Heir of Thunder (Stormbourne Chronicles Book 1)

by Karissa Laurel

  “I broke Gespenst when he was a colt. No one else has ever ridden him.” Gideon spoke softly to me, as if I were the nervous colt from his memory. “His mother’s owner gave him to me because he thought Gespenst had a malformed leg, and I talked him out of putting the poor thing down. He tried to buy him back the next year, but I wouldn’t sell.”

  I sniffed and kept my face pressed into Nonnie’s neck. “What was wrong with his leg?”

  “Best I could determine; it had gotten twisted the wrong way when he was inside his mother. I worked with him every free minute I could steal. We rebuilt his muscle tone until he could run as fast as any other colt.”

  “And now he runs faster than all of them.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you can bear to sell him, now?”

  “No, but I have no other choice.” Gideon sounded as though he spoke from the bottom of a deep, dark pit. His voice was hollow. Maybe he felt as broken apart as I.

  I turned to face him. He had revealed something of himself, something personal, private. His vulnerability made him seem approachable and sympathetic. “I’ll go to Galland alone,” I said. “You can take Nonnie and Gespenst and start a new life here. I could part with her if I knew you had her.”

  “Alone?” He huffed. “How will you survive? You won’t last a day.” He tried to give me a contemptuous look, but didn’t quite succeed. His eyes were still too sad.

  “Maybe, but it shouldn’t be your problem.”

  “I’ve made it my problem, and you’re not going anywhere alone. I’ll see you safely to Dreutch. That was my promise.”

  “What’s in Dreutch? Why there of all places?”

  “Safety is in Dreutch, and that’s all I’m going to tell you.”

  I stomped my foot. Why this persistent vagary? If it was safe, why wouldn’t he tell me more? “Are you afraid I’ll run away from you or refuse to go? Are you worried it’s someplace I won’t like?”

  He climbed stiffly into his saddle. The chase had hurt him and he looked peaked, drawn, and pale. Silly idiot. He should have let me go. It wasn’t his fault if I rotted there, regardless of his promises. He looked at me and dark circles underscored his eyes. “Yes, maybe that’s it.”

  I didn’t believe him, but it didn’t matter. If he had made up his mind not to tell me, nothing would convince him to do otherwise. I hitched myself onto Nonnie, albeit with great reluctance, and turned her back toward Braddock. Was it easier to make the sacrifice, knowing I didn’t have to do it alone? Maybe. I sent a wish to Father and Grandfather. Somehow they had to help me save her. I hoped they were listening from their place in the shadowlands of afterlife.

  Chapter 9

  Gideon’s respect of my dread, or perhaps his own reluctance for parting with Gespenst, made him take us back to Braddock at an ambling gait. Or maybe his soreness and pain, aggravated by my tantrum, discouraged a faster pace. Either way, the horrid horse trader smirked at us when we returned as if he relished our despair. His stable was a rambling shack of holding pens attached to a grimy paddock that had needed a good shoveling out weeks ago. Parting with my beloved friend hurt badly enough, but giving her up to this gloating scoundrel felt like a knife twisting in my gut, paring away vital organs.

  A glossy coated mare, who hadn’t been there when we left, stood out front. Her grooming spoke to her health and the wealth of her owner. To think of another unfortunate animal spending even a single night in the stable’s wretched conditions disheartened me even more, if that were possible. At least she would have two wonderful companions to keep her company.

  Tears burned in the back of my throat, even though I thought I had drained my emotional well earlier with Gideon. I turned a stubborn face to the clear blue sky. The snide horse trader would not see me cry, and neither would Gideon, not anymore that day.

  “Ah, so you’ve returned. I see you’ve talked a bit of sense into the girl.” The stableman chuckled. I gave him a murderous glare, but he only laughed harder. As I sat there, hating him for delighting in my misery, a ruffle of breeze stirred the still air. I looked back to the previously blue sky and found a mass of thunderheads lining up on the periphery of the harbor. The stableman looked to the sky and back at me. I glared at him with all the depth of my loathing. He stopped laughing and his smile sank into a more bearable grimace.

  “Storm’s come up out of nowhere,” he said, turning to Gideon. “Happens like that at a seaside town. Best get this business over with so you and the miss can find some cover.” He excused himself to get the payment for our horses.

