Petals on the River (106 page)

"Hush up, you ugly creep!" Roxanne snarled.
 
"Or we'll have Mr. Thornton

down upon us."

Turning to Shemaine again, the woman pointed toward the prow. "Get up

there now, you bitch!
 
Or I'll blow a hole through you where you stand!"

"You're going to have to shoot me, Roxanne.
 
And if you kill me like

that," Shemaine gritted out, "then twill be difficult for you to lay the

blame on Gage.
 
There'll be witnesses in the cabin who'll come running

and will no doubt see him leave the cabinet shop on his way here.
 
In

fact, his father will likely come up here, too, to see what has

happened.
 
He's not as agile as Gage, so it may take him a little time

to get here, but he'll come.
 
Aye, I think tis much better if you kill

me with the pistol, Roxanne, because I'll know then that you won't be

able to fool the people into thinking that Gage killed me."

"Lift her up on the prow, Cain," Roxanne barked, tossing a glare toward

the hunchback.
 
"If you don't, I'm going to shoot your little darling

right through the head right now!"

''Naw Shamawn!" he croaked, his face twisting hideously with the agony

that roiled within him.
 
"Plawse naw Shamawn."

"Please!
 
Please!
 
Please!" Roxanne mimicked sneeringly. "Haven't I

begged you to help me?
 
And what have you done?
 
Turned a deaf ear to my

pleas, that's what!
 
Well, I'm going to kill Shemaine, Cain, and nothing

you can say or do will stop me.
 
Twill either be a shot through the head

or a fall from the prow, but either way, she'll be dead."

Roxanne stretched out her arm, aiming the bore of the pistol between

Shemaine's eyes.
 
Shemaine felt her stomach wrench with sickening dread,

but she refused to move one step closer to the prow. Allowing herself to

be shot was the only way she could save her husband from a hanging.

A bellow of rage came from Cain as he lumbered forward and knocked the

pistol aside.
 
It went off with a horrendous bark, echoing through the

clearing and the glade.

In the cabinet shop, Gage had just finished nailing Potts's body in the

newly constructed coffin when the sound brought him upright with a

start.
 
In the next instant he was racing toward the door.

In the cabin, William had just stepped from his sleeping grandson's room

when the echoing shot brought him to a sudden halt. Exchanging an

alarmed glance with Bess, he hastened toward the tall cabinet near the

door, took out a pair of pistols and checked their loading.
 
Ignoring

the pain that still encumbered his movements, he stepped out onto the

porch, cursing his lack of agility.

Each man ran toward the ship, albeit one more swiftly.
 
While William

still picked his way hurriedly down the path from the cabin, Gage was

already- sprinting up the building slip, frantically calling Shemaine's

name.
 
He had just reached the top of the slip when Cain swept an arm

around Roxanne's waist and hauled her toward the prow.

"You fool!
 
What are you doing?" Roxanne railed angrily.
 
"Put me down!

Put me down, I say!"

The hunchback tossed a glance over his shoulder as Gage ran toward him,

but Cain had more strength in his arms and legs than one might have

imagined.
 
He hauled himself and his burden up to the prow, despite the

woman's screeching and her wildly thrashing struggles to free herself.

Holding Roxanne clutched in the crook of his arm, he looked back at Gage

and stepped near the edge, bringing Gaze to a skidding halt. It became

immediately apparent to Gage that if he came one step closer, the

hunchback would leap to his death and take Roxanne with him.

"Cain, put Roxanne down," Gage urged quietly.

"Naw!
 
Naw!" Cain shook his misshapen head and waved his free arm in a

sweeping gesture, motioning for Gage to retreat.
 
That one had no other

choice but to step back several paces.

Cain canted his head at an odd angle and looked down at Shemaine. Tears

were flowing down his distorted face, barely visible in the deepening

twilight.

"Shamawn maw frawn." He touched his heart briefly.
 
"Cawn lawve

Shamawn."

"And I love you, too, Cain,'' Shemaine answered him anxiously. "You've

been a good friend to watch over me." Wiping at the streaming wetness

flowing down her own cheeks, she began to beseech him.

"Please, Cain, please don't hurt Roxanne.
 
Just come down here where you

both will be safe."

"Cawn mawst daw!
 
Cawn kawled Vectawrea!
 
Cawn mawst daw!"

