Countess of Scandal (28 page)

Will wrapped his arms around her waist "I should have
done this all those years ago, when we last met in this garden. Maybe then we never would have parted."

Eliza laughed raggedly. "Or we would have gotten into even more trouble with our families!"

"Isn't trouble worth it?"

"I used to think so." Suddenly, far off on the horizon, Eliza glimpsed a strange silver gray snaking along the black sky. Smoke, just like that that had lingered over the destroyed village. "Look," she said, pointing.

He went very still. "Come inside now, Eliza."

She ignored him, pulling away to run along the garden paths, up a hill that afforded a better view of the surrounding countryside. That ominous cloud looked thicker there, hanging over a neighboring estate like a warning.

Kildare is green now,
the man had said. Was this what he meant?

"Eliza," Will said, tugging insistently at her hand. "Come inside
now!"

"We have to go," she whispered. "Now."

Chapter 23

Will checked the cart one more time to be sure all was in readiness for the journey ahead. The horses, stolid farm animals, stood placidly in the dawn light In the back, a mattress was covered with old quilts, Lady Killinan's jewels sewn into their seams. Caroline had even slipped in a few books, tucking them under the bedding. Eliza tucked her pistol into a canvas knapsack she would keep with her at all times.

They had to look like an ordinary farm family, taking an ill daughter, played by Anna, to find a doctor somewhere. No detail could give them away.

He stepped back, tugging his plain wool cap over his brow. It hid his newly shorn hair, but he feared no garb could truly disguise him. It was a perilous journey they embarked on and impossible to tell what they would encounter on the way.

He could hardly believe that only hours ago they had been making love in the garden.

"Will!" he heard Eliza call out, and glanced up at the
house to find her leaning out a window. She wore a boy's shirt and coat, but her hair fell over her shoulders. "We're very nearly ready."

Will looked to the horizon of the night sky, which was now pale gold at its edge. "Hurry! We need to make as much distance as possible today."

She nodded and drew back into the house, slamming the window after her. In only a moment, he heard the squeak of the front door opening, and she emerged into the dawn.

She had pinned up her hair, covering it with a woolen cap. With her tall, thin figure and her breasts bound, she looked quite passable in her male garb—unless someone looked closely at her smooth, pretty skin and her buffed nails. She
was
a fine lady, no matter how she tried to hide it!

She grinned at him as if she read his thoughts, pulling out a pair of old leather gloves. "Will I do?" she asked, drawing them over those pretty hands.

"If no one studies you too near." If they
did,
Will would surely feel compelled to hit them. Eliza looked strangely alluring in her new clothes, with her long legs encased in snug wool.

"It feels quite delicious, I must say. I never felt I could move about so freely, with so many petticoats and skirts!" She patted the horse's neck, checking its bridle. "But I suppose I should not become accustomed to it. We'll be in Dublin before we know it, yes?"

"We certainly shall. It may take a bit longer than usual, because we aren't in a fine carriage and because we'll have to use back pathways and hidden roads. But I vow I will get you there as fast as I can."

"Oh, Will. So
heroic."
She smiled sadly. "I just wonder what we will find along the way."

She strolled to the edge of the drive, staring off over the gardens of Killinan. They were blanketed in morning mist, pale silver like a quiet, peaceful fairyland. He wanted to know what she thought as she took one last look at her home, but her face was as pale and still as the marble statues around them.

He came up behind her, sliding his arms around her waist to pull her close to him. "We will return soon."

"I know," she said, covering his hands with hers. "Yet it won't be the same. It will never be the same, I think."

"It will always be your home. You must always remember that." He gave her a teasing smile. "And also maybe you could remember what we did in the garden?"

A faint blush actually stained her cheeks. "Will! You are—"

"My dears, we are ready," Katherine called, emerging from the house with Anna and Caroline in tow. They
all
wore simple muslin dresses and knit shawls, plain caps over their hair. But, just as with Eliza, their disguises could only go so far. They looked quite worrisomely as if they were on their way to a masquerade ball.

"I will remember Killinan just as you said, Will," Eliza whispered. "At least we will always have that."

She kissed him quickly before going to help her mother and sisters into the cart.

"I feel rather like those wild, bloodthirsty creatures one reads about in France," Katherine said wryly, settling her skirts around her as Anna covered up in the quilts, pretending to be ill. "I should have some knitting with me, as they say that terrible Madame La Farge did in Paris."

"I fear you look more like the poor French queen, Mama," said Caroline. "Here, Anna, wrap this blanket around you tighter. You're meant to be an invalid."

Will climbed up onto the cart seat beside Eliza, gathering up the reins. "We'll go as far as we can before finding a concealed place to rest for die night"

"Yes, of course," she murmured.

"Are you ready to leave?" he said gently.

She glanced back one last time at the house, so serene and beautiful in the sunrise light "Yes. I am ready."

And Will flicked the reins, setting the cart into creaking motion as they rolled inexorably away from Killinan—and into they knew not what

Chapter 24

"Will!" Eliza laid her hand on his arm, forcing him to rein in the horses. "Do you smell that?"

It was the same; she knew it was. The same as that thick, sour miasma that hung over the ruined village on her way home—smoke. Smoke and charred decay, rotten in the warm weather.

Will's eyes narrowed, becoming a stormy gray as he quickly scanned the woods on either side of the narrow track. "I certainly do." . "Something is burning."

"Was
burning, I think. It smells stale."

"Fighting last night?"

"Perhaps. The town of Rossmorland is not far ahead, and there's said to be a store of weapons from Dublin there. It could easily have been raided."

