Chapter 10

A few doors down the hall, Jessica was lying in bed wondering how she had ever let Brandon talk her into leaving Daniel behind. The man had such power over her when he talked.

"When," Jessica said, "have I allowed anyone that much control over me besides Joshua and father? What in the world possessed me to leave Daniel with strangers?"

Daniel was all Jessica had left of her former life. Her mother's concern for him in this situation of real danger had become physically painful the more she thought about it. More than once, Brandon and his brother George had gently accused her of smothering the boy, Jessica remembered. They were probably right, but that admission did not help when all her instincts were screaming at her son's absence.

Finally, she found sleep; a fitful sleep where she was caught in a succession of disturbing dreams.

A light pressure came down on her hands and face, freeing her from walking through another maze. Jessica opened her eyes to find Brandon standing over her. He had her in a light hold just in case she came awake frightened. When she didn't, he let go and pulled her blankets away.

"Get up," Brandon whispered. "I want to show you something."

Brandon had a plaid thrown over one arm. He wrapped it around her when Jessica stood and picked her up in his arms. "It is in another part of the keep," he whispered close to her ear. "I came through a hidden stair. It is a mess in there, and cold."

He turned with her toward the back wall of her room. Jessica saw part of the wall paneling standing open like a door. Brandon carried her into the darkness and moved by memory through the pitch black. It was moldy and dusty smelling in the corridor between cold stonewalls. Now and then, a cobweb brushed Jessica's face as they passed.

Brandon bumped into something. An odd flickering light showed as another panel opened. Brandon carried Jessica into a room that didn't look to be used often. The massive bed he sat her on was old, as was a trunk along the wall. The flickering lights she had seen were coming from the room's narrow window.

It was the strangest thing Jessica had ever seen. Balls of eerie green light bobbed along the open window, snaking along the wall on miniature lightning bolts. It looked like a live thing darting into the window and halfway to the floor, coming in and out.

"What is it?"

"One of the ghosts." Brandon chuckled at her awe filled eyes. "No. Actually, it's St. Elmo's fire," he said. "No one knows why, but it appears on this side of the building in this window this time of year more than any other time. It's one reason people think this place is haunted. Now watch this."

He stood crossing the room. Brandon took an old claymore off a wall display, unsheathed the weapon, and walked to the window. Slowly, he put the sword into the path of the green lights. They jumped off the wall and onto the sword. He then turned to show her the full effect.

Brandon's sword looked like it was aflame. His face and pale blonde hair were bathed in the glow from it. It was a vision out of a fairy tale. After a few moments of holding it out for her to see, Brandon took one hand and ran it up the flat of the blade. The light was extinguished almost immediately. Brandon re-sheathed the weapon and put the claymore back before returning to her side.

"That was amazing," Jessica said. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome," he said, smiling down at her.

Jessica sat curled up in the plaid, small and delicate as a child, on the large bed, but Brandon was not looking at her as a child. He was only a breath away as he settled next to her. The wonder of a moment ago was replaced by an excitement of a different kind. Jessica shivered at the look in his eyes, not quite ready for what they promised.

"This room… it does not look used much," Jessica said nervously. "You were sleeping in here?" Belatedly, she realized how faulty that assumption was. The bed underneath her was still made.

"No," Brandon said. "I was up on the ramparts and saw the lightning balls forming. I wanted to share it with you. The balls don't last long. The old stair was the fastest way I could get to you. No one ever sleeps here."

"These sheets are fresh," she said, looking up at him accusingly.

"So they are," he said with a devilish grin. "I was hoping I could show you the lights while we were here. I asked that the room be cleaned for the purpose in my letter to father."

He looked down at her hand in his and back to her face. "I had planned a much better private evening before your cousins came," he said. "I had arranged for a dinner in the summerhouse. Instead, I have had to share you, not only with my Romeo father, but with my principal rival, if the gossip in London can be trusted."

"Brandon," Jessica said firmly. "Phileas is nothing to me but a cousin. The gossip in London is over my going to the country with him when Rebecca's life was in danger. That is why I am in the mess I am in now. We had to leave suddenly. Some gossip saw us hurrying onto his airship and thought what they wanted. I was injured while helping him and had to stay in the country for over a month recuperating. That damned me completely." The last of her bitterness over that came through in her voice.

"Why did your cousin not tell what really happened?"

Jessica's mouth twisted. She knew she was not supposed to say this, but she trusted Brandon's discretion. "Rebecca is and Phileas has been part of the Secret Service," she said hesitantly. "The man who came after Rebecca was a foreign agent; the same one that is after me now. Because I helped them, I have been mistaken for an agent too. It is utterly preposterous, but that is the whole truth of it."

She finished, looking up at him again. "I think Phileas has defended us, making much of my being a second cousin, as if we were more brother and sister."

To her own ears, it sounded like a crazy story. He might not believe a word of it. Jessica waited out his long silence.

"It's not true, is it?" Brandon said. "You are not an agent?"

Jessica laughed. "No. The next time Phileas and Rebecca are in trouble, they can rescue themselves. I never want to be a part of anything like that again. I would sooner face another Indian raid than go through their cloak and dagger games.."

"Good," Brandon said, echoing her tone. "Say the word and you will never ever be in the position to be called on again. I will bring you and Daniel here to Scotland and the only scary thing you will ever deal with will be the family ghosts."

"Marry me, Jessica," Brandon whispered, coming closer to her on the bed. He took her hands in his again and looked into her eyes. "I will make you happy, I promise it. I want you so badly, you and your son and the children to come." He drew her to him, lifting her hands to his shoulders and slipping his arms about her waist. "What do you think about breaking my father's record?"

That thought sent an otherwise completely won over Jessica backing off fast, but Brandon caught her tight at the waist before she could get off the bed. "I am just kidding," he laughed. "Half a dozen will be plenty."

"We will have to see what comes," she said. "I make no promises."

She let him draw her into his arms again.

"Six and I will shower you with a chest of jewels for each one," he offered as he pulled the plaid from her shoulders.

She giggled. "I am not so fond of jewelry as all that. Four perhaps, and I will take in two of your younger brothers for long visits anytime they wish."

Brandon drew her back onto the pillows. "We'll see how things go then." He picked up the pieces of his earlier plan and improvised.