Reviews:

MohawkWoman: Don´t know what you´re talking about. Test kits? What for? ;) No, but unfortunately Lillian is very impulsive. She doesn´t think and knows no sense when she made a decision once. As you can see in this chapter, I think.

Luthlien: For her it is not about her "weakness". If she wants to prove something, then that she is right about her brother. For her it would be unbearable to stay at home and wait for Connor so that he finds out what´s going on. There are two possible explanations for everything and both have terrible consequences for her. First: She is right and somebody is using her brother´s name and her family´s emblem. But that would mean that this person is dragging their memory - her parent´s, her family´s and her brother´s - through the mud. Or Connor is right and her brother is still alive but isn´t the same person anymore.

tina: Thank you, I´m glad to read that you´re enjoying this story so much. :) But I don´t understand what you mean. Who is pregnant? Never heard of something like that. ;P


Shadowy encounters

"That was a great idea, Lillian", I muttered to myself and repeatedly pushed a maize leaf out of my vision. Until now I was sitting in this field for two hours and wasn´t sure anymore, what I was planning to do anyway. During the hours it had taken to ride to Boston, I had racked my brains about it and had even doubted my own mind for a moment. I had set off rashly, without thinking and I was actually sure that I had ridden straight into my doom. But neither I had wanted to turn back because I finally wanted to get rid of this uncertainty. Hoping that I was going to feel better afterwards, mentally and physically.

When I had reached Boston, I´d had basically three opportunities. First, I could have gone to Adams and could have asked him for help. But I would have risked that Connor learned about my solo attempt. Second, I could have searched this Stephane, Adams had mentioned in his letter for Connor. But I had nothing more but his name and so it had been unlikely from the start that I could find him. So I had only the third and last opportunity: To comb all forts in the city and to find out where the bandits were hiding. I had done that and it had been anything but easy. All three forts were on different ends of Boston and because the first two were occupied by military, only the last was left as the potential hideout and when I had reached it, it had been late afternoon already.
The fort was on the very outskirts of the city, in an agricultural district. It was surrounded by maize fields and I had hid in one of them after I had tied Aldah to a tree, a bit distant from here. The sun wasn´t as strong as before but still it was unpleasantly warm. Sweat was running over my face and into my nape, but I didn´t take off my tricorn. In the contrary. I had pulled it deeper into my face while I didn´t turn my eyes from the fort´s main gate and waited, not knowing what for. Since I was sitting here, I had seen several men enter and leave the fort, but nothing informative had happened. The only movement I noticed came from the three guards, patrolling on the footbridges behind the wooden palisade. I hoped that something was going to happen. That maybe somebody came by, who gave me a clue to the man who was passing himself off as my brother. But the longer I was sitting here, the more hopeless I became. Furthermore I began to lose my patience. How did Connor, or an assassin at all, manage it to hide somewhere for so long without getting mad? Apart from the fact that even an assassin must have human needs he had to follow sometime. Or were they broken of that habit? Maybe I should ask Connor about it...or better not. Maybe I would learn things I had never wanted to know so exactly. I wrinkled my nose, shaking my head and forcing myself to concentrate on the fort again. But nothing had happened yet.

Maybe I should go back, I was just thinking, as riders approached the fort. Three men, at least I suspected that the person on the middle was a man. He was of strong stature but was wearing a wide cape with a hood, pulled deeply into his face so that I couldn´t see it at all. Shouts sounded inside the fort and I could clearly hear how they announced the arrival of the "boss". My heart began to race. So the head of the gang was here and I was sure that it was the one with the cape. But still I had to find out who he was. The fort´s gate opened, the riders passed it and disappeared as the gate closed behind them again. Now I had seen the supposed leader but I didn´t know what I needed to know. But how should I get into the fort? Could I risk waiting for if and when he was going to come out again? I swore quietly. No. I could not. I had to find a way inside. Whatever the cost.
So I partly rose from my sitting position and walked a bit further into the field, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. I tried to touch the surrounding plants as little as possible and not to move them with that, but I couldn´t prevent an occasional rustling. But I hoped that it wasn´t audible or visible from the fort.

