Page 105 of Sands of Sirocco
“Stephen is a German spy, Lucy.”Ginger met her dark, confused gaze.“He used Father’s debts to him to manipulate and push him into horrific crimes.Crimes that led to his killing Father in the desert last May.Stephen shot Father while trying to kill me.”
Her mother flinched.“What?How?What were you doing there?”
Tell the entire truth.Ginger didn’t want to remember it herself.How would she ever get the words out?She rubbed the back of her arm with the opposite hand.“When you and Lucy got on that boat to Luxor with Angelica Fisher and I’d run off—I went to deliver something of importance to the government to Noah.But Stephen, Father, and Henry tried to stop us and when they caught up with us, Stephen tried to kill me.Father died saving me.”
Lucy steadied herself once again on William’s arm, as though she was about to faint.William offered her a comforting arm, drawing her close against him.Two red spots appeared on his pale face.
“Stephen killed Edmund?”Her mother trembled, as though unsure of how to respond.
“Yes, Mama.”
The room was quiet and Ginger swallowed, her words tinged with bile.
“But accidentally.”Her mother fixed an icy stare at Ginger.“It seems to me Colonel Benson still winds up at fault for many things.And your silence about Henry’s death tells me it must have been Benson.I know it was him.I know it in my heart.Henry wasn’t mixed up with the crimes Edmund had committed.Henry was a good man, and he never—”
“I killed Henry, Mama!”The words ripped from Ginger’s throat in a way she hadn’t expected.
Shocked silence filled the room.
Ginger felt unsteady.She’d actually said it.
She hated herself for doing this to her family.Telling them the truth about her marriage to Noah under these circumstances was bad enough.Adding to it the knowledge of what she’d done in the spring … they’d never forgive her now.
The admission spread through the room like a poisoned mist.
Lucy left William’s side and rushed to her mother.She stared at Ginger, horrified.She looked beautiful and grown-up in her evening gown, earrings sparkling from her earlobes.“Ginny, what are you saying?”
Her mother’s gloved fingertips covering her lips.“Why?”
“I …” Ginger’s throat went dry, what little bravado she’d felt fading.What did I do?
Telling them the truth didn’t assuage her guilt.She’d only brought the horror of the past back into their lives again.Lucy didn’t even know the extent of her father’s crimes.She swallowed hard, then managed, “Henry was going to kill Noah.He shot him, multiple times.I was forced to intervene and … I had to shoot him.”
“Youhadto?”Her mother repeated in disbelief.As though she couldn’t comprehend what could have possibly induced her daughter to kill her son.
“Mother, you’ve received a farrago of information about all this.Henry had already thrown his lot in with Stephen and Father.He’d hidden his knowledge of the truth, tried to kill a spy for the British, kidnapped a nurse, and participated in her torture—”
“Ginger, for goodness’ sake …” Her mother’s voice held another warning, as though she was saying too much.For her part, Lucy didn’t appear to have blinked, transfixed by Ginger’s words.
“Henry was far from blameless.”Any certainty Ginger had felt that telling her family the truth was vanishing.
“So you destroyed our family?”Lucy managed, her voice in disbelief.“I can’t believe it.Why are you saying such cruel and terrible things like this?Stephen told me about your obsession with him.How he’d been forced to put distance between you because of your erratic behavior.I never imagined that it could be true.”
Stephen had said what?
Fury seeped through Ginger’s skin and she caught the uncertain look in William’s face, the shift onto his back leg.Lucy’s words made her want to vomit.
At the same time, Lucy didn’t understand.She couldn’t accept the truth.
Ginger gathered herself together, her jaw clenched.She had to make Lucy believe the truth about Stephen.Her mother sniffled and Ginger refused to look at her.Mama could speak up, tell Lucy what she knew about Stephen.Why doesn’t she?
“You’re wrong, Lucy.You’ve been lied to.Whatever purpose Stephen had in trying to woo you—I promise you it was malicious.I was never obsessed with Stephen.But he was obsessed with me.He tried to rape me—”
Lucy and her mother gasped.
William paled, stepping further back.
“And he carved his initials into my chest to claim me.”Before she could regret it, Ginger tugged back the neckline on her gown, shifting it just enough that her scar was visible.
