Underground Captive (78 page)

    
             
Falgout took out the four-barrel pepperbox pistol he carried inside his coat and pointed it at Antoinette.

    
             
"
Non
, Madame Duplantier, you stop your nonsense.  Your high-faluting men, especially Fleming, couldn't find one penny in that treasure of money they have to help me save my plantation.  Well, I'm taking something that's more precious than gold to them.  Wife, daughter, sister.  You'll find out which name fits which man by the one you talk to.

    
             
"You can tell them to bring me the deed to New Hope, free of debt, or they can prepare for a funeral.  It's a shame too.  She's so young and filled with the promise of another life," Edmond hammered out.

    
             
"You're mad if you think I'll go anywhere with you,
monsieur
," Nicollette announced in a voice rising with anger.  "If you intend to shoot me you'll just have to do it here and now."

             
"If you prefer it now, that suits me just fine," Falgout said, turning the

gun on Nicollette.

    
             
"
Non
! 
Monsieur
Falgout, please!  For the love of God.  Don't!" Antoinette cried in terror.  "Nicki, please go with him,
cherie
.  You know Jared and Charles will pay any price
monsieur
asks."

    
             
Nicollette glared at Falgout.  At Antoinette's imploration, she rose out of her chair and swept down the stairs without ut
tering a sound.

    
             
"Nicki, please be good.  No kicking or scratching.  Remember the babe," Antoinette reminded her, following them to the car
riage.

    
             
"Get back, Madame.  You'll do well to also remind her not to let herself be seen in this carriage.  You may tell your men I will contact them through Woody, my slave boy.  Good day to you, Madame Duplantier."

    
             
Edmond clicked his tongue.  The horses started moving around the curved drive and down the path toward River Road.

    
             
Antoinette hurried inside, where she found Zeke and sent him to the fields to fetch Ricard.

Underground Captive
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
336

57

    
             
As Rags raced toward Rue Dauphine, he caught a glimpse of King George tethered to a hitching post on the corner of Rue St. Anne and Rue Dauphine, two blocks away from the Duplantier residence.  By the time he got to him, Jared was coming out of a building, preparing to mount.

    
             
"Rags," he said, smiling pleasantly.  "'Tis a good feeling I get to see ye running to greet me thusly."

    
             
"Massa Jared, Ah didn't come heah to greet you, suh.  Ah's run
nin' to fetch Massa Charles when I seed you.  Massa Jared, I just done seed Massa Falgout a-pullin' Mam'zelle Nicollette up to his apotment on Rue Conti, and he done look like a mad dog."

    
             
"Nay, Rags, Lady Nicki is at Crescent Wood.  Ye must be mistaken," Jared said good-naturedly.  He patted Rags on the back and mounted King George.  Then he looked down at Rags.  The big man was shaking and tears streaked his brown cheeks.

             
"He's gon' kill 'er, Massa Jared.  He's gon kill 'er, sho," Rags said,

sobbing.  "He looks plum wile."

    
             
Jared
believed
.  And the cold hand of terror gripped him.  "Where?" he roared.

             
"Rue Conti, massa," Rags shouted.  "Numba 415 Rue Conti."

             
King George reared and stretched his legs.  Only a few blocks away, Jared

arrived there within minutes.  He jumped off Georgie, before the horse came to a complete halt, and saw someone dash inside the building.  By the time he got to the door and stepped inside, the person was nowhere to be seen.  But he heard voices and a struggle going on in a room just off the parlor.

             
"What have you done to my sister, you bastard?"  The snarl was Ricard's.

             
Jared breathed fire as he stormed into the room.

             
Ricard had a death grip around the neck of Floyd Williams, his father's

former overseer.

             
"They've taken Nicki, Jared.  This scum and Falgout...."

             
"Jared!"

    
             
Jared spun on his heels and started out the door when he heard Nicki call out his name.  He rushed into the foyer.  Fal
gout held Nicki by the arms, roughly dragging her up the stairs.  Jared kept walking toward them, despite the pistol Falgout aimed at him.

