"Give me your hands," he said. "I'm going to lower you over the side."

Nat's eyes were gla.s.sy with fear. He shook his head. His lips moved but there was no sound Grey made out a single word: Pandora. Apparently he would have to save the cat to save them. He didn't wait for Nat to come across with the feline. He tore Pandora out of the boy's arm and felt her claws sink into him. He grimaced but managed to keep his balance. Grey let Pandora perch on his shoulder like a parrot and began prying Nat's arm away from the figurehead.

He dropped back to the balcony and felt it begin to give. Nat felt it, too. He clutched Grey's arms, almost unseating Pandora. Grey leaned over the bal.u.s.trade and saw Shawn in position below him. "We can't go together," he whispered in Nat's ear. "Shawn will catch you."

"Who will catch you?"

Grey smiled. Who indeed? he wondered. He hadn't thought that far ahead. "I'll get down. You'll see." Grasping Nat by the wrists, Grey swung him over the balcony and lowered him as far as he could. Pandora, seeing a path to freedom open up, jumped from Grey's back to Nat's shoulder and finally to Shawn. "Traitor," Grey said under his breath, watching the cat leap to the ground. "You have him, Shawn?"

"Close enough. Let him go."

Nat gave a little yelp as the sensation of falling filled his senses. He was pulled up short of the ground and immediately pounced on by the cat and Berkeley. Shawn moved them out of the way of the balcony. He realized he wasn't imagining the cant in its floor. He could hear it giving way now.

Shawn cupped his hands over his mouth and called up to Grey. "Jump! You've got to jump!"

Berkeley's head shot up, and Nat twisted in her arms to see the building. "Jump!" she called. "Dear G.o.d, Grey! Jump!"

Grey did leap as the balcony collapsed under him. He threw himself toward the face of the building and the figurehead from the Lady Jane Grey. She held him there, supporting him against her polished bosom while his fingers found purchase in her intricately carved hair. She held him there for twenty long seconds while scenes from his life played out in his mind's eye.

Scenes from all his life.

Then Rhea came away from her mountings and carried him with her as she fell, cradling him at first, crushing him in the end.

Chapter Sixteen.

August 1851 They came for the baby first. Colin Thorne found the phrase intruding on all his other thoughts. They came for the baby first. He had always imagined he could taste it on his tongue. It was a fanciful notion, perhaps, for a man who was no stranger to life's harsher realities, but these words had been formed in his mind as a child, and when he thought of them he could not help being that child again, with all the same bewilderment and hurt and desperate resolve. Yet something was different now, and Colin was finally struck by the contrast. They came for the baby first. At last the flavor of it was more sweet than bitter.

Colin didn't know what to expect. When the carriage stopped in front of the Phoenix he didn't move immediately to get out. Instead he glanced questioningly at his brother, and for once Decker could not summon up his casual, careless smile.

They both looked simultaneously toward the Phoenix. The red fireball that was the late-afternoon sun lent a pinkish hue to the brick. The windows were tinted rose. They had heard about the Portsmouth Square fire from their driver as soon as they gave him their destination. Now they looked for some evidence that his story was accurate and found only a subtle change in the shading of the brick to support it.

Decker got out of the carriage slowly, his eyes lifted upward to the polished wooden figurehead. He raised one hand to shield his eyes, squinting slightly for a better look. Where the figurehead was fixed to the wall there were thick black streaks among the strands of her hair, just as if she'd had her beautiful tresses dipped in an inkwell. Decker pointed it out to Colin.

Neither of the brothers were certain how he felt about a ship's figurehead adorning a gaming house. Their shared pa.s.sion for sailing and respect for the sea made them wonder if this unusual mounting for Rhea, mother of the G.o.d of all the seas, wasn't somehow sacrilegious. They pa.s.sed under it and into the Phoenix without any comment.

It was still too early for the grand hall to be crowded, but there was activity at many of the tables. Drinks were being set up at the long bar. The deep laughter of gamers enjoying a good story mingled pleasantly with the deeper groans of men disappointed in the turn in their fortunes. Gold coins were gathered in grateful arms, and always there was the sound of shuffling cards and rolling dice.

As soon as Colin and Decker were identified as hotel guests and not transient gamblers, they were ushered to the registry. Sam abandoned his duties at the bar and brought out the book. He opened it so that it was facing them, then slid a pen and inkwell in their direction. "We have one room available on the second and third floors or you can share a suite on the second." He glanced down at the names Colin had recorded in the register. "Mr. Pine and Mr. Pine." Sam rubbed the underside of his chin thoughtfully and regarded his guests with interest. "You brothers?"

