“Yes.” Henderson checked the gun.
Micah’s faith in Henderson’s ability to protect Claudia had not wavered.
“I can take care of myself, Micah.” Claudia took affront at the idea one of the men had to be used to watch over her. “You’ll need all the men you’ve got.”
“That’s right, my dear.” He braced her face with both of his hands. “And I’ll fight much better, knowing someone is out there specifically watching over you.”
“I still say he should be going with you.”
“And this is the way it’s going to be.” No discussion allowed.
“Now, all we have to do is wait and hope the Gibsons show themselves before Cain arrives with the Calvary.” Micah squeezed Claudia to him one more time, before turning all his attention to the scene before them.
They didn’t have long to wait. A large phaeton pulled up to the dock. Both Gibson brothers emerged. David stopped to help out a slender-legged woman. Julia Turner. Then to everyone’s surprise, a tall, robust man in military attire descended the carriage to stand beside them. He had silver-white hair and a long, handlebar mustache. Only one man in the Washington military took such pride in his upper whiskers.
“Wallace, himself,” Kelly muttered under his breath.
“I knew it had to be him, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be true,” Henderson whispered with great disappointment as the group of conspirators made its way to the gangplank and were greeted by Stephen at the bottom.
“That sets it, then.” Micah pulled them back into the shadows, a plan formulating in his mind. “Once they’re on board, we have to be ready to strike. We can’t let any of those guns get off this wharf. If Cain isn’t here soon, it’ll be up to us to do our best.”
“Micah, Duncan and I saw kegs of powder below decks last night when we searched the ship.” Simon scratched his stubble covered face, thinking aloud.
“How much?”
“Enough to fill the back cargo hold.”
“Do you think you can work your way over to that hold, getting close without being seen?”
“I’m a Pinkerton man. It’s as good as done.”
“Now, does anyone have a tinder box on them?” Micah looked at each of the men. They each shook their head. “Damn,” he muttered.
“I do.” They swung their heads around to stare at Claudia. She produced the requested item from her pocket. “One never knows when one will need to see in the dark.”
“Darlin’,” Micah drawled, “You’re wonderful.” He took the box and handed it to Simon, indicating that he head on his way.
They watched him dart and duck behind crates and dock debris, slowly working his way up to the edge of the dock where the ship’s back cargo hold was located. Once he achieved his cover, he signaled back to let them know he was ready.
A movement behind him drew Micah’s attention. Several dark blue flashes appeared, moving up to flank the area where Simon hid. Footsteps sounded softly behind them. Micah looked back as Cain approached. He held up his fingers to show where he had stationed the other men with him. When he was in the shadows with Micah and Claudia, they brought him up to date on who was on board and their plans.
“Wallace is on board.” Micah finished his update with the damning news.
“How much longer do you think it’ll be before they make their move?”
Micah read the anger on his friend’s face at the general’s betrayal. “The activity has increased since Wallace and the Gibsons arrived. I think they’ll march soon.”
“Is Stephen on board too?”
Micah nodded. “He’s mine. I don’t want anyone else to go after him.”
“Good. I want the General.”
“Micah.” Claudia’s voice drew both men’s attention back to the ship. The men on board were forming ranks, each inspecting and loading their weapons.
“Okay, Cain, signal your men. And you,” Micah said, turning to his wife, “stay put.”
He planted one final kiss on her lips, then followed Cain out into the fog.
Claudia listened for a few minutes, hearing nothing but her own heart beating in her ears.
Shouts rang out. Gunfire erupted. Someone yelled “fire”. Micah’s deep voice bellowed directions above the gunplay.
Risking a look, she saw the bodies of several men lying on the dock, some dressed as seamen, while others wore the blue of the army. She could make out Kelly’s fiery red mane near the gangplank and Henderson’s narrow frame not ten yards from where she was stationed.
She squinted into the fog and smoke of the gunpowder, trying to find some sign of Micah. Given his height, she should have had no trouble finding him. But many of the men who had come hurrying off of the burning clipper ship were fighting hand to hand, making her view very difficult.
The urge to run out and find him gnawed at her, but knew her promise to stay put was the only thing keeping him from worrying about her.
Suddenly, a huge explosion sent the ship lurching out of the water. Wood, metal and human debris flew through the air. She ducked down behind the crates covering her head.
The din of the explosion and the screams of the men left on board rent the morning air. She risked another look.
The remainder of the conspirators who had made it off of the ship before it was destroyed were surrounded by the company of soldiers. Cain led out General Wallace, who still bore himself with military pride.
There was still no sign of Micah. Claudia frantically prayed the explosion hadn’t claimed him. Then she saw him emerge out of the smoke near the gangplank. Heading toward Cain, he questioned with his hands where his prey had gone.
“Micah!” In the near silence of the rebellion’s aftermath, his name could be heard shouted from across the wharf.
Claudia swung around just in time to see Stephen pointing a gun at his brother, close enough to be deadly accurate. She stifled a scream, covering her mouth with her hands.
Just as the gun went off, a flash of white shot out of the fog. A small body, hurling itself out of nowhere, flew in front of Micah.
