Lord of the Wilderness Page 19

  Outside, a dark, dense gray cloud cast them in a premature twilight, but inside it was darker, almost black. Though he did not move a muscle, the colonel turned pale. Juliet stood close enough to see the pulse leap at his temple. “I never knew—”

  Edmund raked his long fingers through his hair, the same black hair of his twin. “Of course not. You abandoned us in the guise of duty. How could you have known from thousands of miles away? The one time you did come home, you were only there for two weeks. During your visit, Emmaline placed such fear in me that I dared not speak one word of her sins.”

  “I could not deal with your mother. She became worse and worse I was at a loss. England was the best answer for her and for you, I thought. I hope you can forgive me, Edmund and put this behind us.” He glared at Juliet and moved to his desk.

  “You will not execute my brother,” Edmund said in clear, articulated words.

  The rain lashed down, torrential and unforgiving. In the meager light, the colonel’s dark blue eyes darted from Juliet to Edmund. Gone was any remorse, replaced by a smile that rattled the nerves up Juliet’s back.

  “Edmund, I should at no time allowed you to come here. You have been gently reared and do not understand the oath I’ve pledged. I’m a soldier of the Crown with sworn duty to the King. Two Eagles is a spy. I will act accordingly with the law. He will hang with the other traitor on the morrow. There will be no further discussion.”

  “Have you not neglected the weightier matters of law—justice and mercy? Do you not have a conscience?”

  “My conscience?” The colonel’s mouth curved into a cold sickle of amusement. His voice a whisper meant for Edmund alone. “My dear son, where on earth did you get the notion tI had one?”

  “The greatest heresies in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people blindly following the rules. Your dogmatism will be your undoing, Father.”

  “Are you threatening me for that savage and his traitor friend?”

  Edmund drew his tall frame to his full height and glared at the man he had called his father all the years of his life. “The real issue is your prejudice. You cannot tolerate the fact my brother and mother are savages. You forget, I am a savage, too. Indian blood runs through me. I beg you once more to stop this madness.”

  The colonel’s face flushed red and the veins in his thick neck protruded. “There will be no further discussion.” He kicked his chair forward, flopped into it, and picked up his quill, writing furiously.

  “You are not the father I thought I had. This is the end of our relationship. I’ll return to England as soon as it can be arranged.” Edmund turned, stalked across the room and slammed the door with such force it clanged the muskets hanging on the wall.

  “Colonel,” Juliet said, her voice composed in spite of her throat clogging. “Won’t you reconsider?”

  “Not all of life’s lessons come wrapped in a shiny bow,” said the colonel. He seemed as volatile and unpredictable as the winds racing across the Great Lake of Ontario. His craving for power and control equaled his lust for his rum.

  “This is not about a suckling babe at his mother’s breast. This concerns war, matters you as a woman cannot possibly understand. Regardless of the costs, I will remain in compliance with His Majesty.”

  The decision was set in stone. Nothing she might say or do would change the course of events. She balled her fists, her fingernails jammed into her palms, and the bloodletting of her soul began. He had the same disregard for women embraced by her own father. “I finally know the difference between pleasing and loving, obeying and respecting. It has taken me many years to be fine with being different. My father prejudiced me with being born, and now I see you, tethered with the same narrow-mindedness. Where will your waltz with pride and arrogance lead you?”

  He pounded a meaty fist on his desk. “I am in charge here,” he blustered. “The canny frontiersman you are championing used you to gain access to my fort to get information. The man is an accomplished liar. Do you know he claimed to be a nobleman to escape the noose?” He blew on the paper to dry the ink, and then peered up at her. “In time, Edmund will see the folly of his request and what is best for him. As for your opinion, I do not care. I have accepted Captain Sutherland’s proposal in marriage for you.”

  “What!”

  “Has it ever occurred to you that you might do better to bow to my wishes to join in matrimony with Captain Sunderland than try with my patience?”

