C. C. Phillips
C. C. Phillips
Sorrow, so deeply rooted as to haunt day and night, gave Preston Diamond little peace. The Grants, Unzers, Tweeds and Xi-Ping Chiang held him together though the toll was especially tough on Rebecca and Colonel Jim. Sifu's teachings, healing and training kept Diamond from giving up; the master, working with new techniques, new weapons, trained his student harder than ever.
In an effort to save them all from clouds too heavy to blow away, Diamond booked passage for himself and his friends, the Unzers and Xi-Ping Chiang, to sail to Spain and the Mediterranean. The six month vacation was a boon for all. In Barcelona, Colonel Unzer became reacquainted with the men who had, almost two decades ago, risked their lives to free Señorita Constantina García y Ramírez (Preston's mother) from the clutches of Queen Isabella II. Diamond learned more of his grandfather, Eduardo García. The man had died a Spanish folk hero and legend.
Four months after they sailed for France, Gabriella Ravenelle and Robert Tessier (now husband and wife) returned home to Washington. Tessier and Davy Brannigan formed a partnership and took over Serge Ravenelle's construction companies. Robert insisted that Mrs. Hugh Bagnold be adequately reimbursed for the loss she had suffered through the conniving of her lawyers and the French minister. Preston, when he was available, recommenced work with Tessier.
Lily Brannigan married the carpenter she nearly loved. At the wedding, the bride's sister, Amy, tormented Preston Diamond to no end though the wild passion they had shared a year earlier, did not surface.
In 1868, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, in a landslide victory, became eighteenth President of the United States. Three years after the end of the Civil War, the staggering nation continued to flounder with an inept reconstruction plan. The new chief had his hands full. Capitol Hill was powered by corruption and Ulysses Grant sought people he could trust implicitly.
They were in short supply.
The president decided he should appoint a man to cover special assignments that were too delicate for regular law agencies; a man of discretion who could handle himself in any situation; a man of many talents and schooled in many languages who would work undercover; a man of principles, of a singular character so particular as to preclude all other possible candidates. President Grant summoned a young man named Preston Diamond….
<<<Chapter 25 Author's Note>>>