Chapter Eleven #3
Jack kissed her just like she wanted to be kissed.
Just like a new bride deserved to be kissed.
His arms wound around her shoulders, held her close and his lips pressed to hers, giving her a kiss filled with love, desire and promise.
Just like this was a real marriage and they would be together forever.
Madelaine kissed him back as if that was the truth. Maybe it was, at least for now.
“All right, I have some paperwork for you to sign. The job’s never done until the paperwork is completed,” Judge Silas joked.
Once signatures had been rendered, the judge motioned for Madelaine to follow him. They walked back to his office, where he locked the office door and opened a safe behind a false section of bookshelf.
It was cleverly hidden. She would never have known it was there if she hadn’t seen him open it. He pulled out an accordion file folder with what looked like brown shoelaces tied around it in a bow. Beneath the bow was an oval piece of metal attached to the flimsy accordion file flap.
“This is the package?” Madelaine asked, not meaning to sound so incredulous, but the box she’d gotten from the Secret Keeper had been handcrafted, beautifully designed, etched metal container, requiring the acquisition of a special key to open.
At first glance, a toddler could break into this accordion file folder.
Interesting.
“I know it doesn’t look like much, but it was hiding in plain sight for quite a long time. My understanding is that the package will only open for the Paladin Courier, given that you came into this responsibility through familial succession.”
She nodded, knowing what he said was true.
“At least that’s my guess,” Judge Silas added quickly. “I don’t really know how it works, you understand.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Madelaine studied the metal oval and wondered if it would fall off when she pressed her thumb on it. Was it glued on?
The judge said, “To open it, you’ll have to press your finger on the oval there on the center of the flap.” He winked. “It’s sturdier than it looks.”
She wondered what he knew, but didn’t ask as she accepted the accordion file. “Thank you.” She clutched the accordion file under one arm and left the judge’s office, joining Jack and Seraphina in the clerk’s office.
“Yes. Well. Good luck to you,” said Judge Silas as he followed her out. “We’re all counting on you to succeed in your mission.”
“Thank you.” Madelaine was going to have to make a concerted effort to not worry about what others knew.
The Secret Keeper and the Justice of the Peace seemed to know much more than she did about this errand, but hers was not to wonder why.
She merely followed her orders from her superior, Quell-don, and the Paladin Cabal.
“Ready?” Seraphina asked, looking at the accordion file with seemingly the exact same amount of incredulity Madelaine had experienced upon seeing it.
“Yep,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Jack held the door open for Madelaine and Seraphina to precede him into the hall.
Unfortunately, there were many more people crowded in the corridor than when they’d entered the courthouse.
The hallway looked chaotic and Madelaine suddenly felt like she was being watched, which was foolish. She was in disguise. Move on.
The three of them were headed for the courthouse’s front doors when a shocked, familiar voice called out from a few feet away.
“Jack! What are you doing here?”
The Observer watched from a carefully concealed place in the courthouse, taking notes as was optimal for future clarity during this important obligation.
The Paladin Courier had made an audacious and unanticipated choice in regard to the husband she needed to continue her journey.
The Observer was not certain what this daring selection would bode for the Paladin Courier, just chronicled the information in the official ledger and kept any and all personal views unrecorded—at least for now.
Privately, the Observer did approve of Madelaine’s choice over the name listed in the envelope that accompanied the instructions.
The Paladin Courier’s journey had been foretold, planned for nearly a century, but altered in the last decade and a half because of a thief and his vile antics. Adjustments would naturally have to be made along the way because of that terrible theft and the time constraints they all faced.
The Observer well knew there were unpredictable forces at work.
Forces meant to thwart the Paladin Courier and her efforts for the greater good.
The Observer not only recorded the details of the journey for anyone in the future with access could read, but was also a current witness to all the tasks Madelaine accomplished during this errand. Just in case.
The Observer was technically not authorized to intercede at this or any juncture in the course of the mission, only to chronicle the Paladin Courier’s journey.
At least for now.
Still, the Observer kept hold of necessary resources, just in case they were needed for the success of Madelaine’s journey with her new husband, Jack Grey.