Crimson Rapture (52 page)

She
became frantic. The search was on. Three hours later, after calling in both
Rosarn and Aggie, after going over every single detail of the past day of
moving, after searching every conceivable place and countless inconceivable
ones, the letter was still missing.

Justin
faced the unpleasant reality.

He
ordered every employee and servant in his hire to gather in his study within
the hour. There were to be no exceptions. Anyone who could possibly have access
to his house had to be there. Someone, somehow, had stolen the letter.

After
discussing the situation with Chessy and determining the interesting
information that no one had left since the letter was stolen, Justin knew
exactly what to do. He first sent message to Jacob. Sent it by Hope's
seven-year-old-grandson, one of the only people Justin thought to trust beside
Chessy and Rosarn. They would have to remain at the house for Christina.

With
breakfast laid before him, Justin sat in the dining room piecing together the
only probable explanation. Someone had been in the house that night, intent on
gathering some information for the French agents. The person had been hiding
downstairs when they saw him leave his room, carrying the letter in his hand.
They must have watched as he changed his mind, then slipped the letter into his
pocket and went into Christina's room. Somehow, the next day, probably during
the confusion of the moving of her things, they snuck into the room, found the
robe and the letter.

This
seemed more likely than someone just sneaking about until they came across it.
Who would look in a robe pocket for something of that nature? And none of his
other things had been disturbed, as far as he could tell.

Yes...
that must be how it happened.

Holding
little Justin in her arms, nervous and frightened both, Christina watched as
one by one the servants and employees filed into Justin's study. It took nearly
half an hour before everyone was gathered and accounted for. Finally
twenty-three people waited for Justin to address them. The spacious room looked
crowded. There were hardly enough chairs to accommodate everyone, though most
chose to stand anyway, feeling uncomfortable in the private domain of the man
who not only paid their wages, but also the man who commanded so much respect
and admiration.

Justin
entered the study, and after carefully searching each face, he went right to
the point. "Someone, one of you here, has stolen a letter from me. This
letter could see me hanged." Murmured astonishment rose from the
gathering, quieting quickly as they waited for him to continue.
"Undoubtedly you— whoever has stolen this letter—have been bribed by an
agent of the French government. It seems these agents will do anything to stop
me from trading goods to the English. While it is true that this letter could
provide ample evidence to see me hanged by the French, American, and English
governments, I assure you I am perfectly capable of sparing my neck and no
doubt I will. However, the letter in the hands of the French agents would
jeopardize the lives of each of my men on two ships that have already set
sail."

He
paused and said meaningfully, "Chessy has informed me that no one has left
the premises since the letter was stolen and, therefore, I can be reasonably
assured one of you still has it. I want that letter. I happen to know how much
the agents are offering for it. I will pay ten times the figure. And to each one
of you here."

Rosarn
and Chessy had shared with everyone just how much the French agents had
offered. Math was suddenly easy for each person; the figure was multiplied by
ten, that figure multiplied by the number of people in the room. The result was
astonished exclamations from nearly everyone present.

"Hear
me out," Justin quieted the crowd. "You are all dismissed for the
next three days to provide the opportunity for one of you to make all of you a
nice sum of money. I am going to leave immediately for my townhouse. Whoever
has the letter is to get it to my townhouse within the next three days. I don't
care how you do it, just that you do. Needless to say, no questions will be
asked of anyone's comings or goings."

Not
one person could stop from examining the faces of the others in desperate
effort to discern who among them could deliver such happy fortune.

"That's
all," he finished. "With the exception of Rosarn and Chessy, who will
stay on with Christina and Justin, you are each dismissed."

For
a moment everyone remained motionless but then, as though reaching some
collective decision, everyone moved at once. Justin spotted Hope in the crowd
and he smiled. "Hope, you stay on too. I know you didn't do it."

The
old woman flashed her famous toothless grin. "But I wish I did," she
said honestly. "I'd save you the bother and turn it over now. Then I'd
collect my bonus and buy me a fine new hat."

"Don't
I pay you enough for a new hat?" he asked teasingly.

"Hell
yes!" she declared in a breath. "I's the best paid cook in the county
but you know I save all my money to see my children and now gran'chil'ren into
trade school."

"A
good idea, though I still think you owe yourself a hat. I think I'll buy you
one next time I'm in town."

"Don't
you dare. I don't take nothin' from no one for nothin' never," she said
all at once, explaining what everyone had heard many times before. "That's
what slavin's all about. My gran'pappy and my pappy all wore them chains too
long afore my pappy had sense enough to escape the paddy rollers and follow the
North Star. I remember the tales too clearly to ever give a mind to the idea of
gettin' or givin' anythin' for nothin'. No sir, you save that hat for a
Michaelmas gift." She wisely explained just how he should give her the new
hat.

Justin
laughed and Christina, watching from his side, wondered. How could he stand
there bantering with Hope when their very lives seemed on the bare thread of
the good will—or greed—of someone whose identity they didn't even know. If he
didn't receive that letter in three days, he would have to leave and hide out,
probably for years and, oh! His men's lives were in jeopardy! And— "This
is just like you!"

Justin
and Hope turned their attention.

"Justin!
I'm so scared! What if—"

"Don't
you worry now." Hope stopped her. "The good lord takes care of his
own." She knew how many of her people Justin's ships had set free and she
had some idea of how much Justin gave to the abolitionist paper, the
Libertine.
"It will all work out, always does. You'll see." With that she
planted a warm kiss on Christina's cheek and then left.