"That's right," Decker said.

"Guess you'll be wanting the suite then." Sam started to make a note of it.

Colin placed his hand over Sam's bony one. "Separate rooms. Different floors will suit us admirably."

Decker laughed. "I'm weary of sharing a cabin with you, too."

"You come a ways, have you?" Sam asked, chuckling.

"Boston," Decker said. "My brother's come farther. He started out in London."

Sam was visibly impressed. "Thought I heard something out of the ordinary there. You fellas should make a point of taking in a palm reading while you're at the Phoenix. Mrs. Janeway's a good one for pickin' out where a man's from. Reckon that London might stump her, though."

"Mrs. Janeway?" asked Colin.

"Hmmm." Sam took the book back and closed it. "She more or less runs the Phoenix these days. Mostly more. Ain't much that gets by her." He glanced toward the stairs, then at his pocket watch. "Won't be much longer, and she'll be coming down for the evening. You don't want to miss her. She doesn't stay down as long as she used to. Doesn't have time. Not with the baby."

One of Colin's dark brows lifted. He looked at his brother but said nothing.

Decker shrugged. "I showed you the correspondence I received. There was never any mention of Janeway." But he shared his brother's suspicions. Reading palms was something Berkeley Shaw might do to exercise her talent. Decker felt the faint tug of hope again. They could be getting close. He leaned forward, bracing his arms stiffly on the registry, and gave Sam a level look. "I'd like to look through the registry," he said. "May I?"

Sam blinked but his expression remained friendly. "I don't suppose that's a problem. Someone in particular you're looking for?"

Decker didn't answer. He leafed backward through the registry, running his finger down one column of names and up another. "Nothing," he said when he finally reached the very first entry. "Not a thing."

Colin placed his hand on Decker's forearm and drew his brother back with the gentle, cautioning gesture. "Perhaps he'll come to us." He turned to Sam. "What about our things?"

"Gotcha taken care of there." Sam glanced around and spied Nat coming out of Annie's kitchen. From the look of the boy's distorted features and furtive expression, Sam guessed Nat had some of Annie's best pastry pouched in his cheeks. Sam raised his hand and waved him over. Nat's response was to hang his head guiltily and pretend he hadn't seen anything. Sam called to him. This time there was no ignoring, not with several of the house's regular customers echoing the message as well. "Nat here will see to your bags," Sam said. "You take a carriage from your ship?"

Decker nodded."The driver was unloading as we came in." He eyed the boy and wondered if offering to a.s.sist with the trunks would be an insult or a welcomed gesture. He didn't have time to offer anything. Nat gulped down whatever he had in his cheeks and was hurrying outside.

"Nat'll show you to your rooms," Sam told them. "He'll take what he can carry in. I'll get someone else to bring the heavy things. Nat's a good one, but he hasn't figured out that he can't lift the trunks. He likes to help, though. A Janeway through and through."

"Janeway?" asked Colin. "But isn't thata""

"His mother," Sam interrupted. "That's what you were going to ask, wasn't it?"

Colin nodded. He exchanged another questioning glance with his brother. Decker's response was to shrug, a sure indication that he had no better understanding than Conn. It wasn't possible for Berkeley Shaw to have a child so old. They had to be mistaken that she and her husband had a.s.sumed the name Janeway. "We heard from the driver there was a fire here some months back." He made a point of looking critically around the hall. "That's hard to believe."

"Ain't it?" Sam said proudly. "I've seen eleven fires since I came here. Four of them took out most of the city. Never can tell a month or so later. That's San Francisco for you. The Portsmouth Square fire was the last one. Some say it wasn't much of one, but that's because they weren't here that night and didn't see the fight it took to contain it. The fire gutted both of the upper floors of the Phoenix. Except for some water damage we saved most of what was down here. Your rooms, though, that was different. Everything there had to be brought in new."

That caught Decker's interest. "Did you ship goods with the Remington Line?"

"Mostly. Always have done more business with them." Sam was struck by a thought. "You say you're from Boston? You must be familiar with the line."

Decker's easy smile came to the forefront. "Just in pa.s.sing," he said modestly.

Colin gave his brother an arch look. "Jonna would say that about sums up your knowledge of what goes on."

Far from being offended by Colin's dry humor, Decker laughed appreciatively. "She would, too. G.o.d, I miss her."

