WWIV - Basin of Secrets (28 page)

Tarlisch’s smile turned into a pained grin. His eyes focused on Cara, trying to garner her attention. His true intentions on display for the world – this small, dull, meaningless corner of someone’s world. A tiny stage where the lead actor never missed a beat. “I have no need to search the place, Steven. If you say Bond isn’t here, that’s good enough for me.” Willem smiled at the girl. “You’re not a man that has made a life of lies. I’ve always respected you, and that’s why I don’t doubt you at all. Talbot Bond isn’t here. He’s in some far-off place. I can live with that.”

A long silence followed. From what Cara observed, only Steven and Tarlisch now existed. Each man’s resolve focused on the other. When the quiet became too uncomfortable to bear any longer, she stepped forward.

“Please give me back my daughter,” she begged. “Please.”

Tarlisch smiled innocently at Rose, but when he turned to Cara, his face drew serious again. “All in good time, all in good time.” Pondering his next words, he stepped back into the midst of his own people.

“Right now, here at this precise moment, we have a problem. And you see, though you think only I have a problem, I assure you, we all have a problem. I want Talbot Bond; I
need
Talbot Bond. I am
owed
Talbot Bond.” Stepping half of a step forward, his eyes settled on Steven more than Cara. “If I am to believe you, my uncle has run off. A state or two away it would seem. Now, you would like me to mount up, head east and chase him to the ends of the earth. Or, at least what we know are the ends of the earth nowadays. You’d have me leave what I fought so hard for, wouldn’t you? Do you take me for a fool, really?”

Cara noticed Steven peek at her. While trying to maintain any nerve she could, she remained focused on her small daughter. Little by little, one heartbeat at a time, Cara felt the world close in tighter than before, until it was only her and Rose. If this man harmed her child, she’d force him to take her life as well. If he’d let her down, she promised herself, she would do almost anything to make him leave.

“Here’s my plan,” Willem continued. “I have taken certain assets from the three most powerful families in Salt Lake. Three of their most eligible girls have become my wives.” Cara gasped, fearing his next words. “Their smallest children…” Willem grinned. “…are now my children.” If it was possible, the scene grew quieter. Now, not even a breath could be heard between Tarlisch’s words.

Cara felt her entire body shake as Steven wrapped a long arm around her, drawing her near. Tarlisch stared at the pair, his mind seemingly elsewhere. He turned to the child in his arms and studied her face, closely. Pulling back a small portion of her red hair, Willem carefully inspected Rose’s right ear like a farrier checking a horse. Slowly, as his gaze crept back to Cara, a possessed grin grew.

“How could I have forgotten,” Willem stated, almost as if speaking only to Cara. “I know something else about you. But it wouldn’t pop in my mind.” His grin became a smile. “You’re hiding someone from me. Someone I like very much, dare I say, love dearly. Like a sibling.”

Cara trembled at his words, his remembrance. How could she have been so stupid to play his game? Her words crashed next to her in a heap. Bravely, she tried to reply as coolly as possible. “I have no idea what you’re speaking of.”

His eyes shifted between the couple. Silence again blanketed the scene like new snow in the woods. “Kellen,” he whispered. “He’s here, isn’t he? I mean, he must be here. But you’re hiding him from me. Why?”

Cara tried to speak, but her lips wouldn’t open. She knew she would collapse if the conversation went one step further. Her entire life hung on his next words.

“He’s dead,” Steven replied. “He’s not here, Willem. He’s gone.”

Willem’s face twisted and turned, tortured by the news. “My friend, my best childhood friend, is dead?” he asked. “How? How is that possible?”

Steven inched forward. “You knew he had a bad heart. He needed medication every day. That medication ran out a long time ago. So did Kellen’s luck.”

Wiping a tear from his cheek, Willem stared into Steven’s cool eyes. “I loved him like a brother, you know. I loved him more than my own brother. When no one else listened, Kellen always had time. When the world abandoned me in college, Kellen came, just like he always did. He was the best of all friends.” Turning toward Cara, he nodded. “I am truly sorry. Kellen was destined to become a great man, just like his father. Your loss must be so great. Can I see his grave?”

Without thinking, Cara reacted. “He died 10 years ago, Mr. Tarlisch. He’s buried out back by the flower garden at our home in Salt Lake.”

