Page 68 of Betrayal from Beyond
The large man clearly did not enjoy taking orders from her. He started to object, but Petra stepped close and leaned in. Staring upward, she hissed something close to his face.
The man stiffened and nodded. Turning, he yanked off his long coat with angry, jerky movements. After hanging it on a nearby rack, he headed back for the taproom. Petra watched him go, then spun on her heel and went out the front door.
Kara slipped down the stairs. A large, drab shawl hung on the coat rack as well. She snatched it up, wrapped it around her head, and followed the woman into the darkened street.
Chapter Nineteen
The crowd inthe taproom had grown rowdy. High spirits reigned. At the table beside them, a man laughed uproariously as he waved a hunk of sausage at the end of his knife. The rest of the sausage was clearly visible, half chewed in his wide-open mouth. Grimacing, Niall turned away to the man he’d convinced to sit and talk with them.
“You won’t understand. No one does.” Joshua Dalton’s voice was ragged, his spirits obviously low. “The other instructors, even the director at the school when I teach, they think I am just a brokenhearted fool. I am, of course, but it’s so much more than that.” The teacher looked up. “Katherine is not herself. I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s as if someone else lives inside her.”
“You are not a fool,” Niall reassured him. “And you are not far off the mark, either.”
He explained about Katherine’s twin taking her place.
Dalton sat straighter, his breath coming faster as he listened. “I knew it,” he said in a whisper. “I knew I was not losing my wits.”
“You are not,” Niall agreed.
The teacher frowned. “But she knew things. Things I had only discussed with Katherine.”
“It appears she has been watching her sister for some time.”
“Did Katherine keep a journal?” asked Gyda.
Dalton nodded. “She did. Her dream book, she called it. She filled it with little drawings, with stories, with her wishes and plans.” His face fell. “The sister read it.”
“The sister imitated her in Kingston Upon Thames. Perhaps she was testing the masquerade.”
“I never liked her going there alone, but I could not accompany her. Not until we married.” His expression was unfocused, as if he were casting back, recalling their interactions. “I was right. I knew she could not speak to me so. Katherine and I had so many plans for our future. Plans we dreamed up together. I knew she could never disparage our hopes and ideas in such a cruel fashion.” He put both hands on the table, as if he meant to push off and run. “But where is she? Where ismyKatherine? What has this sister done with her?”
Niall was forced to tell him the truth.
Dalton crumbled in on himself. “No,” he whispered.
Gyda spoke from the shadows. “She is a criminal, the woman you have been following here in Chiswick. She is a murderer. A traitor to the Crown.”
The man was still caught in the shock of Niall’s news. “She’s dead?” he asked quietly. “You are sure?”
“I am very sorry,” Niall told him.
Dalton was clearly in the grip of very real grief. A shudder went through him. He swallowed several times, but fought back tears. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. But when they opened, his expression had hardened. “A traitor, you said?”
Gyda nodded.
“Yes. I knew it. I knew something wasn’t right. I just did not want to believe my Katherine could be involved in something like that.”
“Something like what?” asked Niall sharply.
“I don’t know. That other bitch is up to something nefarious.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Niall saw Gyda stiffen, her attention caught on something else.
He kept his focus on Dalton. “Tell us what you have seen.”
The other man covered his face with his hands. “I’m not sure. She has been spending time with a gunsmith. I’ve seen them in his shop. They were going over plans, diagrams. Gibson is his name. He owns land, a farm out on the road toward Ealing, although he doesn’t stay there. He keeps rooms above his shop. But he’s been going out there with her. I followed them, more than once. Something is going on out there.”
“What? What do you think is going on?” asked Niall.