  I held my seat on Nonnie. Maybe I intended to stay with her until the last possible moment. Maybe Gideon would have to drag me off. I couldn’t see myself relinquishing her easily, not even after my tantrum and subsequent submission. The winds picked up and tossed my hair about. Cold tongues of air licked the gaps at my neck, and I pulled my cloak tighter around my shoulders.

  “Here you are. Sixty for the two.” The stable master presented a bag of coins similar to the one Gideon had passed to the LaDonna’s captain. As Gideon reached to take it, a familiar voice called out over the din of the rising storm.

  “Grace! There you are. I was hoping to find you.” Standing under the eaves of the shabby stable was my angel incarnate. Jackie Faercourt’s face lit with such a bright smile I nearly had to shield my eyes from the brilliance of it. He wore more casual attire than when I had seen him in Thropshire, but still looked immaculate and tailored in a tweed waistcoat and slacks capped off by a buttery suede walking coat. His hand rested on his horse’s nose and I realized, then, that the mare had looked familiar. Because I never expected to see her—or Jackie—again, I had failed to place her in the appropriate slot in my memory.

  I slid to the ground and felt the weight of Gideon’s astonishment settle over me. “Jackie?” I asked, “What are you doing here?”

  He strode toward me, still wearing his grand smile. “Going to Galland of course.”

  “What? But, why?”

  “You stoked an excitement in me when you spoke of your travels. I could hardly sleep because of it. I decided it was high time to visit my sister again.” He stepped closer and lowered his voice so only I could hear. “Also, I was not ready to let you go without seeing you again, and this was the best way.”

  Gideon coughed, clearing his throat. Jackie noticed him and raised an eyebrow, obviously expecting an introduction. “Um, Jackie,” I said, “this is my brother, Gideon.”

  “Gideon Faust,” he said and bent at the neck.

  I hadn’t known his surname before that moment, and I felt small for never thinking to ask.

  Jackie bowed. “Jonathan Faercourt, of Connolly, but friends call me Jackie.”

  “And my sister is one of your... friends?” Gideon said the word as if speaking of something filthy. I grimaced at him. He ignored me.

  Jackie nodded. “I’d like to think so.”

  No doubt, Gideon exercised extreme self-control to look as nonplussed as he did at that moment. I knew him well enough to expect another horrendous confrontation the next time he caught me alone, so I resolved to avoid him at any cost. I pulled Jackie’s arm and tugged him away, wanting to keep our conversation private. “What are you doing here, though? Are you selling your horse, too?”

  “What? Sell Arabella? No, I had a feeling you might board your horses, so it seemed a good place to start searching for you. Turns out I was right.” He waggled his pale eyebrows, and the gesture lightened my mood for the first time since I had left him yesterday. He straightened his back and gave me a solemn look. “You asked me if I was selling her, too. You don’t intend to sell your lovely horse, do you?”

  “I don’t intend to, but I think I must.”

  “Do you need money for your passage?”

  “No, the captain says we can’t take them with us.”

  “Why don’t you board them until you return?”

  I made up answers on a whim, trying not to give away too much. “We don’t rea
lly know how long we’ll be gone, and the stableman says he won’t board them indefinitely without payment upfront.”

  Jackie’s elegant brow crinkled and he frowned, but his worry flitted away as easily as it came. He smiled again and said, “Send them back with Brewster. I’ll keep them in my stables as long as you need.”

  “Who is Brewster?” I looked around to see if I had overlooked someone in our party, but I saw only Gideon and the horrid stable master. The looks on both their faces made me turn away again.

  “He’s my valet,” Jackie said. “He’s loading my things on the LaDonna as we speak. He’ll take my wagon and Arabella back to Connolly this afternoon. He can take your horses as well.” Jackie scrunched his nose as if he had sniffed an offending odor. “My stables are nothing grand, but they’ll fare much better at my home than they will here.”

  Gratitude and relief swirled through me, cleansing the stains of my worry. “Oh, yes, Jackie. Thank you.” I hugged him on impulse. “You can’t know what that would mean to me—to us.” I waved a hand between Gideon and me.

