Page 45 of Mardon

“Why did you do it?” screamed Emmaline. “How could you kill my father? Is it because you wanted to inherit his estate? Is that why you also locked me away in a convent?”

“You need to go,” Lady Aldusa told Emmaline.

“Nay. I won’t leave my father.”

“You aren’t well, and need someone to care for you,” she continued.

“Don’t think I’m going back to the convent, because my father told me I didn’t have to.”

“Nay, of course not, my dear.” Aldusa smiled wickedly, motioning for someone in the corridor to join them. “You need to be with someone who can actually control you and your wild ways.”

Before Emmaline could ask who she meant, a man stepped into the room and her jaw dropped.

“Jean Philippe,” she whispered, not able to believe it was true. “B-but I thought you were dead.”

“Nay, my dear,” said the man, limping into the room. “It will take more than a pirate to kill me. If you wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to leave France, you would have known I still lived.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I’m here for you, Wife.” He strolled into the room and picked up the rolled-up painting, opening it and smiling. “I see you’ve been busy. This tells me you’ve been in contact with the pirates that stole the painting from me in the first place.”

“Give me that!” She reached for it, but the man swiped her hand away, grabbing her by the wrist. “It’s time to come home, Emmaline,” he told her. “We have so much to catch up on.”

“I’ll not go anywhere with you. I hate you!”

“Get her out of here,” said Aldusa. “Priest, fetch the undertaker to bury my husband’s body.”

“Aye, my lady,” said the priest.

Emmaline had a thought. “Please, Jean Philippe. Let me give my father one last kiss before I go.”

“Fine. But hurry. My ship is docked and ready to leave. I saw that damned pirate ship, and I don’t want them coming after us.”

Emmaline walked over to her father, kissing him goodbye one last time. “I’ll miss you, Father.” Then she leaned over and whispered in the dead man’s ear. “I will make sure she is caught and dies for doing this to you.”

“Let’s go,” growled Jean Philippe from the other side of the room.

“Father Elroy, thank you,” said Emmaline, giving the priest a hug. When she did, she took his hands, pressing her wedding ring into his palm. “Take this to the Falcon docked on the shore. Give it to their captain and tell him I’m in trouble,” she whispered.

“What are you talking about over there?” asked Aldusa.

“I am saying a prayer,” she answered, thinking it wasn’t a lie. She needed more than a prayer to save her now, and Mardon was the only one who could possibly keep her from a future of doom.

* * *

“Mardon, let’s go,” said Aaron, leaning over and putting his hands on the table. They were drinking in The Mermaid, a tavern near the docks of Canterbury. “I told you, I saw the clue before the girl stole it from me and left with Nereus. Hopefully, we can still find the treasure before them if we hurry.”

“Why did she do it? Why did she leave?” Mardon picked up the glass of whisky and swallowed it down in one gulp. The burning sensation did nothing to help fill the emptiness within him since Emmaline left without even a goodbye.

“Who the hell cares? She’s just a wench,” said Aaron. “You can get another.”

Mardon reached up and grabbed his brother by the front of his tunic, standing up, towering over him. “Do not say that, little brother,” he said through gritted teeth. “Lady Emmaline is not just any wench. She was special.”

“God’s eyes, you are besotted with the wench.” He pushed Mardon’s hand away. “I’ve never seen you like this. What’s gotten into you, Mardon?”

“I – I don’t know.” He raked his hand through his hair. “I don’t quite understand it myself.”

“You bedded her, didn’t you?”