When I had almost crossed the field, I squatted down again and glanced through the plants to the fort. Now the main gate was left from me and from my position, I could see a part of the narrow side entrance that was open. But there were also two guards and furthermore there were no hiding places close to the fort, except of some stacked wooden crates. But the path to the fort itself was entirely open. If I would leave my hideout now, they would see me in an instant. I swore, because once again I hadn´t a plan. Connor would probably kill the guards somehow from the distance or would storm the fort directly. Both opportunities were impossible for me. But what should I do?

Thoughtful and frowning I stared at the fort. While doing so, I didn´t notice that I wasn´t alone in the field anymore. Too late I heard the treacherous rustling behind me, as an arm was already wrapped around my neck and a hand was covering my mouth.
"One wrong move and you´re dead", growled a male voice with a French accent into my ear. I froze, not able to put up resistance that would probably be unsuccessful anyway.
"Take off his weapons", I heard the voice say and shortly afterwards, a young man with brown hair appeared in my vision. He faltered as he looked at me.
"That´s a woman."
The grip around my neck loosened a bit and I felt, how the man behind me hesitated.
"Pour sûr? Are you sure?", he asked and the other man rolled his eyes.
"I definitely have seen a woman once", he mocked but then began to take dagger and rapier from me anyway. "She doesn´t have more", he said then and regarded the dagger with knitted eyebrows, before he swore quietly. "Let her go, Stephane. She´s one of us."
He turned the dagger´s pommel towards the man behind me and even I was surprised as I recognized the symbol of the assassins on it. Great. So I´d really had a closer on the weapons before snaffling them. Now I was mistakenly presumed to be an assassin...but maybe...it wasn´t so bad. At least they seemed to be assassins themselves.

The guy with the French accent let me go and so I had the chance to jump a bit away from him and turn to him. So I saw that there was a third man and my heart sank for a moment. The three of them were strong, armed and were looking at me partly distrustfully, partly curiously. I would have no chance, if they decided to harm me. But probably it was my luck that they thought I was an assassin. It would only become a problem, if they found out how I was related to Connor because he would certainly learn about this. So I had to keep them in thinking that I was really one of them and this decision was tested soon.
"Who are you, where are you from and what are you doing here?", asked the one with the French accent, Stephane, if I wasn´t mistaken. Was he the Stephane Adams had mentioned? However. I had to think about an answer if I didn´t want to reveal my real identity to them.
"My name is...Janet Pierce", I answered without further ado and hoped that the real Janet Pierce was too far away to be known by one of them. But there wasn´t a reaction and so I kept talking.
"I´m from London and I´m...looking for someone."
"For whom?", asked the man who had stayed in the background until now. I hesitated but jutted my chin and answered, maybe a bit sharply: "I can´t tell you."
Stephane raised an eyebrow. "If you´re on a mission for the brotherhood, why didn´t we know about your arrival? We could have helped you."
"Furthermore you´re very sparsely equipped for being an assassin", added the young man with my...Connor´s weapons. Distrust sounded in his voice and I gulped. I had to take care that they didn´t expose me as the liar I was. They were Connor´s friends and it wouldn´t be amiss to tell them the truth. But then they would bring me home immediately and Connor would learn about my solo attempt. That mustn´t happen because I had to get into this fort.
"I´m not here on behalf of the brotherhood. Rather because of private reasons", I answered and strangely enough it wasn´t even a lie. "I had some issues during the crossing and that´s why I only got these weapons left."

The men kept scrutinizing me distrustfully but I had to pull myself together to hold back a sigh of relief, when the man behind Stephane nodded slowly.
"And the person you are looking for is in there?" He nodded at the fort.
"I´m sure of it", I answered. "He just arrived."
The three assassins exchanged a look before the one who had taken the weapons from me, turned to me again. "So you´re looking for Raymond Jarvis?"
I hesitated but nodded.
"We are also looking for him, or rather our grandmaster." Stephane´s expression hardened as he looked at the fort. "Le bâtard is leader of a gang of criminals who are terrorizing the settlements around here. Until now we couldn´t do anything against them, but now that we know where their leader is, you could change that."
"Do you want to...kill him?", I asked and couldn´t stop my voice from sounding a bit hoarse. But they didn´t seem to notice it. A grim smile appeared on Stephane´s face.
"Oh, that would be...but no. We hope to get answers from him. Our grandmaster shall decide what happens to him in the end."
And how would Connor decide? Until now I hadn´t thought about it yet, but now it was scaring me. Would he want the leader´s death? I could barely imagine it, but if he did and if Ray was the leader...what should I do then?
Don´t think about it! Nothing is certain yet, I appealed to my conscience and concentrated on the three assassins again, who were scrutinizing me.
"Do you intend to kill him?", the one with the weapons asked me and I shook my head immediately.
"I also need information. Nothing more."

