The Charleston Chase (Phantom Knights Book 2) (15 page)

I looked down at my hands so that my hair would
shield me as my eyes closed. Hearing Andrew’s name did not hurt,
for I did not blame him for severing our betrothal. During my
months of reflection, I had come to see that he acted as I should
have expected. He was politically inclined, so he could not have a
wife who was a spy.

What hurt was the memory of Sam walking away from me
in the garden. I saw it all with perfect clarity. I was a woman
surrounded by scandal, jilted, and eventually the gossip would
reach Charleston. Sam had a standing in the community and a name to
protect. He could not ally himself with a woman of scandal.

Samuel Mason would never be a part
of the future I planned for myself. There was something behind his
arrogant, roguish mask; a hurt that I was sure was as deep as my
own. Two broken people could not make a whole life
together.

He wanted to know what had transpired, so I told
him. He was thunderous to hear that his sister was wounded, but
calmed when I assured him it was a graze only. When I got to what
Gideon had told me, he stiffened.

“I did not want to tell you this way, Bess, but Levi
is the one who has betrayed you.”

“That’s not true,” I shouted, standing and hating
the way my hands trembled. “He would never betray me!”

“He has. His chamber is empty. He had this planned
all along. He has changed sides, Bess. Levi works for Guinevere and
the Holy Order.”

Snatching a book off his desk, I threw it at his
head. “Liar!”

Jack

M
y
journey to Charleston had taken longer than I liked, but one could
not change the weather. A snow squall had set upon Alexandria, and
we could not set out for a week. I had received a letter from my
mother stating that she was sailing for Charleston to see Bess, and
from there she would go to Savannah to make ready the plantation
for us to move to once all of our ‘business’ was concluded. She
would have arrived before me.

As anxious as I was to see my
sister, I did not know where she was staying. The only address I
had belonged to Samuel Mason, so it was to his home that Leo and I
set out once we dismounted from the
Four
Winds
.
When the
carriage halted before a tall, elegant home, Leo gave a low
whistle.

At the front door, I rapt twice, and the door was
immediately opened by a man who was a contrast of colors. His skin
was as black as the darkest night, but he wore a snow white wig
upon his head.

When he inquired my business, I said, “Will you be
so good as to inform Mr. Mason that Mr. John Martin has
called?”

The man’s compressed lips split, and his eyes
widened in a look of astonishment and concern. He cast his eyes
toward a closed door as someone shouted from the other side.

“That’s not true!”

Though the sound was muffled, I recognized my
sister’s voice shouting. My relief was so great at knowing that she
was not only alive but well enough to be yelling at someone that I
grinned.

“No need to show me the way, I’ll announce myself,”
I said to the startled butler and walked over to the door, opening
it in time to see Bess throw a heavy looking book at a man’s
head.

“Liar!” Bess shouted at him. The man whom I assumed
was Samuel Mason ducked and the book went over his head, but Bess
did not stop there, she picked up two more books off his desk. “You
are trying to deceive me, for that is what you do.”

She threw another book at him, and it hit him in the
chest as he was approaching her as if to restrain her. I cocked my
hip to the side, resting my hand on the door knob, and smiling at
the scene before me. My sister’s temper was well known to me,
though rarely did she show it, and I found it interesting to see
someone else at the receiving end of her anger. Thankfully, she had
never tried to throw any of my books at my head. He must have done
something truly terrible.

“You use your good looks luring
women in, and once you have what you want, you
cast
them aside like so much
scraps.”

My brows shot up, tightening my forehead. How did
Bess know that about him? A stirring feeling of protectiveness
moved within me. What had he been doing to my sister?

“But not me! For I know
that your gentlemanly honor is only visible upon
the surface and that your morals are as deep as a
puddle.”

My back stiffened, but it was nothing to that of
Samuel Mason. He captured one of Bess’s wrists, jerked her against
him and bent his head until their noses looked like they were
touching.

His voice was low, but I heard every word he spoke.
“If that were so, I would not have walked away from you last night.
I would have taken what you were so freely offering.”

