The Secret of Stavewood (Stavewood Saga Book 4) (24 page)

Fifty-Seven

     
L
ouisa pulled hard on the reins and Avalanche set his broad hooves and came to a jarring stop. The two riders sat silently, riding up and down the bank, scanning the water’s surface and the woods on either side. Louisa had begun to fear Clayton had made good his escape when suddenly she sat up high on the horse and pointed.

      “There!” she shouted excitedly.

      Floating in the gurgling waters of Fisher Creek was the lifeless body of Clayton Wallace. Once wanted by authorities in three states, the accomplished confidence man had played his last victim. Louisa slipped from Avalanche’s back with Luc close behind her.

      She stood beside the creek and choked on her tears. The pale dead face floating lifelessly in the water had been her friend and her enemy, her trusted partner and her worst nightmare. The light had gone out of his startling blue eyes and they shone black in the darkness. His skin had turned cold, white and waxy. Louisa couldn’t take it any longer. She wrapped her arms around herself trying to breathe, to fight, to survive.

      Luc held her and for a moment she allowed it, but then pulled away.

      “Louisa,” he said softly.

      She looked up into his face and for the first time he saw her cheek was cut and her throat had been bruised. He pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her, looking into her tortured eyes.

      “You lied to me.”

      “I did,” he said.

      “I loved you,” she whispered.

      Luc shook his head miserably. “I needed to find them. One of them killed my best friend. I didn’t count on meeting you... or caring for you. But even so, I had to stop them. Please, Louisa. You have to know how I feel about you.”

      “I thought I did.” She swallowed hard, the salty taste of blood in her mouth.

      “Then let me prove it to you.”

      She wanted to trust what she saw in his eyes, to fall into his arms. “Don’t fall,” her father had said. “Just love.” She was in love with him, no matter what.

      “Then prove it,” she said.

      He bent and kissed her gently, as if he could kiss away all of her pain. Louisa let her eyes close, feeling tattered and broken in heart and spirit. His lips brushed against hers and she surrendered. As his arms encircled her she let herself fall into him, solid and safe. His warmth surrounded her, protected her and soothed her.

     She felt the low vibration of his voice as he spoke to her in the darkness, “I love you, Louisa Elgerson.”

      Louisa paced the banks of the creek as Luc pulled Clayton’s lifeless body from the water. He retrieved the bag of diamonds and handed them to Louisa and then pulled out the Old Maid and handed that to her as well.     

      “That’s it,” Luc said, standing up beside her.

      “He knew everything about me. He pretended that he cared,” she said. “All of it was an act.”

      “Yes, it was, Louisa. I’m sorry,” Luc said. “He was a thief and a con man. I only just found out about him a few hours ago. But he’s not alone. Victor Leach is out there somewhere. I knew about Victor all along, but not Talbot. I’m so sorry, Louisa.”

      “He’s killed Victor Leach,” Louisa said softly. “He told me so himself and he said no one will ever find the body.” Louisa’s lip quivered as she continued on. “He killed Birget as well. He said he made it look like an accident.” She dabbed at her tears with the kerchief. “Oh, Luc. I believed in him. I trusted him. I brought him to Stavewood.”

      “He was an expert at making people believe in him, Louisa. He’d study them, learn their hopes and dreams and find their weaknesses.”

      “I was a fool. I wanted to write a beautiful story about my mother. I never wanted to dig up the horrible things that I found out, to know what I know now.”

      “Why did you go looking for me, in town, and in Blue Falls?” he asked.

      “I found the secret passageway and came out under the gazebo. I heard two men talking, Clayton and Victor. They were saying they would kill anyone who stood between them and the diamonds. I didn’t know Clayton and Talbot were the same person. I just knew Talbot wasn’t here. I trusted you and I needed your help and then I couldn’t find you. Mark said that, in the offices in town, they would know where you might be, but they didn’t even know who you were. I didn’t know what to think. I went all the way to Blue Falls hoping they had made some kind of mistake. But it wasn’t a mistake, Luc. You don’t work for the government at all. I thought the worst. That’s why I was so angry with you. I should have trusted you, Luc. I should have known better. I’m sorry.”

     “No, Louisa it was my fault. You still deserve a full explanation but for now please know that I had no choice. I hated lying to you. It broke my heart every time I saw you and could not tell you the truth.” He looked at Clayton. “We’ll need to get the sheriff out here in the morning. Where has your family gone?”

      “They’ve taken Birget to her brother’s place in Wisconsin to be buried. They’ll be gone for a couple of more days.

       “Luc, when the sheriff comes I’ll have to tell him I pushed Talbot into the water. I really thought that when Jude found the underground stream he went down the whirlpool and came up here, right near his aunt’s property. I never meant for Talbot to drown. I thought he’d come up too and try to escape. But instead I’ve killed him.”

