley, Levi, and Jericho were engaged in a wild battle against a slew of men. I could not count how many for they moved too swiftly.
Leo was standing in the doorway fighting against two men. He had a fireplace poker in one hand and a sword in the other. Then my mind moved back to Rose.
I could not see her in the fray.
Dudley grabbed a pair of gardening shears and had a cleaver in his other hand that looked like the one from the dining table. He threw himself into the thick of four men and swung around so quickly that it was a blur of activity.
Jericho was making his way across the yard, shooting two men straight through the shoulders, and then using his empty pistols as clubs. With one in each hand, Jericho swung toward a man who grabbed the tail of his coat. Jericho smashed the man’s head between the butts of his pistols.
Jack knocked out two men before he moved toward Dudley. Dudley’s elegant coat was sliced like ribbons in a few places and there was a gash on his arm, but he flew about with his shears and cleaver swinging. Four men were on the ground with varying wounds.
Four men were surrounding Levi, and that is when I left the window, running toward the open front door. They had Levi on his knees, a knife moving toward his throat, so I did the only thing I could think of. I pulled out my dagger pistol and shouted.
“You there!” I fired at the man with the knife. The ball struck his shoulder, but as he began to drop the knife one of the other men grabbed it and twisted around, throwing it toward my face.
Squeaking, I grabbed the door and pulled it in front of me. The knife lodged into the other side with a thud.
Jack shouted my name, but it was from a distance.
Someone pulled the door open and I raised my dagger, the tip pointed directly at his chest.
It was Jack. Lowering the dagger, I met his gaze. “I nearly killed you, Jack.”
“Go out the back door,” Jack instructed. “It is time for a lesson in etiquette.”
I ran down the passage and out the back door as Jack threw open the front door.
Running around the table, I threw chairs down or pulled them out as I went. Hannah and Bess were nowhere in sight.
There were no carving knives left on the table. Gathering a handful of forks and a chafing dish lid from the table, I was prepared. I had won this kind of fight before.
Jack came out into the yard and had about ten seconds to pick his weapons as men charged toward us.
Grabbing butter knives, Jack threw one into the door as the men appeared in the doorway. As they charged outside, Jack threw one after another at them, grabbing them from each place setting.
The men split up, two coming toward me and two toward Jack. Jack grabbed glasses and plates next, throwing them like discs toward the men inching toward him.
In my distraction with Jack, one of the men came close to me. Throwing my hand against his chest, the prongs of a fork dug into him. He shouted as I released the fork, and hit him over the head with the lid.
“There be no need for violence,” said the second man as he inched around the table.
Throwing the lid at his head, he ducked. I grabbed a dish of left over gravy and threw it at him. It was not as hot as when it was made, but it was a fair distraction. Running forward when his eyes were covered, I stabbed both legs with my forks. I kicked a chair into the third man who was charging toward me, having left Jack.
Jumping back, I grabbed plates and began throwing them toward the guards’ heads. They smashed as they hit the wall of the house.
Grabbing the dish of leftover duck, I threw the remains on the table and then threw the dish at a rising guard. It hit his chest and bounced off. The wine glasses on my end of the table were the next to get thrown. I was not trying to defeat them. I was trying to keep them occupied until the others were taken care of in the front yard.
Picking up two apples, I thought back to Levi and Jack fighting in the Charleston market and a smile turned up my lips as I turned toward the untouched guard. He jumped up on the table.
Harvey always told me that I had an enviable arm.
Clenching the apple, I pulled back my arm then threw it forward, the apple striking the man where it was sure to hurt him. It wasn’t enough to stop him as he leapt toward me. Jack intercepted him from behind, knocking him away from me. Rolling on the ground against each other, Jack threw a punishing left to the man’s face and I was certain that I heard a bone break.
Grabbing the coffee pot, I tipped back the lid and threw the hot contents at the head of the guard who Jack had struck. He swore loud and long as it hit his face, neck, and the front of his coat.
Hearing a man behind me, I swept around in an arc, stabbing the man in three places with my two remaining forks.
