Incognito

31

Darcy hacked at a cobweb before gingerly stepping by. Zac follows cautiously. He does not want to anger the young man any further than he already is. When Darcy stops quickly, Zac has nothing he can do but confront him.

"What is wrong?"

Darcy turns and Zac can see his eyes glimmer in the darkness. "When 'Gelica was in the woods with you, how did you...act?

Zac was glad the dark hid his confused face. "I am not sure what you mean?"

Darcy sighs and Zac can hear him begin to walk. "I do not even know my sister anymore. Either of them. Since I left Angelica became a mother! Eliza got betrothed to a man I hardly know. And though I have visited with Angelica and Prosper, it is as if she is distancing herself from me."

Zac swipes at the sweat collecting on his brow. "I-"

Darcy stops forcing Zac to run into him. Does she wish her brother left for war and died? What does she even think of me?"

Zac found himself stuck between awkward silence and answer rhetorical questions he had no place hearing.

"Angelica," the name felt strange on his lips, "would never wish for you to die. She would do anything to save you because she loves you."

Darcy sniffled and turns a corner. The ground steadily climbs upward.

"What about Eliza? Is she truly happy with your brother?"

Zac smiled. "She is the happiest woman I have met. My brother's antics and idiosyncratic habits, including his hone and chivalry toward her, leave her irritated with him and I do not believe she would have it any other way."

"And he loves her?"

"His face lights up when he sees her, they can barely keep their hands out of the others, they are nearly inseparable, and if he ever needs to talk he finds her first."

Darcy seems to take that to heart.

"It is hard to be parted from one's sibling," he remarks. Zac could not agree more.

When it seemed that they had walked uphill for an eternity a light was spotted in the wall. A passage had been left slightly ajar. Both men were silent as they crept forward. Zac peered inside. They had found Angelica. But they had also discovered Roslin and Richard. Roslin was yelling profanities at someone Zac could not quite see as Richard sat by a tied and gagged Angelica. It made Zac sick to his stomach to watch her like this.

He backed away and put a hand on Darcy's shoulder. 

"She is in there. Your father and Richard have her."

Darcy makes a move toward the door before Zac finishes.

"We cannot go in."

"Richard has his slimy hands on my sister. He's had his eyes on her for years. I cannot wait to get my hands on his little neck."

Zac gulped realizing his hands had been on Darcy's sister quite a bit also.

"We have to have a plan."

"We don't have time. My father has Prosper too. While he would not harm Angelica, he hates that Prosper stole Angelica from him. He will kill her and I will not stand here and watch my father take a life when I can stop him."

With that, Darcy threw open the doorway and charged at his father, while Zac locked eyes on his own.

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Her father was in a fit of rage. She had seen him like this when she was a little girl, crying in the corner and praying for God to keep her father from hurting her mommy. It had always felt like God was not listening. Her mother would be soon black and blue with eyes bloodshot and puffy. It felt like God was not listening to her now. She prayed silently for power and deliverance, but her father's knife crept closer and closer to the heart of Zacary's father.