Page 114 of After 5
“I have work to do. I need to leave immediately,” she insisted.
“What work do ye have at this wee hour?” He had slipped back into his Scottish accent, and I wondered if Sam caught the mistake.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
I turned to find Sam pointing the sword at Victory. Nope, he didn’t miss a thing.
“She’s a spy. She’s going to warn the Feds,” he said.
Caiyan stepped in front of Victory. A man protecting his own. His hand reached for the revolver strapped to his belt.
“Hold on,” I said, but Sam’s aim of the sword didn’t falter.
“Doc, I believe both of them is Yanks.”
“Sam, put the sword down,” I ordered.
“Tell me how you warn them. Are you bedding the soldiers like the Soiled Doves?” He swished the sword at her bulge. “Is that a Yank in your belly?”
I wasn’t close enough to try and take the sword away, and if he stabbed Victory, there would be two lives lost.
She lifted her chin and stepped away from Caiyan’s outstretched arm. “That’s right. It is a Yank.” She cut her eyes at Caiyan. “The child of a brave man. A man who would never treat people like animals, caged, and whipped when they don’t obey their masters.”
Sam’s face screwed up in anger. “We never treated our slaves as such. They’re like family to us.”
Victory threw her head back and laughed. “Family? Does your family empty your chamber pots, rise in the wee hours to make your breakfast? Clean the shit from your animals’ stalls?”
When Sam didn’t answer, Victory continued. “I sew the maps of your old Bobby Lee’s plans into the Rebel coats. Even give the Northern soldiers a lovely red target to aim for.”
Sam’s face drained white. “Will. The red heart.” He turned and hightailed it into the darkness.
Damn. “Sam!” I jerked around to chase him. The cock of the hammer on a revolver made me stop in my tracks.
“Yer no going anywhere, Dr. Seuss.” The condescending way he rolled the name off his tongue told me he thought I might be a brigand.
Turning around slowly, I froze. My inner voice cautioned me to be careful. He was a known killer, and I was walking on thin ice. If he chose, he could break the fragile layer out from under me and end his life in the process. I had to tell him.
Caiyan leveled his revolver at me, but his eyes held questions. I knew the look of uncertainty. He’d used it on me often enough when discussing our relationship. He wasn’t convinced I didn’t have the gift. If he killed me, he might die, too. My layer thickened.
“Where’s yer key?”
“My what?” I used the lie fueled by my anger from Caiyan’s deceit. My eyes locked on his. Victory came forward and patted down my clothes. I’d secured the key in a knit of woolen sock and placed it in a position where a man should have a little something. She ran her hands down the outside of my pockets, across my crotch, but didn’t grope my bogus male member. Checked the inside of my frock coat and came out with the handkerchief and the bottle of chloroform I had used on Miss Maggie.
“He’s clean.” She waggled the bottle in front of Caiyan.
Good! “I need to retrieve my scout. You should be ashamed of yourself,” I said to Victory, then turned toward Caiyan. “And you, you should be court-martialed.” Was that the correct term? I wasn’t sure, but it sounded right. I flailed my arms making a big show of my disappointment in him.
“I’ve got to warn Mead. I’ve sent word the attack will be on the right flank. If he doesn’t know about the change, the south could win this battle,” Victory said. “I’m going to speak with him.”
Caiyan kept his gun on me, his eyes wide. “Let’s take care of the good doctor first.”
Not good! I turned toward Victory to plead my case. It was time to come clean. “Wait! I have to tell you—”
The last thing I remembered were his familiar arms wrapped around me and the scent of earth and cinnamon as Caiyan covered my mouth with a handkerchief. I tried holding my breath, considered fighting, but if he discovered my identity, our memories together would change. The first time we met in the barn in Scotland, and the first time he took me in his arms and made love to me.
My heart’s pace quickened, anxiety, but not mine. The surprise of reading him without wearing my key. Tenacity, bravado, insecurity, swirled inside me, twisting me into his tornado of emotions. Confusing emotions from the man I thought I loved.
It was his fear that forced me to give in. Fear that he wouldn’t be enough. I didn’t want to lose him. I wasn’t ready to forget the memories we made together. Inhaling deeply, I tasted the sweet of the solvent and allowed Caiyan to escape with his pregnant lover.
