“What are you going to do to me?” Bernard asked, clamping his hand over his mouth at the sudden jerk of my head, looking so comical that I couldn’t control myself any longer and I burst out laughing, which made him think I was even madder than he first had thought.

“We are going to show you what we are going to do to, not you, but Alex…if you fail us in any way,” Jacob said, once we reached Martin’s door.

“Give me a moment,” I ordered, opening the door just enough to slip inside.

I rushed to Martin’s side and told him that we were bringing Bernard in to scare the living crap out of him before we sent him back to his mistress, and that I needed him to look his worst. He looked up at me like I truly was mad and asked how much more did he need to do to look worse than he already did. “Moan, roll your head from side to side. Think of something, because I want him to think we’re going to pay his mistress back by doing the same thing to Alex that was done to you,” I explained, getting a reassuring pat on my hand that he knew what I was talking about and that I could let them in.

“Would you mind if I remove the cover? The damage on your lower half will have more of an impact than him just seeing your feet and face.”

“I am sure that all have seen my most private of places, so yes, you may remove my cover,” he smiled, looking better every time I looked at him.

“Okay,” I leaned down and moved the cover, afterwards lightly kissing his lips. “Now act like your dying.”

I went back to the door and opened it slowly for emphasis. The first thing that Bernard tried to do was back up, moving both legs against the floor, while reaching up and gripping Cates’ hand as Cates lifted him up and carried him into the room. The sight of Martin being at this house was something he hadn’t expected at all and the visual display of his tremendous wounds let him know first-hand that we knew what was happening to our maker. “I didn’t know, I swear,” he lied, out of pure desperation.

“Hello Bernard, funny seeing you here. Last time I saw you, you were happily running a blade down my back,” Martin cringing as he pushed himself up in a higher sitting position.

I spun around fast with my arm already coming up and backhanded Bernard across the face, knocking him out of Cates’ hand and into the door frame. He collapsed to the ground. Blood flew from his mouth as he cried out and spit two teeth into the palm of his hand. He bent forward, bringing up the only knee he could, and held his face. When he finally looked up and saw me glaring, he was ready to go back, leaving Alex at our mercy. Cates reached down and Bernard’s hands shot up, thinking he was blocking another blow, when he was once again lifted off the floor, and none to gently. Tammy’s eyes were dead set on him, and even I could read his death in them. He kept his eyes to the floor as Martin spoke.

“You say nothing, about anything, except what you are told.  If you choose to do otherwise, I will have my guard do to your precious lover what your true mistress has done to me. Bernard has a secret of his own don’t you, Bernard?”

“If she finds out she’ll kill me.”

“What of Alex, Bernard? What would he think if he were to find out about you and the High Mistress?” Martin asked, displaying a lower tone when he said the last.

“He would hate me,” he whimpered. “She promised she would allow us safety by the throne when she rid London of her sister.” He glanced up, saw Martin’s privates then looked right back at the floor.

“You thought me dead in a few nights time. Why else would you freely agree to lay hands to Angelica, while others lay hands to me?” Martin asked, then called out my name sternly as he saw my hand coming up a second time. “There will be plenty of time for that if he fails us.”

“How can I stand here and listen to this and not beat this piece of shit?”

“Then leave,” he replied, shocking me with his tone but keeping me in control at the same time. I nodded and he continued.

I looked over at Tammy, who looked back at me and we had a perfect understanding. No matter what happened at that gala, Bernard and Alex would die. Bernard would taste my blade for enjoying what he did to my maker and then, and only then, would I step aside and give Tammy the rest to avenge the two women that were put to death at their hands; not counting the countless others before them. Martin told Bernard that his dirty little secret about sleeping with and willingly accepting Angelica’s offer to help kill her sister would be safe if he went back and told Inara that Martin was already safe in his own domain and that Alex would not be harmed if she helped us at Angelica’s the night of the gala. In return, other than just having her beloved son returned, she would take the position of ‘High Mistress’ and we would be on our way. It was a lie of course, but it was the lie that would get us in and close enough to take out the three seats of power and hopefully not have to fight the entire ballroom of breeders.

              Chapter Twenty One

It was strange watching Sydney hook up the coach, since we found him on a sail boat, but he did it like he had been doing it all of his life. He and Cates dressed in the nastiest rags they could find with hoods that draped over their faces, trying their best to look like normals, which apparently meant smelling like the horse that drew the coach. Derek and Jacob rode inside with Bernard, both had their weapons drawn and ready in case Inara’s people attacked them. Fala stayed back to protect the “women” who said nothing when it was brought up, thinking it might not be a bad idea to have someone that could rip the limbs off of just about anything watching our backs.

They drove straight there, dumped Bernard out at the front gate, and drove away to his cries for help. Garvin watched and, with the aid of the lights of several torches, saw Bernard running to the gates entrance, falling, and then being lifted off the ground and taken in. Once they arrived back at the estate, we started looking for things to wear and, for once, the search was one of pure joy without the never ending chaos that we had at the end of the so called rainbow. Martin told us about the trunks full of costumes in the attic, and the boys went up and brought them down to the family room, having to set some out in the hall, due to the lack of room.

There was one chest that stood out from the rest because it reminded me of the one my mother kept her personal belongings in. It once held the very dress that she and my father buried me in thinking I was dead and to them I truly was. She had it for her own death and had made it herself, just as her mother had made hers and I would have one day made my own had things been different. I walked up to it going down on my knees, smoothing my hand over the top, exposing the beauty of the dark wood under the thick layer of dust. The carvings were far different than that of my mothers; far more detailed and with the smallest of intricate art work. Vines and flowers graced the trim; larger leaves like rose petals lay spread out on the top with tiny clusters of flowers in each of the corners. The panels were equally as impressive, with swirls making no particular pattern.

When I opened it I had truly thought that I had stepped back in time to when my mother showed me her wedding dress for the first time when I was nine. It was the first thing you saw when you opened the chest. I reached in and lifted the similar dress out by the shoulders and stood up. It was breathtaking. I held it up against me and spun around. The flow at the bottom was wide and much longer in the back than it was in the front; the arms were billowy on the shoulders and slim down to the back of the hands, and completely covered in tiny pearls. The neck line was cut low on the chest and there was more lace than there was silky white material.