Chapter 3
At Sea with Strangers
Ben
ENGLAND IS FAR behind us. So why am I still standing at the ship’s railing peering back at nothing but a line where the sky meets the sea?
Looking further below, beneath the stern, I study the way the propellers churn the water into a frothy white.
A Union Jack flag flutters in the brisk Atlantic breeze beside me, and light chatter echoes from further up the ship.
I am alone here.
After boarding and seeing Lillian to her room, I felt the need to walk the ship and learn it. I have yet to meet Charles Bennett. James informed me that the two of them would be traveling under disguise and would hardly leave their cabin for the duration of the voyage so as not to be recognized.
Sighing at the thought of a fractured team, my thoughts turn back to Lillian.
She’s also elected to remain under the radar.
I can hardly blame her. With the winter holiday season approaching and us on a first-class ocean liner, the thought of being recognized by any peers that the Bachs would often travel with when she was younger was enough to make her agree to my insistence that she stay behind closed doors.
The only saving grace in the hiding is that she has decided to let her hair run free.
No more red dye, no more makeup to create the illusion of lighter skin.
My hands curl around the polished wood at my fingertips at the thought of her this morning.
She has had to pretend for so long. I only wish we were going somewhere safer, somewhere she could truly be herself without the fear of recognition or an ancient curse that has plagued us at every turn.
“Penny for your thoughts, yank?” Turning at the nickname, I find James Ward has leaned against the railing beside me. He offers me a cigarette, but I wave him away. “Suit yourself,” he says through clenched teeth, biting down on a smoke of his own.
“I thought you were staying below,” I say to him, turning my attention anywhere but the suave Brit.
“My ward,” James says, between puffs, “gets awfully seasick.”
Poor chap. “We’ve only been at sea a few hours.”
“This, I am mighty apprised of.” He puffs again before glancing out at sea. “I’m quite aware of the difficulties he will pose to us, but you shouldn’t worry on my behalf.”
Well, I will worry. “Is there a reason you’re divulging this information to me?” I ask, doing my best to read the fellow without seeming too interested. “No one seemed inclined to speak on the reasons that Churchill or this Mr. Bennett needed to be involved.”
James takes a long drag before sending what’s left of his cigarette spiraling into the sea below.
I suspect he’s also using this conversation to study me.
“It is my understanding that the Crown knows of you and Ms. Bach’s activities.
Isadora was involved long before you or I were ever even a note in their books. ”
Upon my raised eyebrow, James leans closer and divulges another promise I can’t quite have full faith in.
“Oh, fear not. My allegiances are to Mr. Churchill himself. He wants nothing more than the dagger to be brought home where it might be in safe hands. He extends this sentiment to Ms. Lillian Bach as well.”
I tense at the mention of her. Surely no one has heard of her sensitivities to the artifacts in question, unless Isadora put things in motion before she passed.
I let the tension seep out of me when I notice James’s narrowing eyes.
He’s been sent here to find answers on behalf of government officials.
It would be best for me to keep the answers close to my chest.
I pray that he doesn’t know the truth. Lillian is not a piece in anyone’s game but her own, and I intend to keep it that way.
Releasing my grip on the railing, I do my best to steer the conversation back in his direction. “Does your ward know of the power we seek and what must be done to harness it?”
Understanding that I too am playing the game, Mr. Ward chuckles and reaches for another cigarette. “Mr. Bennett is well aware of the details that he needs to know in order to complete the mission. The same details that have been made available to the Crown–”
Hearing enough, I cut him off with the only truth I’m ready to share.
“It would be beneficial for you to remember that we are racing the true enemy.” I pause and make eye contact with James.
“We cannot let these individuals of power stop us from doing what must be done when we reach the continent. We simply cannot.”
James stares at me for a moment. I don’t know if the words that follow are the truth or another diversion. “Well, that is something that you and I agree upon. We will do what must be done.”
“There you are!” A feminine voice with a hint of sultry rises up behind us. Margaret tsks as she approaches. “Sharing dirty little secrets this early on is unbecoming, gentlemen.”
James’s lips tilt at the ends as Margaret and all her finery join us. “Just sharing a smoke, Ms. Williams.”
