Tact and negotiating skills
I felt like I was sitting on glowing coals at home for four days and waited for a proverbial sign of life from Connor. Had the gang attacked? Had Connor and his brothers been able to stop them? Had they fought? Had something happened to someone? I was asking myself these questions almost in every free minute and it drove me mad, even though I should be used to it already. When Connor was away, I could never know exactly when he was going to return and especially if he was going to stay unharmed. So this situation wasn´t new, but still different. I just wanted all of this to end at last. That Ray and his men were stopped and punished. If I wasn´t wrong – and I was sure that I wasn´t – and Ray really had killed my parents back then, it would be a satisfaction for me. I wanted him to finally disappear from my life. To say that it was going to be more peaceful then, was a way too optimistic thought, but it was different, if the current threat was part of your own family. It was more frightening and this fear made me become more and more irritated, with every day that passed.
When somebody talked to me, I was just giving short answers and I attended grimly to my tasks. Maria and Caleb always eyed me sceptically and only Emily made me become reasonably calm, because luckily I was forced to relax, when I was carrying her with me. So I often sat down in the shadows of the trees with her, bedded her on my lap and cuddled her, which she enjoyed noticeably. When she was pleased, I just couldn´t have dark thoughts, but what would life be, if it wasn´t facing you with heavy headwinds from time to time?
I just bedded the sleeping Emily in the wrap around my chest, when I heard Maria´s voice coming from the stables. I followed her call and was alarmed in an instant as I saw the strange man next to her, holding a heavily breathing horse by its reins. It looked like they had hurried here in quick gallop and if this man was a messenger, the message was urgent and urgent often meant that something had happened.
"Mrs. Lillian Kenway?", the man asked and when I nodded, he bowed his head shortly and grabbed into the pocket of his coat. "I shall give you this letter from Samuel Adams. He said it´s about your husband and that he..."
I didn´t let him finish this sentence but tore the letter out of his hand, unfolded it and made a few steps away from him and Maria. My heart pounded painfully fast in my chest, because I already feared that this letter was supposed to tell me that I could call myself a widow from now on. But luckily it didn´t, although it wasn´t reassuring me at all.
"That´s a bad joke!", I uttered and turned around to Maria and the messenger, who winced shortly. What did people say? Don´t kill the messenger? He was lucky that I didn´t have anything I could kill him with. So he was only exposed to my grim gaze, until Maria pushed herself a bit in front of him, as if she was afraid that I could actually attack him.
"What is it?", she asked concerned and I immediately began to wave the letter underneath her nose, which she noticed with hectic blinking.
"Connor and his brothers have been arrested", I snorted and Maria´s jaw dropped open for a moment. "It looks like the templars knew about the attack, too and managed it somehow that the whole world thinks that the assassins were the criminals, who didn´t turn up by the way."
The letter in my hand rustled as I closed my fingers firmly around it and pressed it to a ball. I didn´t know which feeling was stronger. The fear or the anger, although I couldn´t even tell what I was angry about. About Connor´s plan to catch the gang when it became active, which turned out to be a total defeat? About the templars who were now interfering in our problems, too? My shoulders slumped forward, as well as my head. When would all this come to an end?
Maria cleared her throat and gently put a hand on my shoulder. "Did Mr. Adams write anything else?", she asked me quietly and just got the crumpled letter pushed into her hand. She unfolded it, read it and uttered a sigh. "I guess his insuring that you don´t need to worry doesn´t fall on fertile ground?"
I shook my head. Sam Adams wrote that he was already attending to the release of Connor and his men, but to read the word "templars" had been enough to make me become pessimistic about this release. The order had proved often enough that it was made of devious men, who did everything to impose their aims. When they had caught assassins, they wouldn´t let them go.
My hand was resting on Emily´s head, who had woken up shortly and while I was stroking through her black hair, I made a decision.
"I have to go to Boston", I said in a low voice and when I raised my eyes, Maria was staring at me dumbfounded. "I can´t stay here and wait. I have to know what´s going on, or I´m losing my mind."
"And what about Emily? Do you want to take her with you? On a horse?"
It was a legitimate objection. Emily needed me and so I couldn´t leave her here and in Maria´s care, but she was also too small and so I couldn´t and didn´t want to expect her to endure a travel on horseback. Nevertheless I had made my decision.