Then it stopped, landing several feet in front of him.
“Adam!”
Micah watched helplessly as Adam lay limp on the wharf. Finally a scream of outrage ripped out of the mountain man’s mouth.
“Stephen!”
His brother had disappeared. And only the hysterical laugh of Julia from the carriage racing out of the docks gave any clue as to his whereabouts.
Then a second sound caught his attention. Claudia came running out of her hiding place, to her son’s body. And he was her son.
No one could be a mother to the boys more than Claudia. She leaned over the inert body, calling him back to her.
She looked up at him, and Micah knew.
This was his dream.
It wasn’t his wife that would die.
It was Adam, her son. And he couldn’t stop it.
“Micah.” She called in the eerie silence. “Micah! Get the horses. He’s alive. We have to get him to Dr. Schulman.”
Her words snapped Micah into action. He ran to Adam. Scooped him off the ground and ran in the direction of the waiting carriage. Claudia ran beside him.
Henderson had already started for the team. Reaching it, he opened the door and swung himself up into the driver’s seat. Claudia scrambled in first. Micah settled Adam on her lap then climbed in after them.
As he slammed the door, Micah saw a small body standing silently off to one side. Pale blue eyes looked out at him in a face as white as chalk. He climbed back out, ran over, scooped up Joey and climbed back into the carriage as Henderson whipped the team into action.
It was a solemn group that rode back to the town house. Claudia held her hat over the bullet hole to stop the flow of blood, all the while talking in whispers to her son not to leave her. Micah held Joey in his lap, silently berating himself for allowing any of them to be mixed up in the whole affair.
When they reached the town house, the
y rushed inside, calling for Dr. Schulman. Micah swept Adam out of Claudia’s arms and headed for the dining room. Henderson ran up the stairs for clean sheets, passing the doctor as he hurried down the stairs trying to make sense out of all the commotion. Claudia met him at the foot of the stairs and explained through her tears what had happened to Adam.
While Henderson put fresh sheets on the table, the doctor examined the wound to Adam’s right shoulder.
“Good, good,” he said through his thick accent, while he dabbed at the wound, looking at both the front and the back. “Let us get this shirt off of him, and lay him down on the table. Claudia, my dear, could you get me my bag? There are things I will be needing in it. And Henderson, we will be needing plenty of boiling water. Perhaps our young friend here could help you with that?”
“Of course, doctor. Joseph, come help me.” Henderson took the younger boy out the back way, explaining how everyone had to do what they could to help Adam get better.
By the time Claudia returned with the doctor’s bag, Micah had Adam’s shirt off and the boy was lying on his back on the clean, sheet covered table. Doctor Schulman searched through his bag and took out his needed instruments. He handed her four metal instruments, instructing her to boil them along with a needle and some silk thread.
“And my dear, if you have a bottle of whiskey,” the doctor called out to her as she hurried from the room, “you might bring that along with you.”
Micah took the bottle and bowl of freshly-boiled items from her when she returned. He set them on the table. The anguish in his eyes made her want to comfort him and assure him Adam would be fine, that it wasn’t his fault, but right now, she couldn’t.
“Thank you,” she said, blinking back tears, then hurried to help the doctor, handing him dry towels to drape over the gaping wound.
Working with the doctor, Claudia willed herself to remain as calm as possible. Adam needed her strength more now than he needed her tears and fears. Micah stood on the opposite side of the table to lend assistance as Dr. Schulman requested.
“The bullet passed completely through his body. Good, good,” the doctor stated, picking up the bottle of whiskey and motioning for Micah to hold Adam still just in case he regained consciousness during the procedure. “The biggest worry now is to prevent blood poisoning from the wound itself. We’ll pour the alcohol into the wound, then cleanse the skin around it.”
He poured a generous amount into the open wound. Adam’s body reacted to the burning liquid despite his state of oblivion, twisting in Micah’s hold. Then the doctor picked up an instrument which looked like a pair of tweezers, which Claudia knew he called forceps, and a blunt piece of metal he called a probe, and began checking the wound for any debris from the dock or the bullet.
No bone fragments were found, but several large wood splinters from his impact with the dock had to be removed.
Doctor Schulman then closed the front layers of the wound, using the needle and silk threads. Once a bandage had been secured to the area and no signs of bleeding were present, Micah gently turned Adam over so the procedure could be repeated on the larger exit wound in the back of his shoulder. Finally, a second bandage was applied, and the entire shoulder securely wrapped to prevent movement which would tear open the stitches.
* * * * *
It was late in the afternoon when Micah carried Adam up to the bedroom closest to his and Claudia’s room. Henderson and Joey asked to spend the next hour with him, while the others took a small rest. Despite her obvious exhaustion, Claudia had to be forced away from Adam’s side. When the doctor explained that she would probably be needed later in the night, when the night sweats would more than likely start, she finally agreed to take a cup of tea and a nap.
Micah laced her tea generously with the whiskey, forcing her to drink all of it. Then he walked her to their room and helped her change out of her blood-covered clothing. Gathering her in his arms, he carried her to their bed. He stretched out behind her, cradling her against his chest, his arms sheltering her from the pain in her heart.