Willem’s entire body shook as he tightened his grip on Rose. “Liar!” he screamed. “Why do you continue to lie to me? I know the truth. I know he’s near. He has to be. Look at this child. Your spitting image.” He spun and displayed the girl’s face to Howard. Turning again, his rage rose. “Your eyes, your hair, your mouth, your skin. All yours!” Moving closer, Cara stepped back, frightened by his wrath. “But she has Kellen’s nose, his ears. Do you really think I’d miss those features? The features of my best friend? The ones I kidded him about for 14 years? You are a foolish girl, Cara, if you believe that.”

“Give me my daughter,” Cara squeaked. Her bravery, her confidence, her life, all but gone.

“Give me my cousin then,” Willem seethed. “Give me Betsi, now!”

Cara’s world spun out of control as the blood raced through her palpating heart. Her friend or her child. Foolishly, she tried to outsmart the master. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Betsi Bond, why would she be here?”

With Rose still tight in his grasp, Tarlisch’s head raised to the sky. His mouth dropped open as he let out an indiscernible scream into the otherwise quiet, pristine wilderness. Racing toward Cara, his eyes lit up like a demon sent straight from hell. “You liar!” he screamed in her face. “You lying bitch. Don’t you think I know? I know everything.”

Steven slid his wife behind him and confronted her assaulter. “That’s enough, Willem. Don’t speak to her like that.”

Incensed, Willem tried to push him aside and get at the tiny redhead. “Don’t fight her battles, Steven. This is between her and me.” His eyes spit forth fire to show Steven his resolve. And then, second by second, they surveyed his face, as his head slowly moved from side to side.

“Give me that child, Willem,” Steven demanded.

Tarlisch backed away. “Kellen’s really dead?”

Steven nodded.

“Ten years now?” Willem’s voice softened with each word.

Again, Steven nodded, his own face tensing as Cara watched the final act play out.

Staring at the ground, Tarlisch let out a sigh. “What have you done, Steven?” he asked, without looking up for an answer.

Cara pushed forward. “Give me my child. And let my men have passage back in from the woods. They have been trapped out there all night, cut off from their homes by your callous treatment.”
 

Willem’s free hand covered his mouth, the other still grasping the child on his hip. “Oh, the seven spies we found out in the woods. Yes, um, they’re on their way to Salt Lake to stand trial tomorrow for espionage. They’re halfway there by now.”

Cara’s eyes opened wider. “They’re not spies!” she screamed, horrified by his accusation. “They’re woodsmen. They’ve done nothing to you or your troops. They need to be returned immediately.”

Willem’s mind appeared elsewhere. Finally, his gaze came back to her. “Well, if they’re simple woodsmen, the trial should bring that out. I doubt that, however. It seems that several were armed. You see, three had knives and another an axe. So, we need to sort out whether they were spies or woodsmen. Before we have them all hung tomorrow at sunset, that is.”

Cara lost all feeling. Directly in front of her stood the man who was about to destroy her community, her children. About to take a step forward to plead for their lives, she felt Steven’s strong hand squeeze her shoulder. Slowly, her face met his more confident expression. His face told her to say no more. “Mr. Tarlisch,” she began, turning to face him. “I’d like you to please return my daughter and the residents of my camp. If you don’t, I’m afraid–”

Tarlisch rushed to cut her off. “If I don’t, what then Cara – Mrs. Wake? You’ll fight me? Me and my troops? More than 150 men and women, all armed, all behind me, supporting my every need. You’re going to fight them off? With what, sticks and stones, really? How quaint. How charming.” Focusing on Steven, he nodded. “You know how this ends, right? The annihilation of a society. All because some stupid girl keeps secrets.” Focusing back on Cara, his scowl intensified. “No one is coming to save you. David will not beat Goliath today. Give me my cousin, and you can have your precious child back.”

“And our seven, what of them?” she begged.

“Give up on it, woman,” he snorted. “Be happy I don’t kill all of you. Your child, your friends, your husband who has betrayed his son so badly.” She looked away, but he reached for her chin and drew her gaze back to his. “What kind of a woman takes her father-in-law as her second husband? And if that’s not bad enough, she lies with him, and creates a child. A child who looks just like her and her dead husband.”
 

Tears started first, followed by sobs, and then Cara collapsed as her knees gave out, directly in front of Tarlisch. Steven’s sad face told him what he already knew. Willem Tarlisch had undressed her in front of her friends, her campmates. And now, she was destroyed.

“I can tell from your reaction,” he whispered in her direction, “that this was not a widely known fact.” Cara continued to sob unabated into her dirty hands, refusing to look at her tormentor. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Wake. But I don’t like secrets. I don’t like when other people lie to me and try to hide behind their own false honesty.”

