Free Bonfire Night by Deanna Raybourn Page A

further,” he told me. I opened my mouth to protest, but just then there was a stirring from the rubble.
    “Bloody imbecile,” muttered a familiar voice. “I told him just a bit to blow a single course of bricks and he mines enough to bring the house down over my head.”
    “Hello, Father,” Brisbane said, shining the torch into his father’s eyes. Even begrimed, Black Jack Brisbane was a fine figure of a man. He boasted the same height and breadth of muscle as his eldest son and the same thick locks, his a sooty silver with only a long streak of black at the temple to show what colour they had once been. His eyes were alight with unholy mischief, just as I had often seen Little Jack’s, and I shuddered as he fixed them on me.
    “Well, isn’t this an unparalleled delight! My son and his wife, come to wish me
bon voyage
,” he said in his deep, silken voice.
    “What did you leave here?” Brisbane demanded.
    Black Jack brandished a box. “The proceeds from a rather tidy little robbery. You might know them as the Duchess of Reinenberg’s rubies.”
    “Rubies I was engaged to find,” Brisbane said in some irritation.
    His father grinned. “Rather neat twist, I thought. You taking the duchess’ money to look for jewels I had stashed right under your nose. They’re flawless, you know. Without equal in the world. I have a maharajah who will pay dearly for them. Apparently, they were originally stolen from his family by an ancestor of the duchess, and he’s willing to pay astonishingly over the odds to get them back.”
    “Short of money, are you?” I asked.
    He laughed. “Still tart of tongue, I see. Well, I’m glad to see one woman in your family has some spirit. Lucy was a sore disappointment to me from the very first. If it hadn’t been for her late husband’s money...” he trailed off with a sigh. “Still, one cannot have everything. And I took my regrets out on her flesh,” he said with a cruel smile.
    “Yes, I know. You drove her halfway to madness.”
    The smile deepened. “Only halfway? I oughtn’t to have given up so soon.”
    “You didn’t give up,” I reminded him sharply. “She ran away.”
    “Only because she was expecting my brat,” he replied. “Oh, you didn’t think I knew about that, did you? Poor Lucy, creeping away to have my child in secret,” he mocked.
    “You’ll not get him,” Brisbane told him. “And I don’t much care if I have to kill you to make sure of that.”
    Black Jack threw back his head and laughed. “You think I want him? What would I do with a puling infant? I’ve no more use for the imp than I did for you. You want the little devil? He’s entirely yours. Take him and be damned.”
    Brisbane put out his hand. “Good,” he said coolly. “And I’ll have the rubies, as well.”
    “The hell you will, boy!” his father returned. He levelled a pistol at Brisbane’s heart. “You’d kill me to keep the brat. I’d kill you to keep the gems. What do you say to that, my lad?”
    Brisbane’s voice was perfectly calm. “Julia, get behind me. My father is an erratic shot at best.”
    “Erratic shot?” Black Jack said indignantly. “I taught you, you insolent pup. But you are right that I wouldn’t be too particular which of you I hit. In fact,” he said, turning his attention to me, “it might be better to aim for her at that. You wouldn’t want to risk that, would you, boy?” he taunted.
    Brisbane gave a lazy sigh, and then, with a swiftness I had never even guessed he possessed, he lunged, reaching the pistol just as his father pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening in the small room, and before I could determine if either of them had been shot, the beams gave another creak, a long protesting groan. And then the world fell in.
    * * *
    When they dug us out of the rubble, I was in far better shape than Brisbane. A pair of ribs I had broken the previous autumn were cracked once more, but apart from a broken wrist and a multitude of scrapes