  He was her elder cousin and, with certainty, flaunting his control over her future. “Of course, wedding Captain Sunderland might raise your own misplaced standing in society. I refuse to marry him.”

  “A woman’s path is not mapped, it is made. My decisions are for the best, and I will not discuss this further. Guards!”

  Blood rushed to her head. She felt herself sway on unsteady legs as her last hope shattered.

  The door opened and a guard stood at attention, waiting the colonel’s further command. “Escort Lady Faulkner to her quarters and take this order to Captain Sunderland to commence the hanging of two spies on the morrow.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Joshua’s hands gripped the iron bars over the small window of the cell he’d occupied for the past two days. Heavy fetters bit into his wrists and ankles, the iron cold and hard. The unending, ceaseless rain had stopped. Outside he scanned the slightly higher land to the east on the other side of the river. Beyond the forest, a hazy glow silhouetted the treetops, as if there were a distant fire behind them…like when the Indians burned the brush and forests to create new farmlands.

  The glow, more golden than red, gradually spread as though worked by an artist’s brush until he could see the upper edge of a full moon. Then with startling suddenness, the complete circle was above the trees, lighting the peaks of the distant hills.

  “They look like teats on a sow’s belly, not like they do in the daylight,” commented Ghost. The man had been thrown unconscious in the cell an hour earlier and was now awake. “The nooses’ glow in the moonlight.”

  Joshua ignored Ghost’s morbid reminder of the last night of his life. Their cell was not much to recommend, hardly enough to hold three men and barely high enough for him to stand. Bars from floor to ceiling and beyond the anteroom was a six-inch oak door. Soldiers guarded the entry and elsewhere, the yard and fort walls were secured by more regulars. Joshua kicked at the two-inch bars. No recoil. No escape there.

  Two Eagles slept against the wall, though he was always aware of his surroundings and never fully asleep. Could it be true? That Two Eagles and Edmund were twins? The idea was so fantastic, yet side by side, they were identical. Extraordinary how both had claimed they were aware of the other despite being raised a half a world away.

  He had heard of the connection between twins but never so solid as between Edmund and Two Eagles. Was it possible two people could be so identical and not be blood related? Or had they somehow been separated at birth? Faulkner had been in the Colonies for a very long time and it wasn’t uncommon for some men to take advantage of the Indian women.

  He rubbed his hands together as much as the weighty chains allowed, the grime slipping over his fingers. A horrendous stench wound the air from a bucket in the corner that served their needs, far from the refinements of his ancestral home and the cleanliness he was accustomed to.

  The moon illuminated Ghost’s face. His friend who had warned him of Onontio’s attack at West Point. The old trapper was legend. Could disappear in the wilderness with no trace of his footsteps. Even the finest of Mohawk trackers were incapable of trailing him. “Why are you locked up?”

  The trader raised his shackled wrists and tapped a finger to his temple. “Accused of thievery which ended in a brawl. A sum of money was missing and it was that bastard Captain Snapes who took it and has me swinging from the gallows to cover his pilfering.”

  Joshua knew many men in the wilderness, and Ghost was one of the most honest trappers he’d met. Snape
s had his hand in more people’s lives than he cared to hear.

  The fort settled into its slumber. Soldiers had retired to their barracks except for a few guards on the parapets calling an occasional “All is well”.

  Chains clinking, he slid down. The moldy uneven stone walls slicked his backsides. He cringed, his ribs and every muscle in his body sore where the guards had kicked him. He settled onto the filthy straw-strewn floor, lifted his head and gazed on the heavens. Death was the only star always lit. No matter where he traveled, he must ultimately turn toward it. Everything fades in the world, but death endures.

  Colonel Putman and General Anthony Wayne would be wondering what happened to him. Certainly not enough time to get their help. Unfortunately, he’d be unable to report his findings of Fort Oswego.

  He had not seen Juliet and prayed she’d not come to the lynching. As a spy against the Crown, soon he’d be damned in her eyes, a soulless wretch ready to be executed for the crimes he’d committed.

