The Sapphire Heiress (The Silver Order #1)

13 A New Enemy

Chapter Thirteen

A New Enemy

T he kiss had not been like what she had expected. Locke did not hold back.

In the midst of it, she struggled to find her balance. But in Locke’s ever-tightening grip, it wasn’t long before she allowed herself to give in. How easy it was for her to forget all that troubled her: all of who she was and who she had been. Impossibly easy.

A moan caught in her throat. His lips dug into her neck. A moment longer and she’d be letting him ruin her right there in that theater.

Mae twisted away, her virtue saved by the distant thunder of steps. Voices resounded from below, gaining volume. Panic hit her fast. Despite all their efforts to be careful, Ellsworth had found them. Who knows how many men he might have with him now?

“Not a word.” Locke grasped her arm.

Footfalls echoed through the building. In the complete silence, they seemed to belong to a horde of beasts rather than mere men.

Straightening out her skirts, Mae tried to relax, but her heart still raced and her skin still tingled from his touch. She couldn’t make sense of what she had done, or what she had continued to do. And trying to reason with herself seemed useless. Her heart paid no mind to logic. Recently, they seemed two entirely different things, sworn enemies at best.

“Locke?” A deep, throaty voice called out.

She didn’t recognize it. A part of her relaxed, it wasn’t Ellsworth after all. Who was it then? It couldn’t have been the local police. Whoever this was knew Locke’s name. She was breathless, not sure if she should run, not sure if she could . But as the footfalls gained the stairs, they could only wait.

A group of five men surged forward, darkening the hall with black cloaks and long shadows. These men were not the police. They didn’t don the typical hats and slick silver buttons. Whoever these men were, they were dressed to blend in and attack from the shadows. Their grim and menacing faces marked them as killers.

“Ah, there he is.” The figure of a man stepped into the weak moonlight. Sporting a short, peppered beard, Mae guessed he was in his fifties, though his eyes seemed far older. In them, he held a gleam of authority. “I’m in need of a few words.”

“Then say them, damn you,” Locke snapped.

“That’s no greeting for a friend.” The stranger cut across the floor, his face a map of sharp angles and deep wrinkles. “And to think, I thought you returned to England just for me.”

“I’m no fool. You’ll get what you want. Your message was clear enough.”

“And yet it seems you two are running.”

Mae stepped back, hoping to shrink out of view. Just like Ellsworth, this man was clearly an enemy. How many enemies did a man like Locke have? Despite her hopes, the man turned to her. Though she was in shadow, he seemed to see her clearly.

Locke stepped forward, shielding her from view. “I need time is all. Give me till the end of the week. Until then, you can leave us the devil alone.”

Mae looked back and forth between them, her breath quickening. Neither side seemed interested in yielding. They were outnumbered too and she was unarmed. She needed a blade. How much time would that give her? A few seconds?

The stranger scoffed. “Am I supposed to believe you? After all these years of silence? We’ve offered you guineas upon guineas for what is rightfully ours.”

Gold for more gold? Mae almost questioned aloud. It didn’t make sense.

“Instead of giving us what we want, you run,” the man said.

“Well, I’m tired of running!”

Mae trembled at the emotion in Locke’s voice. She thought he loved this life of his. That he had no one to answer to, that he was free to go and do as he pleased.

In actuality, he was trapped. They both were. Whatever these men were after, they seemed the worst kind of enemy. How minuscule her own sufferings now seemed.

Locke backed closer to Mae just as the men seemed about to beckon. Turning back to his enemy, his words were stone again. “Leave us, Pierce, or you’ll never get what you want.”

Mae could feel the twitch of anger welling in Locke’s limbs. Its release, even a breath of it, would undoubtedly mean death. But against these men, what hope had they?

“Two days’ time,” Mae suddenly said. “We’ll arrive at the vault no later. What you want is there, isn’t it? Whatever you want, you can have it. I don’t care.”

