“Do something!” I screamed at Philip. “He’ll kill your daughters if you don’t say anything!”
Philip winced, and his face contorted in pain.
“Say something, you bastard!” I yelled.
Emily swayed where she stood while Charlotte continued to wail.
“All right, all right, I’ll talk,” Philip said in a weak, wheezing voice. “But please spare my daughters and the other woman. She’s only trying to protect my family.”
I blinked.
Van Ness directed his attention to Rusty and said, “Stand down, corporal.”
Rusty sneered as if the last thing he wanted to do was stand down.
“I said,stand down, Corporal Brooks,” Captain Van Ness said in an imposing voice.
“Yes, sir.” Rusty stepped away.
Captain Van Ness crossed to stand before Philip. “Who are you working for?”
“No one. I work alone.”
“Which tribes do you distribute weapons to?”
“There are several tribes. Comanche, Sioux, Lakota, Kiowa—”
“Papa!” Charlotte cried. “You lied to us!”
“I didn’t mean to. I’ve struggled to make ends meet and care for you girls since your mama died.” Tears glistened in his eyes.
“But why sell weapons to the Natives?” Charlotte blubbered.
“I just had to. They paid a lot of money.”
He had been trying to protect them from the truth of his actions. I understood. When Papa confessed that he’d studied time travel his whole life and he and Mom had lied to me about my birth—I’d felt utterly betrayed. I’d grown up thinking my delivery had occurred in a hospital, not in a cave in Peru during a solar eclipse. And no one had mentioned that little detail of being a Timeborne due to my miraculous birth.
Hands clasped behind his back, Van Ness paced back and forth before Philip. “So, what kind of weapons do you have to sell?”
Philip blanched and glanced at Charlotte’s weeping face. “I’d rather not say.”
“And I’d rather not unleash Corporal Brooks on your daughters again,” the captain said.
“All right. I’ll tell you.” Philip cleared his throat. “I sell knives, swords, bayonets, pistols, muskets, rifles, cannons, and crude bombs. Most of the rifles and muskets are the kind with bayonets.”
“Papa,” Charlotte wailed in a trembling voice. “Why did you lie to us?”
Her plaintive voice broke my heart.
Emily remained stoic, taking in her father’s betrayal in silence.
Philip’s complexion paled, and his face pinched with anguish.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry to both of you girls.”
Van Ness stopped pacing and faced Philip directly. “Are you sure you’re working on your own?”
“Yes, I swear it.” Philip directed his gaze at the ground.