From the cart behind them, Katherine stood up, balancing herself against the rough wooden slats next to the sleeping figures of Caroline and Anna. Like all of them, a sleepless night hiding in the woods had left her pale and disheveled, her golden hair straggling from beneath her cap.

"Do you think we should go back?" she asked. "Find another route?"

Will rubbed at his stubbled jaw. "Surely it is just as dangerous behind us, Lady Killinan. It seems quiet enough now. If Rossmorland
was
burned, they would have moved on by now. We can go around the town, though, just past the bridge ahead."

"Mama?" Anna mumbled, slowly sitting up as she blinked at the light. "Why have we stopped? Is it nightfall?"

"Not nearly, my darling," Katherine answered. "I fear we have a long way to go before we rest"

A bird suddenly screamed in the distance, a haunting echo that pierced Eliza to the core. Or was it just a bird, not an omen? She hardly knew any longer. Reality had become distorted, unreal. There was no Killinan, no Dublin, either, only the five of them trapped in an endless uncertain purgatory.

"We can't stay here forever," Eliza said.

"Indeed not" Will slapped the reins, urging the horses forward.

The hot sunlight pierced through the trees, dappling the dusty roadway under the horses hooves to dark emerald spotted with black. It seemed an enchanted place, like in the old Irish tales Eliza loved so much as a girl. The realm of fairies and elves, hidden beneath the verdant leaves only to emerge at night to dance and make merry—and make mischief on unsuspecting humans.

But even the world of the fairies could so quickly turn dark and violent Fairies were so jealous and changeable, and heartless, too. They destroyed men who displeased them with scarcely a thought, laid waste to their dreams.

Gradually, the light grew brighter as the trees became farther apart, the roadway wider. They were emerging from the fairy world of the woods into that of the river, the realm of mischievous naiads. There was a bridge there that led to Rossmorland and then curved in two directions, either to Dalkey and the coast or to Dublin. If they could make it past there, certainly their way would be open to the city.

The smell of smoke grew stronger as the woods thinned, a thick, cloying scent that stuck in Eliza's throat Was this the smell of the whole country now, the stench of destruction?

Anna coughed, pressi
ng her hand to her face as Kath
erine gently urged her back down beside the still-sleeping Caroline.

"What does this mean?" Anna whispered.

"It only means we will have to find a path around the town and avoid people still," Eliza answered. "That is all."

Even as she prayed her words were true, Eliza very much feared they were not. A terrible sight greeted them as they emerged into the light, the river just ahead. The bridge was blocked by slack, broken bodies clad in bloodied red uniforms, a cloud of smoke hanging over all in a dark gray pall.

'Mama, get down!" Eliza cried. "Don't look."

Katherine, though, had already glimpsed the carnage. She caught Anna in her arms, bearing her all the way to the bottom of the cart, holding her daughter's face close to her shoulder.

"What is it?" Anna sobbed brokenly.

"Shh, darling, we must be quiet," Katherine whispered

Will slowly climbed down from the cart, his face a frightening blank.

"Will, no," Eliza said, lunging forward to catch at his sleeve. But he was already gone from her.

"It's all right, Eliza," he said, not looking back. "The battle is obviously done. I have to see if anyone lives."

How could anyone possibly be living, she thought in horror, staring at the scene of perfect, terrible stillness. The only things moving, the only sounds, were those shrieking birds wheeling overhead.

"Stay here with your mother and the girls," he said, looking back at her at last. His eyes were dark gray, flat and hard. Her Will, the tender, passionate Will from the garden at Killinan, was gone, the cold warrior now in his place.

It made her shiver, despite the heat of the sun and the smoke.

"If anything
does
happen," he said, handing her the reins, "run back into the woods, as far and fast as you can, and don't return."

Eliza wrapped the reins tight around her fist, watching as Will drew his pistol from inside his coat and made his way to the bridge. The whole world seemed at a perfect standstill, the river frozen in its flow, the birds caught in midflight.

"Mama," she said. "You heard what Will said." And she, too, climbed down from the cart, taking her pistol from the knapsack.

"Eliza, no!" her mother cried. "You must not. Stay here with us."

"I have to help Will if I can," she said. "Who can hurt me there now?"

As she moved closer to the bridge, the stench grew thicker and more pervasive. Smoke, blood, the stinking odor of fear. There were not so many dead as she thought
from a distance, perhaps a dozen or so. But that was surely quite enough.

Eliza swallowed hard past the sour knot in her throat and knelt down beside Will as he examined the first body.

It was a young man, his eyes wide in startled horror. His boots were gone, his coat and bloodied shirt ripped open as if he had been searched for valuables.

Her hand shaking, she reached out and closed his eyes.

"I told you to stay at the cart," Will said quietly.

"I... I want to help, if I can."

"Help?" He glanced at her from those terribly dark eyes.

She turned away from him, from that cold stare, and looked at the other men on the bridge. There was not a stir of movement, only the sprawl of broken limbs, broken lives, among broken pikes and torn flags. The green of the United Irishmen mingled with the red and blue of the regiment's standard, as if they were all doomed together now, no matter which side they chose. Ireland was doomed.

"I fear we cannot help any of them now," she whispered.

"No, we can't" Despite his empty eyes, he took her hand, helping her to her feet Together they made their way from man to man, making sure none yet lived even as they knew it was. futile.

But the soldiers were not the only ones who lost their lives there. At the middle of the bridge dangled a thick rope and a hanged man, clad in the cheap garb of a farmworker. Eliza turned away in a rush of cold nausea, but not before she glimpsed the proclamation pinned to his chest—the order for Kildare to disarm and come back to the rule of the Crown.