Eleven

“A clever trick, don’t you think?” Percival was boasting. “I thought you’d come running to meet Lord Farnley. Well, I’ve got news for you,” he snarled. “I’m Lord Farnley now, my dear Cousin John, and I intend to stay just that. Your father was buried in the church graveyard these many weeks ago!”

Kate saw John’s head rear back. His face was dead-white. She bit down hard on her lip to prevent her calling out to him. In that moment, she knew that he had lost hope his Bible and letters would ever be used to help him.

And that was the moment Adam and Will marched into the clearing. John swung around and gaped at them. So did Percival. He stared at Adam for a long moment, and then as recognition dawned gave a startled, furious exclamation. Then he carefully maneuvered his horse sideways, not for a moment taking his eyes from John as the second man forced Adam and Will over to join them.

Percival stared at Adam and spluttered, “You! What. . . how. . .you’re here!”

Will stopped and stared from Percival to Adam, but Adam ignored them all. He continued on until he stopped directly in front of John. Neither man spoke or smiled for a moment.

Then Kate saw Adam suddenly tilt his wide-brimmed hat back on his head at a rakish angle. “Hello, mate. Sorry we didn’t see this blighter before he saw us,” she heard his drawling voice say. “Having another spot of bother, I see?”

John reached up and tilted his hat back in the same position. “Yeah, mate, just a spot,” he mimicked Adam in his slightly accented voice, reminding Kate a little painfully of his Spanish origins. Her eyes clung to him as he drawled, “Glad you could join me, but wish you’d managed it when I was in better company. But now I know you are home, it explains him. He’s one bloke I hoped never to see again.”

He nodded carelessly toward Percival without looking at him, and then grinned at Adam and shot out his hand. Adam gripped it tightly, smiled back at him, and then cuffed him lightly on the arm. Their affection for each other was obvious.

Kate stared in astonishment at them and then at the gaping Percival. It was obvious he was a little bewildered, but also getting more angry by the moment. Surely they realized how dangerous their captors were, and yet both men were taking it all so lightly.

Or were they?

John nodded toward Will, who had merely glanced at them before continuing to tensely watch the two armed men. “And good to see you again too, Mr. Gordon. Sorry you’ve been—”

“Be quiet, you. . .you. . .” Percival screamed furiously. “This is not some picnic you’re on. How dare you ignore me!”

There was silence. Kate held her breath as John and Adam slowly turned around and surveyed the man now waving his rifle dangerously from one to the other. He was literally shaking with rage, his face a fiery red.

Adam shrugged as though he were of no account and turned his head again toward John. “I suppose I should apologize, John, but I find I simply cannot like this cousin of yours. Now your sister, Kate, she is someone you can be very proud of. She—”

A rifle roared. Dirt shot up in a puff near his foot.

“Don’t move, or I swear I’ll shoot you down like a dog!” screamed Percival. “Now will you listen to me? I have some things to say to you before I kill you. And how dare you mention that woman! His sister! When I’ve dealt with you, it will be her turn next. She. . .”

He continued screaming at them in his falsetto voice, and that was the moment that Kate first knew anyone was near her.

A large hand suddenly slid across her mouth. Before she could struggle, it swiftly turned her head, and she saw Jackie. One finger was held up to his lips. She immediately subsided, only to tense again as a dark shadow joined him. Then there were others, crawling through the underbrush, sliding from bush to bush.

Suddenly she realized Jackie had removed his clothes and looked just like the tribal aboriginals they had encountered down south; in fact, just like his present companions. He held several long spears, as she suddenly saw they all did. He beckoned her to follow him, pointing away from the clearing.

Kate hesitated only a moment, but then stubbornly shook her head. He stared at her for a moment. Then he shrugged and pointed to a thick bush, indicating for her to hide under it.

She started to shake her head again, but this time Jackie not only gestured strongly but grabbed her by the arm and very slowly pushed her down, still very careful not to make a sound.

All the time, she was aware that Percival had been screaming and cursing. At last he fell silent. No one spoke. She peered from under her bush and saw that Percival’s companion was staring at him with a fierce scowl. The three friends were watching them both closely. She saw Adam look swiftly around the edge of the clearing and then back at Percival. Adam was still standing seemingly relaxed, but Kate knew him well enough to see that he was actually very tense, every sense alert.

