Guns & Flame: The Sara Featherwood Adventures ~ Volume Three

by Guy Antibes

  “How is your tearoom?” Sara said as they unclenched, protecting her arm from a second hug. “Nona says that the village is in trouble.”

  Natti sat down and sighed. “Past trouble. It’s dying. The Glimmer’s notified me a week ago that they’d be gone by the end of the month. I don’t know what possesses Ben Featherwood. I’d take the old fool Edmond Heartfly as Head Councilor anytime. At least he left us alone. No offense, Sara, but I wish Ben weren’t the Squire.”

  “He isn’t. Does the Grand Duke have any agents in the village?”

  Nona sat down at the table. “One man and I’ve seen Ben slip an envelope of money to him on more than one occasion.”

  “Common knowledge,” Natti said. “We’re all on our own up here.”

  “I have some good news. The King has accelerated my claim on Brightlings. I now own it and Ben is no longer the custodian of the house and he’s no longer the Squire.”

  “It’ll take more than a piece of paper to dislodge him.”

  “All of his money is mine.” Sara said to a silenced group. “Any taxes he has received on behalf of the manor are rightfully the manor’s and not his. Two years ago he received a large sum of money from the Crown. It is Brightlings money, not Featherwood funds. I’m going to claim them today.”

  “You and who else?” Natti said.

  “I’ll be by her side,” Nona stood.

  “And me as well,” Willa said.

  “That gives you an army of three. Give me an hour and you’ll have half the village at your side, including the Glimmers. You might think the village hates you, and there’s some that still do, won’t deny it, but more remember what you did last year and we haven’t forgotten. You saved the men and the village.”

  “Where does Ben typically eat his lunch?”

  “Moresong’s Inn. He knows better than to set foot into my tearoom,” Natti said.

  “Then we’ll confront him there. I want witnesses,” Sara said.

  “You’ll get ‘em. I’ll just tell the right folks that there’ll be an announcement at Moresong’s at twelve-thirty.” Natti rubbed her hands in anticipation. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Sara nodded. “Good thinking. Ben won’t know I’m here if you do that.”

  ~

  “It’s not too late to bring up some men for Obridge to back you up.” Willa said to Sara in the back garden of Nona’s cottage. She pulled out her sword and limbered up. At least her wound was on her left arm. She doubted she could do much with it, but she could pull a gun’s trigger.

  “Do you think you can fight your own father if it comes to that?”

  “He’s not my father. He’s a monster who has no right to steal money from the villagers. This is my domain and he has done what he could to ruin it. Imagine no one plowing my fields. That’s not what Shattuk Downs is like. Even the old Grand Duke wouldn’t stand for what Ben’s doing and I know Duke Northcross has his eye on him. He’s taking advantage of the people until he can escape. That’s what I think. He knows what happens when I turn twenty. I’ll have no problem turning him out, especially now with Brightlings untouched. I never thought he’d sink this far.”

  Willa looked up at the sun. “It’s time. I’m armed. Then we can get down to Stonebridge.”

  “Stonebridge,” Sara said. Klark’s image flashed in her mind. “But first, Ben Featherwood.”

  They walked through the house to the front. Natti, the Glimmers and a few others she recognized, and a few she didn’t, already stood in front of the little fence that bordered Nona’s herb garden. Anna Bark, an old friend who had turned on her with Vesty, stood among the group with her husband.

  She walked up to Sara. “I’m with you all the way, Sara. I don’t know if you can forgive me, but please save us from your father.” They hugged briefly. Sara would have never thought that Anna would speak to her again. These people did need her and Anna’s words brought a few tears to her eyes.

  She looked on the villagers’ frightened faces, she vowed she wouldn’t let them down. She led them along the street parallel to the main road and approached Moresong’s Inn. The path duplicated the one she took a year ago. No Choster, no pipe exploders, but the citizens of Belting Hollow now pushed her forward.

  A crowd of villagers milled around the front of Moresong’s. Ben stood on the porch talking to them. Sara led her group through the crowd and walked up the steps to confront her stepfather. As she approached, she nearly gasped. She had no idea what to do about him after their very public talk! Too late for planning. She grit her teeth and took a deep breath, glaring at him.