While he howled, we swiped up the thrown butter knives and faced the men who were moaning, groaning, and wiping food from their faces.
Jack cleared his throat and they all looked toward us. “Who sent you?”
The man who I had stabbed with the first fork smiled, not at all abashed that he had been bested. He said nothing, only stood there smiling.
An arrow engulfed in flames landed at his feet and he jumped back, yelping.
“Answer his question or the next one goes through your chest,” Mariah announced with an arrow strung on her bow. She looked like a wood nymph with that bow raised and her dark hair wild around her shoulders.
He stared at Mariah with hostility before focusing on me. “My lord sends his greetings to the Phantoms, and a message.”
“Yes?” I was undisturbed by my uncle sending his men to attack us. It was what we had been expecting.
“He now has three,” he said as he sneered at me.
When Jericho and Dudley joined us, Jericho and Mariah took up sentry over the men while Dudley motioned for us to follow him quickly.
When we emerged upon the front lawn, it was chaos. Rocks had been kicked up, bodies of unconscious or injured men were on the ground, and all of the bushes had been broken. But that was not what caused me to gasp and Jack to shout. Leo was kneeling on the ground beside an unconscious Rose.
“Dudley, go for the doctor at once! Leo, get Rose upstairs.” Leo swept Rose into his arms and carried her into the house. I began to follow, until I heard a carriage and a wagon traveling down the drive toward the cottage. Levi, Dudley and Jack raised guns, pointed at the men seated on the ground until the wagon halted and four of our constable friends jumped down. When the carriage stopped beside Jack the door opened and who should step down but William Martin.
“I have brought the doctor,” William said by way of greeting.
“How did you know?” Jack demanded.
“Father has spies everywhere,” Levi said as he walked past Jack, helping a constable move a guard into the wagon.
The constables got all of the men loaded into the wagon when the doctor joined me. I led him into the cottage and up the stairs to where Leo was kneeling beside Rose’s bed. The doctor and Leo banished me from the room as they worked to revive her. Edith came running up the stairs with Bess, beside herself in worry.
Bess promised to fetch me the moment the doctor emerged and I ran down the stairs and back out into the yard, in time to hear Jack say, “Where is Freddy?”
“You know where he is,” William said without a hint of emotion.
My hands fisted at my sides as Jack took a step toward William. “L
uther has him.”
“Yes. He has plans for Frederick. Plans against the Phantoms. Against peace.” William’s face was without concern when he asked, “What are you prepared to do about it?”
“What I must.”
That he would not. Not if it meant that Jack would be harmed.
William nodded in approval, but my attention was quickly gained by Dudley coming up to me.
“You should see this before Levi does.” Dudley handed me a folded piece of paper.
As I flipped it open, I read the words with a rush of confusion.
We have Princess Mary.
After showing the note to Jack and William, the men began making plans, excluding me wholly.
When they decided to bring their plans ahead, to surround my uncle on the morrow, I tried to interpose that someone should get inside the house first, to discover just how many men my uncle had. I was ignored, until William told me that I should check on my sister’s health and leave the planning to the men.
They did not know me well if they thought I was used to following orders. Harvey issued his orders but in the last year I had grown accustomed to following my own rules. Well, those and Rose’s when she sent me some. We may have only seen each other a few times a year, but we corresponded every few months. I kept her abreast of most of my activities. Ever since the time that the royal guards had cornered me in Baltimore. Which was the reason that Harvey had moved me to Philadelphia. He could have taken care of Levitas and Richard Hamilton himself, but he was trying to keep me safe. As safe as he could without exerting himself.
When they moved their planning indoors, I stomped around to the rear of the house and up the back stairs to the bedchamber that I shared with Mary Edith and Rose. Rose had been placed in Leo’s bedchamber, so ours was empty. I opened one of my trunks and pulled out an assortment of weapons. After changing my raiment for more suitable clothing, I strapped on my belt and left my chamber. I met Leo in the passage.
“Has she wakened?”
“Where are you going?”
Leo and I asked our questions at the same moment. He was the first to reply.
phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware Page 19