Adam was wondering where on earth Jackie had disappeared to. Fervently he hoped that Kate had stayed behind even after that barrage of shots the bloke had let loose around him and Will. Adam swiftly searched the bush and then stared hard again at the man he had last seen leaving the study at Fleetwood with a bloodied nose.

He was waving his rifle around so furiously that Adam thought they were likely in danger of it going off accidentally. Then Adam considered the man who had so cleverly captured himself and Will. He was scowling at the man on horseback, but his guns were still trained on the three of them, and he had already demonstrated he was a good shot.

Adam was angry with himself. He should have had more sense than to approach the hut directly. The man had been waiting for them, obviously having heard their horses crashing through the bush in the hurry to make sure John was safe. He had let off a warning shot that had whistled past their ears, then others, giving them no option but to throw down their rifles and dismount. Adam scowled. Goodness knew where their horses were now.

There was a brief pause in the hysterical screaming.

“Now just a moment, boss,” the man with the other rifle said, but Percival turned on him, swore again, and shouted, “I told you to call me Lord Farnley!”

There was a tense silence. Then the man said angrily, “Well, Lord Farnley or whatever other fancy name you might think you have, I just want to know what you intend me to do now. Just bring the man to you, you said. Use force if we had to, you said, but it would not be necessary because he would be keen to come back with us. But you said nothing about him having a missus, or that a kid would cause problems too, or that—”

“But you did not bring him to me, did you?” Percival said furiously. “He had captured you. . .you two useless idiots! It was just as well I was here and well hidden when you arrived.”

“An easy job it was, you told me and me mate,” the man persisted angrily. “Just tell him this Lord Farnley was very anxious to see him and he would come running, you said. Well, you was wrong. His boss’ sheep was more important than meeting any English lord. It would have taken weeks at the rate they was travelin’. We couldn’t wait no more so we grabbed him, but he. . .he. . .”

His voice rose higher. “First he gives me a wallop on the head. Then there’s me mate shot by you while you was swinging your gun around so crazy, and now we have three of them to deal with. You never said nothin’ about killing anybody. So, tell me, Lord fancy-pants Farnley, what are we going to. . .”

His voice trailed off. He was staring beyond the three men, his red, angry face slowly turning dead-white.

Adam and his companions spun around. Half hidden by the foliage of the bush, a circle of aboriginals was slowly advancing. As the man yelled a warning, they stopped, standing perfectly still.

Quickly Adam turned in a circle. Dark-skinned warriors, their faces grim, were silently standing up from behind bushes and stepping forward until they were completely surrounded. There were far more than the half dozen Jackie had estimated.

Each held a spear ready in their spear-throwers, their woomeras, Adam realized in a daze.

“What the. . . ?” Percival’s voice was frightened.

Adam saw his rifle come up and shouted, “Don’t shoot! Whatever you do, don’t shoot. There are too many of them.”

Frantically he wondered where Kate was. Had they captured her? Killed her? He had been worried about the aboriginals attacking them. But here, on Waverley?

An aboriginal to his right loudly spat out a few guttural words. Adam froze for a moment and then turned very slowly toward the speaker. He stared at the tall, almost-naked aboriginal.

The native was staring directly back at him. He spoke again, a little impatiently but more slowly this time. And suddenly the words were familiar, words Adam remembered Jackie trying weeks ago to teach him. In fact. . .

He stared more closely across the clearing. Then he knew. It was Jackie, and if he had understood correctly, Jackie had just asked him if he wanted the bad men killed.

Relief swept through him.

Then he shook his head quickly. “No!” he called back fast in the Wiradjuri language. He knew how badly it would go for the aboriginal tribes in the area if they dared to spear a white man—even a bad white man. There would be fear among the settlers, the soldiers could be called out as had happened over the years and possibly many aboriginals would be shot as had occurred in other places.

“What. . .what did he say?” Percival Farnley’s voice was barely more than a whisper. His horse shied restlessly. Adam could see the rifle in his hands was shaking with the violence of the man’s fear.

