Page 2 of Unearthing the Smuggler's Heart
"In a way, I am here on behalf of the Silver Leaf Society, as your two young visitors were," Pauline told her, moving as though she wanted to reach for Jade's hand, but knew she should not. "But I am not on the same mission. It is complex, I'm afraid, and I promise that you will receive a full explanation one day, after tonight's doings are done. For now, just know that we are on your side. We are here to liberate your mother. We are here to right a wrong."
"You are late," Jade replied dryly. "My mother's imprisonment predates my birth."
"We are, yes," Pauline allowed. "Very late indeed."
There was another scuffing sound in the hallway, and a hissed exchange of words between two unknown accomplices.
Jade wanted to rebuke these unseen strangers beyond her door. She wanted to tell them to be silent. Her heart had begun to pound in her chest, beating against its confines at the suggestion of freedom, of something new and unknown. "Where are you taking us?" she asked, toes curling against the warm confines of her slippers, anchoring her to the familiar.
"I am only taking Diane tonight," the older woman said gently, with a hint of apology to her tone. "You must stay, for now, lest our ruse be exposed."
"I will not leave my mother," Jade replied, the words escaping from her lips like she had rehearsed them. It was a thing she had said so often that it now appeared unbidden, in any applicable circumstance.
"I am not asking you to leave her," Pauline Olivier said, finally giving in to her instinct to provide a maternal touch and laying her fingers on Jade's bare shoulder. "I am asking you to protect her by staying. You will provide two services to your mother this way: you will validate the false appearance of her demise, thus negating any need for a manhunt to find her, and you will retain your own unblemished history as an English citizen. These are things she wants for you, my love."
"Her demise?" Jade cut in, aware that Pauline had not finished speaking just yet.
"You do not want to know the details, I assure you. Suffice to say that another woman will be taking her place. One who is already beyond the reach of imprisonment or pain." Pauline grimaced, wrinkling her nose at the implication of what she was saying, or perhaps at the reality of it just beyond the bedroom door. "They will find the body on the morrow, and you must play your part so that we can make a clean escape."
Jade blinked.The body.
"You may put a few items together to save from the fire to come," she continued, as though this were a perfectly normal conversation. "We will keep them with us and deliver them to your next destination. Not very much, I'm afraid, but anything that is particularly senti—"
"You cannot," Jade choked, her body so tense, it might crack if she tried to move. "You do not know my mother's state. She is not well. She needs me. She needs particular care."
"I have known your mother for all of my life. We have already spoken this evening and she has agreed to our plan. I promise you, we will see to her care. She wishes to be reunited with your father, after all."
"My father is in prison."
Pauline Olivier shook her head, squeezing her fingers against Jade's shoulder. "Not anymore."
"I must then instruct you, at the very least," Jade breathed, her heart surely cracking the delicate ivory of her ribs, slamming as it was against the confines of her fragile body. "She requires routine. She needs adherence to a schedule or she loses her grip on reality. I am telling you truly, my mother is not well!"
"Shh, I know, I know," the other woman assured her. "I promise you she will be in the best care. All of us love her very much."
"All of you," Jade echoed weakly.
There were questions she knew needed asking. Where would she go without her mother? What would she do to survive? And why now? What star had shifted to change their fates on this particular day? Whose hand was twisting at the fabric of their lives?
And, most importantly, why hadn't it happened years and years and years ago?
She turned her face from Pauline Olivier, sucking in a little gulp of oxygen, grounding herself in the present. She glanced at the clock again. She could hear it ticking faintly, but its face was too difficult to read from this distance. That wasn't what drew her eye to it, however.
Even from here, she knew what the etching along its rim said. She had run her fingers over it so many times that her fingertips had worn at the grooving and the phrase had engraved itself into her very soul. The voice in her head was her own, reciting the quote, believing it.
Of human virtues, patience is most great.
She had dreamed of this moment from girlhood. She had lain in this very bed, too small then for her toes to touch the base, and pictured this exact thing. She had wished and wished for a grand escape and a limitless future.
She had told herself that the words on the clock, uttered by a long-dead Roman senator, were a promise. Those words assured her that if she behaved, if she sat, and waited, and remained calm, that she would be rewarded.
Surely she had stopped believing that as she grew.
Hadn't she?
It took her a moment to realize that she was being spoken to again, and she turned back to the other woman with wide, blinking eyes and a ready apology on her lips.
For whatever reason, this action silenced her rescuer. Pauline's brow furrowed and she reached forward, cupping Jade's face in her hands.