A short silence, in which the three men looked at each other. It was as if they were communicating silently, until Stephane nodded and pointed at his comrades.
"By the way, these are Clipper Wilkinson" He pointed at the man with Connor´s weapons. "And Duncan Little. I propose, if we have similar aims, we should work together."
Work together? I gulped. Jesus, I wasn´t an assassin. How was I supposed to "work"? But now I had already passed myself off as one of them and maybe it wouldn´t be so bad to have some active support...
I nodded and put on a smile. "It would be an honour."


We had stayed on our lookout in the field and had talked about our strategy until the darkness had fallen. I had let the men talk and had said yes to everything because I really couldn´t contribute tactical knowledge, which stayed unnoticed luckily. For me it was only important to get inside the fort and when it was finally dark, I was well on the way to do it.
We had split up. Clipper, who was an excellent sniper, had withdrawn on a tree with his rifle, was supposed to keep an eye on the guards on the palisade and kill them, if it was necessary. Stephane was going to cause a disturbance at the main gate and Duncan and I would enter the fort over the side entrance in the meantime. The men were entirely sure about their plan and so I tried to appear as relaxed as possible and to act, as if I had entered a guarded fort many times before and as if I wasn´t afraid of armed resistance.

Clipper had returned the dagger and the rapier to me by now and now I was cowering next to Duncan in a thicket, not far from the side entrance. We could see the two guards, who were lingering against the wooden stakes of the palisade, totally relaxed and obviously not expecting that their peace was going to end soon.
"When Stephane gives the signal, I will take care of the right one. You´re taking the left", Duncan whispered and I blinked at him dumbfounded.
"Er...what shall I do?"
Duncan raised an eyebrow and looked at me as if he expected me to be joking. "Well, eliminate him so that he can´t reveal our presence", he said slowly.
Of course. What else? I laughed nervously. "Yes...of course. Just a joke."
Hastily I looked back at the side entrance. Damn it, I couldn´t kill anyone. Criminal or not, I just couldn´t. But what had I expected? If I was passing myself off as an assassin, I was expected to act like one. But I didn´t want to kill people anyway and so I had to think of something quickly, but I barely had the opportunity. Riot broke out in the fort and shouts sounded. Stephane had obviously started his part of the plan. The guards at the side entrance turned towards the fort´s inside and that was reason enough for Duncan to give me a light push and leave the hideout. I quickly followed his example.

In the faint twilight of the moon we hurried to the entrance, split up on half the way and searched for cover in the shadow of the high palisade. The guards were only two steps away from me and my heart was in my mouth. Jesus, I really wasn´t made for this. But when I saw how Duncan pulled out his dagger and sneaked to the man on the right, I also pulled out my blade but turned it in my hand and while I heard how Duncan thrust the steel into the guard´s nape, I was striking the dagger´s pommel against the temple of the other with all my strength. I was lucky. The man collapsed backwards and into my arms with a quiet groan. I groaned under the sudden weight and my knees had almost given in. But I managed it to pull the man through the gate and to lean him against the palisade from outside. Duncan did the same but it was a dead body he was removing.
"Are you alright?", he asked me and I nodded, glad that he hadn´t noticed that I had let the man live. "Then off we go."

Together we entered the fort, but always stayed in the shadows, aside the lights of the scattered oil lamps. Duncan´s steps where calm and precise while I was expecting a surprising attack behind every corner and that was why I was following the assassin more or less tensely. But it seemed like there were not as many men in this fort as I had expected. Duncan and I were in the back of the fort, where they stored ammunition, barrels and other things. Nobody was to be seen because it seemed like all guards had gathered by the main gate from where I could hear Stephane´s voice.
"Who of you is the fils de pute who has screwed my wife and got her pregnant, eh?", he played the drunk. "I swear: Whoever it was, I will cut off his burettes and stuff them into his mouth!"
A loud bang sounded as Stephane threw something over the palisade.
"He takes the distraction very seriously", I murmured, half amused, half distraught.
Duncan smirked. "Stephane is a rioter. You shouldn´t spoil things with him. But he´s doing it well. These idiots prefer to watch his racket. We should use the chance and go to the house."
I followed his gaze to the long wooden house, which was the only building in the fort, apart from some small sheds. If the leader was somewhere, it must be there. He hadn´t left the fort after all and I doubted that he was keeping the company of his men. But it was also possible that there were more guards inside the house.