“Useful, this one.” The man Locke had called “Pierce” smiled and turned his sights on her. “And where, pray tell, is this vault hidden?”

“West along the coast,” she answered before Locke could stop her. She didn’t know what had come over her, but she felt sure this was necessary—more than necessary.

Pierce’s thin lips quirked. “Until the morrow, then.” He pulled something out of his pocket. It glinted, a flash of silver. A sort of pin, Mae guessed as Pierced dug it into Locke’s collar. “Or we shall cross swords again.”

“Then I shall sharpen my blades.”

“Better yet.” Pierce’s charming smile fell.

In another sweep of their cloaks, the men padded down the stairs.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” Locke grumbled.

“Who was that? I demand to know.” She grabbed at the pin on Locke’s collar and ran a finger over the rose engraving. It was some sort of insignia. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it meant.

“The Silver Order.”

“The what?”

“ The Silver Order. ” Locke ripped himself away, heading back onto the balcony. From the floor, he grabbed the wine bottle and took a large gulp. “Snakemen, the lot of ’em.”

“But who are they?”

“I know little beyond the name. They’re known to a select few of London high society. And among those sort, there are few consistencies.”

“W-What do they want with you?” She deserved answers and he knew it.

“They’re not after your fortune. I was never after your fortune.”

Overcome by this revelation, Mae stumbled backward.

“Then what do you want?” she whispered. “Tell me now.”

“Your father stole something else from me.” Locke avoided her gaze. “Something infinitely more precious than gold.”

“What, then?” Mae almost yelled. She hated having to drag each and every answer out of him. After all his lies, she would wait for the truth no longer.

“A necklace like this.” From beneath his shirt, he lifted free the silver chain that held the “healing serum,” as he called it. “Except this other necklace holds a gem. A very unique and powerful gem. A sapphire, to be specific.”

“Then you lied to me. You didn’t find these things. You stole them. ”

“Of course I stole them.” He huffed.

“And you look young when in truth you’re old. Very old. You should be closer to my father’s age. But you’re not.”

His jaw tightened.

“How?” she pressed. Something told her that sapphire had everything to do with all her pressing questions, all of the cooks’ claims, all her doubts….

When he didn’t answer, she pressed again. “You owe me an explanation. Many, I should think. My grandfather—” She could not believe she was about to say the words. “You knew him too. How?”

“He wasn’t there that day. I wish he had been.”

When he quieted again, Mae tried to be patient. How far back might these memories date go?

“I was legitimate then. A privateer on paper, but with no true loyalties. Not when I saw their ship. Everything about it called to me. The gold-painted railings; the pristine, white sails; the deep-red rose insignia. No ship had ever looked so tempting. So my crew and I did what we did best, we overcame their defenses and in exchange, I took its most precious cargo: this serum and a sapphire…”

Mae held her breath, more than ready for the answers she had waited for.

“For years, I wore the sapphire as a good luck charm. I thought of it as nothing more. But the men we pillaged…they weren’t mere merchants, Mae. They’re something far more. They wield great power and not merely the political variety.

“You see, that necklace, it doesn’t just hold a precious gem. It has mystical properties of some sort. I don’t know how, but it sustained my youth. For as long as I had worn it, I remained young. That is, until your father took it from me. That was seven years ago.”

“And you think it’s in my family vault?”

He nodded. “It has to be. They’ll soon kill me if I don’t return it. Hell, I think I’d rather that than be on the run again. ”

“You were never after the fortune?”

“No.”

Mae backed away, struggling to catch her breath. She was relieved his aims hadn’t centered around greed, but a sort of panic surged through her still, making her feel faint. Locke’s discoveries seemed so impossible—alluring, even. It had filled her life with the sort of intrigue she thought limited to plays and books. But all that had taken on a dark and sinister turn.

With Locke, death seemed a certainty. Even if he returned the sapphire those men demanded, there was no knowing what they might do. If he was powerless against them, what was she to do? In the face of those men, she was little more than a lamb.

