phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware
Read phantom knights 04 - deceit in delaware Online
Authors: amalie vantana
- CHAPTER 1
- CHAPTER 2
- CHAPTER 3
- CHAPTER 4
- CHAPTER 5
- CHAPTER 6
- CHAPTER 7
- CHAPTER 8
- CHAPTER 9
- CHAPTER 10
- CHAPTER 11
- CHAPTER 12
- CHAPTER 13
- CHAPTER 14
- CHAPTER 15
- CHAPTER 16
- CHAPTER 17
- CHAPTER 18
- CHAPTER 19
- CHAPTER 20
- CHAPTER 21
- CHAPTER 22
- CHAPTER 23
- CHAPTER 24
- CHAPTER 25
- CHAPTER 26
- CHAPTER 27
- CHAPTER 28
- CHAPTER 29
- The Phantom Knight
- CHAPTER 1
- CHAPTER 2
- CHAPTER 3
- CHAPTER 4
- CHAPTER 5
- CHAPTER 6
- CHAPTER 7
- CHAPTER 8
- CHAPTER 9
- CHAPTER 10
- CHAPTER 11
- CHAPTER 12
- CHAPTER 13
- CHAPTER 14
- CHAPTER 15
- CHAPTER 16
Deceit
IN
DELAWARE
Phantom Knights
4
AMALIE VANTANA
© 2015 by Amalie Vantana
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotation in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.
Cover art © by Stephanie Mooney. All rights reserved.
For Arabella.
The one who inspired a queen.
In loving memory of Mom.
We may have lost the battle, but we will win the war.
Table of Contents
Read on to discover how it all started in
The Phantom Knight
, a Phantom Beginnings Novella
CHAPTER 1
GUINEVERE
O
f all of the times I had run from Jack to return to Harvey, this was the worst. My duplicity tugged on my conscience as I rode toward the temple.
The last two days had been tense for Jack and me. George was dead, Jack’s brother and his mentor had disappeared with my sister, and on the morrow Bess would sail back to Charleston. As much as I had longed to speak the truth, I could not tell Jack that I had one final task to do to secure my freedom from the Order. He would never understand. For I was about to sacrifice a Phantom.
When I reached the lane that led to the temple, Harvey was there ahead of me. I left my horse with his carriage, and we made our way through the trees on foot.
“You are certain that Frederick suspects nothing?” Harvey’s boots crunched leaves and snapped twigs as he marched beside me.
“Nothing at all. Frederick believes that I am bringing you to him on the morrow. This night is the usual meeting of Levitas. As you requested, I made certain that all of his court will be in attendance.”
It was a quarter past midnight when we reached the temple, and from all of the horses tied outside, I would say that Harvey would have a captive audience when he stripped Frederick of his position.
Stepping up to the temple door, I was eager to get this night’s work accomplished. Betraying a Phantom to the Holy Order was not something I relished. It was a necessary evil.
As I pushed open the door, all attention turned to us. Frederick sat forward on his throne; his startled gaze quickly narrowing as he saw who was with me.
All along the temple walls, the thrones were filled with the unsuspecting followers of Levitas. Long blue robes covered their suits, or dresses considering that Mrs. Stanton was present, and hoods covered their heads, making them appear in the candlelight like faceless specters.
As Harvey and I stopped in the center of the room, I spoke. “My lords, it is with the greatest fealty,”
what a fudge
, “and unworthiness,”
uncontrollable dislike
, “that I present to you his supreme majesty and high ruler of the Holy Order of Levitas, Lord Harvey.”
Harvey swept his cape out behind him as he approached the dais, but Frederick’s guards blocked his path, capturing Harvey’s arms to restrain him. When five men rose from thrones and surrounded me, I raised my hands in the air in a sign of surrender. With this many against me, I did not choose to fight, for fighting would give the wrong impression. Frederick would think that Harvey made me bring him this night instead of the morrow.
My arms were pulled behind my back as I was forced to face the dais.
Frederick rose from his throne and sauntered with a careless gait toward Harvey. The guards forced Harvey to take a step back so that Frederick could step down.
“What is the meaning of this insubordination?” Harvey barked.
“The meaning is that you have been duped, Lucius, and by your own serf.” Frederick looked straight at me and inclined his head once.
My pent-up breath slowly released as I nodded in return. He thought I was fulfilling my end of our bargain.
“It is by the order of this court that we find you, Lucius Harvey, guilty of abusing your power, and enacting dangers against the good of the Order.” Frederick’s statement was impressive, but Harvey remained unmoved.
“You think that you can conquer me? Best me?
I
built this order.