      Louisa tried to imagine her conversation with the sheriff. “Talbot had everyone fooled. No one will believe the incredible story I’ll have to tell, unless…”

      “Unless what, Louisa?”

      “Unless I tell them everything. All the horrible things I’ve dug up about the past. Things that will hurt everyone. Things about Corissa, and Jude Thomas, and even poor Birget. Everyone will suffer for what I’ve done.”

      “He drowned, Louisa,” Luc said after thinking for a moment. “Talbot Sunderland drowned. That’s all. Your family is burying someone they loved who died for no good reason. Now her murderer is dead. What good would come from dragging your family and all of Stavewood through all of that pain? What happened here tonight to Talbot was an accident.” Luc held her shoulders and tried to look into her soul. “Louisa, sometimes the bravest thing to do is to let the sleeping dragon sleep.”

      Louisa looked up at Luc beside her and her heart felt heavy and worn. Stavewood and everyone who lived there had suffered and overcome all of the pain in their lives, sometimes with incredible strength. Talbot had drowned and Jude Thomas was long buried. True love
was
hard won. She looked up into Luc’s eyes as he stood silently beside her, strong and tall and she took a deep breath.

      Luc nodded to her. “We need to get you cleaned up and tend to those cuts and bruises. There’s nothing else we can do for Talbot. It’s time that this part of the story ends.”

Fifty-Eight

      
L
ouisa sat perfectly still in the kitchen chair at Stavewood, trying not to flinch while Luc knelt down in front of her, tending to the cuts on her face and arm.

      She poured them both a tall glass of cold milk and took Luc upstairs where he helped her put the sewing room in order. They put the diamonds back into the space under the floor and replaced the board.

      “Whose are they?” she asked.

      “They belong to a baroness,” he replied.

      Louisa looked at him, puzzled.

      “I’ll explain everything.”

      She took him down into the cellar and showed him the passageway and the whirlpool. They walked through the underground corridor without a word. Luc knew the torments the Elgersons had endured. As a man he imagined how Timothy Elgerson would have felt, knowing that Thomas was having his way with his wife, right in his own home. He was not a violent man but the premise filled him with pure loathing. He followed Louisa silently in the darkness and she turned the key in the lock with a soft click when they had finished. In the quiet of the stone cellar, Louisa shared everything she had discovered with him. When she finished he took her into his arms.

      “I wish I had never found this, any of it. I wish I could just seal it all closed forever so no one could find it,” she said.

      “I don’t think that would be too hard to do,” he said. He too felt as if it all ought to be buried and forgotten.

      Louisa thought quietly for a few moments, contemplating what she wanted to say next.

      “Luc, I know it’s best to let the sleeping dragon sleep, but there is something else to consider. There is a letter, written by Mark’s mother, Corissa. I want to show it to you. It’s something that should not be hidden forever.”

      Louisa took a deep breath and led Luc to her father’s den. She removed Rebecca’s photograph from the frame, explaining how her father had put in the picture of an unknown mail-order-bride with his heart breaking. Luc leaned back in the chair and looked at Corissa’s image thoughtfully.

      Luc was nearly as tall as her father and the only other person she had ever seen sit in the chair who filled it out the same way. She handed him the letter.

     When he had finished, he handed it back to her and she could see his eyes were glazed with emotion. In that moment she knew she never wanted to be apart from him again.

      “Louisa, they have to know this.”

      “Then help me find a way to put this in the hands of the good men of my family. The right way. Please.”

      He nodded seriously. “I will.”

      “I need you to listen to me, Louisa. To every word. You have trusted me with all of these secrets and now I need you to understand mine.” They sat in the parlor before the fireplace in the dead of the night with the flames blazing brightly. Louisa sat on the carpet, the way she had as a child. In the morning they would ride to town to see the sheriff and, before they spoke to anyone, Luc wanted to be sure Louisa understood why he was there.

      “Louisa,” he began. “I am indeed a cartographer. But that is just the beginning.”

      Louisa listened, remembering a time when she would read stories to her baby brothers and then later, when they were older, they read them to her. She reminisced that in those days she imagined a time when she would be safe and in love. She looked up at Luc as he sat in the big leather chair, his knees apart and his elbows on his thighs. There were still hardships they would have to survive but she knew that they would as long as Luc looked at her the way he was looking at her now.

     
Fifty-Nine

     
L
uc began his story. “Zhi was a baroness who lived in China and is the rightful owner of the diamonds. Before either of us were born, she fell in love with a young peasant named Piao. Her father, Baron Song, loved his daughter and so, even though Piao was poor, he could see that she was happy and he was glad that she had found love.  But Zhi and Piao were not destined to live happily ever after, as they say. A rich and powerful man named Hao became interested in Zhi and desired her for his own. He hired a very influential matchmaker to make arrangements to propose to her on his behalf, as was the custom. Hao had influential friends and political connections and brought a lot of pressure to bear on Song to give his permission to wed Zhi. When Song was still reluctant, the matchmaker, who had criminal ties threatened to make trouble for him as well. Song had no choice but to give Zhi’s hand in marriage to Hao. But Zhi would have none of it and she and Piao ran away together to be married secretly.

