Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Every light in her home appeared on as Ginger stepped onto the pavement in front of it. She paid the calishe driver, then turned to face the house. Her fingertips were numb, still wrapped around the gun Noah had given her, her shoulders knotted with tension.
The entire ride over from the palace she’d wanted to go back for Noah. But she didn’t dare. Not with Stephen on the prowl.
She had to get her family away from here. Away from him.
After letting herself through the gate, she hurried toward the door. She tucked the gun into the folds of her skirt, hesitant to put it away. Stephen could have very well beaten her here.
The door opened before she could reach it. Her mother stood there, her cheeks drained of color. “Oh, thank goodness. You’re safe.” She pulled Ginger into a fierce hug.
Ginger melted into the warmth of her mother’s embrace, taking what comfort she could that her mother was here. The smell of her perfume was sweet and familiar, clinging to the curve of her neck. Ginger pressed a kiss to her cheek, then pulled back. “And Lucy and William? Are you all here?”
“Yes, yes, we’re here.” Her mother guided her into the house. “I was so worried, though. Lucy came and found us and told us to you wanted us to leave. Then, minutes later, I heard gunshots.”
The butler closed the door, and William and Lucy hurried in from the parlor. Lucy’s eyes were red-rimmed. And she didn’t appear happy to see Ginger.
Ginger turned away, discreetly tucking the gun into her handbag.
“I can’t stay long,” Ginger said, fear knotting inside her. “None of us can. Stephen Fisher has been released from prison.”
“Prison?” Lucy gasped.
“Who is Stephen Fisher?” William asked in a quiet voice.
Her mother lifted her head sharply and then dismissed the servants.
After they’d left the foyer, she answered William, “A former friend of the family.” She turned her attention to Ginger.
“Yes, Lucy said he was there at the dance. But when we were outside, there were rumors of Colonel Benson being involved with what happened tonight.”
“That’s partially why I can’t stay.” Ginger tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, her fingers shaking. “I must help Noah. And you all must go back home to England. Please, William, take my family home.”
Alarm filled William’s face. “Ginger, what’s happened?”
“You’re going to Colonel Benson’s side?” Her mother’s expression grew frosty. “I thought I told you to stay away from that unscrupulous scoundrel.”
“Mama.” Ginger drew a calming breath. Telling her family about her marriage would do little to help, but it was necessary at this point. “I simply can’t allow you to speak of my husband that way any longer.”
Lucy’s jaw dropped.
“Ginger …” Her mother’s warning was soft.
Ginger narrowed her gaze. “It’s the truth. We married in secret, in the Coptic Church. We haven’t been to the consulate yet, but as soon as we do, we’ll make it official.”
William shifted awkwardly, as if he shouldn’t be here. Disappointment was written on his face.
Her mother’s hand flew to her throat, and she dropped into a chaise lounge near the stairs. Lucy and William remained near the parlor. While Lucy’s reaction was muted, she fidgeted with her gloves.
At last, her mother found her voice. Her eyes flashed with anger. “How dare you?”
“Mama, please, the discussion of whether or not we should have is long past us at this point. We’re married,” Ginger said in a flat voice.
“No, you’re not. Not in the eyes of the law and certainly not in the eyes of God.
A papist church?” Her mother shook her head.
“Not my daughter. You clearly don’t respect me or my opinion, but any delusion you might harbor as to my acceptance of such an illegitimate union is absurd.
Noah Benson is directly responsible for the deaths of your father and brother. ”
“That isn’t true.” Ginger’s jaw clenched.
Her mother’s continued insistence on blaming Noah for their deaths felt like a stranglehold.
Ginger hadn’t told her the precise details of their deaths and Lord Helton had manufactured paperwork that claimed they died in service to their country.
But perhaps Ginger would have to remedy that. It was time for the truth.
“Lord Helton tasked Benson with investigating Edmund, didn’t he?” Her mother’s hands tightened to fists. “And Henry considered him a friend.”
Lucy was looking frantically from Ginger to her mother, clearly desperate for more information.
“Father and Henry chose their own paths. They cooperated with the crimes of Stephen Fisher. What was Noah supposed to do? Tell the CID that he wouldn’t do the job he’d been hired for?
” Ginger approached her mother and squatted before her, reaching for her hands.
The foyer felt stuffy and claustrophobic, despite its size.
“And Stephen is now free in Cairo again. He’s been planning something—”
“What about Stephen?” Lucy interrupted, stepping away from William.
The love letters. Yes, Lucy would have a hard time understanding the truth about him if she’d truly cared about him.
But Lucy wasn’t a girl anymore. Ginger had wanted to protect her from the truth, but at what cost?
She didn’t believe that he’d been in love with Lucy, not after the obsession he’d had with Ginger for so long.
He was cunning enough to have nurtured an infatuation in her younger sister for some other devious purpose.
She hated that Lucy had to find out like this.
“Stephen is a German spy, Lucy.” Ginger met her dark, confused gaze. “He used Father’s debts to him to manipulate and push him into horrific crimes. Crimes that led to his killing Father in the desert last May. Stephen shot Father while trying to kill me.”
Her mother flinched. “What? How? What were you doing there?”
Tell the entire truth. Ginger didn’t want to remember it herself.
How would she ever get the words out? She rubbed the back of her arm with the opposite hand.
“When you and Lucy got on that boat to Luxor with Angelica Fisher and I’d run off—I went to deliver something of importance to the government to Noah.
But Stephen, Father, and Henry tried to stop us and when they caught up with us, Stephen tried to kill me. Father died saving me.”
Lucy steadied herself once again on William’s arm, as though she was about to faint. William offered her a comforting arm, drawing her close against him. Two red spots appeared on his pale face.
“Stephen killed Edmund?” Her mother trembled, as though unsure of how to respond.