    
             
"Ye dare put yer filthy hands on my wife!  Ye're a dead man, Falgout!"  Jared's thick, roaring brogue shook the rafters with his rage.

             
Falgout pulled Nicki up one step farther.

             
Menacingly, Jared advanced closer.

    
             
A white flash exploded from the gun's barrel.  The discharged projectile whizzed inches past Jared's ear and landed harmlessly in the opposite wall.

    
             
Jared pressed on relentlessly, the promise of murder glowing in his eyes.

    
             
"Stay back, Fleming.  I warn you.  Next time I won't miss!" Falgout shouted.

             
Viciously, Jared drew nearer.

             
"Jared!  Please!" Nicollette sobbed.  "He'll kill you.  Please stop."

    
             
"You're wrong, Lady Fleming.  He won't stop!  The fool thinks he's invincible." Falgout suddenly changed targets.  He pressed the gun to the side of Nicki's head.  "But you're not.  And I can't possibly miss you.  There's not even air between this gun and your skull."

    
             
An enraged snarl emerged from Jared's lips, but he froze.  Falgout's hand and aim in his direction was unsteady.  Watching his eyes and anticipating Falgout's moves, Jared was confident he would maneuver himself out of harm's way.  But, with a gun pressed against Nicki's head, he possessed no such confidence.  Her safety came first.

    
             
Jared had horrid visions of the silky mane of raven tresses, covered with blood and particles of flesh and brain, of all that he loved and cherished blown away with one pistol shot.  He didn't look at Nicki, but kept his eyes glued to Falgout's rage contorted features.

    
             
"I don't know how you found me,
your lord
," Falgout sneered with angry sarcasm.  "But now that you have, you'd better listen to my demands."  Abruptly, Falgout lifted his eyes in the direc
tion of the parlor at the sound of falling furniture.  Curses and expletives emitted from the voices of men causing the apparent destruction.

    
             
Williams' voice came out loud and clear.  "Say your prayers, Ricard!"

    
             
A pistol shot rent the air.  The very obvious sound of a body hitting the floor followed.

    
             
Nicki's scream reverberated throughout the building.  She went slack in Falgout's arms, sliding downward, just out of danger of the next shot from Falgout's gun, gripping the banister for support.

    
             
In the blink of an eye, with lightning speed, Jared was upon Edmond Falgout, knocking the gun from his hand.  Without uttering a sound, he lashed into the man, murder raging in his eyes.

    
             
Just as he reached him, Ricard and Charles rushed into the foyer.  Getting to the bottom step, Nicki found Ricard hurrying to her side to pick her up.

    
             
"Ricard!  Pa Pa!" she sobbed, putting her arms around her brother's neck.

    
             
Charles ran to her side.  "We're here,
cherie
, we're here."

             
A sharp pain shot through her lower back, causing her to wince.  "I heard a shot, Pa Pa.  I thought Ricard..."

    
             
"Hush, Nicki," Charles soothed, assuming her sudden, pale countenance was from thinking her brother had been killed.  "Rags told me where to find you.  I shot Williams."

    
             
Only moments had passed between the time Charles and Ricard reached Nicol
lette and Jared reached Falgout.  But in that short span of time, Jared had done incredible damage to the man, pummeling him with a savage rage and a punishing fury.  When Jared struck Fal
gout one final blow with all the force of his raging fury, Con
stable Laurent rushed into the foyer.  Edmond Falgout went crash
ing over the banister.  He bounced on his head, and his body shuddered convulsively for a moment, then stilled.

             
"
Mon Dieu
!" Laurent sputtered.

             
"Jared!" Nicki sniffed, another pain assailing her.

    
             
Scowling furiously, and without a word, Jared lifted Nicol
lette from Ricard's arms into his own and walked outside to where King George stood obediently waiting.

    
             
Jared put Nicki on Georgie's back and climbed up behind her.  With both her legs swung across his thigh, he settled her in his lap, making her as comfortable as possible under such unusual circumstances, for a woman in her delicate condition.

