Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Once they had determined what they would do, the team worked quickly to prepare to leave the house.
Laura discovered that while they had been speaking, Aya had unearthed the men’s garments that Phoebe and Keriah had worn for previous missions. They were laid out on the bed in the chamber they shared.
She entered the room with a satchel of things that they might find useful. Phoebe was already dressed in trousers and Aya was about to help Keriah undo the laces of her stays.
“Keriah, you must dress in an evening gown.” Laura turned to Aya. “She had several dresses at my townhouse, which we have carried with us. Fetch the most lavish one.”
As Aya left, Keriah looked at Laura in confusion. “I can hardly hide in the shadows outside the Coulton-Jones house in a ball gown.”
“You shall not remain outside. You shall enter into the house with Phoebe, Sol, and Joshua.”
“They hardly have need of my help.” She did not realize she did so, but her weight shifted to her good knee, unconsciously reminding her of her injured one.
Laura walked up to her and placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders, forcing her to straighten her posture.
“Since your two sisters have left to be married, you have been the eldest daughter living at your home. Your father is a gentleman, and under the tutelage of your mother, you have seen to the order of servants in a gentleman’s home. ”
Keriah’s gray eyes seemed even more bewildered, but she did not refute what Laura had said.
She continued, “While the rest are persuading Mrs. Coulton-Jones to leave as expediently as possible—” She avoided the word kidnap.
“—there may be chaos and confusion if the Citadel or the Ramparts attack. You will be able to protect yourself and order the servants out of the house and away from the fighting.”
“Isabella—”
“Lady Aymer will be with her mother, whilst her son protects her. Everyone has a vital role to play tonight, and this is yours.”
“Keriah, do you remember when the gypsies first taught us how to fight with knives?” Phoebe asked. “At that time, your leg had just barely healed. Do you recall how Vadoma taught you how to fight?”
“She told me to be the mountain, unmoving.” Keriah’s body had grown very still as she remembered, as if she had suddenly become that mountain.
“She said that I would be the stalwart bulwark behind which you would retreat, a shield to defend you so that you could turn all your strength toward attacking.”
“Yes,” Phoebe said. “You are the mountain meant to block attackers and to protect those who stand behind you.”
Some deep emotion suffused Keriah’s face—not quite surprise, not quite awe, not quite pride. But her eyes were clear and her chin firm as she nodded toward Laura. “And an evening gown would make the servants more likely to listen to me.”
“Yes, precisely. But if you must fight, perhaps loosened stays and a slit cut into your petticoat now, and then you may tear your skirt later.”
“There are things in the kitchen that I have made …”
“Phoebe and I shall collect them,” Laura said. “When Aya returns, she will help you to dress.”
They exited the bedroom just as Aya arrived with a ball gown in her arms that was only slightly wrinkled.
As they entered the kitchen, Phoebe said, “Keriah made an abundance of sedative because she wasn’t confident in the strength of the paste or the powder.
She lacked some of the more rare ingredients she used in the last recipe, and while she did the best she could with her substitution choices, these recipes are untested. ”
“Take them with you, regardless.” Laura handed her one of several waxed leather packets with sedative paste smeared on the inside.
“You are unlikely to have time to reapply the sedative onto your knives in the midst of a fight, but it would be better to have these than to realize later you should have brought them.”
Laura carefully packed the small pouches of powder, tightly tied with twine, into a leather satchel. “I apologize, Phoebe. Once Mrs. Coulton-Jones is safely out of London, I fear you will not have another chance to speak to your father again for quite some time.”
It had been a mere three days since Phoebe attempted to call upon her father. It seemed as though it had happened weeks earlier.
“It was for my own sake that I wished to speak to him,” Phoebe said. “Telling my father that I forgive him is unlikely to change his attitude of mind.”
“Sol and I are still discussing what we should do next.” He had been rather despondent at first, and Laura admitted to herself that she also could not see a way for them to escape the dire circumstances in which they had found themselves.
But Sol had asked her to pray for him, as he had never done before in the years they had been friends, and Laura knew that the Lord would answer those prayers. She had faith that God would not forsake them, just as He had not forsaken His children in the Bible that she read every morning.
“Our circumstances will not always be so desperate,” Laura said. “I cannot tell you when it may happen, but I know that you will be able to speak to your father eventually.”
Phoebe sighed. “I wish to see him, but at the same time, I dread it. I know that he will hurt me in some way with his words or his actions.”
“Yes, he probably will hurt you.”
Phoebe glanced at her, surprised by her callous statement.
