Free phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware by amalie vantana Page B

beaten.
    “When did my mother discover the truth?” I asked, for there was no way he would have agreed to accompany me to Bess’s house if she did not know. We had not known at the time that my mother was away.
    My mother had become betrothed to Richard on a trip to visit our plantation in Savannah. She had sailed on his ship, at a time when she knew he would be there. In the end it had been by my mother’s hand that Richard had died. She claimed that she was righting the wrong that Richard had done to our family. She had known that it was Richard who had supposedly murdered my father. Now I suspected that there was more to it than that. William had a hand in her betrothal, I would swear to it.
    “Your mother found me out about a year after my death. She had suspected for a few weeks before she finally charged into my house and threw a knife, a coffee pot, and an urn at my head.” William smiled affectionately as he reminisced, as if my mother’s attacking him was a sign of her love and devotion instead of her rage and betrayal. “After that I confessed the truth. It took your mother about six months to forgive me, and when she did, we began working together to plan Richard’s downfall.”
    “Their meeting and betrothal, that was all you,” I accused.
    “The meeting, yes, but your mother takes the merit for snaring Richard’s interest. She always did allure the greatest snakes.”
    The way he said it, he had to be including himself in that category.
    “Why stay away so long, and why ask Guinevere to make me believe you completely evil when all you would have had to do to gain my aid was trust me with the truth?”
    William turned his attention to the parlor window for a silent minute. I waited and watched him.
    He was still a good looking man, even with the scar. As my mother would say, it added a story to his face.
    “You have nothing more to say to me?” I asked when the silence lengthened.
    William did not remove his gaze from the window as he spoke. “What I have done was done for a purpose. You must accept that or you will live your life disappointed.”
    “Then you must accept what I will do to you, for it, too, shall be done for a purpose.” I turned on my heel and marched into the foyer.
    William called out to me before I could shut the parlor door. “Jack, everything I have done has been to protect my family.”
    Looking back at the man who had once been my father, who had once demanded my respect, I could see the shell of the man that he had once been. His former self was there no longer. It was as if I was looking at the face of a foreigner. “You may keep telling yourself that, but you are not innocent of wrongdoings. I should lock you up for your deceit, but I will not. Yet.” With that said, I left him alone, for that was to me where he belonged.
    Guinevere was still in the book room with Rose, Bess and Hannah so I decided to go up and see how Sam was faring.
    When I entered his bedchamber, he was leaning against a pile of pillows, with scrolls around him, and a few large papers that turned out to be plans for a new warehouse.
    “Does my sister know that you are working? She gave the impression that you are to be resting.”
    Sam smiled in my direction as he motioned me in, and then motioned for me to close the door.
    Pulling a chair to the side of his bed, I looked over the plans that were different than his last warehouse. This one was made of bricks instead of wood.
    “Can you tell me anything about the men who attacked you?” I asked.
    Sam picked up a pad of parchment and wrote out a message.
    I do not remember much of what happened. They came upon me from behind and I only caught a glimpse, but I am certain they were Luther’s guards.
    Then it was as I feared. Luther knew that the artifacts had been kept in Charleston, and he had sent his guards to find them.
    “Are the artifacts still safe?”
    Sam nodded. He and Rose were the only ones who knew where they were hidden, and I did