      “The matchmaker vowed to find them both and Hao spared no expense funding the matchmaker on her hunt for the young couple. When she found Zhi and her beloved Piao together, several months later, she had the young peasant killed and brought Zhi back to Hao to be wed. But Zhi was expecting and Hao treated her badly, even threatening to have her baby killed as soon as it was born. With her father’s help, Zhi escaped and went into hiding. She had a son and name him Enlai. Hao continued to search for her and, though it broke her heart, she left her son with an aunt and fled to the United States. She planned to bring her son, Enlai, to America as soon as she was able. Zhi had grown up a baroness in China and she was not prepared for what life had in store for her.”

      Louisa thought about her mother’s journey from England to Minnesota. She understood that for a young Chinese girl it must have been terrifying and dangerous.

      Luc stood up and Louisa watched, listening as he paced the room, continuing his story. “Zhi met other people from her homeland when she arrived in San Francisco, people that were headed east to find work on the railroad. She wrote to her father and told him she was going to an address in Billington where there was a job for her and she would be able to send for Enlai soon. Her father’s heart was broken to have lost her and he wanted to help her as best he knew how. So he sold everything he owned and bought those diamonds. Chinese money isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on here, but diamonds, Louisa, are valuable anywhere in the world. Her father sent her the diamonds to give her a stake in the United States. However, there was a problem, they never made it to Zhi.”

      “Jude stole them,” Louisa said, sitting up.

      “Yes, and a good haul of bank money as well,” Luc said. “Zhi ended up in a traveling laundry, working for the railroad. She basically became a slave. No one is sure where she is now. Hao died some years later and Zhi’s father spent the rest of his life trying to put together enough money to bring her home. But his health was failing. On the day he died he sent for Enlai and gave him everything he had that might help him find his mother. He had saved letters, receipts for the diamonds and newspaper clippings about the train robberies. The old baron never got over the sadness he felt for what had become of his daughter. As soon as Enlai was old enough, he came here to find his mother and the diamonds.

      “That’s when I met him. I finished school and I got my first surveying job in California. We hit it off right away. His culture was fascinating and he was eager to teach me all about it.”

      “That’s how you learned about the dragon and the carp,” Louisa interjected. Luc smiled and nodded.

      “He looked up the old newspapers and figured out the diamonds were stolen in a train robbery on their way to Billington. He got on a train to Minnesota and I was going to meet him here once I finished the surveying job. He stayed in touch with me by telegrams. I got one from him every few days.

      “One day he wired me about Victor Leach. He’d found out that Leach was Jude Thomas’ accomplice, the one who was on board and stopped the trains at gunpoint. After that telegram I never heard from him again. When I finished the mapping job I came here looking for him but I was too late. He had been shot to death and left in a ditch. He must have caught up with Victor Leach and Leach had killed him.” He continued to pace the floor and then he sat down and faced her, his expression earnest.

      “He was my friend, Louisa. A good friend and I should have been here for him. He was trying to find the diamonds and his mother. I swore I would do that for him. I owe him that much.

      “I started looking for Leach but he had disappeared. No one had seen him anywhere, but I knew where he was. He was here, looking for the diamonds himself. He figured out they had to be in Stavewood and he started watching the house. I thought if I was patient enough I could catch him doing that so I posed as a government surveyor. If anyone asked me I told them I was making maps for the county. I guess you know the rest.”

      Luc took a deep breath. “Louisa,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you any of this. I thought I could take care of it before any of the Elgersons would have to deal with it. I didn’t know who Talbot was or I certainly would have warned you. I’m sorry. I hope you can understand.”

       Louisa thought about how she had trusted Talbot. She’d shared everything she knew with him and never hesitated. If she had told him Luc was looking for Victor Leach, he and Victor Leach would have murdered Luc. It would have been easy for Talbot because Luc did not know about him. Luc was right to have kept his secret to himself. Louisa took his hands in her own and smiled at him. “I do understand, Luc. Really. I trust you completely.”

      Luc held onto her hands and slid from the seat to the floor onto one knee. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. I love you and I want everything between us to be perfect. Always.”     

      Louisa looked into his eyes.

      “Marry me, Louisa. Be my wife, my family, my friend and never mistrust me again.”

      Her arms encircled his neck and she kissed him softly. “Yes,” she said quietly. Louisa reached into her pocket and pulled out the carved statue of the fish.

      Luc’s eyes sparkled. “Remember what I told you about the legend of the carp? It helps you find true love against all odds.”

      Louisa smiled at him. “Then it has fulfilled its purpose.”