John answered him sharply. “He wanted to know whether they should kill you and the other man with the gun.”

Adam glanced at him. John was staring with a frown at an aboriginal several feet away from Jackie.

Moving a little closer to John, Adam hissed. “Glad you’ve been learning the lingo, my friend. Know any of them?”

“Yes, Wirrang, one of Elizabeth’s men.”

Adam relaxed slightly. “And the one who spoke is a friend.” He thought of the times he had seen Jackie giving him strange looks, watching him. “Or at least I hope he is,” he muttered.

Then he remembered how good and kind the Waverleys and Gordons had always been to the natives and relaxed a little more. He thought frantically, but before he could speak again, Jackie rattled off a few more words. This time they sounded much angrier, but this time Adam did not understand what he had said. He glanced at John, and for a fleeting moment saw a glint of a hastily concealed grin.

“That friend of yours has a sense of humor,” John murmured. “Wants to know when we decide in our own sweet time what we want them to do not to forget to tell him—or something to that effect.”

Adam called out to the two men still staring with white faces, and swinging their rifles around the circle of natives. “You had better both put down your rifles or they will throw their spears. And I think somehow they will aim for the armed white men first up.”

Percival’s hired man dropped his gun instantly. Adam held his breath as Percival stared at John.

“Good afternoon, Cousin Percival.”

The woman’s voice rang out in the tense silence, and all eyes swung toward Kate as she strolled slowly into the open. Her head was held regally as though she were entering her own drawing room at Fleetwood.

Adam held his breath. Then it surged back in a great tide as love and pride for her courage swept through him. At his side, he heard John gasp. He was staring at Kate with dazed eyes. Then he looked swiftly at Adam, and the sudden wild hope in his blazing eyes made Adam tremble in sympathy.

“Don’t move, Kate,” Adam called out urgently as Percival’s gun swept up.

To his immense relief she stopped.

After one swift glance at him, she kept her eyes on her cousin. “You are really being very tiresome and foolish, Percy,” she said in a calm, reasonable voice. “The lawyers checking out that John is my brother know you have come here, and you cannot possibly get away with this. Put down that stupid gun. You know that shooting us will achieve absolutely nothing.”

Percival Farnley stared at her speechlessly. Then he laughed. The laugh sent shivers down Adam’s spine.

“But then, you don’t know that I have already killed someone, do you, my dear Katie? So a few more killings don’t really matter, do they? A hangman’s noose does not care whether it is for killing Jock Macallister or for killing all of you.”

His lips twisted in a ghastly parody of a smile as he swung back toward John. “If it were not for Penny, that daughter of his, never believing you had killed her father, if the woman had not developed a conscience after her vengeful mother died, she would never have taken Martin’s bundle straight to your father. And then your stupid father told me he had that pathetic proof you had raved about during the trial.”

He smiled that dreadful smile again. “But at least finding out he had a son did your old man in. The shock and pain of that and what had happened to you finished him,” he gloated sickeningly. “Of course, the few words from me saying if he ever claimed you as his son I would kill you, may have helped.”

Suddenly his voice started to rise again as he turned back to Kate. “Then you and that sister of yours had to be there, didn’t you? Your servants were always poking their noses in before he died. Every time I may have had a chance to look for those letters, you or they were there. Even that day of the funeral, you turned up before I could find them. And it was you who found them!”

His furious, high-pitched voice stopped.

No one moved. They were frozen in silent comprehension. Percival Farnley had committed the crime that John had been arrested and found guilty of. Percival all along had schemed and lied so that an innocent man had been convicted and sent to Australia in chains for the term of his natural life.

In horrified, stunned silence, they watched Percival swing his horse around in a tight circle, staring at the threatening natives before focusing again on John. The sudden hatred in his eyes as he glared at his cousin was dreadful to see.

Then, without a word, his rifle came up.

“Percy, no!”

As Kate screamed, Adam flung himself forward. The gun roared at the same time, and he felt something hit him, knocking him to the ground.

As he fell, he heard Kate scream again. There was a clatter of a horse’s hooves. Men shouted. Then the pain was suddenly excruciating, and blackness blotted out everything else.