When the Walls Fell (29 page)

Madame Petrovka eyed Simon and Max carefully before addressing Elizabeth. “As you can see, I’ve held up my end of the bargain. Do you have yours?”

Elizabeth pulled the watch from her coat pocket and held it out.

Madame Petrovka nearly reached out, but stopped herself. “Very good,” she said breathlessly. “Bring it here.”

Simon put a hand on Elizabeth’s arm. “Send Mrs. Graham down first.”

Madame Petrovka cocked her head to the side and made a show of thinking about it. “I don’t think so.”

“I’ll bring the watch as she comes down,” Elizabeth said. “That’s SOP for this sort of thing, isn’t it?” She held out her hands to show she didn’t have any weapons. “No tricks.”

Madame Petrovka laughed. “Yes, we don’t like tricks, do we?” She nodded to Stryker who started down the steps with Mary Graham.

“Let me go,” Simon said as he held out his hand for the watch.

“I can do this,” Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth took a deep breath and started toward the steps. There were probably a dozen shallow steps between them. Stryker and Mary were nearing halfway. Elizabeth picked up her skirts, climbed the stairs and met them in the middle.

Mary Graham’s eyes were filled with tears and she looked like she might pass out at any moment.

“It’ll be all right,” Elizabeth said.

Stryker held out one hand, the other still gripped Mary’s arm. “The watch?”

Elizabeth held the watch out and waited until Stryker let go of Mary before she dropped it into his hand. He examined the cover quickly. Then, he turned and ran up the steps toward Madame Petrovka. She snatched it out of his hand and held it up to the moonlight.

Elizabeth put her arm around Mary’s waist and started down the steps. They were almost halfway down when Madame Petrovka spoke.

“Kill them.”

Just as Elizabeth turned she saw Stryker stride forward and pull a gun out of his pocket. Elizabeth shoved Mary toward Max as Simon leapt forward and grabbed Elizabeth’s arm, pulling her down to the ground. The gunshot echoed against the band-shell and Elizabeth heard a grunt.

Simon rolled on top of her. Was he hurt? Had he been shot? “Simon?”

Mary Graham screamed and a second shot rang out. But it wasn’t like the first. It was louder, and yet, farther away. Elizabeth saw Simon’s face above hers. His eyes were clear, worried, but he seemed to be all right. Thank God.

She looked toward the stairs and saw Stryker’s hand spasm. The gun slipped out of his fingers and fell onto the steps.

Stryker stood frozen in shock for a split-second before he fell backwards, his head hitting the stone steps with a loud crack.

Simon’s hands cupped Elizabeth’s cheek. “Are you all right?”

They’d hit the ground so hard it had knocked the wind out of her. All she could do was nod.

Simon hurriedly got up and lunged for Stryker’s gun. He stood above Stryker ready to fire when he slowly lowered his arm. He turned back and looked behind them, where the second shot had come from.

“Petrovka,” Elizabeth said, gaining her breath again.

Simon ran up the rest of the stairs gun at the ready.

Elizabeth got to her knees and turned toward the woods behind them. In the distance, a dark figure stepped out from behind one of the trees of the colonnade, smoke still curling out from the end of his rifle. She’d know him anywhere.

“Gerald.”

She was about to go to him, when she heard mixed in with Mary Graham’s sobs, Max’s groans. She hurried to them and found Mary Graham kneeling over Max.

“He’s been shot,” Mary said between tearful sniffles.

Elizabeth saw the blood seeping through Max’s shirt. There was a splayed bullet hole in his shirt. Why was it splayed outward? Was he shot in the back? She rolled him onto his side and saw a small hole in his back just beneath his shoulder. Through and through was better. Wasn’t it? Or was it the other way around?

“Oh, Max,” she said. He shouldn’t have come with her. What had she done?

“Told you I’d see this through to the end.”

Elizabeth eased his jacket lapel back to see the wound. A dark red circle blossomed near the armhole of his waistcoat. She tried to carefully move his shirt material to the side, but he gasped when she did.

Mary Graham cried louder in response.

Gerald knelt down next to them and laid his large musket down on the ground. “Let me see.”

“Tell my Aunt Lillian I love her.”

“You can tell her yourself,” Gerald said.

Max frowned. “What?”

Gerald pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and stuffed it under Max’s jacket over the wound. “Keep pressure on it,” he told Mary. When she didn’t respond he took her wrist and placed her hand over the wound.

With the help of his rifle, Gerald stood.

“He’s not dying?” Elizabeth asked.

“Not even a little. I’ll clean the wound when we get him home,” Gerald said and joined Simon at the top of the stairs.

Max lifted his head off the ground. “I’m not? Really?”

Elizabeth couldn’t help but laugh and despite the pain, Max grinned.

Mary Graham brushed some dirt off his cheek. “You were very brave.”

“I was?” Max said.

Elizabeth left them and started up the stairs toward Simon. She passed Stryker’s body. A thick puddle of blood spread out behind his head and a single tear of blood spilled out of the socket where his eye had been. Part of her wanted to look away, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. It was a sickening thing to see a man die and worse still to be glad of it.

“Gone.” She heard Gerald grumble.