I turned to the messenger, who had been standing silently beside his horse until now and obviously didn´t know how to judge my reaction. I tried to smile while saying: "Could you tell Mr. Adams that we are going to arrive tomorrow? Whatever negotiations he´s doing for my husband´s release, I want to join them."
"Yes, ma'am." The messenger bowed his head shortly and I really believed to see relief in his gaze, as he mounted his horse again and rode away. In the meantime Maria was staring at me as if she doubted my mind. Probably she did.
"So you really want to ride to Boston?", she asked, but I shook my head.
"We will drive to Boston. With the carriage. You, Emily and I." And with these words I went to the house to prepare our quick departure.
We arrived in Boston shortly after dawn of the next day. The journey had been entirely calm, especially because Emily had behaved as peacefully as she never had before, although my nervousness didn´t want to vanish. It became even bigger as Maria stopped the carriage in front of Samuel Adams' house. He was already expecting us, but couldn´t hold back a reproachful gaze when we greeted each other.
"It wasn´t necessary for you to come here. You can be sure that I´m trying everything I can to free Connor, Clipper and Duncan."
"I know, Samuel." I gave him an apologetic smile. "But it wasn´t giving me a moment´s rest and I hoped that I can join your negotiations. Are you in direct contact with the templars?"
Adams nodded. "Two of them belong to the local politicians. So it wasn´t difficult for the order to make our friends look guilty. But until now I couldn´t talk to someone who is in charge. Hopefully it will change today. Strictly speaking, you´re coming in exact the right moment. I just wanted to leave for a conversation with Peter Callaghan, the current grandmaster of the order and furthermore General of a regiment of the American army."
Callaghan. I knew this name. I raised an eyebrow. "The grandmaster is willing to talk to you about the release of assassins? Something´s fishy about that, if you ask me."
"I think that, too." Adams nodded grimly. "But until now we have no other opportunities."
My gaze slid to Maria, who stood silently next to me and was holding Emily in her arms.
"Can you take care of her while I´m visiting this Callaghan with Mr. Adams?"
Actually I didn´t like the thought of leaving Emily behind. But the little one knew Maria and I knew that my friend was going to take care of her. They wouldn´t have problems with each other and I didn´t like the thought of taking Emily with me to a templar at all. When Maria answered my question with a nod, I turned to Sam Adams again, who obviously wasn´t entirely pleased to take me with him. But after he had told Surry, the maid I still knew from Philadelphia, to accompany Maria inside the house, we set off to the city.
With a carriage we drove to a house that didn´t look different from every other brick house in Boston from the outside. It was ordinary, if you ignored the snipers on the roof and behind the windows, who knew how to hide themselves cleverly. This was a meeting place for templars, no doubt. Only they were always so paranoid that they tried to protect themselves with such security. When Adams knocked on the door, it was opened by a chunky, grimly looking man in the clothes of a guard. My companion was already expected, but I was sceptically scrutinized.
"What does the woman want here?", he asked Adams, as if he was thinking that I wasn´t able to talk for myself.
"Lillian Kenway is also interested in a conversation with General Callaghan. We have the same intentions and you surely have nothing to be afraid of a lady like her." Samuel Adams stayed entirely neutral and friendly, but the man looked at him as if he had offended him badly.
"Mr. Callaghan is only expecting you, not a stupid bitch."
"Tell him, the stupid bitch is the niece of Richard Jarvis. Maybe he will expect me then", I replied sharply and wasn´t intimidated by his threatening gaze. He could be glad that I had received a certain education compared to him. With a last growl he slammed the door shut, obviously to talk to his General about the stupid bitch that was so shamelessly standing in front of the door.
"Your uncle was a templar?", Adams asked me interested, but entirely neutral.
"Was", I replied. "Luckily Connor freed me from his care...more or less voluntarily. But I have nothing to do with the order."
Adams nodded and we became silent until the door opened again and we were asked to enter the house by the same guy. He led us through a narrow hallway, upstairs and finally to a study, whose door was wide open.
Inside sat a uniformed man, with close-cropped white hair and a clean-shaven chin, behind a desk, standing up when we entered the room. A smile on his lips which I would have found friendly and pleasant on every other person, if I hadn´t known to which organisation he belonged to.