He held her close, softly stroking her back, whispering promises that Adam would be okay.
Once he was sure she was asleep, he eased himself out of the bed, drawing the covers up over her. In Adam’s room he found Henderson sitting on the bed and Joey staring at his friend from the corner.
“Henderson, why don’t you get some rest now? I’ll take over in here.” He sat down in the chair nearest the bed as the older man left the room. “Joey, come here.”
The small, black haired boy slowly approached. Micah reached out a hand to him, firmly grasping the cold fingers when they touched his. He drew Joey toward him, lifting him to sit in his lap. It was a strange sensation for Micah to hold a frightened child. The only other children he could remember holding were Nathan’s two daughters back in Colorado.
He felt something wet drop onto his fingers and realized Joey felt comfortable enough to cry in front of him. All he could think to do was hug the boy tight and try to reassure him his friend would be all right.
“He’s a tough one, Joey.” Micah spoke in his most serious voice.
“I know that, Micah.” Joey swiped at his eyes, a sniffle ending his words. “It’d take more than one crum’s bullet to stop him. Even if that crum looked just like you.”
“It wasn’t me, Joey.” The shock of the boy’s thoughts weighed on Micah’s conscience. “It was my brother, Stephen.”
“I know that. Me and Adam was listenin’ to that man upstairs talk. Ya know, the one the doc’s been seein’? We knew you was real mad at your brother, that’s why we was followin’ you for Claudia.”
“She’s a good woman, Joey.” Micah tried to take the boy’s mind off of the shooting. “She loves you both very much.”
“We know. She’s like a ma to us, ya know?”
“I know.”
“Do ya think she’d mind us calling her ma? I mean, when Adam is feelin’ better?”
“No, I think she’d like that just fine.” He set the boy down on the floor. “And now, I think you’d better get some sleep. Your ma’s going to be needing all the help you can give her in the next few days.”
“Thanks, Micah.”
“For what?”
“For not laughin’ at me for cryin’ like a baby.”
“Sometimes we men have to shed a tear or two.” He smiled as Joey ran down the hall and up the stairs to his room. A tear escaped down his own cheeks as he thought of the pain Adam and Claudia were going through.
And all because of my accursed family.
He pushed himself out of the chair and paced the room. “Damn.”
“The boy going to be all right?” Noah’s voice from the door brought him up short.
“Dr. Schulman seems to think so. It’ll depend on if the arm gets poisoned or not.” Micah ran a hand through his hair. “We should know in a day or two.”
“I’ll be ready then.”
“Ready for what?”
“To go after your brother.”
“You can’t be serious. You’re hardly in any better shape than Adam is.”
“I leave in two days, with or without you.”
“I’ll go alone.” Micah pushed past him into the hall.
Noah followed after him, at a slower pace. “You can’t. You need me.”
“What makes you think I need a corpse riding shotgun with me?”
“Because I know where he’s going.”
“Where?”
“After Patrice.” He raised his hand to stop Micah’s next question. “He’s lost his lucrative business, his ship, and his partners. He also knows the government and his big brother is on his trail. Knowing you are after him, he’ll want the one thing he can use against you. Patrice.”
“She isn’t the only thing he can use.” Micah quietly corrected, staring down the hall where a small figure lay unconscious in the bed.
“No. But unless I miss my guess, she’s the one person he still has half a chanc
e of getting close to that you care about, without dying a quick death.”
“No, you’re right. I have to protect them as well as my sister.”
“And I know where she is.”
“Where?”
Cold, grey eyes stared through Noah, but he didn’t flinch.
“She’s safe for now. I’ll tell you where she is when we’re on our way.” He turned to leave the room. “Two days, Turner.”
“Two days, Howard.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The next night, Micah sat in the parlor listening to Cain fill him in on the final roundup of all the conspirators in the plot against the government. Since so many army officers and financial men were involved, the President and his men were keeping any information from becoming public knowledge. Several key players remained in California who needed to be arrested, but it would only be a matter of days until that occurred.
“President Arthur was shocked at Wallace’s involvement.” Cain sipped on his whiskey, his own disappointment showing on his face. “He was one of the greatest strategists I’ve ever known.”
“Greed can change even the strongest of men.” Noah stated from his chair by the fireplace. Each trip out of his room, he ventured further. Earlier in the day he, Henderson and Joey walked through the marketplace to help him increase his stamina and diffuse some of the pent-up energy Joey was enduring. “While some men are greedy for money, the general lusted for power. To control a country that extends from one ocean to another was just too much temptation for even him.”
“He’ll have his court martial next month,” Cain continued. “I’ve been asked to present any evidence you two have amassed in the case. And if you can testify, that will be helpful.”
“Don’t count on either of us being there, Cain.” Micah sipped on his drink. “We have our own loose ends to tie up.”
“Your brother?”
“I can’t allow him to continue to create havoc wherever he chooses. I should’ve put an end to him years ago.” Micah ran his hand through his hair. “But now I have even more reason to stop him. I can’t have Claudia and the boys living in fear.”
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