Garden of the Moon (27 page)

It seemed like she’d waited forever for this day to come.

The squeak of Julie’s rocker ceased. “Are you still bent on doing this?”

Sara had no need to ask what it was her friend referred to. “I love him, Julie. Do I have a choice?”

Julie shook her head. “I suppose not.”

Sara stopped rocking and stared in awe at her friend. “You suppose? Julie, if it were you and you knew the man you loved was going to die, wouldn’t you do everything in your power to prevent it?”

Julie’s expression became confused. “I honestly don’t know if I could love anyone so much that I could do what you have been doing and will do tonight.”

Sara touched the back of her friend’s hand. “I truly hope and pray that the day will come when you do know this kind of love.”

Neither of them spoke again for a long time. The shadows on the veranda began to lengthen and the sun slipped lower and lower in the sky. A lone star twinkled against the fading light.

Finally, the sun had been long gone, and a sliver of moon hung high in the sky. The time had come for Sara to retire to her room. She stood. Julie took her hand. “Be careful, Sara.”

So many emotions—fear, apprehension, anticipation, and eagerness—clogged Sara’s throat that she couldn’t speak. So she simply nodded and squeezed Julie’s fingers.

As she climbed the stairs, she was very aware that everything that had happened in the last few weeks had been leading to this night and the terrible events about to unfold. Aside from the ever present worry of having to save Jonathan’s life, she was also ambushed by the unmistakable sensation that she was about to walk into her destiny.

In her room, she sat in her usual place and opened the diary.

The day has dragged on unendingly. But the time is drawing near now when I will leave Brentwood forever. I’m going to try to get to the garden before Katherine so I can warn Jonathan that she knows about us and will probably try to stop us. I have no idea what it will be, I just know my sister, and she will not let this slight go unpunished.

My satchel is packed and waiting in the attic trunk. I can’t believe that by tomorrow at this time I will be Mrs. Jonathan Bradford. My only regret is that I’ll be breaking my mother’s heart. All my life, she’s been my friend, my confidant, and my champion. It seems heartless to run off and not tell her, not have her at my wedding, but I must. I can’t take the chance that anyone will stop us.

The clock on the mantel seems to have slowed to almost a standstill. I feel like hours have gone by when it’s actually only been minutes. Soon, very soon, the clock will chime and
…

This time when the vortex began to spin, Sara felt a distinct finality about it. For a moment she wanted to stop it and go back. But then she was reminded of why she
had
to go back this time. Jonathan’s life depended on it. No one but she and Phillip and maybe Katherine knew what was about to happen and neither of them would prevent it.

She relaxed and allowed the churning tunnel to take her wherever it would.

***

Sara paced the strangeness of Maddy’s bedroom waiting impatiently for the house to fall silent so she could sneak out and make her way to Harrogate. Hopefully, the horse Maddy had saddled and left tied in the orchard was still there and no one had discovered it.

She walked to the window. The sky was black with stars scattered over it like raindrops on a window pane. No bright moonlight illuminated the grounds surrounding the Grayson’s plantation home, Brentwood. Though it would make it harder for her to see where she was going, lack of moonlight would cover her flight.

The clock on the mantel chimed the half hour. Eleven thirty. Time for her to go. Sara knew that right after dinner Maddy had excused herself early and retrieved the carpetbag she’d packed and hidden in the attic and stashed it beneath her bed. Grabbing the bag, she crept carefully from the room and without questioning how she knew, wound her way down the stairs and through the unfamiliar rooms to the kitchen.

As she reached for the kitchen door, she heard voices beyond it. She jerked her hand back and pressed her ear to the door. One of the voices sounded like Floree, Katherine’s maid.

“Daniel, you best be watching where you puts your hands, boy.”

“Aw, Floree, you know you likes me to touch you.”

“If one of the Graysons finds us, ain’t gonna make no never mind what I like. They’ll have our hides.” A feminine giggle, no doubt Floree’s, filtered through the door. “Now, you best stop that.” The sound of flesh hitting flesh came next. “Glory be, boy, you got more hands than a spider got legs.”

“If you’s so afraid of dem catchin’ us, let’s get ourselves to the barn. Ain’t nobody gonna find us there at this time a night.”