Duncan and I were thinking about this possibility, as we sneaked from cover to cover towards the house. We had a look at our environment occasionally, but didn´t take our time. Some of the guards had already gone outside to Stephane to accompany him out of the area and he certainly wasn´t able to play the distraction for too long. So I was more or less relieved as we hid behind some crates beside the house, the door only a few metres away.
"I can´t see anything through the windows", Duncan murmured. "We have to go inside and expect resistance anytime. Do you have your weapons ready?"
I nodded. They question was, if I was ready. But of course Duncan wasn´t worrying about that. He thought that I was a trained killer after all...if only he knew...
"Good, then let´s go inside." Before I knew it, Duncan had stepped to the door, had opened it and had pushed himself through the opening, a broad knife firmly in his hand. I had pulled out my dagger, too but hoped that I didn´t need it. But the entrance area was empty as I had entered behind Duncan and had closed the door. The about five metres long hallway was just sparsely illuminated, the doors to the adjoining rooms on both sides were closed. No sound was to hear, neither on the upper floor, the narrow wooden staircase to it laying completely in shadow.

Duncan gave me a signal, meaning something like: "You to the right, I to the left", before he went into said direction and I stood alone by the door with a fluttering heartbeat. I wanted to go with him so badly and yes: I would have loved to cling to his doublet and had wailingly begged him not to leave me alone. But my cover would have been down the drain then. Not to forget my pride I had somewhere inside of me.
If you´re passing yourself off as Janet Pierce, be Janet Pierce.
In a pathetic wave of courage, I straightened my shoulders, grabbed the handle of the dagger tighter and also put a hand to the rapier´s pommel while I slowly went to the first door on the right side and opened it a bit. The room behind it was empty. No men, no furniture. There was nothing else but some scruffy mattresses, rests of food on the floor and full chamber pots which were exuding a pungent smell. It seemed like this was the dormitory of the guards and once more I asked myself, how people were able to live in such holes. Even worse than animals, without any sense of cleanliness. Disgusted I squinched up my face, closed the door again and went on.

There was also nothing of interest in the other rooms. The whole basement was only sparsely furnished, although I had expected that the bandits had created themselves a comfortable camp here, where they stored all their plunder. But either they weren´t staying here for long yet, or they didn´t plan to stay. But this was only the basement. When Duncan and I met in the hallway, one gaze was enough communication and we went upstairs.
There were only four rooms. Two on each side and the assassin and I split up once again. The first room I entered was empty. Like I had almost expected it. But when I opened the second door, I stopped for a moment and looked at the room with a fluttering heartbeat. There was a broad bed, a desk, shelves with books and rolled-up documents and a comfortable-looking armchair in front of a cold fireplace. Only the moon was illuminating the room with its cold light and I needed a moment to get used to the darkness, after all the other rooms had been illuminated. Long shadows were lingering in the room but I couldn´t see anything suspicious so that I stepped in hesitantly. I couldn´t say why, but something was telling me that I had just come closer to my answers. I crossed the room slowly and approached the desk with several documents on it. I lifted some of them, held them into the moonlight and tried to read them. Several notes, about plans and courses of the attacks. But none of the documents was telling something about the man who was behind all this. But a small part of me believed to recognize the handwriting they were written in. But this part was drown out by the aversion to identify Ray as the leader of all this.

"There must be something", I murmured and searched, now a bit hectically, the desk. I stopped, when my hand brushed a document. I felt something cold and wet on my hand and when I held it into the moonlight, I saw the reason. Ink. The ink on the paper was still wet. Did it mean that it had just been written? I gulped and suddenly had the urgent need to storm out of this room, this house and this fort and to leave everything far behind me. I could feel the hairs in my nape stand on end because at the same time, I was seized by another feeling.
The feeling that I wasn´t alone.
I ordered the documents I had moved somehow, with nervous hands and went to the door with quick steps. But it swung shut all of the sudden and fell into the lock with a muffled bang. My heart almost stopped and I almost screamed when a shadow pulled away from the wall behind the door and approached me. I stumbled backwards, raised the dagger towards the shadow which came closer and closer, not impressed by it. I could only see the outlines of a wide cape and human legs and feet, but nothing more. My thoughts were racing through my head. I weighed up my ways to escape. Tried to judge if I could manage it to fight my way to the door with dagger and rapier. But I also thought of calling for Duncan, but my throat felt like I couldn´t make a sound. Maybe I would be dead before Duncan could help me.