Colin glanced at the door. Not seeing Nat return, he addressed Sam again. "So the fire was confined to the Phoenix?"

"No. Not at all. It took out everything on the other side of the square."

"Just on the other side? That's quite a distance for a fire to leap."

Sam nodded. "I've seen it happen though. But not that night. You're right about that. There were actually two fires. The first was a diversion, but men I expect the driver told you some of that. Seems folks around here like to talk about that night, even if they weren't in the square to see it." His attention shifted to the doors as they were pushed open. "Here's Nat with your bags. He could tell you a thing or two. He saw more than most that night." Sam grinned widely at the bewildered boy. "Didn't you, Nat?"

"What's that, Sam?"

"The Portsmouth Square fire. These gents are interested."

Nat looked Colin and Decker over. Fancy men, he thought Probably kept a pistol up their sleeves and a lace handkerchief in their vest pockets. "This way," Nat said, hefting the bags. "Set you up right and tight, we will. There's no better place to stay in Frisco than the Phoenix."

Sam grinned as Nat marched away. As an afterthought he called out the room numbers. To Colin and Decker he said, "You'd better not let him get too far ahead of you. Your bags won't be in the rooms you wanted."

Nat felt them on his heels at the halfway point on the stairs. "Seems like you fellas plan to stay a while. I'm saying that because of the bags and trunks your driver's still unloading."

Decker chuckled. "Most of that belongs to his nibs here."

"His nibs?" asked Nat. He glanced at Colin. "Are you one of those t.i.tled gents?"

"Afraid so."

Nat's brows went up. He reached the landing and turned, walking down the hallway backwards so he could see the brothers better. "Does that mean you're a lord, too?" he asked Decker.

"Not b.l.o.o.d.y likely," Decker said pleasantly, ignoring his brother's scowl.

Colin almost ran into Nat as the boy stopped abruptly. "Do you need some help?"

"No, sira I mean, my lord. But this is your room. Or at least it's someone's room. Did you decide who would have this one?"

Decker took a coin out of his pocket. "I'll flip you for it."

"Not b.l.o.o.d.y likely," Colin said.

Laughing, Decker tossed the coin in the air. With graceful sleight of hand he made it disappear.

Nat's jaw sagged, and he dropped all four of the valises. "Where'd it go?"

Decker shrugged, holding up both hands, palms out.

Rolling his eyes, Colin opened the door to Decker's room and tossed one of the bags inside. "Check your pocket," he told Nat. "Could be you've just been given a bit of the ready for your efforts."

Nat patted down his jacket and found the coin. "I want to learn how to do that," he said, awed. "I surely do."

"Perhaps," said Decker. "I'd like to hear about the fire that went through here. We were led to believe you have a story to tell." He picked up one of Colin's bags. "Show us to my brother's room. We can talk there."

When Nat hesitated, Colin added, "I wouldn't be at all surprised if there weren't more coins for your trouble."

Nat hefted the two remaining bags and headed for the stairs. "This way, my lord. You too, sir."

Colin's room faced the square. After the crowded accommodations on board ship this room seemed s.p.a.cious, and the appointments, just as Sam had informed them, were all recent acquisitions. Colin stretched out on the bed while Decker spun a chair away from the small writing desk and straddled it. Nat took up a stool.

"What's your particular interest?'' Nat asked. "Most visitors don't really want to hear stories about the fires and quakes. Spooks them, I guess. Did me at first, too. You learn to live with them though."

"So it seems," said Colin. "I'm interested in the last fire. The one our driver called the Portsmouth Square fire. I had the impression it wasn't caused by a quake."

"No," Nat said. "Ducks." He saw their puzzled looks. "Sydney Ducks. I don't know how they came by that name except the place they live in Frisco is called Sydney Town. Now that I think on it, you both talk a little like them." Suddenly worried, afraid he had once again fallen into a trap, Nat started to rise off his stool.

"Sit down," Decker said. "We're not Ducks, and we're not Duck hunters." He looked at Colin. "I imagine he's talking about felons from the British penal colony in Australia. From Van Dieman's Land."

"That's what I was thinking," said Colin. He was also thinking how narrow his own brother's escape had been from a transportation sentence to Van Dieman's Land. Colin counted himself as blessed for having found Decker before that had come to pa.s.s. He had spent a considerable amount of time on the voyage to San Francisco preparing himself for the fact thar he might not be twice blessed. He had come to learn what he could about the fate of his youngest brother, not with any expectation that he would find Greydon. At least that was what he told himself. In spite of that, it was difficult not to hope.