A short silence followed. Then Sara heard scurrying feet, a door open and close, then silence. They were gone. She slipped through the door and into the kitchen. At the back door, she paused and looked out to make sure they wouldn’t see her and were indeed heading for the barn, then she dashed from the house, her skirts tucked high on her thighs to prevent tripping over them.

On the other side of the yard, she slipped into the shadows of the trees and tripped over a bucket. It clattered across the yard on its side. She waited and when no one came, she breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t been detected. Then the barn door squeaked open.

“Who’s there? Miss Maddy, Miss Katherine, is that you?”

Sara held her breath and ducked behind the large trunk of a spreading oak. The frightened voice was that of Floree. She must have heard the bucket’s racket and come out of the barn just as Sara entered the shadow of the trees. She said nothing and hoped Floree would decide she’d been hearing things.

“Floree, what’s dem gals goin’ be doin’ runnin’ ‘round out there at dis hour? Dey’s all in bed, woman.” Another short silence, then a change of tone. “Come on back here, sugar. We gots business to see to, and I gots us a nice bed made in da hay.”

The barn door squeaked and then thudded closed. The latch clattered into place. Daniel’s coaxing must have worked. When Sara peeked around the tree trunk, Floree was nowhere to be seen. Sara let out the breath she’d been holding and raced instinctively through the darkness toward where she knew Maddy had left the horse. Oddly, although she didn’t feel at all like Maddy, she thought like her. It was as if Maddy was inside her, guiding her movements.

Zigzagging through the trees, she made her way to the far side of the oak grove. As she neared the edge of the clearing that separated Brentwood land from Harrogate land, she heard the soft whinny of a horse. Slowly she crept toward the sound. If anyone had discovered the horse, they could be waiting for whoever planned to retrieve it.

Peering through the darkness, she could see Daisy, Maddy’s mare, standing patiently and tethered to a small sapling, just as Maddy had left her earlier that afternoon. The horse raised her head and sniffed loudly in Sara’s direction. Daisy pawed the ground several times, and then settled down to wait.

Sara slipped from behind the tree, walked to the horse, petted her nose and crooned to her, and then hooking the carpet bag on the saddle horn, stood on a nearby stump and climbed into the saddle, her legs astride, her dress hiked up to her thighs. With a gentle nudge to Daisy’s flanks, Sara propelled her toward the road leading to Harrogate.

***

At Harrogate, Sara stopped at the end of the drive, slipped from the saddle, unhooked her bag and smacked Daisy on the behind. The horse headed back down the road toward Brentwood. She would go home. Maddy had often sent her home when she wanted to walk back from a long ride. Daisy had an undeniable ability to find her barn, her cozy stall, and the full feeding bin of oats.

A waning sliver of crescent moon hung in the sky, shedding little or no light on the earth. In inky darkness, Harrogate stood alone, stately, magnificent and cloaked in a shroud of mystery. Sara raced frantically up the driveway. The carpetbag bounced off her legs, impeding her progress. Skirting the big house, she headed directly for the Garden of the Moon. Without hesitation, she dropped the cumbersome carpetbag outside, and then hurried down the path.

Lack of illumination in the garden hampered Sara’s progress. Here and there a white flower shown through the black night almost as though making a feeble attempt to light Sara’s way. Blindly she picked her route through the shrubs, hoping she was heading toward the gazebo where she was to meet Jonathan.

She’d realized hours ago that unlike other times when she’d made this trip back into the past, she hadn’t taken on the persona of Maddy. Although she knew in her heart she
was
Maddy, for some reason, this time she had retained her own identity. Now, she had an idea why.

When Maddy had gone to meet Jonathan on that fateful night, she had no knowledge of what awaited them in the darkness, only the supposition that Katherine would stop them if she could. Because Sara knew for sure what awaited the lovers, she might be able to prevent Jonathan’s death. Whether she did it as Maddy or Sara no longer mattered, as long as she saved her beloved Jonathan.

Urgency to get to Jonathan in time pushed her on. Anxiety churned away in her stomach. Her hands felt damp as did her forehead. Her taught nerves kept her stiff and alert to every sound. As she reached out to push aside encumbering branches, she noted that her hands shook. Thorns snagged her dress, almost as though they were in league with Katherine and trying to hold her back. She tore the garment loose, ignoring the renting sound of the material being shredded.