  “Sara. I knew something rotten scared these people up. What are you doing here?”

  She slipped out the document giving her possession of Brightlings. “I’ve come to claim Brightlings. The King accelerated my taking ownership, so you are no longer the Squire as of this minute.”

  “That means we won’t have to put up with you anymore!” The crowd murmured. “Serves you right, Ben. Get out of town! Leave.”

  Ben scowled. “A piece of paper from a ruler far away. It means nothing.” He tried to snatch it from her hand, but Sara backed up, pulling the document away.

  “All of the Brightlings accounts are immediately mine, here and in Obridge and Stonebridge. That includes the tax money you drained from the villagers wherever you have hidden it. They will be returned to the people of Belting Hollow. We’ve never taxed them before and we won’t in the future.”

  The crowd cheered Sara’s words. The hostility of Belting Hollow had transferred easily from Sara to her stepfather.

  “No. I refuse.” Ben said.

  “Refuse what, Featherwood? Come in, lunch is served.” A portly man stood at the Inn’s door. “What’s this?” The man looked out over the growing crowd.

  Ben sneered. “Let me introduce Ellis Raven. He represents the Grand Duke in Belting Hollow. He won’t recognize the King’s order.”

  Sara looked down at the crowd. Willa looked a bit worried, but that wouldn’t shake Sara’s resolve.

  “I have witnesses that say you, Master Raven, have been receiving payments from my stepfather. Is that correct?”

  The man blustered. “I… I have not.”

  “There is another bit of news, courtesy of King Terrant. I am now the Duchess of Goldfields. My influence with the new Grand Duke, who the King installed a few months ago, will be significant.”

  Raven began to sweat. “I imagine you have proof?”

  “I do. Duplicates of both of these warrants are on their way to Stonebridge.” She handed her the Ducal appointment along with the formal transfer of Brightlings over to Raven, who read them. Sara noticed the tremor in Raven’s hand.

  “These are quite genuine, Ben,” Raven said, giving them back to Sara. “If she says you’re no longer the Squire, you aren’t.”

  “You won’t get away with this,” Ben said raising his fist at Sara. “I’ll fight for what’s rightly my sons’ estate.”

  “I can’t agree with you more. I intend on settling Brightlings on my step-brothers, Seb and Enos.”

  “Step-brothers?’ came a voice from the crowd.

  “However, the running of Brightlings will fall to an agent of my choice and not to Ben Featherwood.” She turned to Ben, “You will not be allowed to manage the estate or profit from it other than reside in a re-built Brightlings.”

  “You said step-brothers,” a voice came from the crowd.

  “Ben Featherwood is not my real father. He married Sythea Goldagle when she was pregnant. I’m that child. Ben’s mistress or mistresses bore Enos and Seb and my mother graciously raised the two boys as her own. He discovered at some point that I would inherit Brightlings when I reached twenty. When he married Vesty, they set about raiding the estate so when the time came for me to assume ownership of Brightlings there would be nothing left and they could take their stolen money and move elsewhere. I found out about their plan to steal the assets of the estate, so that’s why I left Vesty’s funeral so qu
ickly. I didn’t know then that I’d be inheriting Brightlings.”

  “Lies.” Ben looked out on the crowd. “They’re all lies! She looks down on all of you and hates Belting Hollow, just like I said. You can’t believe her.”

  “Yes they can,” Nona stepped up to say. “Sara tells you the truth. I was there when she went through Brightlings records after the accident that killed Vesty. It’s rather obvious that Ben has returned to his efforts to steal as much money from you and from all of us. That’s why he hasn’t started in on Brightlings fields or rebuilt the house. Why spend money now on something that won’t benefit him? He’ll be gone before harvest time.”

  Glimmer raised his fist and said, “He’s hoarding everything so he can leave a rich man, stealing our money. He’s no Squire and he deserves the worst punishment!” The crowd continued to complain.

  The villagers began to shout and moved towards Ben. “Hang him!” came a call from the crowd.

  “No!” Sara said. Her strategy took the wrong turn. She had expected to get Ben to leave. “Don’t hang him. I’ll take him to Stonebridge. Let the Grand Duke try him.”

