The Traitor's Stain (wattys 2019)

Chapter Thirty-Four: Long Island Sound

Caleb came to the house at around noon to take Ophelia back across the sound. She was ready for him when he arrived; after she visited Abraham, she went to her room and packed. Not that she had much to pack to begin with. After that, she sat with Abraham in silence, listening to the doctor that came in to check up on him. She'd hoped that he would be able to give her some good news, say that he would live with some bedrest, but he didn't say any of that. Instead, he said exactly what everyone else had said: "No news right now is good news. He hasn't gotten worse, yet, so we can still be hopeful that he'll recover."

She hated it, almost as much as she hated that Noah was still in prison. She hated feeling like there was nothing she could do, like things would go on without a care of what she tried to do about them.

Right then, all of her hope rested on Otetiani dying. She hated thinking that way, but... that was the way things were, for the moment. She was in a hellish limbo, and the only way for her to get out of it alive was if the war ended. In the Patriots' favor.

"How is he?" Caleb asked as he walked through Robert's front door.

"Still alive, hasn't gotten worse," Robert said. Like a puppet of everything she'd heard, that morning. "Right now, all we can do is watch and pray."

Caleb began to rub the back of his neck. "Never been much of a praying type."

"Perhaps you've found a good time to start," Robert said coldly.

"Maybe." Caleb looked to Ophelia. "How are you doing?"

How are you doing? She didn't know how to answer that. Part of her wanted to go off on him, tell him just how much her life had turned to shit in the past twenty-four hours, but it wouldn't have solved anything. Not only that, but in the end, it wasn't his fault that things had gone the way they did.

"I'll be much better once I'm back in Setauket, I think," she said instead.

Caleb nodded, then looked to Hercules. "You wouldn't happen to know if that Otetiani bastard got his, would you?"

Hercules shook his head. "I haven't heard a word about him. Abraham was able to stab the bastard before he got shot, and he wasn't looking too good after that. My guess is, he's in a similar state to Abraham. Hopefully worse. At the very least, we shouldn't be seeing his face around here for a little while."

It wasn't good enough for Ophelia. She needed him gone, and she needed him gone now.

"You've got sources in the army, right?" Caleb asked. "You'll keep us posted on his condition?"

"If my sources know, you'll know," Hercules said with a nod.

Caleb nodded. "I think this goes without saying, but look out for yourselves, alright? And Robert: keep us posted on Abraham."

"I don't see the point when you'll likely be at my door every day for the foreseeable future," Robert grumbled.

"I'll take that as an okay," Caleb said. He looked to Ophelia. "You ready to go?"

Ophelia nodded.

"Good," Caleb said. "Off across the sound we go."

They walked outside and headed for the docks.

"You seem more glum than usual," Caleb said as they walked, "and I get the feeling that it isn't just about what happened to Abraham."

"It isn't," Ophelia confirmed. "You and I will be having a conversation while we head across the Sound."

"The kind of conversation that can't be spoken in a civilized world," Caleb said. "Sounds serious."

She looked to him. "Have you ever heard of a private conversation that wasn't serious?"