So I kept stumbling backwards, but my ways to escape were run out as my backside bumped against the desk and I almost fell. I kept the dagger up with shaky hands and the shadow stopped luckily. It felt like an eternity while we were just standing in front of each other, but suddenly the figure leaped forward. Before I could react, it had twisted my hand that was holding the dagger. I screamed when my wrist uttered a disgusting snap and the weapon fell to the floor. The figure pulled me closer, turned with me, so that the moon shined into my face and pulled the tricorn off my head. I believed to hear a gasp and a voice underneath the hood, mumbling a name while tears were blurring my vision. My wrist hurt terribly and was still in the firm grip of the stranger.

I could hear his stertorous breathing but also steps on the hallway and a voice that was quietly calling Janet´s name. Then the door was pushed open and I didn´t need to see him to know that Duncan had come in.
"Let her go", he growled and I almost expected the stranger to mock him for that. But he didn´t. He really let my hand go, turned me around and pushed me to Duncan who caught me luckily before I could fall to the floor.
"Leave!", said the shadow whose voice barely sounded human. "Leave now and nobody will harm you."
Duncan growled something, but when he felt that I began to tremble convulsively, he obviously came to the decision to follow this order. He put one of my arms over his shoulders and quickly accompanied me downstairs. I heard the stranger following us. But even though he was in the light of the lamps now, I didn´t turn around to look at him. I just concentrate on not letting the nausea and pain in my hand gain the upper hand.

The bandits were already standing on the courtyard as we left the house and seemed to be surprised when we came out just like that. Obviously they really hadn´t noticed anything. But when they pulled out their weapons, the stranger barked at them that they should let us go. Duncan swore because obviously he would have preferred a fight. But he certainly knew that I wasn´t in the condition for it. So he led me to the side entrance of the fort, followed by some men who wanted to make sure that we were really leaving. They stayed behind by the gate while we hurried to the maize field where we wanted to meet the others. Duncan lifted me on his arms on half the way and began to run while I kept my injured wrist in a firm grip with clenched teeth. Not until the fort was far behind us and we had surrounded half of the field, Duncan put me on my feet again and Clipper and Stephane came out of their hideouts.
"What happened?", asked Stephane and Clipper was by my side in an instant to have a look at my wrist.
"We were in the main building", Duncan started to tell growling. "We found nothing but Janet was surprised by this Jarvis in the last room. I heard her scream and when I came in, he was just seizing her and pushed her to me. He said we should leave and took care that his men let us go."
"He let you go?" Stephane's voice was almost overflowing with disbelief but I barely had a word for it. I uttered a scream of pain as Clipper squeezed my wrist and I felt how the nausea increased to an urge to gag.
"It´s probably broken", Clipper murmured. "We should bring you away from here and treat it in peace. Are you able to ride?"
I nodded with clenched teeth and even though I wasn´t sure, if I would really be able to ride.

But Clipper helped me onto Aldah´s back shortly afterwards and we rode back to the city. The ride was agony because every little shake sent a wave of pain through my body and not only once I was on the brink of vomiting. This temporary agony ended only when we reached a closed tavern and after Clipper had helped me down, the men led me into the building Stephane had unlocked before. He disappeared in a back room and returned with two wooden sticks and bandages.
"We´re no doctors, but if your hand is broken, it probably would be better if we immobilize it for now. You can go to a doctor tomorrow. Tonight there will be none who would come here."
I just nodded with an agonized expression and endured it without complaint, as Clipper put the sticks to my hand and wrapped the bandage tightly around it. It didn´t help against the pain but it made it more bearable because unintentional movements were impossible now. But the pain was my smallest concern at the moment anyway. I neither thought about how I wanted to explain a broken hand at home. I neither thought of the lost dagger and tricorn. My thoughts were with the stranger and the name he had murmured and of which I didn´t know, if I had really heard it or if my mind had played a trick on me.
Lilly.