The two seem to get caught up in the breeze, completely forgetting me. There was a time I was completely taken by a woman during a mission. Look at what that brought me.
“And where is Ms. Bach?” I ask, quickly breaking up their moment.
“Oh, Lillian,” Margaret says, turning to me with a bright smile. “In our room, like we agreed upon.”
“You left her there alone?” I grumble.
“Diederick is there with her now.” I don’t wait for anything further before I stride away from them. The moments to be with Lillian and Diederick will be few and far between; I must take them when I can.
“She assured me that she would be fine without me,” Margaret calls after me. “Usually I wouldn’t care about societal rules, but I made sure the door was left open so as not to give the rest of our little crew the wrong idea. Really, it’s unbecoming not to have another in the room with them.”
Whether she’s trying to get a rise out of me or to slip some pertinent information to her, there’s no time to decipher it. I don’t bother to turn and tell her that she doesn’t strike me as the type that would care so deeply about the arrangement or that I think she’s lying.
Margaret calls after me once more, exasperated about the two of them together, but I can only shake my head and plunge forward.
I only glance over my shoulder once to make sure Margaret hasn’t followed.
The deck is a ghost town behind me, so I continue on to what I expect to be a boarded up stateroom and two bleary eyed friends looking for a revelation.
Lillian
With Margaret gone and the door firmly shut to the rest of the busy ship, I finally have a moment to breathe.
I’ve been so careful to tiptoe around my roommate, but the girl asks so many questions, it’s been difficult to skirt around the truth.
We’ve only been at sea for a day, and she is quite curious, so why am I already inclined to trust her?
“Something troubling you?” Diederick asks, looking up from the same map we’ve scoured over three times since he arrived.
“What isn’t troubling me?” I say with a laugh. There’s been a constant war in my mind since I set foot aboard. The isolation of this cabin certainly hasn’t helped my mental state.
Diederick gives me a knowing nod before leaning back. “The two of you should be married and settled by now.”
“Pardon?” I ask with a stutter. Ben hadn’t been on my mind, but now that he’s been inserted into the conversation, I doubt my thoughts will stray far from him.
“You should be settled and living far from all of this.” I don’t mention that the this he speaks of is the reason we met at all.
Clearing my throat, I try to skirt around the truth once more. “You say all this as if it is your fault.”
His eyes dip low as if he’s remembering something very unsettling.
I suppose that he is, all that he’s seen in his life.
“If I had only done what should have been done all those years ago, perhaps we would not be in this situation now.” He raises his eyes to me, and the two of us share a brief moment of harsh memories.
I think back to finding his journal deep in the ruins of his camp, and I expect he’s thinking back to the day that everything fell out from underneath him.
He reaches for his wallet but then must think better of it. I know a photo resides there, so when his hand retreats from his pocket, I can’t help wanting to question him. He beats me to it.
“Have your…abilities reappeared?” He leans forward and begins studying the map again. It’s a flimsy veil—it’s clear all his attention is on my upcoming answer.
My eyes wander to my trunk, where the necklace is buried inside. “I feel the familiar thrum of the connection I have to the necklace, but I haven’t tried putting it on.”
“Don’t,” he says in warning. “Don’t try to push anything until we get to land.”
I nod in agreement. “Do you think you should take it from me? Just for the voyage?” The idea of separating from it causes me pain, but with a nosy roommate, perhaps it would be safer with the other artifacts, hidden away in Diederick and Ben’s suite.
Oliver hardly seems the type to dig through someone’s things.
Diederick cocks his head to the side as his brow creases in confusion. “Do you think you need the separation from it?”
My fingers suddenly flex at the question. I had parted from it on those missions to Germany, of course, but something feels different about it now. “I’m sure having it only a deck away will be manageable. It will be safer in your hands.”
“Have you spoken to Ben about any of this?” he asks carefully.
“I haven’t spoken to Ben, no,” I say, releasing myself from my seat and moving toward my trunk.
The strength of the amazonite pulls me toward it with a whisper and a soft glow.
When I blink, the glow thankfully goes away—perhaps it wasn’t even there to begin with.
Sucking back my nerves, I reach for it; the moment the stone graces my skin, the whispering ceases. “Please take it,” I murmur softly.