  There was no need for her to remember him like that.

  From the first moment he clapped eyes on her at the Hayes’ farm, he had wanted her. Somehow, they were tangibly connected and he should have taken her from the Hayes’ farm and hid her in the wilderness.

  She awakened something that hadn’t been touched in him for a long time.

  His wife. She had determinedly called herself, his wife. He had dared to unwisely dream…of pushing the war aside…of finding a normal life…a life with her. Yet the vagaries of his existence were as wide as they were severe. In a bid for that elusive idea of freedom, his chosen path to navigate the wide frontier as a spy had earned him his sepulcher.

  Though fatigued, emotionally as well as physically, sleep eluded him. He lowered his head against his chains, letting the roughness saw against his forehead.

  Two Eagles’ massive chains clanked as he shifted position.

  “I’m sorry you were involved Two Eagles.”

  Beaten by the guards, Two Eagles rose with a moan. “I am responsible for my choices and accept the consequences. I understood my determination could lead to success or failure or death.”

  Joshua was envious of his friend, wishing he could accept his fate so peacefully.

  Keys jangled in the outer room. There was the immediate scrape of a chair where the guard slept and no doubt stood at attention. The sounds of heavy footsteps pounded against the plank flooring. A lantern held high moved toward them, then hooked on the peg above the cell. Joshua’s eyes adjusted to the piercing light. Snapes pushed his face against the bars, his piggish mouth grinning like a gargoyle.

  “I thought I smelled the shit of a bull,” Ghost spat.

  “How does it feel to know you will not escape the rope round your neck, Joshua?”

  “Come on in here, and I’ll show you.”

  “I’ll second that with a knife plunked in your black heart,” said Ghost. Two Eagles snorted.

  Snapes laughed and targeted his attention on Joshua. “I’ve come to gloat, enjoying every minute of your execution and feel cheated you were not disposed to suffer a thousand deaths, Lord Rutland.”

  Joshua blinked. His intuition was correct. It was personal between Snapes and him. Why? “You know me?”

  A muscle in Snapes’ cheek twitched. His hard bloodshot eyes bored into Joshua’s like gimlets. “I know the Rutlands—especially your father.”

  “My father?” Joshua inched closer to the bars. Keep him talking. “So, what does it have to do with me?”

  “Sarah Thacker. Does her name ring a bell?”

  Cold crept up his spine. Dim presences gathered at the edges of his consciousness.

  He knew.

  Joshua moved a hair’s breath from the bars, enough to reach through and grab him by the neck.

  Snapes backed off beyond his reach, cackling. “An interesting evening I had with her. She put up a good fight. For hours, I toyed with her…kept her alive…her lush body, available to me over and over again, taking delight in my power over her…over you…over every single Rutland. Her last words was, ‘Joshua’ which I found touching. I dipped my letter in her blood as a memento for you.”

  Snapes.

  Joshua roared, and lunged his arms through the bars. He clawed the air, anything to get his hands on the British captain.

  Well out of his grasp, Snapes reclined against the opposite wall, his arms folded in front of him. “To extract my vengeance was worth the effort. I hunted you in the wilderness. Learned you had been at the Hayes’ farm but lost your trail after that. On a fluke, I came upon you here. How convenient to point out your loyalties to the colonel and have you hanged as a spy. You must pay. All the Rutlands will pay if they haven’t already.”

  If Joshua’s heart still beat, he didn’t know it. He was aware of one thing. The rage to kill Snapes inhabited every fiber of his being. Abby’s and Nicholas’ abduction. The explosion at Belvoir. All the horrible things that had befallen his family were connected. But how? He hauled in a deep breath. He had to keep a cool head…find out who had attacked the Rutlands. “What do you mean? Who put you up to my demise? Who is involved with the attacks on the Rutlands?”

  “Some rich fellow. I took his money but he didn’t have to pay me. The pleasure is mine.”

  Ghost said, “I’ll scream your crimes to the world.”

  “I, too,” said Two Eagles.

