P&P FF
"Captain's Concession: A Bennet's Destiny"
Previously:
"If it's the Scottish ye be wanting, ye'll have to be quicker than that! We're a step ahead of ye, and ye are now chasing shadows!" The words filled the air all around them. They knew it to be Michael's for a few of the men were actually from the highlands and were from the same area as he.
Sprung Trap
Ch. 32
Mary was confused where was she, fog was everywhere. Faces she did not know came out at her. Some were the captain and his men riding the ocean waves but then their ship would fly through the air and land in the forest. Their boat would disappear and their hands hald their guns. Still others were in highland clothes yelling at her that she was ruining everything for them; the main one McBean. And what he said made no sense to her, nor would it to anyone else she suspected.
Ach, Mary, ma dawtie, whit for ye daein' this tae yersel'? "Och, blatherskite clishmaclaver, Mary, wi' yer bonnie e'en, Emil, ye ken, the Dutchman's bairn, Michael an' Wendi, skirlin' like banshees o'er the braes. Gie ower, ye sassenachs! 'Tis the lands, aye, the inheritance, that's richt, nae mair o' yer fouterin'. Dinna fash yersel', McBean's nae feart o' a wee spot o' bother. Haud yer wheesht, ye clarty bampots, afore I skelp yer doup!The hale o' this bonnie, rugged land."
"Mary, Mary, Mary!" Emil grabbed his wife's shoulders and watched as her glazed like eyes disappeared.
"What happened?" Mary was horrifed she had become aware of nothing but the scene of the fog. "How did ye get here?" She looked around and saw men wearing sailor's in the kitchen, bedroom, living space and even few could be seen behind trees.
"We got here at the same time as McBean's men. They just didn't see us." He asked her what she had seen and, or heard.
Mary told him. "But McBean was just spoutin' gibberish, the thin' I could make out that made out which made any real sense wa our names, and I guess he was talkin' about the highlands when he mentioned lands, not sure what other property he would have been referrin' to."
"You know I'm not mocking your dreams; I've never done that," Emil spoke, his eyes looking at his wife. "However, sometimes I think there are breakin' points for everyone, even for strong women, and you, my dear, are at one. I am thankful I am here. You need a wall to lean on at this time. I'll not go back out to sea until this mess is over with and you are back on firm ground."
"Who shouted the bit about the bein' a step ahead of them." Micahel asked. "It wasn't Me. And, while I have heard you have the gift of dialect, surely you don't have an' gift for mimickin' people's voices or throwin' your voice."
"No, capt'n don't." Andrew grinned from where was positoned against one of the walls, "But I do. And it was worth it. You should have seen their faces; I thought for sure some of those men were going to drop dead on the very spot they stood."
"Quit your talkin'." Emil ordered as he got Mary to corner, along with Wendi who wasn't doing so well. "You two stay right here." He stayed low and shot out the window and watched his bullet drop one of the men.
"How many men did McBean send?" Wendi whispered to Mary. "And why, we were just three people. We had no idea yer man was going to bring his whole crew, did ye see this?"
"More than I thought possible and no, I did not."
Emil had figured out why McBean had sent so many men long before he and his men had landed thanks to a dead man speaking. It was more like papers in Philip's coat pocket. Emile guessed the sailor was not supposed to have it. How or why Phil possessed it Captain Pedersen did not care, all that mattered was that he had it now.
"Give those women up!" One of the men hollerd. "McBean isn't interested in any of you men! You don't hav to die for a..." The man never got to finish his sentence as Michael's bullet dropped the man.
"I'm not givin' up my wife to him, nor anyone else!"
"Same goes for me!" Emil hollered
"Just how many men are on that scoundrel's side anyway?" An older sailor spoke from where he was tying up his leg.
'No idea, but it looks as if someone is bringin' up the cavalry for us."
"Uh?"
"Look out de kitchen window." Emil jerked his head back.
A group of men had worked their way through the forest and were now coming out of the woodwork. Joining the captain's men, McBean's men were not only out numbered, but soon were surrounded. It did not take long for them to drop their guns.
"Leif? Leif Borg? Since when did you ever leave Hillsford Estates, other than for our captain's wedding?" A sailor, who happened to have met Sir Borg in the past while visiting family, asked.
"You seriously think all I do is connected to that estate? If I did, I'd have lost it this year. Haven't you heard of the disaster that hit everyone hard this year?" Leif did not wait for an answer as it was a rhetorical question but pulled Emil, Mary, Michael and his wife out of earshot. "By chance, did any of you cross paths with a Phil Jardan?"
"I did and I think I know what you are looking for." Emil pulled out what he had found in Phil's pocket and handed it to Lief.
Sir Borg let out a triumphal shout. "I knew it! I always told my men it was not Phil who had enough brains to be running the show! Been trying to yank the rope around McBean's neck for years." Leif grinned wide. "You just gave me the power to hang him."
