Wicked Deceptions - Amy Cecil Page 0,1

I feel something heavy. This is not typical debris, like what I have already removed. This is something different, and I am having a difficult time getting the shovel to pass through it.

I crouch and pull back my hood to see better. Digging through the debris with my bare hands, I feel something leathery. “What on earth is this?” I mumble aloud. Why would someone carelessly toss something of this magnitude into the stream? Their disregard could have caused me a winter’s earnings.

I try to pull at the garment, but it will not budge. It is really jammed in there, or perhaps stuck on something. I tug harder and it still will not give. I begin to clear away more of the debris around the leather. When I finally get to the root of the problem, the sight before me causes me to fall back into the creek in horror.

Once I get my wits about me, I decide to investigate further. Frankly, I am in disbelief at what I think I may have seen. After another careful look, I confirm the leather belongs to a British officer’s air corps uniform. But that was not the root of my astonishment. If it could only be that simple… My shock and horror comes from what remains of that officer’s very dead and decomposed body.

The Great War

1914-1919

Chapter 1

Savannah, Georgia

September 1919

I live a good life now, married and with a child on the way. We are happy.

After my debriefing and screening, I was cleared to reside in the United States. We wanted to live in the South, where the climate is warm and sunny most of the time, and very little snow. I shudder when I think of the bitter cold winters of Russia. So we bought a house in Savannah.

My husband retired, somewhat. He no longer goes on missions, which I am thankful for, and actually works with American Intelligence recruiting and training.

I still can’t shake the fear they will find me. I’m always checking behind me every time I leave the house. The only place I feel safe is in our home.

Other than that, I guess you could say we live a normal life. We have the most adorable home. It’s like a little cottage compared to what I grew up in, but I don’t mind at all. In fact, I prefer the smaller, more modest home. We have no servants, so I had to learn to cook. When you lose everything, you learn everything you had was not so important, and the things that mattered then—like a pretty new frock and the next party—don’t seem to matter much anymore. A roof over your head, a hot meal on the table, and someone you love more than anything to share it with are all you need. Life’s priorities change, and you find out what kind of person you really are.

My husband is working, and I just returned from the grocer. I am making my first lamb stew for dinner, and I can’t believe I am about to say this, but I am really excited. I walk into our home and head straight for the kitchen, my arms full of groceries. I set the bag on the table in the middle of the room.

Glancing at the table that was cleared off this morning after breakfast, I notice a newspaper sitting on the opposite end. I’m curious because I don’t remember leaving the paper there. In fact, I know my husband took the paper with him. Thinking back, I recall there was an article that he wanted to continue reading, which was why I had cleared off the table before I left the house. So where did this paper come from? I pick up the paper and realize it is the London Gazette.

And why do we have a British newspaper in the house?

I read the headline.

Lt. Benjamin Stanley’s Body Found by Local Famer in Norfolk Second Son to the Earl of Derby is Dead Missing in Action Case Closed

I sit down in the nearest chair. “Oh, Ben.”

Memories of the last five years come back to haunt me. So many lives… dead, gone from this earth, but never forgotten.

Was this my fault?

Chapter 2

Saint Petersburg, Russia

August 1914

“Yekaterina!” Anastasia calls after me. She is six years younger than me, and of all my cousins, she is the one I get along with the best. She has always been my favorite. She tells me we are kindred spirits all the time. I turn back to face her and