Secrets In Savannah (Phantom Knights) (35 page)

As the door shut, Guinevere broke,
a sob shattering the silence. Taking her in my arms, I held her as she cried.

When her tears were spent, she
spoke. “This is Harvey’s contriving. He wants to control my sister as he has
done me.”

“Then we will not allow that to
happen,” I assured her. “I have come to the realization that our families have
undervalued us.”

“How foolish of them,” Guinevere
replied with a smile that spoke of her understanding. She and I were of the
same mind.

The greatest hunt of our lives was
upon us.

“What say you, my wife? Shall we show
them the error of their ways?” I kissed her brow then stepped back and held out
my hand.

She placed her hand in mine.
“Indeed we shall.”

One might ask what a spy and an
exiled princess could accomplish against some of the greatest minds of our
time.

To them I would reply, Victory.

òòò

Deceit

In

Delaware

Coming Fall 2014

GUINEVERE

O
f all of the times I had run from Jack
to return to Harvey, this was the worst. My duplicity tugged on my conscience
as I rode toward the temple.

The last two days had been tense
for Jack and me. George was dead, Jack’s brother and his mentor had disappeared
with my sister, and on the morrow Bess would sail back to Charleston. As much
as I had longed to speak the truth, I could not tell Jack that I had one final
task to do to secure my freedom from the Order. He would never understand. For
I was about to sacrifice a Phantom.

When I reached the lane that led
to the temple, Harvey was there ahead of me. I left my horse with his carriage,
and we made our way through the trees on foot.

“You are certain that Frederick
suspects nothing?” Harvey’s boots crunched leaves and snapped twigs as he marched
beside me.

“Nothing at all. Frederick
believes that I am bringing you to him tomorrow. This night is the usual
meeting of
Levitas
. As you requested, I made certain
that all of his court will be in attendance.”

It was a quarter past midnight
when we reached the temple, and from all of the horses tied outside, I would
say that Harvey would have a captive audience when he stripped Frederick of his
position.

Stepping up to the temple door, I
was eager to get this night’s work accomplished. Betraying a Phantom to the
Holy Order was not something I relished. It was a necessary evil.

As I pushed open the door, all
attention turned to us. Frederick sat forward on his throne; his startled gaze
quickly narrowing as he saw who was with me.

All along the temple walls, the
thrones were filled with the unsuspecting followers of
Levitas
.
Long blue robes covered their suits, or dresses considering that Mrs. Stanton
was present, and hoods covered their heads, making them appear in the
candlelight like faceless specters.

As Harvey and I stopped in the
center of the room, I spoke. “My lords, it is with the greatest fealty,”
what
a fudge
, “and unworthiness,”
uncontrollable dislike
,
“that I
present to you his supreme majesty and high ruler of the Holy Order of
Levitas
, Lord Harvey.”

Harvey swept his cape out behind
him as he approached the dais, but Frederick’s guards blocked his path,
capturing Harvey’s arms to restrain him. When five men rose from thrones and
surrounded me, I raised my hands in the air in a sign of surrender. With this
many against me, I did not choose to fight, for fighting would give the wrong
impression. Frederick would think that Harvey made me bring him this night
instead of the morrow.

My arms were pulled behind my back
as I was forced to face the dais.

Frederick rose from his throne,
and sauntered with a careless gait toward Harvey. The guards forced Harvey to
take a step back so that Frederick could step down.

“What is the meaning of this
insubordination?” Harvey barked.

“The meaning is that you have been
duped, Lucius, and by your own serf.” Frederick looked straight at me and
inclined his head once.

My pent-up breath slowly released
as I nodded in return. He thought I was fulfilling my end of our bargain.

“It is by the order of this court
that we find you, Lucius Harvey, guilty of abusing your power, and enacting
dangers against the good of the Order.” Frederick’s statement was impressive,
but Harvey remained unmoved.

“You think that you can conquer
me, best me?
I
built this order.
I
pulled you from the gutters of
obscurity, Frederick Nolan, and I can toss you back.” Harvey’s self-proclaimed
magnanimity knew no bounds.

“This I know,” Frederick said as
he halted before Harvey, “and that is why I disposed of those who opposed you.”
Frederick dropped to one knee. “My liege.”

No...

The guards released Harvey, and he
held out his hand. Frederick kissed the ruby ring on Harvey’s long finger.

No!          

“Rise, my lord Frederick, for you
have done well,” Harvey said magnanimously.

Frederick rose and stepped back as
Harvey moved onto the dais, taking Frederick’s throne.

“Take your place, as one of the
twelve,” Harvey said, and Frederick, after tossing me a smug grin, sat upon one
of the empty thrones.

The
twelve
? Slowly, I began
to glance around me. Eight of the twelve leaders of
Levitas
were seated in the temple, and all hope fled from me faster than a pair of
spooked horses.

What a fool I have been! Duped by
Frederick
Nolan
.
How stupid of me not to have seen it!

Frederick did not want me to draw
Harvey here so that we could destroy him. He wanted me to bring Harvey so that
he could prove his allegiance to the Order and gain a seat on the council by
betraying me as the traitor.

“Well, Guinevere? What have you to
say?” Harvey asked, his enjoyment at my expense shamelessly radiating from him.

“Nothing.” For once in all of my
time serving the Holy Order, I could not predict what was before me, I could
not see a suitable escape. They had caught me, and they had done it well.

