The Green Parlor Room, A Few Hours Later
Maple and Scott sat in the darkness, eating dinner and drinking ale. Well, Scott was drinking ale. In fact, Scott now had three bottles of ale next to him and was working on a fourth. Maple was still drinking the same bottle she'd had for an hour. Maple finally put down the slice of smoked ham.
“Scott, what is the problem? I have never seen you this upset before!”
He stared morosely at his ale. “Maple, the rest of our band is in jail, just because they helped me. C.J is in jail. He's too smart of a kid for that.” He took another swig. “Victor Comstock has returned from the dead, a man whom everyone admires and reveres, including the woman I love. And hell, I like the guy! We actually had a pretty good chat about ideas to get the Inn going this morning.” He rubbed his pulsing bruise. “After we got the ice for my eye.”
Maple turned almost as red as her hair. “Scott, I...landed on Victor yesterday.”
Scott raised the one eyebrow that didn't throb. “You landed on him?”
“I wanted to rescue C.J, but I guess I didn't aim right. I ended up on Victor.” Her huge smile got even bigger. “It felt...it felt bon. He is tres beau, no?”
“I don't think he's that good-looking,” Scott grumbled.
Now Maple was the one staring into her ale. “Scott, he does not know me. I told him I was Crimson Blade. I was still in costume! What could I say? I do not think his mind was entirely his own then.” She sighed. “When I brought him his ham and beans for lunch, he spoke to me as if he barely recognized me.”
Scott looked blearily up at Maple. “How about we make a deal? You keep Victor Comstock occupied when he's here, and I'll keep working on Liz. Sooner or later, she's gotta thaw out and he's gotta notice you.”
Victor chose that minute to poke his head in. “I'm closing the manager's office for the night, Sherwood. You can lock the doors here when you're finished.”
“Sure thing, Vic.”
“Actually, I prefer Victor.” He nodded at the bottles. “And don't forget to sell those to the glass collectors. We could use the extra money for food and supplies.”
Maple gathered her dishes. “I'll just take these to the kitchen.”
Victor smiled and offered Maple his arm. “Would you appreciate an escort to the kitchen and servants' quarters, Miss Martienne? It is after nightfall.”
“That's very gentile of you, Monsieur Comstock.” She gathered the dishes in one arm and Victor's offered arm in the other. She grinned at Scott over her shoulder. “Do not wait up for me.”
Scott had absolutely no desire to lock up anytime soon. He just felt like brooding. “Everyone can get love, except for me. Even Victor Comstock.” He threw the empty bottle in the fireplace, making the flames spit and roar. “Damn it! Damn him, too! Him and Pruitt and...all of it.”
“You're so articulate at this hour of the night.” Lady Hilary Booth managed to get her fashionably wide skirts into the room. They took up almost the entire chair she settled down in. “How much ale did you have to get yourself this drunk?”
“Go to hell, Hildy. I'm not in the mood for your mouth right now. And I don't care if you're a lady.”
She ignored his insults. “How long have you been here?”
“Long enough.” He glared at Hilary. “What do you care? You have Jeff.”
“No, I don't have Jeff. As you may recall, he married another woman.”
“Hilary,” Scott spat, “he explained why he did it. I know you were hurt, but lives were at stake!”
“Don't you start standing up for him!”
“I don't see you doing it.”
Hilary leaned back as well as she could in the chair. “Jeff shattered me deeply, so I'm doing the same to him. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, after all.”
“In this case, I don't think it's good for anybody.” He reached for another ale, despite the fact that he was already swaying a bit. “Hildy, Jeff is devoted to you. If I could get Elizabeth to look at me, even once, the way Jeff looks at you...”
“You're still in love with her?”
“I've been in love with her since the first time I saw her. She's everything I ever wanted in a woman. I've had other women, dozens, but none of them were like her.”
“I've had other men, too. Maybe not dozens. More like...hundreds.” She sighed. “But none of them were like Jeff. I just wish he'd learn to look before he leaps into a marriage contract he can't get out of.”
“And Elizabeth is in love with a man who's more in love with his ideals.”
Hilary looked right at Scott. “But you love Elizabeth. Not just her mind. You love her.”
Scott scowled and pulled out his oft-seen pocket watch. “Oh, would you look at the...hey!”
Hilary was easily able to snatch the watch from Scott's ale-weakened grasp. “Where did you get this? It's a good quality item. Very finely crafted. It's not a cheap trinket you purchased from one of the market sellers.”
He reached for the watch, but she held it away from him. “Gimme that, Hildy! It's mine!”
“Stop behaving like a five-year old.” She dangled the watch chain from her fingers. “I'll give it back to you if you tell me how you got the bloody thing. Did you steal it from some noble family?” She made a face. “And for heaven's sake, don't call me Hildy! My name is Hilary!” She smirked. “Or in your case, Your Ladyship.”
“All right, I'll tell you.” He gestured at the watch. “It did belong to a wealthy family, but I didn't steal it. It was given to me by a good friend, the family's only son, before he...before he died.”
Hilary frowned. “Who were they? What happened to them?”
“They're all dead now.” He opened another bottle of ale. “Died in a fire in their home in Nantucket in the Massachusetts Colony years ago.”
Hilary took the bottle. “Scott, I'm never going to get the full story if you're too inebriated to tell it.”
“All right already!” He leaned back. “Michael O'Rourke was originally a butcher in Ireland. He had a silver tongue and a gift for twisting the truth, which is why they were always in and out of money and scrapes with the law. He and his wife Fiona had to leave Ireland after he made a few too many bad investments that left them heavily in debt. They settled in Nantucket with his older sister and young son, hoping to leave the blarney behind and start fresh. Did pretty well for themselves, too. They had a darn good fishing and whaling business going.”
He looked into the fire. “The son was a good friend of mine. We left home at fourteen. We were bored and wanted to see the world. We lied about our ages and joined a pirate vessel as cabin boys.” He shook his head. “We eventually worked our way up to becoming captain and first mate by the time we were twenty, raiding towns and taking anything we could get our hands on.”
Scott's face darkened. “We sometimes ran jobs for a certain English lord who was then beginning to become involved in politics. He was too good to dirty his nose with under-handed dealings, at least where people could see him. We were running arms to the colonies, including some weapons that are banned here. They were supposed to go to the British army.” His lips tightened into a small smirk. “I thought some rebels who were fighting a landowner could use them more. Pr...my boss didn't like that.”
“What happened to your friend?”
“We sold the ship and fled back to Nantucket. Unfortunately, our boss and his men followed us there.” Scott nodded at the watch. “He'd already taken Michael's land and business to pay for his debt and for taxes. The silver watch, which Michael bought in Ireland during one of his runs of luck, was one of the few heirlooms he was able to keep safe from the English.” His voice became strained. “They killed Michael and Fiona in front of us when we tried to buy off the rest of their service. He burned the house with them and their son in it. I escaped with his aunt and the watch.”
Hilary handed Scott the watch. “I heard of the O'Rourkes when I lived in England. They were basically con-artists who got very lucky. I always wondered what happened to them.”
Scott gently put the watch back in his jacket pocket, then turned to Hilary. “How would you like a chance to get back at Jeff?”
Hilary raised an eyebrow. “You have my attention.”
“I have a little scheme I'm hoping to pull.” He smirked. “If you don't mind being married again.”
“As long as it's not to Jeff. At least, not for a while.”
Scott winked at her, or tried to. He ended up wincing. “I think this will help both of us.”
The Adventures of the Crimson Blade
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