“To go where?”
Something heavy fell against the kitchen table, and I heard Angelica gasping a deep breath. My own breath came only slightly easier knowing…hoping at least, there was no longer a hand around her throat.
“She’s gone to Westerville,” Angelica said, her voice gruff and strained. “Said she wanted to make a new life for herself. Said she never wanted to see her piece-of-shit father again. I gave her a bag of coin and wished her well.”
There was a laugh from one of the other men, but my father’s voice cut across it. “Liar. She’s got neither the wits nor the guts. You’ve got her stashed here. I know it. So, where the fuck is she?”
There was a crash and clatter, sounding like everything on the table had been swept to the floor as Angelica screamed obscenities.
“You bastard, Milo! That’s my livelihood!”
“No doubt you’ll make it back in other ways. Not worth what you were back in your youth though. Out of practice, too.”
A loud clang made me jump, reverberating through the cool air and vibrating my ear drums. At the same moment, I heard my father’s pained scream. I felt a warm drip on my chest and shifted back as the tincture Angelica had been simmering on the fire trickled through the floorboards.
“Bitch!” my father screamed, footsteps retreating to the doorway. “This is not over.”
“Get out of my goddamned house,” she seethed. “You haven’t forgot I lived a different life in my past, but you seem not to remember it earned me connections and favors as well. You all know it is true.” She paused for effect, and I heard mumblings of assent. She’s right. Cunt’s got contacts in town, that’s for sure. “Men far more powerful and dangerous that you motley fools would come to my aid if I so much as called on them. If you know what is good for you…all of you, mind…you’ll find your way out my front gate and don’t ever think of coming back. Right now. Or we’ll find out how many balls I can cut off before you overpower me.”
There were a few grunts and muttered curses, but eventually the voices sounded farther away and the door was slammed shut. For a long moment, I held perfectly still, neither breathing nor moving. Then, after what felt like an eternity, the rug shifted above me and a patch of light made me squint in the darkness.
As Angelica knelt down and offered me her hand, I emerged.
Her hair was mussed and her clothes crooked and disheveled, but she was otherwise unharmed…thanks to the gleaming meat cleaver that lay beside her.
A second night passed, then a third day, all quietly, but by the evening of the fourth I could tell Angelica was growing as concerned as I for Bors.
“Bors told me Gowerton is only a day’s ride away. He should have been back by now, shouldn’t he?” I asked as I peeled potatoes, noting Angelica’s knitted brow and glances at the window.
She untied and re-tied her apron. “I’m sure he’s just delayed, try not to worry.”
“I’m worried already,” I said.
She stared at me, then nodded. “Aye, you and me both. Not much can hurt Bors, he’s seen too many battles to be easily caught off guard. But let me see what I can find out in town. If a man of Clan Mackay has been waylaid on the border, news of it will have spread by now. You stay here, you understand?”
“I won’t go anywhere. I promise.”
She eyed me knowingly. “No matter how curious you get, you must stay here, Sara. Right here. If anyone comes calling, you hide back under the floor best you can.” She tapped the table for emphasis. “I won’t be more than a few hours. But in the meantime, don’t take any chances.”
“I won’t. I swear.”
With that, she packed a satchel and I listened as the hoofbeats of her dappled gray mare bore her down the road, leaving me completely alone.
I passed the time while she was away as best I could, making myself useful collecting eggs and feeding the pigs, and gathering herbs that I put to dry as she’d taught me. But as the sun began to make its way back towards the horizon the following day, I was still sitting in the kitchen and she hadn’t returned.
It was unbearable. How could I keep my promise and stay?
At nightfall, hoping that the cover of darkness would protect me from any prying eyes, I braided my hair off to the side, and set out for Weschail in search of answers.
Sara
From several hundred yards away, the raucous noise of revelers’ voices and the clink of glasses spilled out from the half-open windows of the Cock and Bull Inn. I knew it was risky to show my face there, since my father or any one of his friends might spot me, but it was a risk I had to take.