“Well, being that you are
speechless, allow me to astonish you further,” Harvey said with a look that had
me wanting to take a step back. He was
happy
. Harvey was never happy.

Harvey gave a nod and one by one
those seated around the room removed their hoods.

Sucking in a gasp, the room was
spinning, or at least it was in my mind. When every hood was removed, so was my
hope for a life away from the Holy Order. My knees went weak, shaking as I
recognized all of their faces. With Frederick being a lord, eight out of twelve
were present, and eight out of twelve had a connection in some way to the
Phantoms.

This was without a doubt Harvey’s
greatest feat, and my greatest nightmare.

At least I knew three of the lords
to be on my side. Pierre, Arnaud, and Martha were faithful to me, not to
Harvey.

Mrs. Stanton smiled reassurance at
me, but it did nothing to put me at ease.

“I see that eight of you were able
to join me,” Harvey announced.

Frederick cast me a smile that
said it was I who was not only duped, but caught and trapped.

“Forgive my duplicity, Guinevere,
but it was necessary. You would not have come otherwise,” Frederick said.

“What of the oath? I thought
Phantoms were family,” I questioned, trying to delay the inevitable. The moment
when Harvey gave me a choice. Go home to
Lutania
,
which Rose had made impossible, a life of servitude, or a life in a cell. He
had been threatening me with all of them for four years.

“I consider myself to be the black
sheep of that family,” Frederick said with a satisfied grin.

“I have called you all here to
discuss the naming of our new member,” Harvey announced, taking back control of
the meeting. “As you all have been informed, George Crawford died a few days
past. He will be sorely missed,” Harvey said, and I felt my world tilt a bit
more.

George had been a head of the Holy
Order
and
the Phantoms? How was that possible? Jack and Bess should have
known if that were so. It was not as if George was the most guarded man. He
puffed off his consequence most readily to anyone who would lend him an ear.

“As directed, you each have cast
the name of the person you consider deserving of the twelfth and final seat. It
is with great satisfaction that I offer that seat to you, Guinevere.”

For an entire astonished moment, I
did nothing but stare at Harvey. Blinking did nothing to clear my astonishment.
I
had
been chosen? They wanted me?
Why
?
For four years, I had done my best
to undermine and disobey Harvey.

“You have lost your senses,” I
said.

Harvey’s bushy brows rose. “I am
to take that as a refusal?”

The man was a fool. Brilliant, but
undoubtedly a fool. “Oh, I accept, but I wanted you to know what I think of
you.” Smiling, satisfaction filled me to the brim. After four years of
bartering, this seat was finally mine. Walking to the empty throne between
Frederick and Martha, it was my turn to cast him a smug grin.

As I sat, Martha reached over to
pat my arm, well pleased with the role she played in acquiring me this seat. It
had been a topic of conversation between us many times over the years.

She knew what this seat meant to
me. It was my way home, and Rose could do nothing to keep me away.

The temple door flew open.

Jerking against my throne, I
pulled out a knife from my belt, my heart jumping around in my chest. Everyone
in the throne room either jumped or raised a weapon, but no one advanced toward
the intruder for he carried two pistols.

As he stepped into the
candlelight, I shrank back under his fiery stare, and knew that he had followed
me.

Samuel Mason took in the room in
one swooping glance before his intense gaze settled on Harvey. There was murder
in Sam’s expression as he stomped directly to Harvey. Two of the guards moved
forward, but Frederick raised his hand to halt them.

Harvey was smiling as he pushed to
his feet. “Samuel Mason. To what do we owe this—”

Sam’s fist flew forward and struck
Harvey’s face, knocking Harvey back into his chair. “That is for my wife, you
despicable tripe.”

Sam spun toward me, his face like
stone. He hopped off the dais and marched for me.

Straightening my back and
shoulders, I began to rise, but Sam clamped his hands on the arms of the chair,
forcing me to lean back. The fire in his gaze could melt ice.

“Sam, this is not at all what it
appears to be,” I reasoned, praying that he believed me.

Sam would be a dangerous foe if he
chose to go against me, and he had Jack’s ear. If Sam informed against me, Jack
would shut me out of his heart, and his home.

“Indeed? It appears that you have
not left the Holy Order as you claimed. It appears that you are holding a
meeting of the twelve lords of
Levitas
. Do you have
any notion of what you are doing?”

“Sam, I—”

“You are sitting in my seat.”
Sam’s lips twisted into a wicked grin as he stepped back, holding out his hand
for me to remove myself.

No!
No, no, no.
This was not supposed to be happening. Staid, intense, devoted Sam could not be
a lord of
Levitas
! How could he do that to Bess?
Harvey had tried to kill her on more than one occasion. Oh, how Bess’s heart
would break when she discovered the truth ... and how she would blame me. As
would Jack, but what I was doing
had
to be done. It was my way back to
Lutania
. What reason could Sam have?

With a painful lump in my stomach,
I felt as if I were in a horrible dream. Once seated on the opposite side of
Martha, I leaned forward to watch Sam, hoping, praying that he was simply an
impostor.

Sam sat himself upon his throne
and swept out his hand. “Do proceed.”

“Now that all who could come are
present, let us proceed,” Harvey announced, smiling fondly at Sam. “The first
order of business is directed to you, Guinevere. I require the artifacts.”