That was enough for me. I was about to step forward,
but Bess acted first. She growled a sound of complete rage and
threw her fist up, but Samuel moved faster, releasing her and
stepping back. Bess launched another book at him. He stepped aside,
and the book soared toward me. I released the door and moved
quickly into the room, catching the book in my hands. Both Bess and
Samuel stood as if they were frozen in place as they gaped at
me.

“My dearest sister, though your anger may be
warranted, there is no cause known to man that justifies harming
innocent books.”

“Jack!” Bess launched herself into my arms. I barely
kept hold of the book as I caught her and held on. “Oh, how I have
missed you,” she whispered against my ear as she hugged me tightly.
I kissed her cheek and set her back to get a good look at her.

She was dressed in her black Phantom clothing, but
her hat was gone, and her shoulder length hair was askew. She
looked a complete vagabond, but she was safe, and that made her
exquisite to me. She released me as she caught sight of Leo behind
me.

“Leo,” she said mistily, “how thankful I am that you
have come.” She moved to hug him while I walked toward Samuel
Mason. He had a brooding, mysterious air that I was sure drove my
sister nearly mad. She had never liked people she could not
read.

He was scowling as he watched Bess hug Leo, but when
I stopped before him, his gaze moved to me and we stared at each
other appraisingly for a moment. His face relaxed, no sign
remaining of the man who had just been warring against my
sister.

I held out his book to him. “Mr. Mason, I
presume.”

He took his book and set it on his desk smiling
faintly. “Mr. Martin. It is a pleasure to meet you.” We shook
hands, his clasp firm, and he looked straight into my eyes, not in
the least shamefaced that I had witnessed his argument with Bess.
That gave me the impression that it was not the first time they had
argued like that.

Turning slightly to say something to Bess, my jaw
went slack as I took a good look at the room. If Heaven could be
contained in a room, it would be this. I moved toward the walls of
books as if hooked to a line that was pulling me in. Gingerly, I
reached out and touched the spine of a novel, then breathed out a
long sigh, before moving from shelf to shelf, admiring Samuel’s
collection.

“I knew that Jack would like this room,” Bess said
from somewhere behind me.

“Like is too simple a word. I do believe that all my
journeys have been leading me to this place.” Without looking over
my shoulder I said, “Name your price, Mason, and you shall have
it.”

“My home is not up for purchase,
but both you and—Leo is it?—you both are welcome to stay here as my
guests.” He sounded amused.

I did look at him then, appraisingly again. “That is
good of you,” I murmured as I tried to read him, but he was
deliberately obscuring his emotions. He could rival Leo for keeping
his face from showing any hint of feeling.

“Forgive me, Mr. Mason. This is Mr. Leopold Perry, a
former member of my team,” Bess said.

Samuel shook Leo’s hand while I moved to my sister’s
side, asking, “Where is Levi?”

Her face turned stony as she shot Samuel a look that
spoke volumes. “I have much to tell you, Jack. You may escort me
home, and I will explain what has been happening.” Bess glanced at
Samuel again, and my curiosity was piqued. She wanted to dislike
him, which was why she was fighting so passionately with him, but
she did not dislike him, and that irritated her excessively.

“First, there is something I need to discuss with
you both.” As if a silent signal was given, Leo closed the library
door. He knew what I was about to say. “You may want to sit,
Bess.”

She waited, watching Samuel. When he sat, she moved
to a chair before his desk. My determined sister; always holding
the high ground. I sat beside her and faced Samuel’s desk.

“I had a meeting with President Monroe. He has
issued the following order: All branches of the Phantoms are to
disband immediately,” Bess’s mouth went slack, “and for good. He no
longer sees the need for spies within our own country, and other
than the Holy Order, I agree with him.”

“What of capturing the Holy Order?” Bess
demanded.

“Monroe has given his permission for me and whomever
I choose to subdue the Holy Order, but then the Phantoms are
through.”

“Does George know?” Bess asked. “Did he explode in
indignation?”

