Chapter 31
Iclung to Nora. “You?” I asked, unable to restrain myself. “You’re the Employer? But…how? You were sold!” It was all so surreal. I’d been looking in the darkest holes of society’s underbelly, and my sister had been at this high-society boarding school for rich girls?
She pulled back. “I was one of the lucky ones. The Davenports bought my freedom. It’s a long story, but I ended up marrying their son, and their father was the previous Employer. He passed the title to me when he saw how passionate I was about the work.”
Questions exploded faster in my mind than I could settle on one. They all whirled around until I finally stammered, “Wh-what do you mean, the previous Employer?”
She nodded. “The Employer is simply a title that a variety of people have used and passed down to a successor after a few years. I wanted a way to find you, so I volunteered to be the next Employer. I found Papa and we bought his freedom, too, but Mama—”
“I know. I heard. But Papa! Where is he? Is he okay?” My father was alive. Nora had already found him. My heart was going to burst if it kept beating this hard. I looked around the room, spotted a small portrait on Nora’s desk, and snatched it up. “Is this him?”
“It is. He was kept at that work camp for years, and the day I bought his freedom… Jillian, it would’ve broken your heart.
He was so thin.” Then, after seeing the expression on my face, she hastened to add, “He’s healthy as a horse now.
But enough about us. We’ve been looking for you for years. Where have you been all this time?”
I couldn’t stop looking between my sister and the portrait, unable to believe that I had finally found my family. “I’ve been working for you! I’m Gil—I’ve been masquerading as a boy this whole time and have been a bounty hunter for the Syndicate for five years.”
She shook her head, dumbfounded. “All this time, I’ve been looking for a girl.
I can’t believe I didn’t realize. Papa and I have been digging through files about every girl in Ebora and Berkway and even Haven Harbor.
We looked in graveyards and foster homes and schools.
It never once crossed our minds to look up the boys. ”
“Surprise,” I said with a grin. “Hiding our identities seems to run in our family. I had no idea the Employer was you. I didn’t even think it was a girl. I actually wondered if the Employer might’ve been Ambrose; I found a note in Roderick’s trunk that looked like his handwriting.”
She laughed. “I teach penmanship and calligraphy here at Rosehaven Hall. I simply mimicked his handwriting and had Papa plant it in that trunk.”
“You teach calligraphy and you also command the Syndicate? What other secrets is my big sister hiding?”
“No other secrets now. I can’t believe this! We must go see Papa. He’s waiting on a shipment back at my office right now. My other office,” she added when I began looking around. “Welcome to my double life. Here is my teacher’s office. I head up the Syndicate elsewhere.”
“Let’s go! Is it close? Does he have any idea I’m coming?”
Nora gathered up a few things and almost ran to the door, looking almost as excited as I felt. “Fairly close, but he has no idea it’s you. Ambrose?” she called when she exited. “There’s some paperwork on my desk here about a few new bounties, then you can come after, along with…”
“Elvin,” Elvin supplied, bowing low. “At your service.”
“Help Ambrose. I’ll handle Gil.” Nora shot me a conspiratorial look.
Glad to leave Ambrose and Elvin behind, Nora and I walked as quickly as possible down the path.
Along the way, Nora told me about how she had become the Employer and begun the hunt for me and our parents, and I told her all about growing up on the streets and becoming a bounty hunter and looking for her all these years.
Every few steps, she would glance my way, as if to reassure herself that I was still there, and I couldn’t blame her—I was doing the exact same thing.
We crossed a dainty footbridge spanning a narrow stream dotted with flowers where the air was filled with butterflies and bumblebees.
The irony. The most notorious crime boss in all of Berkway, my sister, had been here sipping tea and eating crumpets while I scoured the most despicable places in the mapped world looking for her, all while she had been searching for me.
“I’m sorry you had to grow up the way you did,” Nora said sadly. “I wish I could’ve made it easier for you.”
“I wouldn’t have known what to do with a life like this,” I told her. In the distance, a few girls rode in a carriage out of the grounds and off toward the lake. “But I’m glad you didn’t suffer the way I imagined you did.”
“And you won’t have to suffer anymore,” she said. “Just think, from now on, you can have anything you want. Just say the word, and it’s yours.”
“Just how rich is this family you married into?”
She smiled. “Very.”
“What’s that like?”
“It was strange at first,” Nora admitted.
“And Fredrick’s parents weren’t thrilled about the match when we announced our courtship.
They paid for my freedom but wanted a girl who had a proper education for their son.
So they started the scholarship program at Rosehaven Hall so I could attend and become worthy of their son.
” She shook her head and sighed. “Having money is nice, I won’t lie about that.
But it also comes with its own set of problems.”
“I can imagine. Is that how you pay all the bounties?”
“Yes. Fredrick’s family is very well connected and donates to all the right places.
He’s set up enough foundations and scholarship programs that they can basically do whatever they want, and if they get caught, they buy off the right people.
But I can’t complain—I used some of the money to find Papa. ”
And here I was thinking that all this time, my sister had been in any number of dreadful situations.
“Why did you set the bounty on me?”
She looked at me as if I’d sprouted wings and begun to fly.
“Ambrose said there was some crazy young boy trying to put a bounty out for Papa, and I’d just gotten him out of that work camp a few years ago.
At first, I assumed the boy who approached Ambrose was a middleman working for someone trying to get their slave back. ”
“No slave owner would put down that high of a bounty for a slave that cost a fraction of that price.”
Nora nodded. “True, and I did think about that. Then I wondered if it was a kidnapping attempt. If someone knew how hard I’d worked to rescue Papa, they might want him as leverage to blackmail the Employer and I couldn’t let that happen.
