The end is rarely ever the end. Our troubles have a way of coming round again when we are not prepared for them.
Stepping outside the shelter, Raven stretched and smiled at the sun. After two days of being stuck in the shelter, the group of travelers had become pungent. Sweat-soaked bodies and soot from the fire mingled together into an unappetizing stew. The snow still was knee-deep, but she was ready to go.
Her uncle stepped up beside her and set a hand on her shoulder. “I’m getting cabin fever, myself, but Darius is too sick for us to do much more than take turns carrying him. And then there’s the problem of the witch.”
Raven’s gaze dropped to the cotton-haired witch. She’d been catatonic since the sleeping gas had debilitated her. The woman neither moved nor spoke. She did nothing but breathe.
Monroe’s hand gripped her shoulder. “Do you think the weather acceptable to start this trek today?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But I’d rather get disembarked then stay in this wretched place one more day.”
Rupert stood next to them, stretching his arms out and pounding his chest like a gorilla. “We really must go, regardless. We’re out of food.”
Raven had figured as much. She turned back toward the shelter. Darius remained shivering in the pile of furs. The boy couldn’t seem to find the heat needed to keep his body warm, no matter how close he sat to the fire. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead from fever.
Marietta had given him herbs to keep the fever down, but claimed that she could do no more. The boy drank as much tea as they could make from the melted snow and horturf root. It affected him very little.
Raven pulled a knife from the holster on her leg. “I believe we’ll be disassembling this shelter to make a sledge or two for the boy and the captive?”
With a nod, Grant and the other guardsmen pulled knives of their own and began.
An hour later, they had fashioned two sledges; one pulled by two belts buckled together, the other by the spider wire from her wench. She braided it in a fashion to thicken it and keep it from cutting into the puller’s skin. After wrapping the boy and the still unconscious old woman in the blankets, they each donned their furs and took turns pulling the two sledges through the knee-deep snow. The azure sky was cloudless save the vapor of their breaths as they trudged forward. Sunlight reflected from the white snow, keeping their walk blind.
With the load they carried, what had taken four hours to hike up took five to hike down. Rupert had trudged ahead a bit, playing the duty of scout. When they neared the bottom, he rushed back, a look of grim determination on his set face. “Captain. A small detachment of soldiers has arrived at the inn. They were in brown coats. If I’d had my spyglass, I would have been able to tell if they were the rest of or squad or another. How do you suggest we proceed?”
Grant slowed to a stop, the young baron asleep on the sledge he pulled. He had let no other pull the small child with the excuse that he did not tire and the baron was not heavy. “Let us assume it is the rest of our men and continue. Harry could be trusted to track us here.”
“Aye, Captain.” Rupert nodded.
“Regardless, trudge ahead to the inn and enter alone. Scout it out.”
“Yes, Captain.” He turned on his heel and jogged ahead again.
The inn came into view, its black skin like a hole in the white backdrop. From this distance, they could spy Rupert as he reached the building. Raven couldn’t help the tension she felt. Was not the guards’ original order to get the boy and kill the reaper? She’d like to see them try.
They rested and watched until Rupert came back out. He motioned for them to continue and started to hike back toward them. When he met them, he smiled cautiously. “Captain, it is two of our men, Bradley and Harry.”
“Excellent. What news?”
“They delivered Jasper Hollow to the hospital in New Haven, where they discovered grave reports.” His face became downcast for a moment. “Baron Solomon is on his death bed. They expect him to be gone in very little time. The duke is desperate to have his second son back.”
The solemn news caused a ripple of relief through the party.
Colton smiled. “So the boy is safe and will not be executed.”
“That’s the understanding.” Rupert's eyes fixed on Raven and Monroe and he nodded. “There is no longer any order concerning the reaper.”
Grant clapped Rupert on the shoulder. “Though Solomon’s illness makes us sober, the rest is all excellent news. Have they brought enough horses for the whole group?”
“No, sir. However, the same coachman who brought us here has been stuck at the inn as well. I’d wager we could coax him into taking us to the train tomorrow morning.”
“Good idea.” Captain Grant smiled and stretched out. “Let’s get some good, warm food in the young baron and see if that bolsters him.”
When they reached the inn and began to untie the Wood Witch from her pallet, they found that she had died in the journey. Raven felt sick to her stomach. Had the old woman died because of the chemicals in her hair stick? Would this be yet another life she’d need to redeem?
Monroe approached and laid a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not your fault. This was a natural course and one the woman chose for herself. You cannot accept blame for this. There is nothing to redeem.”