While
Justin was not at all sure if he was in the class of the "lord's
people," he was equally certain all would be well. For he would see to it.
Quiet amusement met her concern. He spent the next few minutes trying to
reassure her but this, it seemed, was as futile as filling a bucket with the
bottom rusted out.

For
she had a premonition that something awful was going to happen.

"Take
me with you!" she begged as he loaded the saddlebags on his waiting horse
outside.

"I
can't—"

"I
could have Justin ready in minutes and, oh! We could stay with Hanna and—"

He
stopped her by gently pressing his finger to her lips. "I won't have you
in town without me and I won't be staying there very long." Planning to tackle
the problem from both ends, he would be in town just long enough to get Jacob
and a few others to stop the French agents himself, whether or not the letter
showed up at his townhouse. He would be bothered no more. "I'll be back
before you know it. You'll see." He kissed her good-bye and mounted the
waiting horse.

She
watched until he disappeared down the lane, shivering despite the warm midday
sun. The only way she could think to shake a suddenly monstrous anxiety was to
continue searching for the letter. There was still a chance that it had just
been misplaced, admittedly a small chance, but existent none the less. And she
would have no rest until it was returned to Justin.

* * * * *

Following
Jacob's orders, Steffen and Miles tracked the three men they knew were the
French agents. To their utter surprise they followed the men from town out to
Justin's very own house. Their orders were explicit: just watch and report back
any meetings with anyone.

"Pssst,"
Steffen called to Miles, who was hiding the horses and himself in the shade of
the forest. "Come on! I found some cover where we can watch the
bastards."

"Where
are they?" Miles asked, bringing the horses around.

"Lurking
in the woods on the edge of the lawn, like a bunch of highway cowards. And it
looks like they're settin' a spell—they watered their horses and set out some
grub."

Steffen
and Miles soon found themselves watching the unsuspecting party from the cover
of boulders at the water's edge. They left their horses about a mile down the
road, hidden in the forest out of view. Their position offered a fairly good
view of the lawns and the forest's edge where the French agents hid in turn.

"What
the hell are they doing?" Miles asked as Steffen finally lowered the
glass.

"Beats
me," Steffen replied, "but I suppose we'll find out. I only know what
Jacob ordered and what those fools must know."

"What's
that?"

"That
Justin is not home. Geez! Camping out on his front lawn." Steffen chuckled
at the idea. "Nobody could be that stupid."

"Why
don't we just shoot the bastards anyway and be done with it?"

"Orders."

"Well,
I feel like a bloody idiot watching bloody idiots do nothing," Miles
confessed. "Whatever they're going to do, I hope they do by nightfall. I
sure don't take none to the idea of spending the night on a cold boulder when I
got such a fine-looking lass waitin' in a nice warm bed. Did I tell you about
her..." And the two men talked on as they watched and waited.

* * * * *

Christina
emptied the last drawer of her vanity. A sewing box, needles and white silk
thread, thimbles, scissors, a pair of lace gloves and scarf, a gold chain, and
a perfumed sashay. Nothing. The futility of looking for the letter in such
places hit her and hard, sweeping her with anxiety anew.

She
needed a walk, a very long walk. She turned Justin over to Rosarn's care,
grabbed a pretty flowered shawl, and headed down the stairs. Chessy whittled in
the parlor at the fireplace but otherwise the large house was unnaturally
quiet. Hope was busy out in the kitchen, fixing supper. She told Chessy of her
intentions, assured him she wanted to be alone, and then left the house.

Chessy
returned to his whittling. He tried to think of some reason why Christina
should not be out walking alone. He could think of none. No harm in a walk.

Why
then did he have a bad feelin' tickling his brain like a feather to naked skin?

Darkness
began to sweep over the landscape. The muted colors of twilight shrouded
everything, concealing what she saw would soon be the bright light of a rising
half moon. She breathed deeply the fresh springtime air as one by one she tried
to find the muted shades of twilight in each color she would paint: the dark,
almost black blue of the lake; the russet color of the low rolling hills behind
it, this in contrast to the patches of forest green, now washed in a golden
red; the dark silver of the boulders, the black of the smoke rising from the
chimney of Hope's family cabin near the lakefront. Anything to distract her
from unpleasant thoughts of an uncertain future.

She
made her way across the lawns, heading toward the lake, separating and studying
each shade of color the land presented. Beauty and Beau romped alongside her.
She would circle the lake but, just as she thought this, she stopped.

It
would mean crossing the creek, she realized, and that inevitably meant soaked
boots in the uncertain light. Then, too, it was already getting late and—

The
shadows of three mounted men abruptly emerged from the forest edge.

Christina
froze, not with a fear of the French agents or the idea that these men meant
Justin harm but with the instinctual, far more primitive fear of a woman alone
and unprotected being approached by three strange men. And frozen she was, for
running was not even a thought yet.

Jean
Petiers had waited for this opportunity for nearly a week. He and his two
men—Franz and Robert—had been holed up at the roadside and in town, watching
and waiting for a clue as to how to get to Phillips's wife. Speculations had
been endless, especially after watching first Phillips and then half his
household travel into town. This was their opportunity, their last chance.

One
man came forward, while the other two held back. Barking wildly, Beauty and
Beau sensed sudden fear and came immediately to her side in defensive
positions. Beauty would not warn but Beau found it necessary and he barked
warning as the single rider approached. This gave her courage. The wide open
space of the lawn told her to stay put. There was safety in open space.