the walls. âWith a fortune in stolen gold?â
âThe coach is mine,â said Gerrit, settling back comfortably onto his bench. Anna envied him. He was a head taller than her and his shoulders were too broad to be buffeted by the jostling of the coach, while she could barely keep her seat. âThe courts only found in favor of Andries and his pack of lies because they are controlled by the Rebels, and the Rebels want Harenwyck whole.â
âI thought that your father disinherited you.â
Gerrit sighed. âHe did. Perhaps. Once upon a time, he said as much, in his study, with my brother at his elbow. Or perhaps it was more of his bluff and bullying. Of one thing I am sure: he never made a will to formalize it. If he had, be certain Andries would have presented it in probate. He did not.
âWithout a will, under Dutch rules of inheritance, Harenwyck passes to me. So my brother of necessity concocted a story, plausible enough, that Cornelis Van Haren
had
made a last will and testament naming him assole heir. Then I came home, shortly after my fatherâs death, refused to accept its termsâand burned it. In truth, I came home to find that Andries had already declared himself patroon and hired a militia to keep me out. I never even got near the house.
âTo settle matters, Andries produced men who claimed to have witnessed this will, and recalled its basic terms. As far as the courts are concernedâthe New York Court of Chancery in particular, where my brother applied all his considerable influenceâHarenwyck is now the lawful inheritance of Andries, just as my father wished it. You see, at equity, a rogue like me cannot be permitted to unjustly profit from his misdeed. By destroying my dear fatherâs will I sought to pull his estate back into intestacy, where the common law would make me heir. The will, and fair play, must be upheld! Never mind the damned thing never existed, and Andries and his âwitnessesâ were perjurers. Such is the course of justice, as twisted by my brother and his Hudson peers.â
âBut the New York courts are controlled by the Rebels,â she said. And Kate Greyâs allies. And Kate Grey had said nothing of any of this. It was possible that she had not known. And equally possible that she had known and decided against sharing all the facts with Anna.âSurely it must count for something that you fought for them with the Continentals.â
âIt appears the teacher has done her homework on the Van Haren family.â
Anna knew she had made another mistake. She must be more careful. She was supposed to be a stranger to Harenwyck. âIt seemed only sensible to find out as much about the patroon as possible, before accepting his offer.â
âHow much is he paying you?â
âEnough,â she said.
âIâll double it.â
âYou would like to brush up your English grammar and improve your needlework?â
âJust now, I would
like
to reach my chest of gold, but find it buried beneath a heap of female impedimenta.â
He set her book down and resumed rummaging through the baggage. He plucked Annaâs sewing box out of the jumbled mess on the floor and examined it in bafflement, unfastening the clasp and flipping it upside down.
The lid swung open with the motion of the coach and Annaâs silks spilled out like tumbled jewels. Glinting among them were streaks of shining silver. Her lockpicks clattered over the mahogany paint case and the maple strongbox to land ringing upon the floorboards and dislimn Annaâs painstakingly crafted identity as Miss Winters, headmistress of Miss Wintersâ Academy.
Four
Anna held her breath as Gerrit raised an eyebrow and fished a steel pick out of the tangled heap. He held it up to the light and it glinted. She kept them polished because that made them easier to work with in the dark. With a sinking heart she knew that he knew what it
Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain