Catching Dragons ch.8

Ch.8   The Hunted





James looked up the loft staircase; a straight set that led up into pitch blackness. His hook slid across the wooden railing as he slowly made his way up. The door closed behind him and he became engulfed in the darkness. Having to now feel his way up, he moved even slower, feeling around each step to be certain there was another one above it. He felt a tiny chain lightly tap against his face and once he found it, he grabbed hold of it and pulled it. The entire loft lit up with a dim yellow light that came from a large bulb hanging in the centre of the ceiling.

The loft was filled with wooden crates, chests and barrels that were covered by various flags and banners. Swords, rapiers and sabers of all sorts hung from one of the walls, side by side with a rack of pistols and rifles. A black, snake skin guitar case rested against the leg of a beautifully decorated red and gold harpsichord, its lid closed and piled high with several wide brimmed, cavalier style hats.

James approached the collection carefully. Everything was there and in pristine condition. He made his way to a large chest that was placed at the far end of the loft, just beneath a window. He knelt down in front of it, lifted its latches, and opened the lid. The first thing he saw was a bright, scarlet red coat, heavily decorated with gold trim and clock gear buttons. He lifted it at the shoulders and held the limp fabric in his hand. Under this coat, he saw several more folded neatly under it, a heavy dark blue one, a black and gold one, even a beautiful dark purple one that was decorated with gold quilt-stitching and green ribbon. As he stood up, he lifted the red coat up and out of the chest and slid his arms through the sleeves. He let it hang for a moment, just under his shoulders before it pulling it up and closing it front of his chest. He turned and looked at one of the mirrors next to him. The bright red of coat flashed even brighter against the pale skin of his bare chest. A dark V shape was tanned into his chest from wearing deep cut shirts in the warmer months. He became so fixed on his reflection that he didn’t hear the footsteps coming up the stairs, or tread softly across the creaky wooden floorboards.


Two hands wrapped around his waist and he saw his aunt’s head poke out from around his arm. She purred loudly as she gave James a tight hug.

“You sure know how to grab a girl’s attention,” she said.

James smiled, but could feel his face getting warm, “Not sure how I feel about that, coming from you, Em.”

Emily moved around him to see him from the front. She pulled the front lapels of the coat forward a bit so the coat sat more evenly on James’ shoulders, then smoothed her hands down the front of his chest. Having just woken up, James was only wearing a pair of long trousers and no shirt; Emily had no complaints of this however.

“I think this one’s ma’ favourite,” She straightened the fabric out a bit more, more because she couldn’t keep her hands off it, not because it needed fixing. “I wore this one around the house several times, very comfortable. Ya always had good taste in clothes.”

“You wore this? How were you not swimming in it?” The coat already came down to James’ knees, he figured on his aunt it was probably just shy of her ankles.

“I was,” she laughed, “but that made it all the more comfortable.”

The ruby red of the coat really made James’ eyes stand out, even in the dimly lit loft, they still shone brightly in contrast with their surrounding colours. Everyone in the family had those bright eyes.

“How’d you know I was up here?”

“I came up to wake you and saw the loft hatch open. Neifion’s still sleeping down on the couch, figured I’d leave him for ya. That’s if the dogs don’t get him first.”

A smile spread across James’ face, “The dogs can have as much fun with him as they want, just as long as I get to see it.”

James let the coat fall from his shoulders and he folded it over his arm before tossing it lightly back into the chest.

“Not sure how I’m going to move all of this.”

“What do ya plan on doin’ with it?”

“Keep what I need and sell the rest. I’m going to need the money and I’m going to need the extra space. What more can I do?”

“You’re not gonna leave anythin’ here?” it was clear in Emily’s voice she wanted James to at least leave a few things with her.

“You can keep whatever you’d like, Em.”

She smirked and pointed over at the coat that spilt out from the chest, “I definitely want that one.”

***

With Emily leading the way, the two of them went back downstairs. When Emily rounded the corner of the staircase, she immediately covered her mouth with her hand and turned around, trying desperately to cover a laugh.

“What? What is it?”

Emily couldn’t talk, she point over to Neifion and allowed James to come around in front of her.

Neifion was on his back, laying on the couch, sound asleep. Baron was sniffing around at Neifion’s shirt at first, then moved up to his face. Neifion began to yawn and just as he did, Baron stuck his nose right up to his mouth, then sneezed.

Both James and Emily were trying to keep themselves from laughing too hard as Neifion spit and sputtered, startling Baron so much the Great Dane tripped over the coffee table as he tried to scramble away.

“Really!” Neifion let out a string of curses and threats in Welsh as he sat up, trying to wipe away the doggie snot that had splattered all over his face. It wasn’t until he looked over at the stairwell and saw James and Emily that the two of them started laughing.

“Ya saw that, huh?” he said.

Emily nodded, “Everything!”

“And ya didn’t try to stop him, thanks...” He didn’t realize that Baron and returned and circled the couch from behind. He stuck his nose in Neifion’s face again and licked his ear.

“Go away!”

Baron flinched again, but it wasn’t long before he went back to harassing Neifion. Eventually he just allowed it, there was no use in fighting a dog that was just as big as he was.

“Sleep well, Nef?”

“Ya know I did, until someone sneezed in my mouth.” He shot a glare at Baron who happily wagged his tail.

“Good, because we’re gonna be moving some of James’ things down here today.”

“We’re leaving?”

James nodded, “Soon. We’re not gonna be here for too much longer.”

Just as Neifion began to stand up there was loud series of knocks on Emily’s front door and everyone froze.

She looked at the two of them and hissed, “Hide!”

Neifion ran over to a coat closet and jumped inside, making sure to hide himself behind a trunk that was sitting on the closet floor.

James lifted a corner of the rug behind the couch and upon revealing a hatched door, lifted the handle and slid down inside. It was a hatch that led down into the basement of the house. After the hatch was closed Emily folded the pull-ring down and covered it back up with the rug.

The knocking became louder,

“Alright!” Emily yelled, “Just a tick!” She looked in the mirror really quick to fix her hair and smooth out her dress, then unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Standing outside was a tall man dressed in a black suit with smoothed back wavy black hair; a top hat in one hand and an umbrella, already folded up, in the other. The other was a young woman with curly, raven hair. Both of them had piercing blue eyes.

“Benjamin!” Emily cried, “Come in! Come in, I wasn’t expectin’ ya!”

He smiled down at Emily, “I wasn’t expecting to be here.”

Emily allowed the two to come inside. Benjamin hung his hat, coat and umbrella from a hat rack next to the front door and helped the young woman with her shawl, which was wet from the rain outside, and hung that up for her.

Emily threw her arms around the girl and pulled her into a tight hug, “Jessica! Good to see ya, dearie!”

“Good to see you as well, Aunt Em.”

Jessica had the family’s signature crystal-blue eyes and a smile that has stopped many men dead in their tracks. Though it was nearly unheard of for a woman her age to still be single, she was, often claiming she was too wild for such ‘normal’ things and wanted to remain free for a few more years. She followed the same path as her aunt, getting involved with a theatre troupe after graduating from university. Tall, like her father and slender, she was considered a prize by just about every man in their little corner of London who were all after that once kiss they could never get.


James could hear the goings on just up above him and he felt a tightness in his chest.

“What brings ya out this way, Ben? The weather’s just horrid out there!”

“Not much better in London,” he said, taking a seat in one of the chairs by Emily’s fireplace, “I came here because I needed to speak with you. It’s dreadfully important. Jessica, could you give us some privacy?”

Jessica nodded obediently and briskly walked out of the parlour and into the kitchen.

“Oh?” Emily could feel her heart start to race, “And what could that be?”

“We found James,” he said. “He’s alive.”

Emily gasped and folded her hands over her mouth, “He’s alive? He’s alright?”

Benjamin nodded, “Alive, but not alright. He was found by one of my hired commanders...”

“Where is he now?” Emily cut him off.

Benjamin sighed, “We don’t know. We were holding him at Millbank before his trial and the following morning he was missing from his cell.”

“Millbank? Trial?  What is this?”

“He’s an enemy of the crown...”

“He’s your son, Benjamin! Are ya trying to tell me with as much power ya have in the parliament ya can’t wiggle around a few things to help him!”

Benjamin narrowed his eyes, “Emily, there’s nothing I can do, it’s out of my hands. At this point it’s...”

“I don’t care whose hands it’s in, this is an outrage! How many times have you bailed Nathan out of trouble.”

“Twice, Emily. Only twice, and they were petty things that were easily fixed and excused. James is responsible for thousands of Pounds of missing or damaged cargo, missing and damaged ships, and hundreds of lives! That is not something that I can just sweep under a carpet, Emily!”

Emily narrowed her eyes back at her brother, “Why are you here?”

“We think that this may be one of the places that James escaped to and being a ‘delicate’ situation, chose to take on the investigation myself.”

“Turning in yer own son. That’s disgusting.”

“It’s not my doing, Em, it’s the country, and I’m merely just serving.”

“Well he’s not here, so you can leave.”

“I don’t know that for a fact.”

“Well I do, I live here and you don’t. He’s not here, no one’s here, so you can leave or I’ll have the authorities here.”

“I am the authority, Em.”

“And you should be stripped of that because ya have no idea how to use it.”

Benjamin closed his eyes and shook his head, “I never should have trusted him to you. He should have been sent to the orphanage where he belonged.”


James, who was sitting on the small step ladder just under the hatch sunk down a few steps and rested his lips against his hand and closed his eyes. He had always known of his father’s low opinion of him, but it still hurt every time to hear him say such things. He could hear Emily shrieking from over head,

“Are ya questioning my parenting?”

“I’m in no way questioning your parenting, Emily, I’m sure if God felt it right to grace you with children you’d make a fine mother. You and Nicholas did the best you could, but sometimes when things are broken, it’s better to throw them away than to fix them. There was nothing that could be done for James, he was born with the devil inside him...”

“He was born because of you and yer affair!” Emily’s voice was so shrill, it even hurt James’ ears from under the floorboards, he couldn’t imagine what it must have sounded like from up in the room.

“Benjamin, if you are going to do nothing but start a fight, I will ask ya to leave.”

“Emily, all you have to do is tell me where he is...”

“I don’t know where he is but he certainly isn’t here!”

Benjamin nodded towards a bundle of fabric laying next to the couch, “Who’s trousers are they?”


In the closet, Neifion gulped.


“They’re from the theatre,” Emily answered. “They’re Robert’s. I had a meeting last night with the troupe and offered to mend them for him.”

Benjamin noticed that the tension in the room had caused Baron and Baroness to stay close next to Emily, neither of them wagged their tails.

“Two dogs?” he asked, “What happened to Haggis?”

“Haggis passed away the other night. James was...” she cut herself short. Benjamin raised an eyebrow at her, “I’m sure James would be heartbroken if he found out.” Emily did her best to appear as calm as she could, this was an immensely important ‘performance’.

Benjamin stood up and slowly began walking around, making note of everything.

“I noticed you redecorated.”

“I did. Wanted to move things around a bit for the summer. There’s a little more space in here now.”

Emily was letting her anxiety vent through the twitching of her hand that she kept hidden behind her skirt. As Benjamin walked around the room, she walked around the couch, making sure to always keep something between the two of them, and the dogs followed.


Meanwhile, Jessica  was exploring the house, she had always liked to, ever since she was little. Emily had a large collection of clocks, several in each room and Jessica would run about the house, counting each clock and proudly telling Emily what number she got that time. When she was growing up, her days spent with her Aunt Emily were always an adventure.

