A triumphant sneer twisting his features, he hissed, “I’ve got you now, you bitch!”
Sarah was in the kitchen stirring her soup. She and Molly both froze, staring at Henry like rabbits hypnotized by a snake. They knew all too well what he was capable of.
Callie had thought it absurdly unlikely that her stepson would come all the way to America to find her. Yet now that he was here, there was a ghastly inevitability to this meeting. According to Matthew’s servants, Henry had been a beastly little boy, never able to admit when he was wrong or able to bear losing. He’d go to any lengths to claim that he’d won, which meant that he must hunt her down and destroy her.
Marshaling all her resources, she rose gracefully, letting the gown she was altering slide to the floor. A pity she’d moved out of reach of the table that held her pistol in order to get better light for her sewing. The table was between her and Henry, and her weapon was tucked in the shadow of the rag basket where he couldn’t see it.
Callie moved a step toward him and said with lying warmth, “Why, Henry, what a surprise to see you! Have you come to insure that your stepmother and half siblings are safe and well? I would have thought you’d have a wife and child to look after by now.”
“No wife and no child, not until I’ve dealt with you!” He yanked a pistol from under his coat and aimed it at the center of her chest. The barrel looked as large and deadly as the mouth of a cannon. “I’ve waited three damned years for this moment!”
Callie had but one thought: buy time any way she could. “How did you find me? I thought you’d have given up by now.”
“I never give up! I couldn’t believe my luck when the warehouse manager wrote a couple of months ago and mentioned that Mrs. Newell was living in Washington and might want to move into the warehouse loft if the British invaded.” He smiled with sick anticipation. “Finally, after three bloody years and having to sail through the Royal Navy. Today we spent hours in the alley while I studied the warehouse and waited to make sure the men wouldn’t be back soon. Now it’s time to administer justice.”
Clamping down on her panic, she drifted a couple of steps closer. “I don’t understand why you need justice, Henry. Your father’s final will mysteriously vanished, so you’ve inherited everything. Isn’t that enough?”
His pale eyes glittered. “You ran off with all the money in my father’s safe and four valuable slaves, not to mention my mother’s jewelry! I want everything back!”
Even a war hadn’t been enough to stop him. His hunt would have cost far more than the value of what he claimed to have lost. But Henry didn’t care about logic. She’d always sensed that he had a dark obsession with her that must be satisfied, no matter what the price. “You know your father wanted to free all four of the Adamses. He told both of us that at the same time.”
“But he was too lazy to ever get around to doing it. Since he didn’t, they belong tomeand you had no legal right to free them!” he growled. “I’ve come to take them back and to settle my score with you. With the city under attack, no one will even notice what happens here.”
“What score is that?” Another step closer, keeping an eye on his men as well. They were a pair of surly brutes and they smelled like they’d just emerged from a distillery. One man was familiar and she realized it was Hoyle, the brutal overseer she’d persuaded Matthew to fire. Now she recognized that the other was a muscular but not very bright crony of Hoyle’s called Goat, which was an insult to real goats.
Keeping her voice calm, she continued, “I’ve done you no harm. The money I took from your father’s safe is far less than I would have been entitled to if I’d received my jointure. Even if you add the fair market value of the Adamses to what I took”—the very idea of a price on her friends made her want to vomit, but she swallowed and continued—“it would be far less than paying my jointure. Youwon, Henry. Why did you go to so much effort to track us down?”
“Not only did you take my property, but you treated my father’s whore like she was a white woman!” he raged. “Neither of you were fit to touch my mother’s skirt, yet there you were, cozening my father and plotting against me!”
“I treated your father with respect and affection, and I never plotted against you.” Another step closer. The pistol was almost within reach, but in the instant it would take her to grab it, cock, and aim, he could shoot her since his pistol was already aimed and ready to fire. Misfires weren’t uncommon, but she didn’t want to bet her life on one.
“You gave ideas to the other slaves!” he added furiously. “After you left, several of my best field hands escaped from the plantation and joined the free Maroons in the hills. You took them from me!”
“Enough of that!” Hoyle, the fired overseer, said impatiently. “You promised us girls as part of this. That black girl over there? She looks ripe for it!”
“She’s worth more as a virgin, if she is one. I can make a small fortune if I sell her in New Orleans. You can have that one, my father’s widow, after I’m done with her.” Henry waved the pistol toward Callie, then at Sarah. “The old one is a good cook and will fetch a fine price, too. Where’s the boy?”
“My brother joined the militia to fight the British,” Molly said fiercely. “He’s out of your reach!” She also inched toward the invaders, a dangerous light in her eyes.
“I shouldn’t have waited until the men left, but that blond fellow looked dangerous.” Henry swore, his brow furrowed as he considered what to do next. “The boy may be out of my reach, but the old man is a good carpenter and worth something. We wait here till they get back.” His gaze burned over Callie again. “We can amuse ourselves with the women, then ambush the men when they return. Who’s the blond man, stepmama dear? Your lover?”
“Just an old friend from England,” she said mildly. “No one you’d know.”
“So I shoot him and tie up all my slaves and leave your bodies for the warehouse manager to find.” He laughed. “Or what’s left of you.”
Goat, whose gaze had been flicking from one woman to another, swaggered toward the kitchen. “I don’t wanna wait till you’re done with the redhead. The old woman ain’t bad lookin’. I’m willin’ to give her a try while Hoyle stands guard.” Leering, he reached for Sarah.
“Don’t touch me, you swine!” Sarah flung a ladleful of boiling soup into Goat’s ugly face. He screamed and leaped back, clawing at his eyes.
While he was off balance, Sarah shoved him furiously into the nearest tobacco barrel. It lay on its side, aimed toward the door. Goat’s head hit the heavy barrel with an ugly crack, propelling it toward Hoyle.
“Watch the hell what you’re doing!” the overseer barked as he dodged back out of the path of the barrel and collided with Henry.
“You clumsy oafs!” Henry roared as he stumbled and swung around to see what was going on behind his back.
In the instant he was distracted, Callie snatched her pistol from behind the rag basket, cocked the weapon, and held it with both hands as she took grim aim.
“You wanted justice, Henry? I’ll give it to you!” In Washington she’d been unable to pull the trigger, but this time she didn’t hesitate. She squeezed the trigger slowly so her aim would be true, and fired a pistol ball into Henry’s black heart.