Pushing on through the jungle of flowers and vines, she listened intently for anything that would signal the presence of someone else. So far the only other presence in the garden seemed to be the night creatures that crawled through the bushes, invisible to their prey.

Vaguely, in the distance, she could just make out the outline of the gazebo. Standing beside it, tall and confident was Jonathan. A branch broke beneath Sara’s foot, and he swung toward her.

“Maddy? Is that you?”

She opened her mouth to affirm that it was, but stopped when she noticed a shadow moving out of the trees, arm outstretched and holding a dueling pistol. Her heart lurched into her throat. For a moment, her feet were frozen to the ground. A scream of warning caught in her throat.

The shadows were too deep to properly identify the person, but in her heart she knew it was Phillip come to do Katherine’s dirty work. In another moment it would be too late.

Without thinking, she dashed forward, throwing herself between the gun and Jonathan.

Everything after that happened in slow motion.

Jonathan dashed toward her.

A loud explosion.

The flash of muzzle fire lighting up the face of the person holding the gun.

Katherine
!

That couldn’t be. Phillip. It was supposed to be Phillip.

A white hot pain pierced the left side of Sara’s chest and then nothing.

Chapter 24

Sara opened her eyes to find Jonathan bending over her. “My love, how foolish of you.” Though his words reprimanded her, his gentle, concerned expression did not. He scooped her into his arms and stood.

Over his shoulder Sara saw a man rush from the bushes and take the gun from a dazed Katherine.

“My God, you actually did it.” His voice was high pitched, frightened. “I told you that I’d do it.”

“But they were going to leave.” Katherine’s voice emerged a whine. Something that was totally unlike her.

Without a word, he led her away.

“It was supposed to be Jonathan, not her. He was going to run away with her, Phillip. You were late, so I had to stop him.” Her protest hung on the night air. Then her voice turned frantic, frightened. “You can’t tell them I shot her. They’ll put me in prison. I’d die in prison, Phillip. You have to help me.”

Katherine’s’ voice no longer held the strength Sara was used to hearing in it. She sounded more like a child begging a parent for help than a grown woman who had just shot her fiancé’s lover.

“I know, darling. Don’t worry. I won’t allow them to take you away,” Phillip said. “Everything will be fine. Just leave it to me.” Then, with his arm securely around her, they disappeared into the darkness.

Sara watched them go, and then she collapsed against Jonathan’s shoulder.

***

When Sara awoke, she was lying on the bed in a very familiar, yet strange room. She looked around. It was her room at Harrogate, but not as she knew it. It was as it had been when it was to be the bedroom where Katherine and Jonathan would have spent their wedding night.

She tried to sit up, but a white-hot pain shot through her shoulder. Moaning, she dropped back against the pillow. For a moment she couldn’t understand what was going on, and then she recalled the gun and jumping between it and Jonathan.

“Jonathan?”

“Lay still. I’m right here.” Jonathan bent over her with a cloth in his hand. “It’s not bad. Thank God, the bullet just grazed your shoulder.” He peeled back her gown and washed the blood from her skin. Then he bandaged the wound. “Why?” he asked. “Why would you do that?” His expression crumbled and tears gathered in his eyes. “My heart stopped when the bullet struck you. I thought you were—”

She laid her finger over his lips. “But I’m not.” She smiled through the pain radiating from the wound. “I did it because I love you. Because life without you is not worth living. Wouldn’t you have done the same for me?”

“In a heartbeat.” He smoothed the hair from her cheeks, and then kissed each in turn.

“I’m sorry I ruined our plans.”

He shook his head. “You ruined nothing. I have a feeling that Katherine will not object to our marriage now. She’s aware that we know something that can ruin her forever.”

Sara frowned. “She tried to kill you. You’re not going to tell the authorities?”

He smiled slyly. “I don’t plan on telling anyone what happened in the garden tonight, but I also don’t plan on telling her that. I will ask her to publicly release me from our betrothal, but I will make it very clear that if she refuses, this night will no longer remain our secret.” He sat beside Sara and took her hand. “What matters right now is that you’re all right, that we can be married and that we have a future to which we can look forward.” He paused. “That is if you decide to remain
here
with me.”