Jessica walked into the back sun room of the house and over towards the basement door. She debated going down, but after another screaming match broke out, she decided she had enough and wanted to go someplace quiet. Her father and her aunt fought for as long as she could remember and it did nothing but cause her stress. She opened the door and descended down into the dark stairwell, softly closing the door behind her. She felt her way around until she reached the bottom of the staircase. A few windows at the top of wall allowed a little bit of light to shine through, but because of the grey clouds and rain, there wasn’t much light outside to begin with. She waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness before walking around. All she could see were the grey shapes of furniture and boxes lined up against the walls. She paid more attention to the boxes than to where she was going and felt herself bump into something. Suddenly a hand clapped over her mouth.

She tried to scream, but she was muffled.

“Shh! Stop it!”

She began pushing herself away, but who ever had her, had their arms wrapped around her tight,

“Stop! Shh, shh, shh, it’s alright, it’s just me!”

Jessica began to calm down and in the dim light could make out the shape of wild curls and broad, muscular shoulders.

“It’s just me.”

She suddenly recognized the voice and whispered back, “James?”

“Yeah...”

She felt James’ arms let her go, but almost immediately she jumped back in them. She hugged him tightly around his shoulders and buried her face in his chest.

“What on Earth are you doing here?!”

“Shh, keep it down. We don’t want them to hear us.”

“I don’t think they could hear anything with Aunt Emily’s screaming. What are you doing here?”

“Hiding. A friend and I escaped from Millbank and came here temporarily. We were actually just getting ready to sort through my things up in the loft when you and Father showed up.”

“Oh my God, James you cannot let him find you here.”

“I know. Before Em opened the door I popped myself down the hatch. Neifion’s in the closet.”

“Who?”

“Neifion Yale. Mate of mine from Universty. You met him that one year at Christmas.”

“Was he the one that was flirting with me the entire time?”

James closed his eyes and softly laughed, “Yes, him.”

“What’s he doing here?”

“He’s in the Navy now, he’s the one that found me.”

“Oh him? Better not let Father find him either.”

“I know.”

James had stepped aside, allowing the dim light from outside shine down on Jessica. He hadn’t seen her in almost ten years, she was just 16, but now she was a grown woman, and quite beautiful at that. When James had first saw her he gasped and almost couldn’t catch his breath again. Her black dress accented the curves of her body and a bright, cyan blue ruffle cascaded down her front and the back of the dress was a waterfall of black, and blue satin. The top part of her wavy black hair was pulled into a bun while the bottom flowed down past her porcelain white shoulders.

Jessica too, was just as shocked to see James. Growing up, he was always tall and skinny, with his long curly hair always in his face, but now his face was accented with a curled mustache and pointed goatee and his skinny frame was filled out with lean muscle that curved around his body and slid smoothly under his skin as he moved.

“Oh...” she looked up at him and smiled, “Oh my God, you have a mustache!”

James shrugged, and pointed out the only thing he noticed that was different, “You have boobs.”

Jessica gave him a shove, “Oh, shut it!”

“It’s true! They weren’t there last time I saw you!”

Jessica covered her mouth as she laughed, “You don’t need to point them out!” Her smile suddenly faded and she whispered,  “Are they showing?” She quickly checked the top of her dress and pulled it up a bit more to make sure she was properly covered.

“You think Father would allow himself to be seen with you in public with your tits hanging out?”

Jessica had always been amused by James’ ‘colourful’ language. In a time where even the mere mention of an arm or a leg was enough to cause embarrassment, it had always greatly humoured her to hear James talk about such things so nonchalantly. Even when they were children, James was never shy about speaking out about things that most other people considered ‘improper’ or ‘impolite’. Jessica often felt more comfortable talking to James about such things, since unlike everyone else, he was never one to judge or label something as foul. She had dozens of memories of either James or herself  having to hold their hands over their younger sister’s ears, because the things they were laughing at were too inappropriate for her to hear at such a young age.

