32

T he distant rumble grew louder.

Stephen grimaced. "Rather than sneak up on his enemies, Reddington likes to make his soldiers sound as threatening as possible."

" Are we his enemies?" Philippa asked.

"Mortal enemies," Elizabeth answered. "He has declared war against us, and I accepted the challenge."

"You would," Tommy said with obvious affection. The other siblings grinned.

Philippa didn't look as lighthearted. "We had better get inside before they burst through the trees and attack us."

Kuni held up a dagger. "A Wynchester doesn't retreat."

"It's not retreat," Graham assured her. "It's a stratagem. A Wynchester never acts rashly. We always have a plan."

"Er…" Stephen slid a skeptical glance toward Elizabeth.

"No need to tell them I always act rashly," she whispered behind her hand. "They know."

"There's something very important that they don't know yet." Stephen gave Elizabeth a meaningful look.

"Oh!" Elizabeth grinned and pulled out the freshly discovered document. "We found the will! The castle unequivocally belongs to Miss Oak."

The siblings cheered and hugged her.

Tommy sent a doubtful glance over her shoulder. "Does Reddington know?"

"Not yet," Elizabeth admitted. "We haven't had a chance to make a plan, and a Wynchester never acts rashly."

Stephen snorted, then motioned her family toward the castle. "Please come in. The front lawn is a dangerous place to be with Reddington about."

The siblings hurried to do just that.

As the castle footmen took care of the horses and carriages, Stephen escorted the Wynchesters and their servants safely through the murder room and around the rotating door to the interior of the castle.

"Those… are a lot of trunks," he observed as the contents of their carriages quickly filled an entire wall of the main corridor.

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. "Says the man who receives daily deliveries of lumber, piping, and gears of all shapes and sizes?"

"I wasn't criticizing," he protested. "I'm taking notes."

"I brought paints and canvases." Marjorie straightened her pink hair ribbon. "Just in case."

"And I have my supplies." Adrian gestured at a portable forge. "Just in case."

Unexpected delight fired through Stephen's veins. The portable forge currently standing in the corridor was one of Stephen's earliest inventions! He received payments on the patent every quarter, but this was the first time Stephen had encountered an active user. He was dying to ask Adrian a thousand questions, but Stephen did not want to make the conversation about himself and his inventions rather than the real reason they were all here: to stop Reddington and save the school.

A bugle sounded outside, followed by muffled shouting.

The Wynchesters exchanged glances.

"Reddington, I presume?" asked Philippa. "Bleating orders to his men?"

Elizabeth nodded.

"What is he saying?" Kuni whispered. "It sounds like…" She made incoherent mumbling sounds through her fingers.

"He does sound like that," Tommy agreed. "Should we stand near a window to hear better?"

"No need," Elizabeth said. "Reddington's tirades are all the same, although there's a new twist. His latest posturing involves him referring to himself in the third person, as ‘His Grace.'"

"Let him do all the posturing he wants," said Graham. "We have news, too. I located Densmore."

Stephen's heart skipped a beat. "Where was he?"

"Dublin. A gambling house. I'm working on extricating him from his latest scrape."

"Of course he's in another scrape," Stephen muttered.

"We're still in ours," Elizabeth reminded then. "Come look."

She led her family into a large parlor whose embrasure overlooked the side garden, where the castle's eastern perimeter abutted the thicket of trees.

Soldiers in red uniforms emerged from the wall of forest separating Reddington's property from Castle Harbrook. Reddington was atop his white stallion again, in full regimentals. At his booted heel was a young lad with a bugle to his lips.

Dozens of armed soldiers stood at the ready, flanking Reddington on both sides. To the left and the right, men in red uniforms erected tall canvas tents.

Stephen whistled under his breath. "The tents are new."

Graham jotted notes in a small journal. "I count ten of them."

"Camping over here is completely unnecessary." Tommy held up a hand-drawn aerial map. "Reddington owns the adjacent property. Even following the least hospitable trail, it cannot have taken them more than half an hour to tramp through the woods from his land to ours."

"Disturbing the peace of countless woodland creatures in the process," Jacob added.

"Wait until he starts with the drums," said Elizabeth. "Then no one sleeps. I keep hoping a bear will attack him."

Jacob shook his head. "There are no bears in these woods."

"I hoped you'd bring one for luck," she replied.

Stephen raised his brows at her. "Who would pack a good-luck bear?" he asked.

"I brought twelve raptors, fifteen ferrets, and a python," Jacob offered.

"See?" Elizabeth smiled at Stephen in satisfaction. "Wynchesters make their own luck."

From atop his white stallion, Reddington handed a long brass speaking trumpet down to a soldier standing by his side. The soldier lifted the narrow, conical metal tube to his lips and pointed the flared end toward Castle Harbrook.

"Hear ye, hear ye," the soldier boomed.

"Is that new?" asked Jacob.

"Sadly, no." Elizabeth mimed banging her forehead against the stone wall.

The soldier continued, "We announce the arrival of His Grace—"

"He really does make his followers use a false honorific!" Kuni exclaimed.

"Should you fail to surrender Castle Harbrook before ten o'clock tomorrow morning," the soldier continued, "you leave His Grace no choice but to take possession by force."

Elizabeth harrumphed. "I'd like to see him try."

"He is going to try," Adrian pointed out. "Look."

The backdrop of uniformed soldiers parted as a pair of horses emerged from the wall of forest… this time, pulling a cannon behind them.

"You're bamming me." Elizabeth groaned. "I knew he capitulated too quickly."

Philippa frowned. "Capitulated to what?"

"Reddington agreed the muskets would not be armed with bullets or projectiles," Stephen explained.

"The guns aren't loaded?" Kuni clapped a hand to her face. "Of all the frothing cork-feathers… Does he want to lose?"

"Which side are you on?" Philippa hissed.

"How did you convince Reddington to make any concessions at all?" Adrian asked Stephen.

"It wasn't me. Elizabeth negotiated with him," he answered with pride.

"Elizabeth negotiated?" her siblings chorused in disbelief.

"I can be charming," she protested.

They stared at her.

"But I didn't know he had cannons," she admitted. "Those are probably loaded."

Marjorie stepped back from the window. "How are we supposed to defend against cannon fire?"

"We don't have to," said Philippa. "We have the will. That means there's no war. Right?"

Stephen and the other Wynchesters exchanged skeptical looks.

"What if Reddington ignores the legal proof and attacks anyway?" asked Adrian.

Graham put down his pencil. "I don't suppose this creaky old castle holds a Planning Parlor?"

Elizabeth glanced at Stephen and smiled. "It has something even better."