Rebel Magisters (21 page)

“I’m going to go out and send some ether messages to my friends,” he said softly while we leaned over the array of books I’d laid out on a table.

“I thought that wasn’t secure,” I said. I didn’t know how the magical long-distance messaging system worked, but I knew that anyone could tap into the Mechanics’ telegraph, if they knew the code and how it worked.

“I wouldn’t dare send anything from this house, but if I word the messages carefully and send them from a public venue, it should be safe,” he said. “Anyway, I’m merely suggesting that my friends call upon some people on my behalf. Tomorrow I’ll call on a few local people.”

“I wish I could go with you.”

“So do I,” he replied with a grin. “You have a talent for getting people to listen, but I can’t think of any excuse to bring you with me, other than bringing the children.”

“I’m not sure I’d inflict Olive and Rollo on any statesmen we’re trying to impress.”

“That’s too true. But don’t worry, I’ll give you a full report.”

It was two days later before I saw Henry again, in the breakfast room. We were alone for the moment, so as we stood at the sideboard together, serving ourselves, I whispered, “How did it go yesterday?”

He sighed. “The baron was right. They don’t see a need to act now. They’re unhappy, but not willing to take the risk of doing anything about it.”

“Perhaps your friends will have better luck.”

“I hope so. This city isn’t exactly a rebel hotbed. I have no university friends from that set here, and the people I do know have given every appearance of being staunch loyalists. Have you heard anything from the local Mechanics?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t been so fortunate as to have a maid introduce herself as my liaison.”

The governor entered the room then, cutting off the conversation. Henry immediately began to talk about the impressive array of tropical bugs that might be found in this region. I had a hard time stifling giggles. “So, if you don’t have anything you need me to do, Your Grace,” he said to the governor, “I’d like to go do some exploring and see if I can find some specimens. It’s warm enough that they might even still be active.”

“No, no plans today. I have meetings. Miss Newton, I would appreciate it if you kept the children quiet and out of the way. We’ll have luncheon served for all three in the schoolroom, as I have guests coming.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” I said with a nod.

He looked rather grave, and that made me curious as to what his meeting was about. Rebel activity didn’t seem to be very high here, so there must have been other governmental concerns.

I didn’t relish being trapped in the schoolroom with all three children all day. Fortunately, Flora remained in her room, and although I checked in on her to suggest that she read a book, I didn’t try to make her do anything too much like work. It was challenging enough keeping the other two occupied. Rollo had his assignments from school, and I had my planned lessons with Olive, but our days were usually broken up by art and music lessons or walks.

By lunchtime, they had already completed everything I had planned for the day, and only an afternoon rainstorm kept them from demanding to go outside. I couldn’t even supervise piano practice, since the governor had asked us to be quiet. I set them to drawing the view from the window while I headed down to the house’s well-stocked library to find a book to read aloud that would entertain both of them.

Unfortunately, the library was very short on novels, focusing primarily on local history. I finally settled upon a book of biographies, thinking that there might at least be some interesting personages to discuss with the children. As I was well aware, real life could be as exciting as any novel.

I was making my way toward the stairs when I heard raised voices. After making sure no servants were nearby, I tiptoed closer to the room the governor was using as a study and strained to make out what the voices were saying.

“How did it get this bad?” the governor boomed.

The other person spoke more softly, so I had to move even closer to hear what he said, and I still only caught the occasional word. “…oversight. We caught the discrepancies, but…more widespread than we realized.”

I held my breath. This sounded like something that might be useful to our cause. “In every colony?” the governor shouted, accompanied by a pounding sound, as though of fists on a desk.

“It appears so, Your Grace.”

“How did this happen?”

“We’ve conducted a thorough investigation.”

“And?”

“We still aren’t sure.”

“The money?”

“Unsure. But the treasury is dangerously close to empty. You’ll have to raise taxes, I’m afraid.”

“We already have magisters joining the revolt. We don’t dare do that. Who else knows about this?”

