Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (31 page)

There
was a wide eyed look at Beth and then Clara sighed and nodded.

"They
must be very nice people, if they let the likes of you and I ride with them
like that. Of course I'll still be out on my rear when they find out what I am,
but a ride is a ride. Thank you. Do you... I don't know if I'd like to work for
your... Family. Maybe I could meet some and see?"

Bethany
smiled sweetly.

"I
think I can arrange that, if you'd like. In fact, I know a few people that
would be very interested in meeting you, indeed." Then she went silent, as
if trying to be mysterious on purpose.

Gwen
just ate a banana and didn't ask who she meant at all.

The
trip was nicely boring, without any attacks, breakdowns or need to stop except
for comfort. That being the case, they actually made good time and were back
home inside five and a half hours instead of the projected six. That was good.
Somewhere in the last year, Gwen had actually started to think of the giant and
palatial estate as being home. Park Street. It was a funny name for the place,
she knew. Even here people named their houses more peaceful and less industrial
things for the most part. The Glades, Mount Carmen, things like that.

"Park
Street is named after the tiny apartment that the Vernors first had, when they
were starting out." She said this out loud, looking at Clara, who was
clearly as baffled by what she was seeing beyond the iron fence as Gwen had
been the first time she'd seen it. "They've moved up in the world a bit,
but kept the name to remind them of where they'd started." Not that Robert
hadn't inherited a vast fortune, he'd just used it all for business when they
were getting things started.

There
was no sound, but the woman finally nodded, staring out the window like a
tourist, acting shocked when they were actually let inside. She looked ready to
bolt too, as the Lorrie pulled into the circular driveway, and came around to
let them out. They got out on their own, with an exhausted James moving to pass
down the luggage, which had been tied to the top of the thing, in the rack
there for it. The straps were made of leather, and had a thick look about them,
meant to hold chests, not just a few small bags and packs. Clara had a chest,
since she'd been moving. It had almost her entire life in it.

Gwen
didn't know if she should be impressed or saddened by that fact.

"This
way. Thanks James! Go, get some sleep. We've got this part." Or rather,
the men running out to take their bags would have it. She let Winslow take her
things, and Carlisle had Clara's, manhandling the large and heavy chest with
ease. Beth's things were taken by Peter, the Westmorland that Gwen had claimed
was working for her now. Apparently that had sort of worked, since here he was,
waiting for them.

"Hey,
everyone. This lady with us is Clara. She's currently my maid and also does charging
work. If anyone intimates different you three get to take them out back and set
them right." Not that anyone there would even think of saying something
like that, but Pete nodded.

"Got
it. Don't worry, Miss. Everyone here is ridiculously kind. I'm getting slow and
fat already, just by being here. I don't know how you manage it, Bethany."
All Westmorlands were on a first name basis. They sort of had to be, since all
the Miss and Mr. Westmorlands would get confusing otherwise.

Beth
just smiled. "We keep ourselves remarkably busy. I think you'll be
learning that soon enough. Other than party planning what do you have in the
works, Gwen?"

"Eh?
Well, that unarmed combat training for Peter, as a test subject, and
teletransport for myself. That and rifting." She said the words without
meaning to, and both the Westmorlands winced, and Beth actually teared up.

"No.
That isn't-" She sounded angry at first, but Gwen shrugged.

"It's
the cost of getting you all free. Ferdinand wants something to replace you, and
I know what to do, I think, but I need to learn how to do that first, so I can
be certain. I know that it won't be fun, but it's part of what's needed, I
think." If it wasn't she wouldn't bother learning how to do that at all.
The fewer people in the world that had that information, the better, right?

It
would be, in a literal sense, turning herself into a potential nuclear weapon.
Also learning to make them. After a fashion, for a time, it would probably make
her the most dangerous person on the planet. Not that anyone sane would want
that for themselves. Especially since she was probably going to have to kill
herself, after she managed to get everything worked out.

