Galveston Between Wind and Water - By Rachel Cartwright Page 0,96
until he clutched hers.
Gabrielle tensed every muscle in her body again, pressing and rubbing herself against the grain of the wet wood paneling until she felt a splinter pierce her cheek.
Bret held her hand down tight against the wood. He raised his head as if trying to see something in the murky distance. “Some brick buildings are still standing. If the current carries us toward them . . . just keep holding on!”
Gabrielle shivered under her drenched clothes, her teeth chattering so much she feared she would bite off her tongue and choke before the saltwater should finally fill her throat.
CHAPTER 26
Saturday, September 8, 7:00 p.m.
Caden touched the two-inch cut on his forehead. The blood was almost dry now, and the palpitating ache behind his eyes was vanishing, making it easier to focus on what was happening around him.
The water had already risen past the first and second floors of the Society hall and was at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the third floor bedrooms.
He grinned. Nature had been kind enough to provide a fitting end to the troublesome Mr. McGowan. Just another unfortunate soul who perished in the storm’s raging flood waters.
The deafening downpour expelled by the ferocious hurricane had broken windows, and worse, borne down upon the wooden homes with immense flying fragments of brick, hurling these fragile sanctuaries into masses of confused ruin to be swept away by the unyielding flood.
He looked down from the third floor window to gauge the progress of the racing waters outside. Every trial is nature’s test of her creations. Those who should remain, shall, and those who should not must return to the chaos from which we first emerged.
Caden turned back toward the bed.
Rebecca, her eyes still closed, lay on her comforter, draped only in her white satin dressing gown. Depending on the amount Edward used, the effect of the ether should wear off soon.
She moved her head from side to side with agitated jerks as her mouth clamped down against the belt from her gown that Edward had used to gag her. Her ankles and wrists were tied with rope to the four corners of the cherry wood frame.
Edward stood at the foot of her bed. “When the storm is over and Rebecca has more time to reflect on her obligations I’m certain she will agree with you, sir.”
“Yes, Rebecca will not implicate herself for the part she played in both McGowan’s and DeRocha’s tragic deaths.”
Caden stepped back from the closed window and locked the shutter again. He walked over to the side of the bed and looked down on his niece. “Women can hang just as easily as men and that understanding will go a long way to dictating her conscience.”
Edward lowered his head and stared at Rebecca.
Caden observed that his assistant’s lustful gaze fixed on his vulnerable niece lying on the bed, a desirable, fertile woman no longer forbidden to him by the social and moral constraints of a society that was disappearing around them by the minute.
Only the physical and spiritual walls of The Theogenesis Society could withstand the wrath of a cold and indifferent universe, and by surviving, choose its destiny and that of all mankind. Your destiny with Gabrielle must wait for the judgment of the storm. That is the last test to prove you both worthy, but the future can still begin . . . tonight.
Every clank and crash of debris against the external stone walls spurred Caden to quickly weigh the consequences of his decision.
With no signs of dwindling force, the storm might yet unleash its final hidden, lethal fury. Before the night was over, any one of them could take their last breath before nature had finally expelled hers.
Edward must do it now before she awakes. When Rebecca awoke, Caden could not risk that she would continue to disobey his authority. He had worked too hard and risked too much to allow a young woman’s caprice to jeopardize humanity’s only hope for survival.
Caden placed an encouraging hand on Edward’s shoulder. “You have waited long enough, my friend. Our great work begins tonight.”
His loyal disciple stared at him as though not understanding what he had just heard. “But Doctor, how—”
“Your time is now, Edward. Do you understand? Time waits for no man . . . I will be outside.”
As though invigorated by the fury of nature’s unleashed passion raging all around them, Edward obeyed Caden’s command with eagerness. He unbuttoned his shirt and removed his trousers.