How had her uncle read her mind? She nodded. He was right. The woman’s course of action caused her health to fail. Monroe patted her shoulder and bent over the body.
Raven cleared her throat. “Will the innkeeper allow us to bury her here?”
Grant stiffened and shook his head, his eyes darting quickly away. “We’ll be fashioning these sleds into a box and taking the body with us as evidence.”
Raven shuddered. They’d be travelling with the remains of the Wood Witch. Marietta sidled up to her and placed an unwelcome arm around Raven’s shoulders. The redheaded witch’s voice lilted and a smirk crooked on her lips. “It’s for the best. This area is too close to the enchanted mountain. We wouldn’t want her rising from the dead now, would we?”
Although his sleep was broken by his middle watch, Jack woke fresh from the best night of sleep he’d had in a month. The stress of hunting down the baron had taken its toll on him. He shared a room at the inn with both Colton and Rupert. Baron Darius lay upon one of the beds in the room as well. He’d not let the boy out of his sight again.
The boy’s fever still hadn’t broken. He tossed and turned a bit through the night, and the guardsman who kept watch also had to replace his blankets when he kicked them from him. He still slept though all three guardsmen were up and gathering their things.
Downstairs, the three of them met up with the two other guardsmen and the two reapers. Raven had donned a simple periwinkle travelling dress again, and her hair had been pinned up without the use of the glass sticks. She carried a carpet bag, and for all purposes, looked once more like a lady. He felt lighter when he looked on her, and until that moment, he had not noticed how the heaviness of leaving her behind weighed on him. Where had she even gotten the dress?
When Raven met eyes with him, she gave a cordial nod and approached him. “Good morning, Captain Grant. What time this morning will we be leaving for the train?”
Her voice had a formal edge that it had not had in the past. Jack stood straighter. “I suppose the cab will be taking us to the Ipswich station after a short breakfast. Would you be joining us for New Haven?”
She nodded. “Yes. I intend to keep my charge until the end of this journey. I want to be certain the duke means him no harm before I release him into his care.”
Jack bristled. “I assure you, the duke is an honest man and…”
The icy look in Raven’s eyes made him falter. She narrowed them. “A man in power is often willing to compromise his character to satisfy his whims. When you make the law, you may find little reason to abide by them.”
Jack swallowed and was glad Rupert had not heard the woman. “The duke’s integrity would keep him from such a thing.”
“How could a man of integrity decide to execute his son one moment and then pardon him the next?” She stepped toward him and spoke through her teeth. “Darius is his son. He tossed the boy aside when his heir was well enough to stand, but now that Solomon is bedridden—on a whim—the duke remembers he loves Darius enough to spare him?”
Heat rushed to Jack’s face along with his fury. How dare this woman speak about the duke in such a manner? He opened his mouth to chastise her when Colton came whistling down the stairs. Rupert stood close behind, carrying the young baron. The other two guardsmen followed them.
Jack swallowed his retort. Instead he said, “As long as you are travelling with us, we will remain in armistice. But if you speak ill once more of him, I’ll break this alliance and arrest you.”
With an indignant look toward the guard on the stairs, Raven gave a curt nod and headed for a table already occupied by Monroe and Marietta. The older woman patted the single empty seat next to her when Colton passed, but he bowed his head cordially and continued to the larger banquet table near the door where the guardsmen chose to sit. Darius awoke enough to sit in a chair and pick at some food on his plate. The young baron kept glancing around him.
“Are you okay, Darius?” Jack asked.
The boy fixed his watery gaze on him and shook his head. His voice cracked barely above a whisper. “Where is Nikki? And Raven?”
A chair scraped at the table a bit a way. Raven approached the young baron. She knelt beside his chair. “I’m here, Darius. I promise not to be too far. And we’ll join up with Nikki before we get on the train. She’s with a friend of Monroe’s.”
Relief washed over the young baron, and he threw his arms around Raven’s neck. Silence settled over the rest of the table. Even Harry and Bradley had stopped their incessant chatter. Raven stood, the boy still clinging to her and returned to her table. Rupert began to go after her, but Jack shook his head slightly when they met each other’s eyes. What harm would it do? Obviously, the boy had developed a bond with the woman reaper that would not be easily severed.
Marietta had moved to the side with Monroe, and the young baron sat in the chair next to Raven. He looked more lively sitting with her.
As they ate quickly, Jack found his gaze continually drawn in the direction of Raven and the baron. Sometimes the woman could be so tender and other times she was infuriating. Friend or foe? Which would she prove to be?