Bride of Blood:: First Kiss (26 page)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The year was 1812.
 
After many adventures in the Caribbean and a brief stop-over in Cuba, Anton finally came to America for the first time.
 
He was able to secure passage on board a fancy schooner whose captain was a well-paid connection of The Order.
 
At first Anton made his home in the south because he preferred the warmer climate after spending so many years in Nevis.
 
Although he had missed The Revolutionary War by years, word of it had traveled to various colonies of the world, and he was interested in partaking in another revolution of sorts.
 
Word had traveled around the hemisphere that a full-fledged slave revolt was in order.
 
As he and his young friend Alexander Hamilton had feared, America had not let go of slavery when it became its own nation.
 
When he traveled to the States, he remembered the promise he had made to Hamilton about ending slavery once and for all.
 
After he was established in the States, he planned to seek out underground abolitionist groups to get things started.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anxious to see Hamilton again, Anton looked forward to traveling to New York to see his old friend.
 
Letters from Hamilton had stopped years ago as his young friend had been quite busy since the Revolution.
 
Hamilton had been a representative from New York for the Constitutional Convention and served under President Washington as Secretary of the Treasury.
 
After leaving that job, he was still active in politics behind the scenes and was practicing law.
 
Anton was sure that Hamilton would be glad to hear from him and honor the pact that they had made.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Of course, Anton was not prepared for the tragic news.
 
Richard Harrison, who at one time was a partner in law with Hamilton wrote Anton.
 
In the letter he told Anton how Hamilton had been killed at the hands of Aaron Burr, then Vice President under Thomas Jefferson.
 
Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, supposedly for some comments that Hamilton had made about him.
 
Harrison assured Anton in the letter that none of that story was true. In truth, Burr was a scoundrel who saw Hamilton as stumbling block to his political rise to power.
 
Of course, ironically, killing one of America’s Founding Fathers had actually ruined Burr’s political career.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton read the letter several times before he collapsed against the wall to his room and cried.
 
The letter was still in his hand as his body shook with sobs of grief.
 
The words, “I regret to inform you that Mr. Hamilton died tragically…” still burned into his mind.
 
Feelings of anger and regret filled his broken heart.
 
He wished that he had come to America sooner as he had planned.
 
So much had gone on during the past few years.
 
Now one of his dearest friends was dead, and with him the dream of a totally free America was, too.

“I will make this right!” he declared as he stood up.
 
Somehow he would make that son-of-a-bitch Aaron Burr pay for what he did.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
He wrote to Mr. Harrison and inquired about the state of Hamilton’s widow Elizabeth his family and additional information on Aaron Burr.
 
He wanted to learn all that he could about the man he would someday kill.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Messages moved slowly in those days, but a reply eventually came to Anton.
 
He was staying at a boarding house in South Carolina at that time.
 
His room was basically a basement apartment.
 
His landlady was a widow who was basically renting out rooms to make ends meet.
 
Anton paid her a year’s worth of rent in gold up front.
 
Of course the gold was more than was required, but it helped her to get out of debt and remodel the house.
 
She stopped taking in boarders except for Anton.
 
She never asked any questions about his comings or goings.
 
Anton would give her extra money here and there when he thought she was going to start getting nosey.
 
The arrangement was working out fine.
 
The basement apartment had been modified to suit Anton’s “needs” for no windows at all, including a special entrance in the back.
 
Again, he paid the carpenter for it with gold and once again tongues were stopped from wagging.
 
It would be a few years later, after the landlady’s death that Anton would take on her son Richard as his familiar.
 
The family tradition would carry on through generations until Chelsea took on the role.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On that particular day, his landlady slipped an envelope under Anton’s door about the time she knew he would be waking up.
 
The soft sound of her footfalls and the letter rubbing against the bottom of the door woke him.
 
Quickly he jumped from his bed, lit a candle and tore open the letter.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The letter had a lot of useful information.
 
It told of how many of Hamilton’s friends were settling his debts and were looking in on Elizabeth and his children.
 
Anton promised himself that he would send a sizable amount of money to Elizabeth once he was finished with Burr.
 
The letter also revealed several of Mr. Burr’s activities since the duel.
 
Anton was surprised to find out that Burr had never been prosecuted for Hamilton’s death, even though dueling was technically illegal.
 
He had been tried for treason in 1807 and had fled to Europe the next year.
 
Apparently he’d been spotted in New York earlier that year.
 
What really piqued Anton’s interest was about Burr’s daughter, Theodosia.
 
She was his only living child and the love of his life.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Theodosia had been brought up like a lady and had been well-educated.
 
Since Burr was broke with no real means of supporting himself except for handouts from the few friends he had, he tried to find Theodosia a rich husband.
 
And his search had paid off.
 
Theodosia had married a wealthy man named Joseph Alston, who was slated to become governor of South Carolina later that year.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It could have been an act of providence, but the daughter of Anton’s enemy was in South Carolina!
 
After reading the letter over a few times, he decided on what he would do.
 
He was not going to kill Aaron Burr, oh no, that would be too easy.
 
He would do something to Burr that would cause him pain and suffering for the remainder of his days.
 
He would kill Theodosia.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Through inquiries of his local friends, Anton learned that Theodosia and one of her father’s friends Timothy Green would be making a voyage to New York to see her father. As it turned out, Theodosia’s husband may have been rich, but he wasn’t a kind man at all.
 
Rumors circulated that he was both physically and sexually abusive to her.
 
Anton guessed that she had a type of man in mind, one that was just like her father.

The ship she was to sail on was a schooner called The Patriot.
 
Taking a voyage of any kind during that time was risky, not only because of the threat of pirates but because the War of 1812 had begun.
 
He didn’t know why she was taking the voyage, but it would be a perfect opportunity to exact his revenge on her father.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The ship in question was docked in Georgetown and was set to sail on December 31.
 
Her husband would not be joining her because he was named governor of South Carolina on December 10.
 
Even if he could have been able to accompany her, Anton had a feeling that she was running away with no intention of returning to her husband.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton made his way to the dock a week before the boat was to sail.
 
He admired The Patriot.
 
It was beautiful ship.
 
It had once a privateer but had been made to look like a merchant ship so as to not arouse suspicion of the British who were patrolling the ocean.
 
A ship like that could easily slip past the British and make it to New York with no problems.
 
But it would run into problems, not from the British nor from the pirates.
 
Anton would be on that ship on December 31.
 
He would make sure no one on board would ever make it to New York, especially her celebrity passenger.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The night of December 30 arrived.
 
Anton was aboard the ship, and buried himself deep in the ship’s hold.
 
He was not the least bit surprised to find that The Patriot was not only going to take Theodosia to New York, it also had another mission.
 
She was laden with cannons, guns, and ammunition.
 
The disguise of being a merchant ship was simply a ruse to get these supplies to the American Army!
 
As much as he supported the American cause against the British, yet again, the army would not get these supplies.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
He went into a deep sleep, imagining what he was going to do when it became night on the following day.
 
Of course he wouldn’t be discovered because he doubted the crew would want to hang around in the hold.
 
They would be too busy to worry.