CHAPTER 35

C HAPTER 35

A s Tamsyn felt the young man die under her hand, she gasped and began shaking, near fainting. Cade’s arm came around her, warm and protective. “It’s all right,” he said softly. “You’re safe now.”

She saw that he had knelt beside her on the dusty street. She half turned and burrowed into his arms, wanting to disappear into him.

More distantly, she heard Bran say quietly to Chief Howard, “Tamsyn’s strongest gift is for mental health and healing, and I’ve seen her do extraordinary things. But using her gifts is exhausting.”

Bran was right—this particular incident had taken a great deal out of her—but she must speak of what she’d learned as soon as possible. She knew that the young man she’d shadowed into death had been named Jacques and he’d desperately wanted to aid his country and his hero, but in his final moments he’d been terrified by approaching death. She hoped he was at peace now. But that information wasn’t important compared to what else she’d learned.

Cade was stroking his hand down her back, bringing her back to herself. Raising her head, she said, “This man, Jacques, and his companion over there were French. They came to England pretending to be Belgians fleeing the French conquest of their country. When they applied to work here in the Yard, they quite convincingly claimed they wanted to work against Napoleon.”

“Are there others like them working here?” Cade asked calmly.

She needed to explain further, but first she must stop the potential damage. “They’re the only ones here in the Portsmouth Yard. Since they were both assigned to work in the wood shops, they decided that setting fires there would produce the maximum damage.”

“Did you see anything more specific?” Bran asked. He’d settled down on her other side and was resting a supportive hand on her back. Tamsyn was developing a much greater appreciation for the way physical touch enhanced mental gifts.

She visualized what she’d seen so that she could describe it properly. “They developed little time-delayed fire starters. Black powder and a slow-burning beeswax candle set in a little wooden box. Jacques had stealth magic so they were able to obscure the locations. The boxes were set in places where there was wood to catch fire easily. They lit the candles before they left so they were late leaving their jobs.”

“Do you know how many of their nasty little bombs have been set?” Bran asked.

“A dozen?” Tam shook her head. “Thirteen. Make sure your men find them all, Chief Howard.” She frowned. “I think they might have done something to cause one of the steam engines to explode, but that was less clear. Get your engineers to make a thorough inspection.”

“Anything else?” Cade asked.

“When I asked if they were working with others, I heard place names.” She closed her eyes as she remembered. “Plymouth. Portsmouth. Chatham. Sheerness. Deptford.” She hesitated, then added, “Gibraltar?”

Howard swore under his breath. “Those are the most important Royal Navy Dockyards in Britain, plus Gibraltar, which is vital for our ships in the Mediterranean. Since Britain lives or dies by our navy, the French must be trying to undermine us in as many ways as possible.”

“We can discuss this more later, but for now we have to find those firetraps and see if anything has been done to the steam engines,” Bran said as he rose to his feet. “Tam, are you all right?”

She managed a smile for him. “Fine. Just . . . tired.”

“Glad to hear that,” Howard said gravely before he began giving orders to one of his guards about bringing more people to aid in the search. To Bran, he said, “Can you help us search?”

“Of course.” Bran glanced at Andre. “Will you join us? I think your talents will be particularly useful in this.”

“I am eager to help,” Andre said firmly.

“Tam needs time to recover,” Cade said. “I’ll look after her. Chief Howard, can you recommend a good nearby inn where I can get us rooms for the night?”

“The Admiral’s Inn is nearby and said to be very comfortable,” Howard said.

“I’ll take Tam there and send the carriage back to wait until Bran and Andre are done.”

Bran nodded. “Book rooms for all four of us and we can talk over dinner. Shall we begin, Chief Howard?”

As Howard and the others organized their search, Cade asked Tamsyn, “Can you stand?”

She drew a deep breath. “I’m . . . not sure.”

Cade helped her to her feet, but she swayed and nearly fell. He immediately caught her up in his arms and started walking back toward the porter’s lodge.

It was a relief to close her eyes and relax against him, but she muttered threateningly, “If you say that I’m just a little bit of a thing, I will bite you!”

“I wouldn’t dare say that!” he said with a chuckle; then his voice turned serious. “What you did was extraordinary, Tam. You’ve saved lives and prevented massive destruction. Reading the French agent’s mind as he lay dying? I’ve never heard of anyone else who could do that. Your gifts of the mind keep growing in amazing ways.”

“It wasn’t exactly mind reading, but . . . yes, it was different from anything I’ve done before,” she murmured. “Gifts seem to respond to what is needed.”

“That fits with Bran’s theory that a person who is powerfully gifted can develop new abilities if the need is compelling.” Cade was silent for the length of a warehouse. “I tried to affect the weather when we crossed from France and the revenue cutter came after us. It seemed to work.”

Becoming more alert, Tamsyn said, “Very interesting. Research is needed.”

“We can set Rhys on it.”

She wondered if Cade was beginning to find her heavy, but he seemed to be able to manage her weight over the longish walk without any problem. She sighed and let her head rest on his shoulder. She suspected that being held by him was helping to restore her depleted energy.

A gruff voice asked from nearby, “Is the young lady ill?”

“No, my wife is merely tired from so much walking around the Yard,” Cade replied.

Tam waited until they left the other man behind. “Wife?”

He smiled down at her a little wistfully. “A man can dream.”

So could a woman. She let herself relax into a doze so she could dream of them being together and accepted by their world. Surely that was possible....