  “Good, it’s settled.” Jackie raised his voice so that the other two men could hear him. “Master Faust, I am aware of your situation, and I’ve offered your sister the use of my stables until you return and reclaim your horses. There should be no reason to sell them today.”

  Gideon, who was always self-possessed and poised, became even more stolid. But then he nodded. “I thank you Master Faercourt. Your offer is generous, but I’ll accept it only if you’re certain it won’t be too much a burden. Where, may I ask, is your home?”

  “It’s no problem at all.” Jackie smiled. “Yours is a fine beast, and I can’t imagine you’d want to part with him, even for a better price.”

  A spark flared in Gideon’s eyes that he intended for only me to see. I suspected he was relieved to send Gespenst to a better fate, but I would certainly pay for this indiscretion.

  Jackie continued, “To answer your other question, I live south of Thropshire, which is not so far from here, as you know.”

  His statement was as good as a headstone on an already deep grave, one I had been digging ever since he introduced himself to me two days ago. Gideon would never accept excuses for why I had given so much information to this stranger, and he certainly wouldn’t care to hear how Jackie’s beauty made my breath go short, or the way his touch paralyzed my common sense.

  “Just south of Thropshire, huh?” Gideon turned away from the stable owner and stepped closer to Jackie. Realizing his business transaction was lost, the stableman grunted, spat again, and strode away.

  Jackie took one of my hands between both of his, drew it to his chest, and his touch made my heart skip a beat. Gideon glared at me, looking pointedly toward our entwined hands. I pulled away and locked my wrists behind my back.

  “Where are you staying?” Jackie asked. “If you haven’t arranged rooms yet, then I suggest the Contemporary. It’s a little more special than your average inn. More like the hotels on the Continent.”

  He continued to chatter about the accommodations as he led us out of the stable yard. Gideon raised a questioning eyebrow to me, and I shrugged as if to say, what other option do we have?

  “Brewster will be waiting for us when we get there. You can arrange for him to take your horses then.” Jackie turned and smiled at me. As with the first time we met, his good humor was infectious and made me want to return his cheer.

  The wind diminished to a playful seaside breeze, not nearly so chilly or brisk as before. By the time we reached the bustling center of town, the black clouds that hovered so ominously at the edge of the harbor had rolled away. The fair day returned, even as the sun started its late afternoon descent.

  We stopped on a sidewalk across the street from the Contemporary. The large, granite staircase leading up to gilded front doors awed me. Fallstaff was old and huge, but not especially grand. It was a humble home for a line of ancient sovereigns. I knew from my father and from my studies that kingdoms on the Continent were often ruled from palaces mired in complicated social mores and hierarchies. If Fallstaff ever had presumptions of grandeur, they were lost by the time I was born.

  Outside the Contemporary, two young men in port colored coats adorned with gold braid and brass buttons stood ready to open the heavy doors at the entrance. They both wore black velveteen knee pants and floppy hats fitted with gold tassels. Anywhere else, the costumes would look ridiculous, but the uniforms complimented the hotel’s opulence.

  A black carriage occupied the cobbled drive leading from the main thoroughfare to the front of the Contemporary and back out again. Porters from the hotel carted luggage while a tall man in a long black cloak disembarked from the carriage and made his way through the grand doorway. Our lodging at The Silver Goose had required only a few coins. I wondered much more would this establishment would cost. And how did Gideon intend to pay for it, especially after the sack of coins he had given to Captain Barilla? It all seemed like so much money, and I had left home penniless. Where had my guardian obtained funds for our escape? If my father had prepared Gideon for an occasion such as this, then why hadn’t he informed me of those plans as well?

  “Master Faercourt,” Gideon said. “Our funds have been carefully allotted for this trip, and—”

  Jackie put up a slim, long fingered hand, halting Gideon mid-speech. “Call me Jackie, I insist. I already reserved a suite of rooms, and I will be quite put out if you don’t accept my invitation to stay with me this evening.”

  “It would be presumptuous of us,” Gideon said, barely withholding a grimace.

  I stepped forward and put a tentative hand on Gideon’s shoulder. He turned and looked at me with a stony face, but he understood my intention.