“Excuse me, Bess, but you are speaking of my uncle,”
Samuel said with a calm that I suspected was false.

Bess shot him a look of mingled
distaste and contempt. “This I know,
Mr
. Mason, for it was my experiences
with the uncle that prepared me for the nephew.”

Samuel’s jaw hardened perceptibly, and his eyes
narrowed. I sat back a little further into the chair. From Samuel’s
intense face to Bess’s undaunted one, I had a feeling that I had
come unsuspecting upon a war, and as much as my sister would not
like it, it was one battle she was not going to win.

Samuel was the first to look away, saying that he
would have bedchambers made ready for us. When he looked back at
Bess, it was brief as he told her he would be to her house later to
check on someone named Charlotte.

Soon after, Leo and I left the house with Bess. On
the walk to the house that Bess was staying at, she explained about
the Holy Order being in Charleston, which I knew, and briefly about
a run-in with the men who were after Ma belle. Then she told us
about Levi disappearing and what Sam, as she called him, had told
her about Levi.

When I told her what George had said about not
sending Levi with her, and her expression turned fierce. Bess had
always loathed deception, even though that was our line of work,
but she had never had to deal with someone close to her deceiving
her, as I had with Guinevere. Her deception had shaken my whole
world, but we had come through. I had an inkling, though, that Bess
would be less lenient with Levi and his turncoat ways, than I had
been with Guinevere.

We reached a light stone house, and Bess walked up
to the front door. “Prepare yourselves,” was what she said as she
opened the door. “Rose, Char, Betsy? I’ve returned.”

“In the parlor, Bess,” called a sweet sounding
voice.

Leo and I followed Bess into a bright parlor where
three women, as different as the colors of a rainbow, were
seated.

“How are you, Char?” Bess asked as she walked to the
sofa where a young woman was reclining with her bare arm bound in a
white bandage.

“Cross as crabs, but I see you have come to cheer
me,” she replied, glancing around Bess to stare at Leo and me.

“Ladies, allow me to present my brother John and our
good friend, Mr. Leopold Perry.”

“Jack, Leo, this is Mrs. Rose Eldridge, Miss
Charlotte Mason, and Miss Betsy Coles, deputies of the Charleston
Phantoms.”

There were equal amounts of
surprise on both sides of the room. I had heard that Samuel Mason’s
team was comprised mostly of women, but these were nothing how I
imagined. Betsy was a beautiful, dark girl with lustrous black
hair. Charlotte Mason looked nothing like her brother, blonde with
large blue eyes, but when she smiled, she had a roguish mouth, and
there was the part that looked like her brother. It was the eldest
woman in the room, though, who gave me pause. She was radiant;
black hair and blue eyes like two polished crystals. She could have
been mistaken for my sister. Her face was a perfect oval and
her
skin a perfect ivory. She was staring
between Leo and me, her face fading of color, while Charlotte
Mason’s face was pink.

“You are Loutaire,” Charlotte whispered, and I
watched in amusement as her pink lips tilted up in a look that
would have rivaled any given by Philadelphia’s society vixen Hannah
Lamont. I knew instantly that Samuel Mason had his hands full with
that one.

All three ladies rose and
Charlotte came toward me like a cat on the hunt.

“Is it true that you were the youngest man to be
promoted to Captain in your regiment?”

“Not the youngest, but certainly
younger than most. I was sixteen when I was made captain,” I told
her evenly. Thinking about the war was not something I enjoyed.
Though, the outcome of the war was positive, too many lives were
lost; too much blood was shed.

“Should you be standing, Miss Mason? Your
arm...”

Charlotte Mason beamed at me and looked at her arm
while holding it out. “A war wound of my own, Mr. Martin.”

At what was surely a curious look from me, Charlotte
told me what they had gone through earlier in the day and how she
acquired her ‘war wound.’ Hearing that it had been Gideon those men
were after made me feel like sitting to overcome my shock. Bess
assured me that Gideon was safe and that a constable was posted
outside his house for safety. Bess and I needed to speak in
private.