  “Yes, the Grand Duke!” Raven said as he backed up and escaped through the door to the Inn.

  The crowd rushed up the steps. Sara stood her ground and raised her gun into the air and pulled the trigger.

  “You can’t cast aside the law!” Sara said. “He needs to be judged. That’s the way we do it in Shattuk Downs.”

  “Ben told us he had seceded from Shattuk Downs and that we were on our own. Ellis Raven backed Ben up in that,” one of the farmers said.

  The crowd pushed Sara aside. She fought alongside Ben, but there were too many villagers crowding around them.

  “Let him go!” Sara yelled at the top of her lungs. Two men grabbed her, so she couldn’t even draw a weapon or reload her pistol.

  They pushed Ben over the railings to the cobbled road below. Sara heard the breath leave his lungs as he landed flat on his back. He couldn’t even call out as they dragged him down the street towards the large oak that sat in the village square.

  Nona and Natti stood in front of them, calling their fellow villagers to stop, but none seemed to hear. The people flowed past the two women like an ocean wave rolling past the harbor rocks.

  “We’ve got to do something,” Sara said as she escaped from the men who held her.

  One of them was Mr. Glimmer. “Let them do what’s right, Sara. He about ruined me.”

  “Sara! Sara! Help me!” Ben yelled and raised an arm in supplication as the crowd swallowed him up, heading for the square.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” She ran down the steps with tears in her eyes, looking at the crowd down the road.

  A rope had already had been thrown over a branch and villagers held up Ben, with a rope tied around his neck. She reloaded her gun and pointed it into the air, but all it did was click. Even the cartridges were against her.

  “Stop!” A few villagers stopped to looked at Sara. She felt a sigh of relief. Perhaps they would cease this madness. A shout filled the air and Ben began to swing from the tree.

  “No!” Tears filled Sara’s eyes. She fought her way through the crowd, but by the time she reached Ben, she looked up at the open eyes of Ben Featherwood. Open, but unseeing. She grabbed his legs and yelled for them to cut him down. As she lowered him, and laid him on the ground, a man put a handkerchief over Ben’s face.

  Nona knelt and held Ben’s wrist. She shook her head and placed her hand on the side of his neck. “He’s gone.”

  This had to be a nightmare. People didn’t act like this. Ben deserved to hang, but after the Grand Duke found him guilty. Someone led her away from his body. She looked into the villagers’ eyes seeking the same shame that she felt, but all she could see was relief. Perhaps the nightmare that existed since West had come to town just ended. One tyrant quickly replaced another.

  “Nona!” One woman called out. “She can lead us.”

  Others took up the call and then they crowded around the woman. It seemed the village had chosen a new leader and Nona wouldn’t have to leave. At least the village might heal as Sara had originally intended over a year ago.