“No one, Your Grace.”

“Keep it that way. I may be able to secure a loan. I’ll write to a few people I can trust, and perhaps we can get the funds back with more investigation.”

It sounded like the meeting was wrapping up, so I didn’t dare linger outside the door, even though I was dying to learn more. I hurried up the stairs to make sure I was out of sight before either man left the study.

Now I really needed to talk to Henry. I had a feeling I had just what we needed to spur even the least ardent revolutionaries into action.

In Which

My Fortitude Is Tested

I was so anxious that if I hadn’t managed to find Henry before I went to bed, I might have resorted to sliding a note under his door, even if that would have been quite scandalous if someone else saw it. Once the children were in bed and all the governor’s guests were gone, I played the spinet in the schoolroom, hoping that would catch Henry’s attention. I knew he played when he needed to think, so surely he would pick up on the clue.

He did come into the room, still dressed for dinner. “Did you find any good specimens today, Lord Henry?” I asked as I played a Bach étude.

“Yes, I did. Some of them are absolutely horrifying. You wouldn’t believe the size of the bugs here. I’ll have to plan another visit in warmer weather. And how was your day? I know we asked quite a lot of you.”

“The children got restless, but I believe I managed to keep them occupied.”

He came over to the piano and leaned against it. Still playing so that the music might mask our discussion, I lowered my voice and said, “I overheard something interesting today.” As quickly and as softly as I could, I told him about the conversation in the governor’s study.

His eyes widening, he sank onto the piano bench next to me. “Are you sure?” he asked, his voice barely above a breath.

“No,” I admitted. “I was missing the context entirely, and I didn’t hear everything that was said. I missed the beginning of the conversation, and I don’t know who was meeting with the governor. But the part I did hear sounded suspicious.”

“If there’s been some kind of corruption or mismanagement, that might be enough to spur the reluctant revolutionaries to take action. An empty treasury and higher taxes because of this is good reason for revolution.”

“Or is the treasury empty because someone has been robbing the government?” I asked with a smile.

“Well, if they want to keep their money, they should do a better job of guarding it, so it’s still mismanagement. The difficulty will be proving this. I can’t just tell people what my governess overheard. I need evidence.”

“He’s writing to his friends to try to get loans to cover it up until he can find the missing money. If we could just get one of those letters…”

“That sounds like a job for the Masked Bandits.”

I was so shocked that I stopped playing. “Henry, no!” I exclaimed.

Fortunately, he had the presence of mind to get his hands on the keyboard and continue the music so that my outburst didn’t ring through the house. “Robbing couriers is child’s play. You’ve seen me do that.”

“I’m not worried about you getting the documents away from the courier. I’m worried about
you
getting away. And you can’t go robbing people while you’re in the governor’s house.”

“The couriers may get letters in the house, but they have to go elsewhere with them, and then I can carry out a quick robbery and be back home. The governor will hardly search my room when looking for missing documents.”

“But you’re on your own. Your gang isn’t here.”

“It doesn’t take more than one person to take documents off a courier. And don’t even ask to come with me. Both of us being out would only look suspicious. I need you to be entirely aboveboard.”

“We both went out in Boston,” I reminded him.

“Yes, and that was probably a mistake, as we were nearly caught. You don’t have a friend among the staff here, either.”

“Yet. Give me time.”

“We don’t have time. The letters will probably go out soon.”

The front bell ringing was loud enough to be heard over the piano. “Or possibly tonight,” I said, gulping down the lump that had formed in my throat.

He stood up. “That would be my cue.”

I managed to catch his sleeve before he got away from me. “Be careful.”

“Of course!”

But I knew he wouldn’t be. He might play the mild-mannered amateur scientist, but Henry loved danger.