But Ambrose said Gil was a boy who was one of the Syndicate’s bounty hunters, and that was what really stumped me.
It didn’t make sense. So I set a bounty on Gil just a few days ago so I could do an interrogation to discover why he wanted to find Papa so badly.
Ambrose said one of his favorite bounty hunters would easily be able to bring you in.
But the Nightsworn raided right after Ambrose said he gave the bounty to Elvin.
Looks like Elvin got to you in the end.”
“I let him bring me in.” That tripped a switch in my head and I actually turned to look around, waiting to see if there were rangers hiding among the trees, waiting to pounce. “The Nightsworn actually got to me first. They’re using me as bait right now to catch the Employer—you.”
I waited for Nora to gasp or look in any way shocked, but she simply smiled. “I assumed they would eventually catch up. Let them come.”
“But—”
“I told you, gold talks in ways that nothing else does. Here we are. Ready to see Papa?” We’d come upon a building that was larger than the average house but also much smaller than a manor.
It was in good repair and immediately, I forgot any concerns I had about Nora’s methods and shivered with excitement. I was going to have my family back.
Nora pushed the door open to reveal an interior that was tidy and efficient, with many cabinets, trunks, and storage compartments. It wasn’t quite a cozy, homey feel, but it was comfortable. “Papa, I brought someone who wants to meet you.”
“I’m almost done with our customer,” a voice called from the back.
My heart nearly exploded. I recognized that voice, even though I hadn’t heard it for more than sixteen years.
I wanted to run toward that voice but felt rooted to the spot and found it impossible to move another step.
“We are just finishing up payment and the delivery should arrive within the hour.”
“This is more important. Come here.”
It sounded like some papers were shuffled, followed by a slight grunt as someone got up, then footsteps.
A man in his mid to late fifties appeared with a good-natured grin on his face. “What’s so important?”
Nora gestured to me and I choked down the lump swelling in my throat. “Hello, Papa.”
Emotions flashed across his face at lightning speed, first confusion, followed rapidly by shock, disbelief, then elation.
“Jillian?” He was across the room in a few short strides, wrapping me in a hug so tight that I thought I might never breathe again. He and Nora and I all began speaking over each other, each explaining in a rush about everything that had happened in the last sixteen years.
When I was finally released, I couldn’t stop looking at them. My smile stretched so widely from ear to ear that my cheeks hurt. I wanted to hang on to their hands and never let go.
Someone behind me cleared his throat, and Papa straightened up and spoke to the man over my shoulder. “I’m so sorry about leaving in the middle of our negotiations. Please meet my daughters, Nora and Jillian.”
I turned to greet his customer and saw Peter Pan, who was leaned against the doorframe and staring in a shrewd way that made my stomach clench.
“Your daughter Jillian, you said?” Peter asked, looking at me unblinkingly. “Strange. I’ve always called her Gil.”
“She and I haven’t seen each other since she was a very young girl.” Papa looked back and forth between us. “Do you two know each other?”
“We’ve worked together a few times,” I said.
All the muscles in my shoulders and neck tensed up.
It shouldn’t matter if everyone knew I was a girl now.
I had my family back. What did I care if Peter found out?
It wasn’t like I’d ever go back to him and Roderick.
My mission was complete. I was free from needing to live in disguise.
But…why was he here? I would’ve remembered if he’d told me he was working for the Employer.
“Your daughter is quite an entertaining storyteller,” Peter said loudly, then lowered his voice. “I don’t remember Roderick telling you to come here today.”
I almost lied and said that I’d run into Roderick and he told me to come, then changed my mind.
I was done with disguises and deceit and everything else I’d been dealing with for more than a decade.
“He didn’t,” I said. “I just came to see my family. You and the others can keep my part of the—” My voice caught as I realized what Peter must have come to sell.
“Does Roderick already have the shipment of live pixies?”
Peter shrugged. “Probably. He went to meet the boat this morning, or at least he was supposed to. He thinks I’m here to collect payment.”
“But you’re not? What are you doing here?”
“Just thought I’d come have a chat with the buyer so they know what they’re getting.” His gaze never wavered. “After all, I know more about pixies than anyone else.”
Thoughts continued to tumble over themselves, one after the other, all whirling together faster and faster until it seemed like a tornado was trapped inside my head.
None of this made sense. Peter was working with Roderick.
He wouldn’t turn him in…unless he intended to keep all the money for himself.
And he couldn’t do that unless Roderick, Lochlan, and I were all out of the picture.
My apprehension increased. What did he have planned? Had Peter been planning this whole time to turn us in and keep everything for himself? Or had I simply misunderstood? I frantically racked my brain, trying to remember anything that might indicate what Peter had planned.
“Roderick will be here any minute,” Peter said.
Papa straightened. “Ah, yes. Let’s go finish up the paperwork, shall we? I’d like to get this done so I can catch up with my daughter.”
Peter inclined his head, still looking at me with that same focused intensity, then followed Papa into the back room.
I immediately turned to Nora. “Please don’t say you trust him.”
Nora’s lips twitched to the side. “Not in the slightest. I get the impression that he would stab anyone in the back the moment they let their guard down. But he did tell us things about pixies we didn’t know.
Did you know pixies can grow and shrink in size?
Peter says he knows a way of how to control it, but—”
There was a banging at the door. “Open up!” a gruff voice called, then Roderick elbowed his way into the room with a large crate clutched in his arms. The wooden slats were all painted green, and the whole crate glowed with the same golden light that came from pixie dust.
The final shipment had arrived.