Fallen by Emma Jensen

Author:Emma Jensen
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

10

« ^ »

So tell that young lady to buy me a new cambric shirt

And make it without needles or yet needles' work.

So sav'ry was said come marry in time,

And she shall be a true lover of mine.

So tell that young lady to wash it all out

And wash it all out in yonder well,

Where never was water nor rain never fell.

So sav'ry was said come marry in time,

And she shall be a true lover of mine.

Chack. An unseen finger cocked the pistol for that third shot, the one that would fell him as sharply and surely as it had the others.

Chack!

Gabriel woke, heart pounding, on his thirteenth day on Skye to find himself nearly eye to beady black eyes with a pair of jackdaws who were perched just outside the open window. "Chack," one chattered at him. "Chack, chack."

He dragged a heavy arm from the counterpane and the birds winged away. Little thieves; they had probably been eyeing the meager possessions Gabriel set on the bedside table each night: a handful of small coins; the watch, identical to nine others belonging to the rest of his military corps, that he used despite its being battered and not especially dependable. He rarely had to be anywhere at a specific time. And the worn gold signet ring bearing the Rievaulx crest that the last earl, his grandfather, had worn every day until he died.

Gabriel heaved himself up against the headboard and rubbed his palms hard over his face. He had a vicious ache behind his eyes and his heart was still beating a quick staccato. Damnable nightmares. They had haunted him for more than a year, always recurring just when he thought they might be gone for good. Naive of him, he knew. But the thought of spending the rest of his life with evil dreams was more than he was willing to contemplate on any given day.

In this dream, one of a dozen variations on a dismal theme, he was strolling down St. James's with Montgomerie and Brandon. Brandon had been dressed for milking, a byre apron over his homespun clothes. Montgomerie, son of a bishop and a discarded scullery maid, wore the absurdly patterned and colored dandy's garb he favored, his vividly green coat making him as conspicuous as a sitting mallard.

The pair, along with Gabriel, were just reaching their destination, Montgomerie's foot on the first step to Boodle's, when the shots rang out. Two shots, one just after the other. Montgomerie fell first, dead before he hit the ground, a lead ball in his back. But Brandon had time to turn, both hands clasped over the blooming red stain in the center of his apron, to meet Gabriel's eyes with his own astonished, pleading gaze. Gabriel reached out, his fingertips brushing Brandon's arm just as the younger man went down, head bouncing once, hard, like a cricket ball against the marble step.

"Chack, chack!" the jackdaws called sharply from a tree nearby.

Gabriel had never walked along St. James's with those men. He had already been on the Peninsula by the time Montgomerie had joined the corps.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.