   
             
He pointed King George in the direction of Crescent Wood and started off with an easy trot.

             
Nicki leaned her head against Jared's sinewy chest.

    
             
"Oh, Jared," she whispered.  "He was insane.  He said you took his son away and was responsible for the loss of New Hope because you wouldn't secure the bank loan for him.  He even said Ricard was responsible for all his runaway slaves.  He was like a madman."

    
             
Despite the warm, late-spring afternoon, Jared felt a long tremble beset Nicki's body.  Shifting the reins to his left hand, he held her tight against him with his right hand.

    
             
"Nay, now, sweet bairn," Jared crooned.   "'Tis over.  Edmond Falgout won't be making accusations or threats anymore.  Ye're safe.  Ye'll always be safe with me, my sweet Nicki."

    
             
They'd reached River Road, the main road to Crescent Wood Plantation, although they were still almost an hour and a half away.

    
             
"I'm so glad you came, my love," Nicki said, looking up at him, meeting his gaze.  She was met with a scowl.  "Why the treacherous frown?"

    
             
Jared drew in a breath.  "I was thinking that I could not bear to lose ye and how close I came to it.  Nicki, if Falgout had...if anything had happened to ye...."  His voice broke, filled with emotion.

    
             
Nicollette realized how upset he was when she too felt a shudder pass from his body all the way to hers.
             
"Oh, Jared!" she managed.

             
He looked down at her, his face wrought with anguish.  "I love ye, darling.  When ye met me I was but a shell of the man I had once been.  I was bitter, vengeful, self-righteous, and opinionated.  Ye changed all that with yer love.  Nay, my darling, I couldn't bear to lose ye."

    
             
Her amethyst gaze shone with misty pools, tears determinedly kept in check.  His lips melded with hers for a lingering kiss.

             
"I love you, milord," she whispered when he reluctantly pulled his mouth

from hers.

    
             
Nicki cried out suddenly, pressing her hand to her swollen belly, an intense almost unbearable pain hitting her.

             
"What is it, sweetheart?" Jared asked, alarmed.
             

             
"Oh
non!
  Oh
Dieu
,
non!
  Jared, it's too soon.  It's too soon.  Our baby's going to come."

    
             
Unconsciously, Jared dug his heels into King George's flanks and the stallion gained speed.  They were still miles from Cres
cent Wood.  Whether or not the ride there in a speeding coach was rougher in comparison to a graceful steed with wings on his feet was debatable; Jared didn't even consider the difference.  He al
ready knew it.  However, the point was moot.  Nicki was already on the back of a horse, nestled as comfortably as possible on his lap.  He had to get her to Crescent Wood as quickly as possible.

    
             
If Falgout's rough treatment of her had set their bairn on its premature course with nature, the ride to Crescent Wood would certainly bring it to a climax.

58

    
             
Trees--oaks, magnolias, acacias, cypresses--copses, levees, fields and meadows all paled into one long, continuous blur in Jared's vision.  The miles receded swiftly.  Carrying his precious bundle, King George brought Crescent Wood hurriedly into view.  Reined to a stop in the curved pathway, the lathered horse snorted and pranced.

    
             
"Easy, Georgie," Jared soothed.  "Easy, boy.  Zeke!"

    
             
The door swung open and Zeke rushed out with Antoinette, Sophie and Odessa hot on his heels.

    
             
"
Merci le bon Dieu
."  Antoinette crossed herself and ran to Jared's side.

    
             
Jared had dismounted and already lifted Nicki out of the saddle.  "Her time has come," he said to Antoinette, hurrying past her with Nicki in his arms.

    
             
"Zeke, make haste to fetch Doctor Caron," Antoinette or
dered.

    
             
"I'll not have that damn sawbones lay one finger to my wife!" Jared thundered, without stopping or even looking back.  He went through the foyer to the winding staircase and took the stairs two at a time.  He was followed by an anxious Antoinette, who in turn was followed by Odessa and Sophie.