  She sat down on Moresong’s steps and wept.

  ~~~

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The Third Funeral

  With Ben’s body lying in the undertaker’s storage basement, Vincint Wells, the former supervisor at the Brightlings mines showed up, knocking on the open door to Sara’s rooms at the inn. “Panna told me all about the excitement and that you wanted to see me. I heard that Ben finally hanged and I can’t say I’m sorry. I gave him a lot of years of service and he just tossed me out on my ear.” He fiddled with the brim of his hat. “Once your mother died, he seemed to have lost his bearings—it’s better this way, believe me. Better for everyone.”

  “I’m not quite used to it. We had been antagonists for so long and yet, I grew up with him as my father. I tried to stop it, but…” Sara couldn’t say another word and she couldn’t avoid the fact that she personally failed to save Ben and she’d never forget the last words that he said had been a plea for her to help him. She had thought the townspeople were with her and that they would back her up as she confronted Ben, but she had no idea how badly he had mistreated them. Her confrontation had ended in disaster—utter disaster. The villagers got the tyrant out of their lives—did they have it right and perhaps she didn’t? Perhaps she’d never know.

  “Sara,’ Wells said. “Your eyes glazed over and you were a thousand miles away.”

  “I’m sorry. I suppose I’m still in a bit of shock about it all.”

  Wells put his arms out and hugged Sara. “It’s all for the best. Now,” he put her at arms length, “why am I here?” he said looking into her eyes.

  She showed him to a seat and reordered her mind. “I want to hire you as Ben’s replacement.”

  “Father’s can’t just be replaced. You know that.”

  “I want a mentor for Seb and Enos. You know Brightlings better than anyone and, most importantly, I trust you.”

  Wells leaned over and looked at his hands. “It would be at least a four-year commitment for me. Enos is about sixteen and needs some training. I’ll admit Ben’s mostly ignored his sons after Sythea died and they could likely use some practical tutoring.” He looked up at Sara. “For you, Sara, I’ll do it.”

  “Whatever you want, you’ll get it within reason. I’ll name you Squire until we both decide Enos is ready. Make them into men. I now own Goldfields and I can commit to employ you as long as you want, if the boys don’t want you around.”

  His eyebrows rose, “I can’t turn down that kind of offer and I’ll work with you in rebuilding Brightlings just the way you want.” Wells put his hand to his chin. “In fact, I think it’ll be good for the boys and I to be roughing it in one of the outbuildings during the summer and spend some time in the mines. I’ll have full responsibility?”

  “Full.” Sara put out her hand and shook his. “I’ll have formal documents drawn up in Stonebridge. What I want you to do before the boys return from school is find out where Ben’s money went. We’ve got taxes to return to the angry folks of Belting Hollow.”

  ~

  For the third time in three years, Sara sat in the Council Chambers at a funeral. Her mother’s death had thrown her life into an endless swirl of tragedy. Vesty’s death had ended the life of a venomous former friend. She had no desire to attend that one and now she sat again with Seb and Enos at her side. They couldn’t stop the tears, although Enos did what he could to restrain the sobs that Seb couldn’t stop. Sara didn’t think she had it in her, but she felt tears welling in her eyes. They weren’t for Ben, but for her past. For her entire journey, since her mother’s death, she sought to bring meaning and accomplishment to her life, not death. She didn’t notice that many other tears in the room.

  Now she carried the title of Duchess. She would bring the Goldagle line back to Gold
fields. She’d be richer beyond any dreams she had as a young girl, but she’d rather have her mother at her side, complaining about this or that, as she always had while her mother drove her to learn.

  Sitting on the other side of the boys, Wells had a hat in his lap. He looked forward, solemn for the occasion, but without emotion. She saw him grab his wife’s hand and saw the tenderness in his face, so unlike Ben. She wondered how good of a mentor he’d be to her step-brothers as they grew into young men, capable of running Brightlings. She had no doubt that he would do his best for her and the boys. At the proper time, she’d transfer the estate to the boys and they could have their own children run through the new Brightlings Hall. She had decided that Enos would have the farmlands and the title and Sara intended Seb to harvest timber in the mountains, something that hadn’t been undertaken in Ben’s time, and own the mines.

  She knew that might not be the best solution, but she decided that it would give both of them the wealth to carry on as they grew up without the resentment that got in the way of other siblings and inheritances.

  The pastor finished his droning and Sara rose. This time she’d be the one to stand at the casket. Most of the villagers came up to thank her for stopping Ben’s rule of terror. She heard more stories than she wished of Ben’s practices, even before her mother had died.

  A cold wind blew despite a clear sky as the funeral procession took Ben’s casket to the graveyard. She had to pay some miners to act as pallbearers because none of the villagers cared to volunteer.

  She didn’t want to stand at the graves for very long. Vesty and Ben seemed to intrude on her mother’s peace in the graveyard. Sara sighed and walked to Natti’s tearoom, where there would be a more informal gathering after Ben’s burial.

  She sat down with Wells. Natti brought out a plate of tiny sandwiches and set it at the table and took a seat.

  “Between the two of you, Brightlings can be re-built. Natti knows how the old place looked except I want all of the rooms to be a bit bigger with two more bedrooms upstairs. Since construction techniques are better since Brightlings was first built, we can have taller ceilings and larger windows. No ballroom, but build a conservatory. Who knows? Enos’s wife might be in love with plants.” Sara smiled. “I’ll be up every season I can. I will demand that Winter’s Rise be celebrated in Stonebridge until Brightlings is finished and that includes you and your wife.”