Gage had been looking at Shemaine, but his head snapped around when he

realized what the hunchback had said.

"No, Cain, you needn't die," Shemaine argued desperately. "Roxanne made

you think that Victoria was going to kill her, but you didn't mean to

break her neck when you grabbed her.
 
It was an accident.
 
Then Roxanne

told you to throw her off the ship so it would look like Victoria had

fallen, but that had been her plan all along." Shemaine glanced at Gage,

who was listening intently to every word she was saying.
 
She knew her

husband needed and wanted to know everything about Victoria's death, but

she could not pause to explain now, not when she had to stop Cain from

jumping off the ship to the rocks below.

"You thought you were protecting Roxanne from Victoria, but Roxanne lied

to you, Cain.

Victoria would never have hurt her.
 
She thought Roxanne was her

friend."

"Cawn mawst daw!
 
Rawxawne mawst daw!"

At his declaration, Roxanne renewed her frantic efforts to free herself

and began to claw at the gruesome face, crying in frightened hysteria,

"Let me go, you buffoon!
 
Let me go, do you hear!
 
I don't want to die!

I want to live!"

"Gawdbawe, Shamawn."

With that muttered farewell, Cain swept his captive around and leapt

from the prow of the ship.
 
Roxanne's scream lasted no more than a

second, then it was forever silenced.
 
Shemaine and Gage ran to the

prow, and by that time William had gained the bottom of the building

slip.
 
He made his way back to the two whose broken forms lay sprawled

across the jagged rocks.
 
Though it caused him some agony, he bent down

to examine each carefully.
 
Roxanne's neck had been broken by the fall,

Cain was still alive, but just barely.
 
He lay sprawled across the

boulders, but one that was taller and sharper than the rest bulged

upward beneath his back.
 
Wheezing loudly, the hunchback tried to smile

as he felt William's hand gently stroking his arm, but he coughed

instead, spewing up some of the blood that was rapidly filling his

lungs.
 
There was a horrendous pain in his chest, as if a long knife had

been plunged through him.
 
Then Cain saw Shemaine leaning over the prow

above him with tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Lawve Shamawn .
 
.
 
.
 
maw frawn," he whispered.
 
Then he closed his

eyes, took a gurgling breath, and grew very still .
 
.
 
.
 
and lifeless.

"Poor man," William muttered sadly.

Gage lifted Shemaine from the prow, and together they ran down to join

his father.

" Twill be too late to take the bodies into Newportes Newes tonight,"

Gage said.
 
"I'll have to leave them in the cabinet shop until morning.

Ramsey and the rest of the men can help me load the coffins in the wagon

for the trip into town."

"I'll help you build them," William offered.

"I'd rather you go in and see about Andy, Father," Gage said.
 
'He might

have heard the shots or the screams and may be wondering what has

happened.
 
He'll be frightened if he wakes to find only Bess there with

him."

William understood his son's concern.
 
"I'll go inside and sit with the

boy."

''Thank you, Father." Gage realized how much discomfort it must have

caused his father to come such a distance from the cabin.
 
He stepped

near to lend the older man assistance.
 
"Here, let me help you back to

the cabin."

William laid a hand upon his son's arm, forestalling him.
 
"I'd rather

you stay with Shemaine, son, and watch after her.
 
She's carrying my

grandchild, and after what she's been through, I'd like to see her

resting in bed so there'll be no chance of her losing it.
 
If she will

consent to come back to the cabin with me, then I'd be able to watch

after her while you're finishing up with the coffins."

Shemaine managed a shaky smile for the elder.
 
"I'm all right, your

lordship."

"Why don't you call me William or Father, Shemaine," William suggested.

"Papa sounds much nicer, but I'm afraid, with your own father around, it

would cause some confusion."

She went to him and rose up on tiptoes to brush a kiss against his

leathery cheek.
 
"Thank you, Papa William."

His lordship smiled and nodded.
 
"It sounds nice, daughter."

When his wife came back to him, Gage slipped a comforting arm around her

shoulders.
 
"Papa's right, Shemaine," he murmured, revising his own

address and, in so doing, bringing a start of happy tears to his sire's

eyes.
 
"Why don't you go in and rest?
 
I don't need any help.
 
And I'm

sure by now you must be feeling at wit's end with everyone coming out of

the woods trying to kill us."

"I've got almost all of the blood cleaned up from the deck," Shemaine