She
couldn't leave that ditz Katherine in a position to ever know how to do that,
after all. Maybe she could work out another way of doing things though? Get
others to handle that part of things, and just draw up the plan itself? She
looked at Bethany, and actually felt her presence, inside her mind. Reading her
thoughts.

Her
friend looked terrified for some reason, but Gwen winked, and pulled it off
pretty well, she thought.

"But
not today. We should get Clara set up first thing." That meant finding
Mrs. Vernor. After all, trying to hide the woman's past from her felt wrong.
Like a mistake.

It
didn't take that long, since the lady herself tackled Gwen with a hug as soon
as they got in the door. Bethany got one too, and Clara got a big smile.

"You
have a new friend? Let's get her a room."

Clara
bent her legs under her dress and looked nervous, as if it was the Queen in
front of her, not Ethyl. Then, she looked a lot like a noblewoman, didn't she?
Gwen could see it.

"This
is Clara Samberg. I hired her on as my new maid." Everyone was standing
right there, and she really didn't want to ambush Ethyl later with the
information, so she just pretended it wasn't a shameful thing, and stared at
the men when she spoke. "She used to be employed as a prostitute, but
we're hiding that, so she can get a new start in life. Hence what I said earlier.
She'd been set up to be a sacrifice, but we stopped that before it happened.
Then she helped us bring the bad people in."

Gwen
was ready to fight, argue and even leave, if she had to, over the matter, but
Ethyl moved in and gave Clara a hug at least as nice as the one that Beth had
gotten. Considering that they'd never met, and that Gwen had figured Ethyl to
be prudish and more than a little snooty about the whole thing, it was
surprising.

"Winslow,
would you set up the third guest room for Miss Samberg, please? Don't you worry
about a thing, dear. Everyone here will be
most
discreet. You just rest,
after your ordeal. It's so fortunate that Gwen and Bethany were there to stop
those awful people from harming you." She didn't know what the story was,
but everything she said was close enough to reality to work.

The
bad guys had probably meant well, after a fashion, but they were still in the
wrong. Even the people in with Debussey had deluded themselves into thinking
that the Elder Gods would bring back all of the sacrifices, once they were free
of their eternal imprisonment. They were wrong, because,
duh
. Gwen had
seen that one instantly, and so did the vast majority of people in the world.
They'd really believed it though, which was better than what these new people
had been doing. They were killing, just to try and save themselves.

That
pretty much painted them with the brush used for the bad guys.

"Great!
Let's hit that first. I have a lot to do, and don't know how long I'm going to
have. There are things." She didn't know what to say, but Ethyl gave her a
rather curt nod.

"I
know that dear. I heard that you yelled at the King? For about an hour. From
him
.
He called to complain about you. It was actually very funny, in a horrible way.
The poor dear has so few people he can talk to about things like that. Matters
of state, and finance certainly, but he needs an ear to simply listen at times.
He was afraid that if he'd complained to his people they would have taken it
upon themselves to have you killed, which would be a large political and social
mess, right now. I personally suggested he wait this out, and
then
think
about killing you. He said he'd take it under advisement." She was
playing, but Clara looked at her as if scandalized. That and scared. Beth
patted the thirty-something woman's arm.

"Don't
worry, Ferdinand
loves
Gwen. He'd go to his own death before ordering
hers. Ethyl was just showing her support for him, since, well you were there.
Gwen
was
rather hard on the man."

That
got a nod, and a relieved look.

"True
that. She read him the riot for sure. I didn't get that it was really him, at
first, until Sally told me that she recognized the voice from the
Telesar." She refocused on Ethyl. "Sally, she's one of the ones that
were going to kill me. She pretended to be my friend. She wasn't." It was
a statement, and held an innocent purity, even though the woman could have been
angry about it all still. She'd been a little mean to the woman when she was a
prisoner, but only with words. Even that had probably been kinder than Gwen
would have been, if they'd been planning to sacrifice her for their own
purposes like that.

