Page 81 of The Lady’s Sweet Revenge

“Harlow, my lord. My sister’s name was Harlow.” Better. Luke was getting the hang of it now. “I would like to visit her grave and will see to the matter of having a proper stone cut.”

“Aye. This way.” Reese led them from the house, skirting the edge of the garden to the back corner where everything was prepared. There in the graveyard, where his own father was buried, there was a pile of dirt with a large wooden cross stuck in the ground. He and Harlow had had such a great laugh setting it up.

Walking over to the edge of the garden, he retrieved a few flowers and saw Harlow lurking behind a nearby tree. Even knowing it was powder and ash, he winced at seeing how close to death she looked. It was unsettling.

As he knelt to place the flowers reverently on the mound, he heard Polk gasp.

Looking at Luke, Reese silently reminded him with a stern glare to play his part well. It was no surprise the man was happy to be involved in a bit of mischief.

“She’s there!” Polk cried out as he pointed to where Harlow was standing in a flowing white gown they had rent at the ends so it was tattered and what she had called “specter-like.” Her eyes were rimmed in fireplace ash so they looked sunken into her pale white cheeks. Her lips were stained red with berries as she slowly raised her arm and pointed directly at Polk.

“This is your fault, Uncle,” she spoke in a soft, eerie timbre.

“What is wrong, Uncle?” Luke said shaking his head.

“Do you not see her?” Edgar pointed as Luke looked to where the other man was pointing, not reacting to Harlow in the slightest. Either the man was getting better with his role or he was used to ignoring his sister.

“I don’t see anything. Do you want me to pick more flowers?” Luke strode over directly next to Harlow and fetched a few blooms, still acting as if he didn’t see her at all.

Harlow had said any one of her brothers would be up for such a role for they’d all played dead at some point in their youth. But it was another thing to see it.

“She is right there.” The man pointed. “Harlow.”

Luke spun around and then came closer to his uncle.

“Shh. There is nothing there. Relax. Harlow is with the angels now.”

Harlow stepped closer to Polk.

“You did this to me, Uncle. I loved you and you allowed those men to take me. You told them they could have me. To do whatever they wanted with me.”

“No!” he shouted. “I didn’t. I swear it. It isn’t my fault.”

Reese looked at Harlow, knowing she would not be pleased that the man was still not admitting what he had done. His hideous part in the scheme to use his own flesh and blood for money.

“Yes!” she screamed back. “Tell the truth. Tell the truth right now. I cannot leave this realm until I know why I was left to die.”

“God, forgive me. I didn’t know. I didn’t know he would do this.”

“Confess all!” Harlow shouted and took a step closer. She was not playing the part, instead she was allowing her anger to take over.

“I didn’t know,” he said again. “I didn’t know who he was. He said I could help him and make a fortune. I’ve never had anything of my own. My sister married your father and he has paid for everything I have since that day. And while I was grateful, I hated it all the same.” The man let his head fall in his hands for a moment. “I wanted to have something of my own. I wanted to prove my own worth. So I said yes. But when he told me what he wanted me to do, I realized it would be treason. I was to go to a ball and steal documents from Lord Martindale’s study. I found the documents he wanted. It was a list of all the agents of the Crown. I knew I couldn’t trust a man such as Merrick with such a list. Instead of taking it, I tossed it into the fire.”

“An honorable thing to do,” Luke whispered to Reese without Polk or Harlow hearing. Reese had to admit it was not as they’d originally thought.

“Tell the truth! I was taken. Why was I taken? Why was I tied up and taken to Scotland?”

“Leverage,” the man sobbed. “He knew I had seen the names. Even without the document I would know who they were and he planned to force me to tell him. When I didn’t, he lost a great sum of money from the French who were willing to pay for the list. The amount was more than I could pay back. He told me he would be reimbursed for what he lost. I didn’t know what he intended until that day in the park when they took you.”

“You told them they could keep me!”

“No! I never agreed to anything. If I’d known they planned to take you, to hurt you, I would never have let you go to the park. I love you, Harlow.”

“No, you don’t!” she shouted. “You didn’t do anything to stop them. You didn’t help me. You let them take me.”

She was crying now and the ash was running down her face. If Polk wouldn’t have been in hysterics, he might have noted that specters didn’t often have their face stream black like this. Of course, Reese had never seen a specter, so how was he to know for certain.

“I should have fought them. I should have stopped them. But there were so many—”

“You did nothing. You ran away like a coward and let them take me.” Her voice had calmed slightly, but was all the scarier for the steadiness of it. “You will pay for what happened, Uncle.”

With that she pulled a pistol from the billowing fabric hanging from her arms. Reese recognized it as being the one from his study. When had she taken it? More importantly, why? Ghosts didn’t have much need for firearms. She’d wanted to frighten her uncle into admitting what he’d done, and they’d done that. This was not what they’d planned.

“Is this part of it?” Luke asked at Reese’s side.

“Nay. We need to put a stop to this before she does something she’ll regret.”

“Good. Yes. You should go stop her,” Luke said with a nod as he took a step back and then another.

Reese shook his head and turned to tell Harlow to put the gun down, but before he could, a shadow stepped out behind her and another pistol came into view. This one in the hand of bloody Captain Merrick.