“Yes, Mama.”
The room was quiet and Ginger swallowed, her words tinged with bile.
“But accidentally.” Her mother fixed an icy stare at Ginger.
“It seems to me Colonel Benson still winds up at fault for many things. And your silence about Henry’s death tells me it must have been Benson.
I know it was him. I know it in my heart.
Henry wasn’t mixed up with the crimes Edmund had committed. Henry was a good man, and he never—”
“I killed Henry, Mama!” The words ripped from Ginger’s throat in a way she hadn’t expected.
Shocked silence filled the room.
Ginger felt unsteady. She’d actually said it.
She hated herself for doing this to her family. Telling them the truth about her marriage to Noah under these circumstances was bad enough. Adding to it the knowledge of what she’d done in the spring … they’d never forgive her now.
The admission spread through the room like a poisoned mist.
Lucy left William’s side and rushed to her mother. She stared at Ginger, horrified. She looked beautiful and grown-up in her evening gown, earrings sparkling from her earlobes. “Ginny, what are you saying?”
Her mother’s gloved fingertips covering her lips. “Why?”
“I …” Ginger’s throat went dry, what little bravado she’d felt fading. What did I do?
Telling them the truth didn’t assuage her guilt.
She’d only brought the horror of the past back into their lives again.
Lucy didn’t even know the extent of her father’s crimes.
She swallowed hard, then managed, “Henry was going to kill Noah. He shot him, multiple times. I was forced to intervene and … I had to shoot him.”
“You had to?” Her mother repeated in disbelief. As though she couldn’t comprehend what could have possibly induced her daughter to kill her son.
“Mother, you’ve received a farrago of information about all this. Henry had already thrown his lot in with Stephen and Father. He’d hidden his knowledge of the truth, tried to kill a spy for the British, kidnapped a nurse, and participated in her torture—”
“Ginger, for goodness’ sake …” Her mother’s voice held another warning, as though she was saying too much. For her part, Lucy didn’t appear to have blinked, transfixed by Ginger’s words.
“Henry was far from blameless.” Any certainty Ginger had felt that telling her family the truth was vanishing.
“So you destroyed our family?” Lucy managed, her voice in disbelief.
“I can’t believe it. Why are you saying such cruel and terrible things like this?
Stephen told me about your obsession with him.
How he’d been forced to put distance between you because of your erratic behavior.
I never imagined that it could be true.”
Stephen had said what?
Fury seeped through Ginger’s skin and she caught the uncertain look in William’s face, the shift onto his back leg. Lucy’s words made her want to vomit.
At the same time, Lucy didn’t understand. She couldn’t accept the truth.
Ginger gathered herself together, her jaw clenched. She had to make Lucy believe the truth about Stephen. Her mother sniffled and Ginger refused to look at her. Mama could speak up, tell Lucy what she knew about Stephen. Why doesn’t she?
“You’re wrong, Lucy. You’ve been lied to. Whatever purpose Stephen had in trying to woo you—I promise you it was malicious. I was never obsessed with Stephen. But he was obsessed with me. He tried to rape me—”
Lucy and her mother gasped.
William paled, stepping further back.
“And he carved his initials into my chest to claim me.” Before she could regret it, Ginger tugged back the neckline on her gown, shifting it just enough that her scar was visible.
Tears streaked Lucy’s red face, her eyes shifting as she looked at the lines of the scar. Her mother stiffened.
“My actions were the only things that spared us from scandal,” Ginger said. “Lord Helton agreed to hush the whole matter up on my behalf. Had the knowledge of Father and Henry’s crimes been disseminated, the damage would have been irreparable.”
“Thank you.” Her mother’s voice was brusque. Pain took on a new vigor in her eyes. “I have nothing more to say to you, Ginger. Except that I’d like for you to leave this house. Right now.”
“Mama, please! You must listen to me. We could all be in danger—”
“I’m sorry for this humiliating display, William. I apologize.” Her mother gave her a withering stare, then rushed from the space.
Lucy looked stricken. She moistened her lips, her mouth opening as she searched Ginger’s gaze. The news had been worse for her than for her mother. “Ginny, how could you?” she finally managed. Then she turned and fled after her mother.
William set his hands behind his back. “It seems we all have our secrets.”
His words landed like soft blows. He’s right. You’ve been a hypocrite. Ginger gave him an apologetic look. “I’m terribly sorry, William. You’re perfectly right in condemning me. Would you—my trunk is in my bedroom. Can you have it fetched while I ring for a carriage?”
She would have to send for the rest of her things later. There was no time for it now. If Noah had escaped the palace, maybe he would still meet her at his friend’s safe house. She prayed he would be there.
Ginger tried to gather her thoughts, feeling sick. At least no one could ever threaten her again with exposing the truth about Henry’s death. But her mother might never see her again either.
William gave her a sympathetic look but stayed rooted in place.
“I obviously came into this situation with no understanding of the facts.” He gave her a sad smile.
“I don’t know the details, but I know you’re a good woman.
You have a kind heart, and I can’t think that confessing that to your family was easy. I admire it.”
Ginger’s throat constricted with tears. At least he had offered some sort of olive branch. She clasped her hands together. “Thank you. I’ve put you in a terrible position. But, please, take care of my family. Please take them home to England. It isn’t safe for them here.”
“You have my word.”
Ginger started forward. She stopped, then went over and kissed his cheek gently. Considering how disgracefully she’d brushed off his proposal, he was being kind. “I’m grateful for you. You’ve been an unexpected blessing to us all.”
She left him in the foyer, trying to keep her composure. After ringing for a carriage, she went out the door to wait for a servant to come out with her trunk. Ginger glanced back into the house.
“Please forgive me,” she whispered. Then she shut the door.