  Snapes sneered. “And who is going to take the word of a thieving trapper or Indian who in the morn will have their necks stretched?” His sloping chin jutted from his bulging cheeks. “Juliet’s interest in you is another matter. She will suffer the same fate as your Sarah Thacker. I listened to how she defended you to Colonel Faulkner. Of course, her defense fell on deaf ears given the fact that I reinforced my observations of your spying activities.”

  “You touch her and I’ll squeeze the life out of you.”

  Arm still crossed, Snapes tapped his chin and laughed. “I thought to myself, why would she defend you so rabidly? Your weeks of journey together…there is more to the matter.” Snapes lifted himself from his repose against the wall and laughing, strode out the door. A new guard entered.

  Joshua gripped the bars, his knuckles white, a primal scream stuck in his craw.

  Blood pounded in his ears. Juliet was in danger. He had to act. Had to do something. Anything. He couldn’t again fail to protect the one he loved.

  The guard unlocked the cell door. Rage pounded through Joshua’s veins.

  About to charge the man to get at Snapes, he stopped when the guard held up another key and said, “Hold up your wrists.”

  “What?”

  “It is me, John. Juliet arranged for me to be on duty tonight.”

  Juliet? His father’s tenant unlocked his chains, the massive weight plunked on the floor. He could still feel the chains pressing down on his wrists and ankles where they were bleeding, but it was the movement toward freedom that brought life to him.

  John knelt to remove the fetters from Two Eagles, and said over his shoulder, “When I saw you the other day, I was incapable of believing my eyes and did as you requested—to keep silent. I’d do anything for you. I remember how you and your brother, Nicholas helped me rebuild my mother’s home when it burned down. If it weren’t for your family caring for us, we’d have had no place to go. Can’t forget the boxing bouts either. You and your brothers were a force to be reckoned with.”

  Another person entered the cell. Joshua recoiled, ready to strike the man, but the cloaked man was so small he could push him over with a feather.

  “Joshua,” said Juliet pushing back the hood on her cloak and reached for his hands.

  “Juliet! You shouldn’t be here. You’re in danger from Snapes. You must stay under the protection of your cousin.”

  John said, “I told you I pay my debts, Lord Rutland. Go over the east wall. I’ve put a sleeping draught in the guard’s drink. Hurry.”

  Juliet whipped her head around at the use of his title, but before she co
uld say anything, he took her in his arms, and kissed her soft hair. “Juliet, you must return to your room before you are discovered.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  He pushed her back. “No, you are not. If caught, you will be hanged for treason.”

  “It’s too late for that.”

  Two more heads appeared with bundles. Mary and Edmund rushed to Two Eagles. “They are going too.”

  He swore. Time and numbers were against him. They were all mad.

  “Hurry, your lordship. There isn’t much time,” said John as he unbolted Ghost’s chains. “Give me your best to the jaw and then chain me up.” John produced a piece of linen and Joshua gagged him with it.

  “I won’t forget you, John.” Joshua chained him and then tapped him on the jaw, enough to leave a convincing bruise.

  Joshua picked up John’s rifle and tossed it to Two Eagles. He peered around the edge of the door, inhaling lungfuls of fresh night air. How vital to breathe the air of freedom, giving power and vigor when one had the chance to escape the hangman.

  He ached from the blows and beatings. Couldn’t think about that now. The suffocating damp atmosphere of the dungeon further weakened him. To have a bath to wash the grime and a bed of soft hemlock beneath his spine to rest upon had just moments ago seemed beyond his reach.

  The way was clear. One at a time, he motioned for Juliet and the rest to follow. The hair lifted on the nape of his neck. Getting a large party through a well-fortified fort without capture would be miraculous.

  He led them, keeping in the shadows of the buildings and wide yards. A guard was asleep next to a ladder set against the parapet. The sleeping draught John had given him had done its work. But farther down on the stockade walls, a guard was still at his post and alert. No doubt he’d not drunk his brew.