"Mr. Adams." He reached out his hand to the Sam and not until then he turned to me. "Miss Lillian Jarvis. I would have never expected to see you again. The last time I met you was on a dinner in your uncle´s house. I was really shocked and surprised to learn all these...things about you. I heard you can´t turn up in London anymore?"
His tone was almost disgustingly friendly while I saw the pure scorn in his eyes. I wasn´t surprised that he liked to keep telling the story that I had turned against my home country, when I had wanted to support the assassins in London and free Connor, after he had been arrested for the murder of a judge and templar. But if he believed that he could offend me, he was wrong.
"Neither Miss, nor Jarvis", I corrected him, entirely unmoved. "I´m a married Kenway."
Callaghan nodded slowly and gave me an apologetic smile. "Of course. I already heard about it. What a pity that you couldn´t improve your status. Now it became even worse."
His words, connected with this scrutinizing gaze at my ordinary clothes had been supposed to offend me. But I put on a bright smile as I replied:
"Don´t worry. I´m very fine. There aren´t so many terrible people around me anymore."
Callaghans expression darkened when I uttered this obvious dig at the order.
"You should be careful, Mrs. Kenway. It´s not wise to offend the one who is in charge over your husband's fait."
"So you felt involved?"
Callaghan was right but I didn´t intend to let him offend and threaten me. He should know what I was thinking about him and people like him because even though I wasn´t exactly on the side of the assassins, I really was feeling hostility for the templar order and I certainly wouldn´t let myself be pushed around.
We put on a real duel with our gazes until Samuel Adams cleared his throat and touched my arms lightly. "I´m sure we can resolve this problem peacefully. Nobody of us is here to support some...sides. This is about justice."
"And you think justice means to release three terrorists?" Callaghan smiled sanctimonious. "You are a politician, Sir. Do you really want to free men who wanted to attack politicians like you? Honest men who are caring for the people´s wellbeing?"
"I think this is a big misunderstanding. The men, who have been arrested, wanted to prevent an attack and didn´t intend to harm anyone."
I admired Adams for staying so calm and polite. Callaghans behaviour reminded me of a snake, lurking in the bushes and waiting for the chance to attack and release its venom. You had to cut off its head instead of encouraging it. But maybe this was the best thing to do in this situation, although I doubted that Callaghan would listen to us. His self-content smile proved me right.
"They came through the tunnels and resisted my men when they wanted to arrest them. Four of them died. That no one of the politicians was harmed is due to the fact that we learned about these perfidious plans earlier and were able to evacuate the building", he said and folded his hands in front of his belly. "I think to detain them is entirely justified, at least until we can bring them before a judge."
"As if you would grant them fair proceedings!", I uttered and angrily glared at the templar. "Don´t be ridiculous. You know that they did nothing and only detain them because of their affiliation to the brotherhood. Don´t let us beat about the bush."
Callaghan looked me over, almost amused, while Adams was giving me a warning gaze. But this conversation was entirely ridiculous. It wasn´t about the assassins' intrusion into the State House, although the templars wanted to make the people think that. They had to justify the arrest somehow after all. But we all knew what this really was about and I didn´t see why I should keep grinning and bearing it. Who knew what the templars had already done to the three men? In what kind of pit they were rotting in?
"Is that so?", Callaghan asked amused. "Well, basically it is not important what I´m thinking about your husband and his friends. It is important what the people and our judges think and do you know what this situation is looking like for them?", he asked mockingly. "A group of bandits, led by Raymond Jarvis, is threatening the people of the freed colonies. They send three men to commit a well-aimed attack on the government officials of the State of Massachusetts. One of these men is coincidentally a relative by marriage of said Raymond Jarvis." He cocked his head and his smile became cold. "You know what I want to say? It isn´t difficult to connect Connor and his brothers with these crimes and not even a simple peasant would deny it. You are related to Jarvis, aren´t you? I saw your family´s seal on his correspondences."
That I didn´t say anything and just stared at him seemed to be answer enough for Callaghan. He sat down on his chair and leaned back, entirely satisfied with himself. "You know, Lillian: If the assassins hadn´t interfered in our businesses, we wouldn´t have this conversation. The templar order will take care of these criminals and we don´t need assassins who are standing in our way, without knowing what this is really about."
"And what is it about?"