Self-preservation demanded that she escape this now. She couldn’t be a party to his troubles and she couldn’t continue down this path of romantic abandon. Sure, he was thrilling and at times good-natured, but she couldn’t forget his scandalous occupation, nor his bloody past.

“Pierce and those men. They’re dangerous…”

“Capable of anything for the sake of secrecy. I learned that much.”

“But they’ve no interest in my fortune?”

“No.”

Mae let out a breath. There might still be hope for her, then. She had to be sensible. She’d claim her fortune and that would be that. They’d go their separate ways. There’d be no more of this lusty, kissing nonsense. Whatever feelings she felt for the man, she must vanquish.

With money on the horizon, she had so many options. She knew what her family would have wanted her to do: regain her propriety and build new her reputation. They’d have wanted her to move to London, where she could find a nice fellow with a good name and head on his shoulders.

But after Locke’s offer to travel, she knew that wasn’t what she wanted. With money, she’d be able to travel all the same. But it wasn’t just the travel that she saw in her future. Locke had been part of it too. Something that seemed so possible a moment ago had vanished before her eyes.

“Mae…”

She looked up, noticing Locke’s sudden proximity. She must’ve gone still.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“For earlier.” She stepped backward. “I had no intention of leading you on.”

Locke swallowed, his soft expression hardening in less than an instant. “Why must you do this? Why must you lie ?” He pulled her close. “You want me. I know you do.”

“Well, I shouldn’t.” Mae yanked free, his presumption filling her with disgust. “The woman I was never would’ve considered you. It is only now that I am desperate and lonesome that my standards are thus lowered.”

“I see.” He clenched his teeth. “No need to explain any further. You’re a lady and I’m a vagrant. Clear as glass.”

She could sense the storm brewing beneath his features. Struck now with guilt, she wanted to take it all back. He had proved to be so much more than a vagrant. She was still alive, wasn’t she?

“Perhaps if things were different…” she began. “If you had lived an honest life…”

“I suppose you think I’d be respectable, then. For what honor does a pirate have?”

“None, I’m afraid.”

He looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. “You might fancy yourself a lady, but your father was a pirate.”

Mae narrowed her eyes at his words. She could have said something even nastier right back, but she didn’t .

“I still loved him,” she ground out. “To me, he wasn’t a pirate.”

He laughed. “Countless dead men would say you are mistaken…”

“And you’re no different, but you stuck your neck out for me and vagrant or not, you deserve my thanks. I simply can’t be party to this. I can’t be around when they—”

“I know,” Locke said as though everything were so obvious. “Of course not. I never should have asked.”

Mae leaned her back against the wall, wanting to shrink down all the way to the floor. The words, though insulting and hurtful, were no less true. He had not forgotten his past. And neither could she.

“I suppose I’ll have to collect my share quickly.” There would be plenty of time for her to escape unseen, she hoped.

“Oh, indeed. The sooner, the better.” There was anger in his voice now, an anger she realized she had wanted to hear.

“You’ll be able to take your fair share too.” She tried to sound optimistic despite the guilt that swelled in her stomach.

“No need.” Locke turned his back to her, looking down at whatever lay in his hand. “You’ll have your family fortune—all of it save for the stone. Tell me, how much honor is that worth?”

“You’ll change your mind.”

“I give you my word.” He twisted round, looking gravely offended.

“But it’s entirely unnecessary. It’s yours. It belongs to you.” More than that, he needed it to live off.

After all he’d done and all that he’d promised to do, it was the least she could do to show her gratitude. But if anything, her adamant refusal must have seemed mocking to him because without another glance, he left for the balcony.

Mae settled herself back into the window nook.

Somewhere within the following hour, she fell asleep. When she woke, she was wrapped in a blanket. The gesture should have warmed her. Instead, it only made her feel cold.