Standing tall, he faced Steven and the assembly. “I know Betsi Bond is here. She arrived right before my troops yesterday. She couldn’t have been here more than two or three hours before they surrounded the place. She hasn’t left.” Leaning to his left, he pointed his free hand back into the crowd. “There stands her husband, Jeremy. So if she left, which I know she hasn’t, she left without her alleged beloved. Seems strange to me. So…” He focused on Steven again, “…you can’t blame me for calling your bluff.”

Emily Bradley knelt beside Cara and finally urged her back to her feet. With swollen red eyes and a face to match her hair, she appeared defeated. “Please give me back my daughter,” she again begged. “Please, I’ll do anything. Anything.”

Sympathetically, Willem nodded to her. “You can have her back when I have Betsi by my side. If I can’t have Uncle Talbot, I want my cousin at least.”

“Your what?” Jeremy shouted from the crowd. Tarlisch grinned. The lad had obviously not been paying attention earlier.
No doubt helping hide his cowering wife,
Willem thought.

“My cousin, you imbecile,” Willem chuckled. “Don’t tell me that after almost a dozen years together, she never mentioned that fact to you.” The shocked expression on Jeremy’s face told him everything.
 

Now Willem laughed loudly. “Oh my Lord, are we all keeping secrets today? Jeremy, Betsi and I are cousins – kissing cousins you could say. Of course, lately we’ve been doing a lot more than kissing.” Willem delighted in the pain Jeremy displayed. “And she’s quite good, I might add.”

Jeremy tried to push forward but was held back by several camp members from a certain death upon attacking Tarlisch. “You liar!” he shouted.

Willem turned to Howard, mystified. “Why would I lie?” he asked. “I’m an honest man, perhaps too honest sometimes.” Still holding Rose, he stepped past Cara toward Jeremy. Cara pulled on her daughter, but Willem pushed her away, reinforced by several armed men raising their weapons mere paces from the crowd.

“I’ll prove it to you. The mole on the right side of her left breast is shaped like Russia.” Jeremy’s eyes narrowed, seething at Tarlisch. Willem felt his grin broaden. “And the inside of her otherwise baby smooth thighs, all scratched and scarred. We had been in the thorn brush that day. Didn’t get my pants off fast enough when she begged me to take her. My fault, sorry.”

Jeremy screamed, shoving forward from the group. When he got to Tarlisch, Willem spun and stuck his pistol in his face. “I’ll kill you myself, not that Betsi would care,” he snickered.

“Willem!” a pained voice shouted from the gate. “Stop this. Stop this madness now!”

Turning, Willem gazed at his beloved. Shoving Jeremy to the ground, he holstered his weapon. “My dearest Betsi,” he beamed, “there you are. All changed and hidden in plain sight. Come here my love.” His right hand extended, his left free, as he dropped Rose at her mother’s feet, now with his prize before him.

With a scowl, Betsi inched forward through the crowd. Glancing right, she saw Jeremy spring from the ground back at Tarlisch. “No!” she screamed.

Willem spun, drawing his weapon again. “Howard,” he called back, “if this idiot even looks like he’s about to attack, have someone shoot him. I need a moment with my girl.”

“Your whore, you mean,” Jeremy spit at the pair.

Tarlisch grinned, his eyes still fixed on his cousin. “Oh don’t be like that, lad. So she cheated on you a few times. Well, many times, but it was only ever with me. Take solace in that fact.” Betsi lowered her eyes, refusing to look at her husband or her cousin. “You never told him about us, did you?”

Betsi shook her head. “Of course not,” she whispered.

Willem tried to bring her eyes to his, but she pushed away his hand. “Oh cousin, how sweet. Caring about his feelings like that. Sweet, yet stupid. I’ve always told you to be honest. That means about everything. Did you think of me every time he tried to make love to you?”

She pushed him away. “Stop. Haven’t you done enough damage? Haven’t you hurt enough people today already?”

Willem chortled. “Hurt? You’re kidding, right? These people know nothing of real pain, dear cousin.”

“You must understand, all of you,” he shouted to the gathering, “I am an expert in pain, in heartache. My father and brother were murdered as I watched, my mother withered away in the desert with a thirst and hunger caused by our banishment.” Turning back to Betsi, he shook his head several times. “No one – absolutely no one – here understands pain any better than I.” Reaching for her, Willem pulled Betsi from the crowd. “Here,” he vented. “Let me show them something.”