I
pulled you from the gutters of obscurity, Frederick Nolan, and I can toss you back.” Harvey’s self-proclaimed magnanimity knew no bounds.
“This I know,” Frederick said as he halted before Harvey, “and that is why I disposed of those who opposed you.” Frederick dropped to one knee. “My liege.”
No...
The guards released Harvey, and he held out his hand. Frederick kissed the ruby ring on Harvey’s long finger.
No!
“Rise, my lord Frederick, for you have done well,” Harvey said magnanimously.
Frederick rose and stepped back as Harvey moved onto the dais, taking Frederick’s throne.
“Take your place, as one of the twelve,” Harvey said, and Frederick, after tossing me a smug grin, sat upon one of the empty thrones.
The
twelve
? Slowly, I began to glance around me. Eight of the twelve leaders of Levitas were seated in the temple, and all hope fled from me faster than a pair of spooked horses.
What a fool I have been! Duped by
Frederick Nolan
. How stupid of me not to have seen it!
Frederick did not want me to draw Harvey here so that we could destroy him. He wanted me to bring Harvey so that he could prove his allegiance to the Order and gain a seat on the council by betraying me as the traitor.
“Well, Guinevere? What have you to say?” Harvey asked, his enjoyment at my expense shamelessly radiating from him.
“Nothing.” For once, in all of my time serving the Holy Order, I could not predict what was before me. I could not see a suitable escape. They had caught me, and they had done it well.
“Being that you are speechless, allow me to astonish you further,” Harvey said with a look that had me wanting to take a step back. He was
happy
. Harvey was never happy.
Harvey gave a nod and, one by one, those seated around the room removed their hoods.
Sucking in a gasp, the room was spinning, or at least it was in my mind. When every hood was removed, so was my hope for a life away from the Holy Order. My knees went weak, shaking as I recognized all of their faces. With Frederick being a lord, eight out of twelve were present, and eight out of twelve had a connection in some way to the Phantoms.
This was without a doubt Harvey’s greatest feat, and my greatest nightmare.
At least I knew three of the lords to be on my side. Pierre, Arnaud, and Martha were faithful to me, not to Harvey.
Mrs. Stanton smiled reassurance at me, but it did nothing to put me at ease.
“I see that eight of you were able to join me,” Harvey announced.
Frederick cast me a smile that said it was I who was not only duped, but caught and trapped.
“Forgive my duplicity, Guinevere, but it was necessary. You would not have come otherwise,” Frederick said.
“What of the oath? I thought Phantoms were family,” I questioned, trying to delay the inevitable. The moment when Harvey gave me a choice. Go home to Lutania, which Rose had made impossible, a life of servitude, or a life in a cell. He had been threatening me with all of them for four years.
“I consider myself to be the black sheep of that family,” Frederick said with a satisfied grin.
“I have called you all here to discuss the naming of our new member,” Harvey announced, taking back control of the meeting. “As you all have been informed, George Crawford died a few days past. He will be sorely missed,” Harvey said, and I felt my world tilt a bit more.
George had been a head of the Holy Order
and
the Phantoms? How was that possible? Jack and Bess should have known if that were so. It was not as if George was the most guarded man. He puffed off his consequence most readily to anyone who would lend him an ear.
“As directed, you each have cast the name of the person you consider deserving of the twelfth and final seat. It is with great satisfaction that I offer that seat to you, Guinevere.”
For an entire astonished moment I did nothing but stare at Harvey. Blinking did nothing to clear my astonishment. I had been chosen? They wanted me?
Why
? For four years, I had done my best to undermine and disobey Harvey.
“You have lost your senses,” I said.
Harvey’s bushy brows rose. “I am to take that as a refusal?”
The man was a fool. Brilliant, but undoubtedly a fool. “Oh, I accept, but I wanted you to know what I think of you.” Smiling, satisfaction filled me to the brim. After four years of bartering, this seat was finally mine. Walking to the empty throne between Frederick and Martha, it was my turn to cast him a smug grin.
As I sat, Martha reached over to pat my arm, well pleased with the role she played in acquiring me this seat. It had been a topic of conversation between us many times over the years.
She knew what this seat meant to me. It was my way home, and Rose could do nothing to keep me away.
The temple door flew open.
Jerking against my throne, I pulled out a knife from my belt, my heart jumping around in my chest. Everyone in the throne room either jumped or raised a weapon, but no one advanced toward the intruder for he carried two pistols.
As he stepped into the candlelight, I shrank back under his fiery stare, and knew that he had followed me.
Samuel Mason took in the room in one swooping glance before his intense gaze settled on Harvey. There was murder in Sam’s expression as he stomped directly to Harvey. Two of the guards moved forward, but Frederick raised his hand to halt them.