"Go on about the fire," Colin said. "There were two that night, I believe."

There was no harm in talking about the fire, Nat thought, though he was not particularly comfortable with the subject. His eyes slid to Decker, who had taken out another coin and was deftly moving it between his fingers with no visible effort. That was another trick worth knowing. "There were two," he confirmed. "The Ducks set up the first one in Peterman's hardware. No one knew then that it was the Ducks though there was suspicion aplenty. Everyone got out of the Phoenix before the first flames were seen at Peterman's. That's because Mrs. Janeway had one of her intuitions that there was going to be trouble. Some of the other gaming halls were emptying, too, but that was because folks were just curious.

"I was curious just like everyone else, but I couldn't see much. Mostly I was looking for Pandora."

"Pandora?" Decker asked. "Let me guess. Your snake."

"Wouldn't I just love a snake," Nat said wistfully. "But no, Pandora's a cat. Not just mine, though she sleeps with me mostly. That's why I felt responsible. She was in my room when I had to leave, but I couldn't find her. I suppose she got scared and Mrs. Janeway wouldn't let me take the time to look for her. I figure she'd come out when the place emptied, so I was searching hard for her. No one paid me any mind. Not after the explosion at Peterman's. Everyone took to fighting the fire. I was concentrating on finding Pandora, so I was the only one who saw the pair of Ducks moving about the Phoenix. I couldn't tell Mrs. Janeway. She would have tried to do something on her own and she wasa"" Here Nat clasped his hands together and extended them away from his belly to exaggerate Berkeley's pregnant state.

"With child?" asked Colin.

Nat nodded. "That's it exactly. So I went in to see what tricks they were up to. I didn't see that I had much of a choice.'' He paused, hoping for some confirmation from his audience. Virtually everyone of his acquaintance told him in the aftermath that he had been remarkably foolish. These men remained silent, withholding judgment. "When I went into the gaming hall they were already upstairs. I didn't know that then. I had to look around the kitchen and storage rooms first. I was quick, but they had already torn through Mr. and Mrs. Janeway's rooms by the time I got there. Jollya"that's what one of the Ducks called his frienda"was fanning a fire on Mr. Janeway's carpet. I would have run and gotten help, but that's when I saw Pandora. She must have been wandering around looking for someone and came upon them. I thought I could get her and get out. They weren't looking in my direction at all, but Pandora jumped when the fire blazed and they turned and saw me." Nat ducked his head a bit, uncomfortable with the showing he had made from that point on. "Bobbya"he was the other fellaa"nabbed me by the collar and flung me across the room. It didn't take but a few seconds for the fire to catch and put a wall of flames between me and them."

Colin's dark eyes narrowed. "They got out and you didn't."

Nat nodded. He pointed to the window in Colin's room. "The Janeways' rooms face the front, same as yours. They have a balcony, though. That's where I went. Mrs. Janeway saw the fire and me and Pandora and got help. I was hanging on to Rhea. Did you see her when you came in?''

"The figurehead," said Decker. "Yes, we saw her."

"Well, she held me steady until Mr. Janeway got up to me. He lowered me over the side of the balcony." Nat shrugged. "And here I am. That's what Sam meant when he said I saw more than most others that night." He started to get up again. The glint from Decker's ice-blue eyes put him right back in his place. Nat's fingers tapped on his kneecaps. "I'd like to learn a trick or two now."

An easy smile edged Decker's mouth but didn't reach his eyes. "I'm certain you would. But I think you're stopping short of the whole. How was the fire put out, for instance?''

"A miracle, most folks say. Mrs. Janeway had been praying pretty hard for one, though she says she didn't have any intuition that it was about to happen. The same northeast wind that was causing so much trouble with the fire swept in a storm. The skies opened up and everyone standing in that square got drenched. It didn't take but another twenty minutes for the fire to fizzle out. It could have been different without the rain. The entire city's been in flames before."

"That's what we heard," said Colin. "It seems as though the Ducks intended it to happen again."

"That's a fact," Nat told him. "They pick their times real well. Wind from the north and east can do damage to every part of the city except Sydney Town. They know how to save themselves. Of course they hadn't counted on the rain. No one had. Not even Mrs. Janeway. Jolly and Bobby Burns got out of the Phoenix through the kitchen and made it back to Sydney Town easy enough, but they weren't too hard to corral when Sam Brannan's Vigilante Committee went after them. The Ducks didn't think I'd be alive to point a finger at them."