The Chocolatier's Wife (104 page)

“I’ve
killed
better
pirates
than
he
while
eating
breakfast,”
William
spat. He
felt
the
enormity,
as
he
always
did,
of
taking
a
life,
but
he
also
recognized the
practicality.
He
couldn’t
have
risked
his
brother
getting
shot,
or
himself losing
the
battle.
But
still,
he
would
have
liked
to
have
taken a
different path.

“My God.
Do you think
they’ll put us in
prison
now?”

“Good
question.
Do
you
want
to
say
goodbye
to
Bonny
before
we
lay
it all before the Bishop and
the Governor?”

“Lay
it all?”

“Well,
the bits that suit.”

Andrew
looked
over
the
precipice,
then
back
at
William. He
looked likely
to
upend
the
contents
of
his
stomach
at
any
moment.
“Do
you
mind if I
let you do all the tal
k
ing?”

William
took
his
brother’s arm
and
helped
him
up,
pulling
him
back
a
bit more
from
the edge as he did.
“I
think
that might be the best course.”
  They walked in s
i
lence, William weighing everything, wondering if he would see Tasmin again…but knowing that it was time to get everything squared away.

They did not end up putting the case before anyone but the Governor.

“It
is
a
hard
thing
to
believe,”
the
Governor
said,
once
the
things
William
thought
needed
to
be
told
had
been,
“but
I recall
what
happened
to
your poor
mother.
I’m
one
of
the
few
who
knew.
Your
Grandfather
put
it
to
me,
to free
your
father
from
his
oblig
a
tion,
but
Justin
had
already
fled,
intending
to
wed
her.
They
awaited
the
birth
of
the
child, and
then
had
their
joining ceremony
in
some
small
village
to
the
East.
If
the
timing
of
things
had
been different,
I
do
believe
that
he
would
have
made
a
case
for
clai
m
ing
the
child as
his
own,
but
your
mother—I
gather
the
experience
was
quite—it
took her
years
to
recover.”
The
G
overnor
looked
over
his
glasses
at
William,
who blushed, feeling guilty that he had been so willing to blame his father for having
a
child
out
of
wedlock.
Still,
he
had
bullied
Andrew
into
taking
that route.

The
G
overnor sat
back,
mulling
it
all
over.
“Bonny
will
have
to
spend time
in
prison for
adultery,
I
fear.
She
did
break
the
law.
She
could
be punished
for
far
worse
crimes, but
I
am
willing
to
leave
it
at
that.”

So,
she would
be
the
scapegoat.
William
sighed,
but
he
was
angry
enough
with
her right
now
that
he
thought,
perhaps,
she
was
getting
off
lightly.
They
hadn’t mentioned
Andrew’s
own
adultery,
and
William was
determined
that
he, too,
would
somehow
make
it
up
to
his
wife.
He
understood
that
his
brother would
buckle
under
their
f
a
ther’s
every
whim, that
it
was
impossible
for him not
to,
but
he
also
felt
disgusted
by
the
fact
that
Andrew
had, indeed, betrayed his vows to his wife.

“But
I
want
to
keep
this
secret,
I
don’t
want
to
shame
her,”
Andrew protested.

“Prices
must
be
paid. If
you
want
me
to
believe
that
Eric
Lavoussier tried to bring
your family down by blackmail
and
lies, then you must allow me
to
act
according
to
the
law. Otherwise
the
people
will
be
unsatisfied, and
your
and
your
family
will
never
recover. The
Bishop
was
a
well-loved man,
and
while
it
is
feasible
that
the
Port
Adm
i
ral wanted
to
punish
the Bishop
for
his
part
in
keeping
the
Pandora
prize
and
all
its
attendant
glory and
remove
a
rival
at
the
same
time,
if
there
is
any
feeling
of
favoritism,
the whole thing falls apart.”

“Then I
should
go
, too.” Andrew’s hands gripped the chair.

William
stepped
on
Andrew’s
foot.
“Let
us
not
blame
ourselves
for
our wives’
faults,
shall
we?”
He
thought
a
prayer
that
Lavoussier
had
burned
all his papers.

“Indeed,”
the
G
overnor
said,
and
William wondered
if
the
papers
were already in
the man’s
possession.

His
eyes
flickered
to
the
mantle,
where
a
painting
of
the
G
overnor’s
son hung.
Te
r
rence
had
been
his
name,
and
a
final
piece
clicked
together.

“Sir, it
occurs
to
me
that
the
Bishop
would
have trusted
only
you
with
the sale
of
the
shop.
The
sale
was
taken
care
of
by
a
clerk
acting
for
a
Terrence Derbyshore. Your son—his ship was the
HMS Derby
,
was it not?”

A slight smile flickered.

“Did you choose me to guard what the Bishop held?”

His
smiled
broadened
a
little
more.
“You
may
go,
William. Good fortune
in
your
business.
I
think
you
will
find any
rumored
troubles
over the ownership of your shop are
just that.”

William
grinned
and
rose.
Andrew
followed
quietly.
Once
they
were well
on
their
way
home, he
asked, “The
dossiers
that
you
said
Lavoussier had on
all of us ...
what do you think
will happen to them?”

“Well,
we
can
pray
they
were
burned.
After
all,
Lavoussier
was
doubtless ready
to
leave
the
second
he
had
the
Heart. He
would
have
had
to
make
a quick
get away,
after he killed us,” William
said hopefully.