Pulling herself away from Stryker, she joined Simon and Gerald at the back edge of the main platform. Both men stood staring out into the darkness.

She touched Gerald’s arm and when he turned to look at her, she didn’t know what to say. He’d saved all of their lives. She wanted to give him a huge, sloppy hug, but knew he probably wouldn’t like it. She tried to resist the urge, but she couldn’t and threw her arms around him and squeezed for all she was worth. “Thank you, Gerald. Thank you.”

After a moment, she felt him awkwardly pat her back and then clear his throat.

Eventually, she let him go. “That was one heck of a shot.”

Gerald allowed himself a small smile, but then turned his attention back to dark woods. Once a soldier always a soldier.

“I still don’t like the idea of her out there with a watch,” Simon said.

“If Teddy did his job, she’s got a one-way ticket.”

“Even so,” Simon said shaking his head.

“We did what we had to do.”

Simon turned to her. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m fine, but I think we should get Max out of this chill.”

“What time is it?”

Gerald checked his watch. “Quarter till.”

Simon nodded. “We need to get Mary and Max back to Mrs. Eldridge’s. It’s safe, isn’t it?”

Elizabeth nodded. “That’s what Travers said.”

“It’ll have to do. As much as I’d rather not be inside, fissures can open anywhere. Too many unknowns.” He held out his hand for Elizabeth to help her down the steps. “I think we’ll be safest at the house, but we need to hurry.”

Gerald and Simon helped Max to stand.

“Can you walk?” Simon asked.

He nodded. “But I can’t drive.”

Under Max’s tutelage, Simon managed to get the car started and after a few false starts, he got them home.

They arrived at Mrs. Eldridge’s with just minutes to spare. Unfortunately, Simon wasn’t used to driving a car without power steering or power brakes and he parked the car in Max’s usual spot, in the begonias.

Mrs. Eldridge and Teddy ran out to meet them.

“Maxwell!” Mrs. Eldridge said when she saw that he was hurt.

“Just a scratch,” he said.

She pursed her lips. “You ruined your best suit.”

He grinned. “Good to see you too, Aunt Lillian.”

With Mrs. Eldridge on one side and Mary Graham on the other, Max made his way up the front steps and into the house.

Teddy ran to Elizabeth’s side. “I wanted to come and help, but Gerald locked me in the bathroom.”

“You did help. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Everyone into the main hallway. In the back, away from the chandelier,” Simon ordered in a voice that brooked no argument. “Take down all of those paintings and plants. Anything that can fall.”

“What’s going on?” Mary asked.

“In about one minute we’re going to have an earthquake, Mary,” Elizabeth said. “A really, really big earthquake. I need you to look after Max, can you do that for me?”

“Yes.” They both helped Max down to sit on the floor.

Max grimaced, but didn’t seem to be doing to badly. “About that earthquake…”

“I’m afraid, you’re just going to have to trust me on this one.”

Simon had grabbed cushions from the salon and handed them out. “Get down and cover your heads with these.”

Elizabeth had always thought the worst part of an earthquake was the surprise of it. Now, as she waited for one to come, she wasn’t so sure.

Teddy and Gerald helped Donald down to the floor. Teddy handed him a pillow and put his arm around the old man.

Gerald helped Mrs. Eldridge to the ground and took her hand. “Just hold onto to me, Lillian.”

Just as Simon was coming to Elizabeth, it struck. It started with a deep rumble just like the proverbial freight train. It grew louder and more insistent and then a loud boom ruptured the air and the entire house started to shake. Simon was nearly thrown off his feet. He held on to the wall and struggled to her side. He wrapped his arms around her as they fell to their knees together and held on to each for dear life.

She’d been through a few minor earthquakes before, but never anything like this. It was like a giant had shoved their entire house ten feet and then jerked it back again and then shook it like a baby’s rattle. And the sound was deafening. The walls shook and cracked and popped. She could hear cabinets opening, spilling out their contents to the floor and slamming shut again. The chandelier swayed back and forth, nearly touching the ceiling. The crystals clinked against each other and a few fell like icicles to the floor.

Glass shattered and each large jerk came with a horrible booming sound. And beneath it all was a deep, sickening roar. Elizabeth shut her eyes and tried push down the fear and dread in her chest.

She started to feel dizzy when she realized the entire house was rolling. Waves of earth undulated underneath them and then another vicious jolt came and another. What if they’d been wrong? What if the house shook apart around them?

Mary Graham cried out and Elizabeth heard Max telling her it would be all right. It felt like the shaking would never stop. It ebbed and flowed and each peak was more horrible than the last until, finally, the shaking began to slow. And eventually, it ended.

Elizabeth gripped Simon’s hand even tighter then, sure the earth was just playing with her and another worse tremor was sure to follow. There was something primal and deeply disturbing about an earthquake, like the planet itself was trying to shrug you off its shoulder. They waited for an anxious minute before believing it was truly over.

“Is everyone all right?” she asked. Frightened murmurs answered her.

Simon helped Elizabeth stand and they took stock of the house. It wasn’t badly damaged. At least Travers hadn’t lied about that. Some lamps had overturned, books were tossed from their shelves and several of the windows had shattered, but it could have been far worse. And, Elizabeth thought with a sinking feeling. It would be.