I went to the window and watched as a man carrying an attaché case left the house about ten minutes later. Almost immediately afterward, a tall, lanky man followed him. I didn’t notice the courier turning around, so he must not have realized he was being shadowed. Within moments, they were both out of my sight. I doubted Henry would do anything so close to the house. He’d have to wait until the courier was in some area where it would look like an ordinary robbery.

If I could have thought of a way to follow him or go along with him, I would have, but he was right about that being difficult in this house. There was no maid who was an agent of the Rebel Mechanics—that I knew of—to sneak me out, no friendly hall boy to let me back in, and no proper governess would venture out alone at this time of night. Henry had it so much easier because young bachelors were expected to go out on the town.

With a sigh of frustration, I returned to the piano. I had to give up playing when it became late enough that it would have been rude to keep the household awake. I retreated to my room and paced for at least an hour. Surely he’d find a way to let me know when he was home, I thought. He’d said that stealing documents from a courier was easy, so even if he’d taken precautions, shouldn’t he have been back by now?

I finally decided I might as well go to bed. I knew it was sheer superstition, but I was afraid my waiting up was keeping the watched pot from boiling. Much to my surprise, I’d no sooner settled into bed than I heard a tapping at my window. I knew there wasn’t a tree anywhere nearby, so I jumped out of bed and ran to throw back the curtains. The window glass was spattered with rain, and I thought I saw a face pressed against it. I opened the window, and a body tumbled through and onto the floor.

I swallowed my instinctive scream of shock, but I couldn’t stop myself from scrambling back, away from the intruder. I heard a gasp that sounded like pain, and then there was a rough whisper, saying, “Verity, it’s me.”

“Henry? What on earth?” I asked as I moved to kneel beside him.

“I’m so sorry, Verity, but I didn’t dare go through the front door, there’s a watchman on the street and he’d have seen me, and your room is the one at the rear, there’s a trellis nearby, and I need your help.” All the words came tumbling out at once, as if he was verging on hysteria.

“What happened? Did something go wrong? Did you get the documents?”

“I got them, but there was a little problem getting away.” His voice shook as his teeth chattered. He was soaking wet and chilled, probably from having been out in the rain, but there seemed to be more than that wrong. I realized what that must be when I noticed that the hem of my white nightgown where I’d knelt next to him had a dark stain on it.

I conjured a small light in my hand, the way he’d taught me, so I could get a better look. “You’re bleeding!”

“I think this one might be a little worse than the last time you helped me,” he admitted.

It was too dark, even with my light, to examine the wound. “Should we send for a doctor?” I asked.

“How would we explain a gunshot wound?” He sounded more like his normal self. “The first thing we need to do is get me out of your room. I don’t want there to be any evidence that I was ever here.”

I pulled myself together. I prided myself on being good in a crisis, and this would be a test of my fortitude. “First, some towels, so you don’t go dripping down the hall.” I grabbed some from my bathroom and blotted him as well as I could. It was alarming how much blood ended up on the formerly white towels. I’d have to figure out later what to do about that. “Can you walk?” I asked.

“I’ll need some help.” He held his right arm out to me, and I pulled with all my might to get him to his feet. As soon as he was upright, he fell against me. I got my arm around him, and he draped his arm around my shoulders. He seemed to be trying his best to carry his own weight and walk, but I felt like he was doing well to move his feet as we made our way to the door.

I propped him against the wall and checked up and down the hallway before hauling him across to his room. There, I threw one of the towels that was still draped around him onto the floor in front of the fireplace and lowered him to the ground. With a wave of my hand, I made the fire flare up because I was afraid he was going into shock, he was trembling so badly.

I was less worried about a light causing suspicion in his room—being an eccentric young bachelor covered so many behaviors—so I turned on the lamp and moved it closer to him. “It’s the shoulder,” he said.

I eased his overcoat away from his shoulder. The white shirt underneath was dark red with blood. I lifted him somewhat to check his back, but the shirt was all white. “The bullet must still be in there,” I said.

“You’ll need to get it out,” he said through clenched teeth. “Look in my trunk. I have a medical kit.”