  “My sister, however, will appreciate your kind gesture. For her sake, we’ll accept.” As he spoke, a team of muscled draught horses pulling a dark wagon turned into the circle drive and stopped behind the black carriage.

  “Ah, Brewster. Perfect timing.” Jackie recognized his employee and urged us to follow him into the Contemporary’s driveway.

  Gideon and Jackie sorted the details of turning over the care of our horses, leaving me to take advantage of their distraction and disappear into the hotel, safely away from Gideon’s ill temper. A porter saw me to Jackie’s suite and promised to send a chambermaid to assist me.

  When the maid arrived, she introduced me to the hotel’s amenities, including hot water plumbing, a giant claw footed tub in a private bathroom, and a collection of finely milled soaps and crèmes imported from Galland.

  She started the water for the tub and ushered me into a plush bedroom to undress. “I’ll be happy to lay out your things, Madame, if you’ll show me where the porter has set your luggage.”

  “Oh, my bag has already been put on the ship,” I said. “We’re traveling lightly.”

  The maid’s face dropped. In her line of work, and in such a fine place as this, she must have rarely encountered a woman without stacks of luggage. “The hotel can supply you with a dressing gown, m’lady, and I’ll have your, ah, attire laundered and returned by morning.” Her gaze roamed over my disheveled hair to my dusty boots and back, and she barely managed to mask the distaste on her face.

  I thought of Moira taking my clothes away for a washing and leaving me stranded with an ill-fitting dress. “No,” I said. “Leave them here, please.”

  She bobbed her head and exited the room.

  Jackie and Gideon stayed away during my bath. I washed my hair several times with the fragrant soaps, leaving the water with a murky cast from all the filth and dust rinsed from my hair and skin. In the dressing room adjacent to the bath, the maid had laid out a cream colored silk and cotton robe embroidered with the hotel’s emblem, and it felt like a dream when I put it on. The hot water had eased my tired muscles, and even though my empty stomach rumbled, I couldn’t resist the call of the soft, clean bed.

  I fell onto the down mattress as Jackie and Gideon came into th
e suite, their voices trickling under my door. The reassuring safety of their presence eased me into the soundest sleep of many nights.

  Chapter 10

  The LaDonna spared not a single empty cabin as we made our way out of the harbor and into the channel between Inselgrau and Galland. Fate persisted in bringing Gideon and me together in increasingly tight quarters. The greedy Captain Barilla had sold my cabin to a last minute passenger and insisted I take the little bit of extra space in Gideon’s tiny room.

  “It have two bunks,” Barilla explained when he found me staring gaped mouth before my cabin as his porter scooted my meager possessions into Gideon’s cabin next door. “Brothers and sisters share.” Barilla slapped his hand on his thigh like a judge banging his gavel, and he disappeared onto the deck, leaving me helpless to protest.

  Gideon crouched over his saddlebags, but glanced over his shoulder at me. He wore an inscrutable expression, hiding his thoughts and feelings. My attempts at avoiding him had come to an end—the narrowing confines of the ship made eluding him impossible.

  Maybe enough time had passed since Gideon’s introduction to Jonathan Faercourt to dispel the worst of his outrage, though I doubted he would let me off without a stiff inquisition. At the least, I hoped Gideon had the decency not to berate me or cause a scene in public—not if he wanted to maintain our secrecy. Based on that assumption, I adjusted my strategy: if I couldn’t avoid him, I could, at any rate, make it hard for him to catch me alone.

  Jackie came from seeing to things in his cabin and discovered me fixed in place outside my former room. “Well, I hope Barilla offers you a refund,” he said after hearing my explanation. “If he doesn’t, let me know. I’ll see that he deals with you fairly. Shall we go up top? Get some fresh air?”

  I nodded stupidly and let him direct me up the stairs and onto the deck. Gideon trailed behind us, a silent and imposing chaperone. A stiff ocean breeze greeted us as we made our way to the starboard railing. Jackie stood close beside me and smiled when I glanced his way. The sun illuminated his pale hair and lent a rosy hue to his pale skin. Gideon stood several yards away, grinding his teeth in mute infuriation. I meant to enjoy Jackie’s company, no matter how much his presence stoked Gideon’s ire, no matter how much it hurt to leave my homeland.