Laura continued, “But I also know that it will be overshadowed by the overwhelming love that God has for you.”
Her niece’s expression was clouded. “It is difficult to be comforted in that, for God is not like an earthly father.”
“I disagree. God is very much like an earthly father. It is the reason why we call Him our Heavenly Father. I am sure you must remember all the ways in which He has already cared for you.”
“You have cared for me, Aunt Laura.”
“But God has cared for you even when I was not present.”
Phoebe looked down at the packet of sedative in her hands. “I do not like to admit it, even to myself, but there are times when I feel that God should have prevented my father from betraying me in the first place.”
“Oh, my dear.” Laura placed her hand over Phoebe’s.
“A true father would not wish for you to become spoilt or complacent. A father who cares for you would only wish for you to continue to develop in character and virtue. While your father’s betrayal hurt you, it also led you to Mr. Coulton-Jones, the pocket watch, and the vial of the Root at that burned-out factory.
It led us to confide in Sol, and he has been a sage teacher for you and a strong leader. ”
Her niece glanced up at her, and although she said nothing, her gaze was not quite so despairing as it had been a moment ago.
“All of this has led you to learning and doing things beyond what you had ever done before,” Laura said.
“It makes God sound more like a tutor than a father.” But she gave Laura a half smile.
“Like a true father, the Lord has also protected you. Your father’s marriage agreement with Mr. Poe was thwarted thanks to Miss Tolberton’s timely interference. You may not have grown so close to her if you had not been searching for Mr. Ackett near Brannon Church.”
“That is very true. Emilia has become a dear friend to me, while we had not been very close for the other four Seasons that I was in town.”
“I believe that God has a grander plan for your life than any earthly father could arrange for you.”
Phoebe’s eyes flickered away. “I have made many mistakes, Aunt Laura …”
She knew that Phoebe was thinking of how she had not returned to the hotel in time before Mr. Ackett had arrived to kidnap her. “God’s readiness to forgive is greater than any earthly father, also.”
“I have made poor decisions?—”
“God does not punish us for our errors or turn away from us. He has not turned away from you. In fact, He gave you the help you needed to find me at the hunting lodge.” Just the mention of the place caused agony to flare through her, as if a searing hot poker from the fireplace were being drawn slowly across her soul.
But the memory was beginning to scab over rather than remaining an open, bleeding wound. One day, it would form a scar, and it would not cause her such suffering.
Phoebe gripped Laura’s hands. “I shall do my best not to fail you again.”
“I trust in the Lord more than I trust in any other, even you, dearest. I know that the Lord will continue to guide you.” Laura looked into Phoebe’s eyes.
“God has had a purpose in everything that has happened to you thus far. He has sovereignty and control over all things. I know that He will continue to watch over you and lead you.” She reached up to cup Phoebe’s cheek.
“You are a dazzling light, a star in the darkness. I see how God has caused you to sparkle.”
Phoebe reached a hand up to tenderly cup Laura’s hand in her own, pressing her fingers into her face, as she had as a child.
Noises from the entrance hall of the small home called them to their tasks, and they quickly packed up everything from the kitchen.
Phoebe went to the bedroom to help Keriah to dress—and to arm herself—while Laura took the satchel that they had filled with sedative to the front door. Sol stood there, quietly giving instructions to Joshua, who nodded and strode out the door.
“Where have you sent Joshua?” Laura asked.
“I have sent him to a secondhand shop to buy anything that we might need.”
What surprised her was that his tone was troubled.
She had never seen him as anxious as this, and she recalled that he had been uncertain about Joshua’s loyalty, as well.
While she would expect him to be apprehensive just before an urgent mission such as this, Sol was acting as though he no longer trusted himself.
She drew close to him and spoke in a low voice. “Sol, are you well?”
“I am well.” His reply was perfunctory, as if he had not been fully listening to her.
She placed a hand over his wrist, felt the tension in the muscles and tendons. Her touch seemed to draw him from his uneasy thoughts and focus more fully upon her.
“I know that you are pouring all your energies into saving us before the Ramparts or the Citadel find us,” she said. “Aside from what we discussed earlier about the carriages, is there anything else I may do to assist you, Sol?”
Her calm tone seemed to steady him. Sounding more like his usual self, he said, “I ask you and Aya to prepare to leave as soon as we return.”
“Have you found a safer residence for us?”
He nodded, slowly, reluctantly. He bit his lip as he glanced at her, which made her all the more apprehensive and perplexed.
“I have found a place for us that will be safe,” he said. Then, as if the words were dragged out of him, he added, “But you are not going to like it.”