When
she'd caught up with the man that had stabbed her in the heart, she'd kidnapped
him, and then had his head cut off. By Groundling, who worked on the Peregrine.
Smiling she decided to invite the crew to the party too. He was also the King's
Uncle, as it turned out, and the rest of them, well... screw it. They deserved
to have to suffer along with their shipmate, didn't they? Stuffed into monkey
suits and made to act like proper ladies and gentlemen.

It
was totally fair.

Besides,
she liked them.

The
men were all standing around, waiting, with bags in hand, so Gwen took charge
and waved them all on. It was nearly dinner time, and Ethyl called out to them
to be ready, in half an hour. It meant she wasn't going to get an early nap,
but what the heck? It wasn't like sitting at the table would be all that hard,
was it? Thinking that, she wondered if something horrible was going to happen,
but if it were the case, she wasn't picking that up.

So
she was just being a tired little grump? That was survivable.

The
meal was fine, to start with, and they had a special guest, being that her
cousin Reginald had come to visit. She stopped herself when she saw him, having
just
thought
that and smiled. He wasn't
her
cousin, but
Katherine's. Not that he was someone she could date. That would just be icky.
The boy was, well, he was nearly Katherine's age, so about twenty now, and off
at University full time. What he was studying she didn't know. Or, for that
matter, where he was attending. She assumed he was a Western man, but only
because it was the big school in the area. She hadn't really asked, had she?

"Reggie!"
She moved in and gave him a warm, but family appropriate, hug. The guy
stiffened though and looked at her with more than a little hostility. She put
her hand to her mouth and whispered at him, trying to be funny. "I don't
have bad breath, do I?"

He
glared a bit and then shook his head, seriously. "No, you're fine that
way. You also lied to me. To
me
! Tricking me into believing that you
were my cousin. Father said that it was to save the family, but you didn't have
to lie to me, did you?" The words held a quality to them that she hadn't
been prepared for at all. Stung and legitimately hurt, rather than angry.

Like
she knew how to deal with that? It was hardly fair of him, dumping that on her.
She'd been trying to help the Vernors, and hadn't known who she could trust at
all. That wasn't going to fly as an excuse though, was it? She couldn't just
admit that, as an unknown, he'd been too much of a risk, could she? They'd only
met twice, as it was, this being the third time. She looked down at her feet
and sighed, realizing that running away wasn't an option.

She
was wearing heels, and had a full dress on. The best she could really manage
was a quick mince, at best.

"Right.
Sorry about that. I..." She didn't know what to say and unhelpfully, no
one stepped in to rescue her at all. It was like they didn't get how awkward
this was for her. Or they did, but were letting her deal with it herself, since
she was a big girl? "Really, Reggie, I didn't know if I could tell you or
not, so I didn't. That's all it was. I didn't think it would harm you, because
I thought that I'd be faking being your cousin for the rest of my life. I
should have been in touch right away, after the radio broadcast. I mean the
Telesar thing, with Debussey, but..."

Honestly,
until that moment it had never occurred to her at all that Reggie was someone
that she was supposed to have been in touch with at all. He and Katherine had
been close, but not enough that he was involved in the stupid shit that she'd
gotten into.

It
wasn't like they'd been lovers or something, being related and all.

That
thought got an embarrassed flash from girl in her head, about something which
took place seven years before, when the two had locked themselves in the attic
and done...

Thankfully
it wasn't
that
much. Enough that they'd been a lot closer than they
should have been, no doubt. Not enough that therapy was really in order. For
some reason, thinking that, there was a flash of gratitude, as if her not
judging them too harshly was her being kind. It wasn't that at all. Kids
experimented. The normal ones did at least. It wasn't that big of a deal.

It
also didn't get her out of the little emotional confrontation she was having.
She was at a loss for words and her redheaded cousin wasn't helping, just
standing there, looking hurt.

Finally
she shrugged at him and patted his arm, once, which was nearly a slap.