Bones of a Feather - Carolyn Haines [116]
I heard the pain in his voice and realized he still loved Eleanor. Despite all she’d done and what she’d become, he loved her.
“Can we get out this way?” Tinkie asked.
“Pray,” Jerome said.
And I did as he plunged the paddle into the river. Luckily the water in the passage had no current and he was able to move the boat rapidly toward what sounded like thunder. It was the storm! I could hear it. I found a second paddle in the bottom of the boat and with every ounce of muscle I had in my back and arms, I applied the wood. When the boat shot out of the tunnel with only a foot of clearance, I wanted to shout with joy. Even the pouring rain was wonderful as it struck my face.
“My truck is upriver,” Jerome said.
I knew we couldn’t paddle the boat against the current, but we could beach it and walk. I put my last reserve into pumping the boat to the shore. “We have to get to Briarcliff.”
I had the terrible sense that Coleman might be walking into a trap.
26
Briarcliff, lit by flashes of lighting, could not have looked more like something from Baron von Frankenstein’s story. Jerome idled the truck at the base of the driveway while we considered our options. Jerome was determined to see this through. And protect Eleanor as best he could. He would put his life on the line for her, even knowing who and what she was.
The three of us sat in the cab of the truck looking up at that mansion, a place built on human suffering. Jerome spoke softly, the brogue of his native Scotland clear. “It’s hard to believe, but Eleanor was once a tender girl. The badness is in the blood—she wasn’t strong enough to fight it. Once, she was sweet and innocent, like a fragile rose, but the Levert heritage was stronger than her nature. Even knowing that a gentle creature has turned evil, I still love her. I canna help myself anymore than she can.”
I put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
He only nodded. “You should call the law. If your friends are up there, they could be in real danger.”
And he was right about that. Except we had no cell phone, and I wasn’t about to waste time driving to town to make a report. Besides, I still wasn’t positive Gunny wasn’t playing for the wrong side. Just because we’d learned Barclay was a deceiving bastard through and through didn’t mean there weren’t others on Team Levert.
“What are we going to do?” Tinkie asked.
“They have our dogs in there.” I should never have left the pups, but I knew the tunnels would be dangerous. I hadn’t counted on Barclay betraying me.
“Chablis!” Tinkie opened the truck door as if she meant to run to the house. Jerome grabbed her before I had a chance.
“Let me drive up there. They won’t suspect me.” His tone was urgent. “You get in the back of the truck. I’ll park and once I’m inside, you can check out the house.”
It was the only feasible plan. “Be careful, Jerome. Don’t think because Eleanor cares for you, or once cared for you, she won’t kill you.”
“I know the truth about her. I watched the family curse take her. Monica killed that French artist and with that single act she changed Eleanor’s heart. Monica couldn’t stand the thought Eleanor would marry away from her, so she killed him. I think Eleanor just gave up and became what Monica wanted her to be.”
“I won’t feel sympathy for either of them,” Tinkie said. “They meant to kill me and Sarah Booth. They lured us here with the intention of using us and then killing us.”
Tinkie was wounded by the betrayal in a way I wasn’t. I was just plain pissed off. “Let’s get in the back of the truck.”
The rain had finally stopped, but the sky still roiled with lightning and thunder. The front was passing, moving toward Jackson and the center of the state. Meteorology-wise, the worst was over. For Tinkie and I, the darkest hour had begun. We had to defang three very dangerous snakes and hold them until help arrived.
Jerome stopped at the front door while Tinkie and I hid in the bed of the truck.