"Your law?" Mary's eyes widened
"You four did not hear anything, understand?" His eyes narrowed and admitted to slipping in showing so much excitement. "And, yes, Mary, to your unasked questioned... my wife knows. However, Charlotte is no fool. People may call her names because she married late, is not pretty and so forth. Nonetheless, the fact remains she has a good enough head on her shoulders to know my line of work -other than the estates require people to think I am nothing more than a mere knight by chance who likes to travel a lot."
"So, mind telling me why McBean sent so many men down after the Hales and my wife into England?'
"Because he was not about to let three birds go free." Leif was not surprised when Emil grew alarmed. "Yes, I am saying he would have gone after your wife even in Mistyhills and the fact she was helping your cousins escape I am sure made him furious."
"Why, what does he want to go after her so bad?"
"What do you think Mr. McBean wants?" Lief's tone shouted 'I know you are not stupid captain.
"Revenge on my family, but its an awful long grudge to hold simply because my mother didn't marry into his family."
"I agree that is the root cause." Leif then shook his head. "However, let me line it out for you. McBean's grudge is rooted in a very deep-seated sense of injustice and thwarted ambition. You just said he held a grudge against your mother for not marrying his father, so you know that already."
"We all do." Wendi piped up. "That's no secret.
"It was not just a matter of the heart but his family figured it would be a strategic move to unite their lands and increase the McBean' power in Scotland. When she married Mr. Pedersen instead, a dutchman, it was a public slight that damaged the McBean family's reputation."
"How?" Emil was stunned. "It wasn't like the families were connected before then, or that there was any real understanding between the two."
"I should say 'perceived' conception." Leif continued on. "His father's personal grudge festered like a untreated wound over the years, passed down from him to his son, becoming part of McBean's identity. When you married Mary, an Englishwoman..." Sir Borg smiled. "Who was just as beautiful as her sister, it was yet another blow to McBean."
"My physical looks were a blow to him?" Mary fought to hide her disgust.
Leif ignored what he clearly saw and went on. "He saw it as a continuation of his family's rejection by Widow Pedersen's lineage. Therefore, McBean's animosity grew, fueled by the belief that your husband's family consistently looked beyond their own people and lands for alliances, undermining the traditional values McBean claimed to hold dear."
"Claim is a good word, consider a paragraph on that paper proves he is more of a traitor to Scotland than I am, even if I am due to inherit land in England." Emil did not bother hiding his disdain. "Why not go after us while we were in the hills? Attempt to take her life there? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he made no attempt, still curious though."
"In a way he was." Leif reminded them how he was attempting to discredit Mary's word. "By doing so, the rat was hoping to discredit and tarnish you and your family's name, and ensure that they were seen as outsiders and usurpers by the clans around you."
"Well, the scoundrel certainly was doing his best to spread untruths about her loyalties and paint her as a traitor to my mother."
"So, that tells you the man hoped to isolate her. And, even if you do not realize it captain, your reputation preceded you. Your power was stronger than his; he hoped to strip you of that and thereby secure what he saw as his unchallenged position in those hills and things were made worse by your success at sea."
"My success at sea?"
"McBean has been attempting to set up a network at sea; you -unwittingly- kept hiring men away from him. They preferred working for you over him. So, what he was working on setting up on the sea you now kept interrupting."
"Now what about my cousin and wife?" The captain tipped his head towards Michael and Wendi, ignoring what Sir Borg had just said about Mr. McBean wanting to have power both land and sea. "You said he would not have come after them if they had not come to my wife, but something doesn't set right there with me."
"He believed the man you called father, Mr. Hales, was not your father. But he only had the word of a man named Kester Caird. If it is true, it is the second reason."
'That's not a common name but, if he really is my father, why would the Hales' have raised me and why would the Scoundrel McBean want me dead now?"
"First the Hales are your parents. However, as I just stated Mr. Bean believes this woman to be your birth mother." Leif ignored her eyes going wide. "Just do not ask me his line of reasoning; there is none. If that was the case, you would be the rightful heir to the land he now lives on in the hills. However, as you can tell, I am doubting that."
"Why?"
"Because, the only trace of the woman he claims gave birth to you died a year prior to your death. However... " He looked straight at Emil. "All the papers point to her being the captain's aunt. And her will would leave the land to Margaret not Wendi."
"Do you have proof of that?"
"I do now." Sir Borg held up. "I would say there's no need for Anne to drum up reasons to come into Meryton when in reality she is actually visiting you at the bookstore." He winked. "Lady Catherine will have no choice but to let Mr. Bennet's daughter in with me there and you and Anne may talk openly after all these years."
"You knew, when you weren't even living near my family?"
"Not from firsthand knowledge if that helps ease your mind any."
"One more thin' I want ta know." Emil spoke with his mouth pursed. "I complained ta de local magistrate, others had ta, wh' was nothin' done?"
"Long and short of it." Leif sighed. "We were just barely able to prove all he was in takin' bribes, I suspect..." Holding up the papers. "This will prove McBean is yet another one wetting his palm."