“No, I suppose not.”

James looked up above him, “What are they arguing about? I can only catch a little bit of what they’re saying?”

“When I was still up there, Father was saying he was looking for you and thinks that Aunt Emily’s hiding you here. He’s looking for proof.”

“So why did Father brought you along?”

“Because I asked. I stopped by to visit them last night and heard him mention to Mother about coming over for a ‘visit’ and asked if I could come with him. He was hesitant about it for a bit, but eventually gave me permission. He certainly wasn’t happy about it though. He made me wake up awfully early so we could get here in the morning and catch Aunt Emily when she was still home. Honestly, at the time I had no idea what was going on or for the reason of this ‘visit’. I didn’t think anything of it. But then he told me when we were on our way here what was going on. I didn’t stay up there long, as soon as he asked me to leave the room I did.”

“He doesn’t know that I’m here, does he?”

Jessica shook her head, “No, he doesn’t, not for a fact. But that’s why he’s pushing Aunt Emily so hard, because I’m sure he thinks that if he pushes her hard enough, eventually she’ll break and confess.”

“Do you know how long he’s planning on staying here?”

Again, Jessica shook her head, “I don’t. Hopefully not much longer.”

“I know Em’s a fantastic actress, but even she can’t keep up an act forever.” James got up from the step ladder he was sitting on and stood up.

“Oh wow, you got tall...”

James smiled down at Jessica, “Em told me the same thing, I really don’t think I grew that much.”

“No, you did. I definitely don’t remember you being this big.” Jessica moved closer to James to measure herself against him, “I come to about here,” she said. She stepped away to look at where her hand was resting in the middle of James’ chest. “Not very far at all...” She paused when she felt a small bump on James’ chest, “what’s this?”

“That’s my nipple, Jess...”

She quickly pulled her hand away, “I am so sorry!”

James almost couldn’t help but laugh at the situation, “It’s fine...”

“I do hope you’re wearing trousers, I can’t see in the dark.”

“No, I am.”

Jessica placed her hands over her lips and giggled, “I cannot believe I just did that...”

Both of them laughed, though they had to make sure they kept their voices down. Their moment was interrupted when they heard glass shatter from upstairs.

“I think Em’s throwing things again...”

“I better go back up and check on them.”

James helped Jessica maneuver back to the basement stairs,

“Not sure if we’re going to leave or not, but if we do and this is the last time I see you,” She pulled James down to kiss him on the cheek, “Please be careful, I love you.” She pulled him into a tight hug, “You’re the best big brother I ever could have had.”

She softly pulled away, then lifted the front of her dress and hurried up the stairs without looking back. James saw the door open, and after it closed again, hurried back over to the hatch to try to listen.


Upstairs, Emily and Benjamin were deep into an argument. Benjamin had made another insult to Emily’s upbringing of James and, having enough, she threw a glass at him that missed and shattered against the fireplace tiles.

“Jessica, there you are,” her father said as she entered into the room. Jessica noticed her aunt curled up on the couch, crying. “We’re leaving.”

“I want to stay here.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’d like to stay here, Father. Just for a bit. I rarely get to visit Aunt Emily with my busy schedule and want to spend some time with her while I have a few days in between performances.”

“Emily is in no mood for visitors right now...”

“She can stay,” Emily spoke up. She lifted her head up and wiped her face with the end of her dress sleeve. “It’s fine, she can stay here, I’ll see to it that she gets back home.”

Benjamin’s lips tensed, but he could see there was no point in arguing, especially since he had no legal control over Jessica anymore. He also thought he’d be able to get a bit more searching done without her around.

“Fine,” he said, “You can stay.” As he walked over to the door to collect his things, he looked back over at Emily one last time, “If you hear of anything, you are to notify me at once.”

Emily now stood up, her arms firmly at her sides, “Go to Hell. You stay away from my nephew or mark my words, Benjamin, if he doesn’t kill ya first, I will.”