Cherie Priest - Fiddlehead

“Polly, get back upstairs with Mrs. Lincoln!”

“Sir, I can’t. Mrs. Lincoln came downstairs before me. She’s in the library with Mr. Lincoln. I couldn’t stop her. If you know her at all, you’ll understand, sir, and you won’t yell at me about it.”

He grinned, though she undoubtedly couldn’t see him. This one had a little spice in her. Good. He would’ve bet against it an hour ago. Maybe he had three soldiers, if you dared give a girl a gun. Well, that Boyd woman had a gun, didn’t she? And that Haymes viper, too. Fine. He had three soldiers.

“Polly, have you ever shot a gun before?”

“No, sir, because I’m scared of them.”

“Are you scared right now?”

“Deathly, sir. Very, very deathly, if you don’t mind me saying. But I saw you cover the window with the blanket, and I had an idea about the other window.”

“Excellent. Tell me.”

“There’s another quilt down here. Robert’s old bedroom.”

“Can you get it for me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Polly, be careful. But be quick.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, and she was off.

More shots. These worried him, for they came from the other side of the house. He couldn’t leave his post, so he’d have to trust Gideon and Nelson. He had to believe that they’d regroup when they were able, but it was taking too long. They should’ve been back already.

In less than a minute, Polly returned with a quilt bundled under her arm. She collided gently with him in the darkness, partly because it was hard to see, and partly because things had gone quiet, and the poor girl had enough instinct for self-preservation to keep herself quiet, too.

“Here you go, sir,” she whispered close to his ear. “It’s not too heavy, but it’ll make it good and dark.”

“Excellent. Here, stand up right behind this door. It’s thicker than a Bible, and it’ll protect you. Hold up that side, and I’ll hold up this side. We’ll hang the ends over the curtain rods, all right?”

“Yes, sir. I think I can reach it.”

She had to throw her end of the blanket, but with a foot on the windowsill to give her a moment’s boost, she fulfilled her end of the assignment.

“Well done, dear,” he said to her, though now he could scarcely see her at all.

The interior of the house was as black as a tomb, except for soft, warm glows where the fireplaces yet burned—though they did little to warm the space anymore, or light it, either. Not with the windows gone and the wind screaming outside, driving around the eaves and wailing down the gutters. The blankets flapped and let shadows and light flicker through, a second at a time. But the weak glow showed them almost nothing.

Gideon Bardsley manifested behind the stairs once more, warning, “It’s me—don’t shoot.”

“Are the other two passages secure?”

“As secure as we can make them. But there’s nothing we can do about the windows except to cover them up, and avoid letting them see how many of us are inside.”

“Or how few, ” Polly whispered.

“Now, you’ve been courageous so far. Keep your chin up. We have a handful of men with guns, manning a defensive position with which most of us are well acquainted—myself being the exception, of course. But I’ve been in worse spots than this one, trust me.”

“I trust you.”

“Gideon, you’re right. We need to cover all the windows, at least on the first floor. That will be our next priority.”

“I already did it. The back entrance locks up easily, and fastens with a full-length beam. They’d need a horse to knock it down, and even if they had one, they probably couldn’t persuade it to help. So I took the long way back and drew all the curtains.”

“Excellent. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders.”

The scientist paused, and when he said, “Thank you” Grant thought he almost sounded insulted.

“How many guns do you have on your person?” Grant asked him.

“Only the one.”

“What kind?”

“A Starr revolver.”

“Ah, another ’58 model. Good gun. How much ammunition?”

“A pocketful on me. More in my bag.”

“You always travel armed to the teeth?”

“Only when I’m wanted for murder.”

“Then today’s our lucky day.” Grant patted his own pockets to remind himself of his holdings. “I have a Remington and a fistful of cylinders.”

Bardsley snorted. “What about you? Do you always travel so heavy, yourself?”

“Only when warhawks are trying to assassinate me.”

Grant thought he saw Bardsley’s eyes roll, but in the dark he couldn’t be certain. “This isn’t an assassination attempt. They didn’t even know you’d be here.”

“They’re shooting at me all the same, and if they kill me, we both know what the history books will call it. Now, where the hell is Wellers?”

“He took the other wing, where Lincoln is. Might’ve stopped to look in on him.”

“Polly, go check.”

Polly dutifully crept away, relieved to be sent from the front of the fray.

“Mr. Grant,” Gideon said quietly, and closer to him than Grant expected. The man moved like a cat, for God’s sake. No wonder he’d stayed alive this long. “Lincoln has a gun as well. I don’t know how much ammunition he’s packed.”

The president considered this, and said, “He should keep the gun for now, unless we get any other good ideas that require it. But I hope it doesn’t come to that. If everything goes to hell, he might need a last defense, though I hope it doesn’t come to that, either. It’s a wonder he can even hold one.… Goddammit, what’s taking so long down there?”

“I could go and find out.”

“No, because if you don’t come back, then I’m really up a creek. Stay here, and take shots at anything you see moving past the edge of that quilt, you got it?”

Grant shuffled low and fast back into the hall, even though it made his knees ache. All along the hall the other doors were shut. When he tried one he found it locked—and saw no key—so that was good. Maybe Wellers had done it, or maybe the Lincolns kept half the place closed up tight at any given time. Didn’t matter. It was another line of defense.

He went ahead and ran the rest of the way, announcing his approach before flinging himself into the library. “It’s me!” he declared as he darted inside. There, he found Lincoln in his chair with the gun across his lap and Polly at his side, while Mary and Nelson Wellers shifted books from the cases to the window.

“What are you…?” he began to ask, but realized the answer before he finished the question.

Without stopping her task, Mary answered him anyway. “One of the windows broke from the shooting outside. The bullet went into that painting over there,” she complained.

Wellers finished the explanation. “But I’d like to see a bullet break through a wall made of books.”

Abe smiled, a smile you’d only recognize as such if you knew how hard it was for him to move his face. “It’s a good thing I have so many.”

“Hard to argue with that,” Grant conceded. “Wellers, did you get the far entrance secured?”

“Yes, sir. Took me a minute, because I had to draw a sideboard across it, but I think the sideboard was made of lead.”

Mary shook her head. “Oh dear, Aunt Agatha’s sideboard? No, but it’s rosewood, and filled with silver. You’ll hurt your back, dragging around furniture like that!”

“My back is just fine, and they’ll have a hell of a time opening the door past your Aunt Agatha’s sideboard,” he said, grunting as he stacked another armload of books—up over his head now. “Almost done with this,” he promised.

Mary noted, “It doesn’t need to go all the way to the top. Unless they’re standing on stilts, they’ll never get a bullet that high.”