Callaghan looked at me as mockingly as always. "That´s none of your business. Like I said: You should never have interfered and I would suggest you leave now. Otherwise I could decide to arrest you as well. You could be in league with these criminals, too, after all. Couldn´t you?"
This terrible... I took a step towards Callaghan, following the urge to slap him for his impudence. But Adams held me back, while Callaghan's smile froze.
"I wish you a good day, Ma'am. Sir." He gave his grim watchdog a signal and soon Adams and I were standing on the street in front of the house. I seethed with rage.
"This bastard!", I called out and stared up to the window of Callaghan´s study. "For him it is just about some power plays! We could have spared ourselves the journey here."
"There would be no need, if you had pulled yourself together." Adams looked at me seriously and I was tempted to contradict, but he raised a hand. "Yes, he´s a templar and yes: Of course he only wants to harm the assassins. But if you had let me talk, we would have learned more about the arrest and what will happen to them. Then I could have turned to some officials to influence the proceedings. Now we have nothing."
My anger vanished in an instant. It hadn´t been aware to me what Adams had intended with this visit. I had thought he had wanted to persuade Callaghan to release Connor and the others. I closed my eyes and uttered a quiet curse. I had ruined everything with my callousness.
"And what shall we do now?", I asked sheepishly.
Adams shrugged his shoulders. "For now we will drive back and think about it. But I really don´t know which opportunities we have left now."
The journey back to Adams' house was silent. I was ashamed of my behaviour, but beside the anger I was feeling for the templars, I became more and more afraid for Connor. I had already learned about his arrest through the templars once and back then I had almost lost him. I didn´t want to imagine what the order intended to do to the assassins and what they probably had decided already. Sheepishly I had to tell Maria about my behaviour at Callaghan´s and I didn´t feel better as Adams led us into the parlour of the house and I saw Stephane Chapheau waiting for us there. The assassin´s expression hardened when he saw me. Understandable. He certainly remembered my lie about my identity as Janet Pierce. I had seen him as an impulsive and maybe not always pleasant man, so that I kept an eye on him and expected a verbal attack in every moment, while I sat down on an armchair, holding Emily firmly in my arms. But it seemed like Stephane had decided that I wasn´t worth his attention and so he ignored me thoroughly when Sam Adams sat down, too and asked him and Maria to do the same. I just got a deadly gaze when Adams talked about our visit at Callaghan´s.
"Were you able to learn something?", Adams asked the assassin who nodded grimly.
"I asked around a bit. I heard the templars want to bring the others to their fort on the eastern edge of the town. Officially they say they would be in safer custody there than in the town´s prison, but I think I don´t have to tell you that this is complete nonsense. The templars just want to make sure that they are entirely in their hands."
That was exactly what I had feared. If the templars had Connor and the others finally in their hands, it would become more difficult to free them. Probably even Samuel Adams wouldn´t be able to do something for them anymore. No matter how much political influence he had. I swallowed heavily and looked at Emily, who was laying gurgling in my arms and scrutinized her little hands and fingers with fascination. She was entirely unmoved by the worries around her, but it made my heart become heavy that she basically didn´t know about her father´s problems. Especially for her I wanted that Connor was able to return to us soon, unharmed at best.
"Is there any chance to get to them before?", I asked Stephane, who squinched up his face shortly. Obviously he didn´t like that I couldn´t fulfil my role as the invisible evil. Nevertheless he forced himself to answer.
"Oui. The transport is supposed to take place this evening before sunset. I even know their route. I will intercept them and get the others out of there."
It didn´t sound like he doubted that he could actually do this. But there was one particular catch: He had said "I will intercept them", so he had nobody to support him somehow and the templars certainly wouldn´t send the prisoner transport without guards. I didn´t doubt Stephane´s skills as an assassin, but somehow I had the feeling that he was too optimistic about a possible success. When I uttered my doubts carefully and with other words, the assassin looked at me as if he wanted to smash my head in. Obviously it wasn´t appropriate for a swindler to interfere in his plans. But I just selfishly wanted that Connor didn´t get a bullet in his head, while Stephane was trying to kill the guards. They surely had nothing left to defend themselves. Luckily Sam Adams had the same opinion like me and suggested that we should all think about a way to free the others and we did, until it was time to proceed to action.
