They stopped for a quick luncheon in a small village at a pretty black and white inn on the village green.
“Do you think that Stepmama will follow us here?” Terry asked nervously.
“I am praying she will be deceived by the way we are covering our tracks,” Kyla replied. “But we must be careful because she is our Guardian by Law and could compel us to come back to her.”
Terry, realising what this meant, exclaimed,
“She is hateful! Why did Papa ever marry her?”
“That is something I have often asked myself,” Kyla admitted.
As a matter of fact she suspected that Sybil had used underhand methods, perhaps even drugs, in the same way as she was prepared to use them on her.
Certainly her father had drunk a great deal more than he ever had before Sybil became his wife and Kyla felt quite certain that his death had not been a natural one.
She looked at her beloved brother, praying desperately that he would be safe.
He was such a dear little boy, so unspoilt and so unaware of the evil and horrible things that happened in the outside world.
It was unthinkable that he should become the victim of a woman like their stepmother.
Because she was so eager to move on, Kyla ate hurriedly and the bill, when it did come, was quite a small one, even including their driver’s meal.
Then they were off again.
It was now late in the afternoon when they finally arrived at Berkhamsted, a small town on the main highway.
And Kyla went into the Posting inn, looking impressive in her feather bonnet.
“I am the Countess of Stafford,” she declared, “and I require a room for myself and one adjacent for my son.”
“Of course, your Ladyship,” the proprietor said, bowing, “and we’ll do our best to make your visit comfortable.”
She was shown into what Kyla guessed was the best bedroom in the inn.
It was certainly comfortable and the room next door for Terry had a communicating door with hers.
She felt that they would both find this reassuring.
When they went downstairs for dinner, Kyla found that the meal was well cooked and appetising.
She was glad, however, that there were few other guests staying there.
When she went upstairs before dinner, she had sent for her maid to help her take off her gown and enquired,
“This is a charming inn, but it is surely not the only one in town?”
“Oh, no, my Lady,” the maid replied, “there be another one, but it’s not patronised by the Gentry like this one. Though they says as the ’orses be as good as ours.”
Kyla had found out what she wanted to know and so changed the subject.
Terry was tired, having been woken in the middle of the night and she herself had had no sleep.
So she was exhausted by the time that dinner was finished.
Just as they were about to leave the dining room, the proprietor said,
“The driver of your post-chaise, my Lady, wants to know if you’ll still be requirin’ ’is services tomorrow, otherwise ’e’ll take ’is horses ’ome.”
“Tell him we have friends who are meeting us here and he can therefore leave whenever it suits him,” Kyla replied.
She paused and then continued,
“But ask him to come and see me since I would like to give him something for himself.”
The proprietor hurried away.
When the driver of the post-chaise came to see her, Kyla told him in a loud voice that her friends were collecting them the next morning.
She felt that those overhearing the conversation would repeat every word if any enquiries were made.
She tipped him well and he thanked her profusely and she also complimented him on his driving.
When they were upstairs and the maid had left the room, Terry asked,
“Have we really got friends coming to meet us, Kyla?”
“No, not really,” Kyla replied, “but if anyone asks it is what the driver will tell them.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Terry wanted to know.
He was obviously very tired and Kyla thought that he was behaving extremely well in the circumstances.
“Just between ourselves,” she said in a low voice, “we are going to the other Posting inn, where we will hire a carriage under a different name, which will take us on to the next place where we will stay tomorrow night.”
“And where will we find Nanny?” Terry asked.
“She is a little further on,” Kyla explained, “but we have to be very very careful, Terry, just in case anyone has followed us. Of course they will be enquiring about a ‘young woman on her own with a boy’.”
“They must not catch us,” Terry said anxiously.
“No, of course not,” Kyla replied. “And we must pray very hard that we have been clever enough to deceive them.”
She went with him to his bedroom and tucked him in for the night.
He put his arms around her neck.
“It is a very exciting adventure, is it not, Kyla?” he asked.
“Very exciting,” she agreed. And you have to help me.”
“I will,” Terry said, “but I think I ought to have my gun with me.”
“You shall have your gun when it is necessary,” Kyla said. “For the moment it is quite safe in my bag.”
She knew as she spoke that they had been very lucky that a long time ago their father had taught them both how to shoot. He had first taught his wife and then the children.
“When we are travelling,” he then had explained, “you will meet all sorts of unpleasant people making trouble and I think that every woman should know how to protect herself.”
“I have no need to do that when I have you beside me, darling,” Lady Shenley had said.
“I know that, my precious,” he had replied, “but I might not always be here and I want you to feel safe wherever you happen to be.”
He had put his arms around his wife and kissed her.
Kyla remembered how her mother had learnt to be a first class shot, hitting the bullseye every time.
It had taken Kyla a little longer.
Then, of course, Terry had wanted to learn more.
“It’s not fair, Papa,” he had wailed. “I am a man and if you were not here, I would have to protect Mama and Kyla.”
“Of course you would,” his father had agreed. “I tell you what I will do. I am going off to London tomorrow and I will find you a pistol that will be the right size for you.”
Terry, who had been only six at the time, had given a whoop of joy.
Lord Shenley was as good as his word.
He had found for his son a pistol which had once belonged to a Russian Princess. It was very small with a jewelled holster, but the pistol itself was workmanlike.
Although it was not likely to kill anyone, it could make a very nasty wound if an animal or a man should threaten Terry.
He had practised diligently until he too became a good shot.
When he had hit three bullseyes in succession, he was wildly excited.
“I have done it! I have done it, Papa!” he cried. “Now you have to call me a ‘first class shot’ just like you.”
“I am really proud of you, my boy,” his father said, “and when you are older you shall have a weapon the same size as mine.”
Kyla bade Terry ‘goodnight’ and went to her own room.
She could not help hoping that they would never have to use their pistols against anyone.
It seemed totally incredible that any woman would deliberately plan to kill a small boy, especially one as delightful and charming as her brother.
‘I have to save him, I have to,’ she told herself forcefully.
She longed for the night to pass quickly so that they could once again be on their way.
*
The next morning Kyla woke Terry very early.
As they went down to breakfast, she doubted that the proprietor would be about at that hour of the morning.
She was right in her assumption as there was only one sleepy waitress and an even more sleepy porter on duty.
After they had eaten, Kyla handed the porter some money, saying,
“Please give this to the innkeeper for me. Tell him that we spent a comfortable night, but have to leave early as a carriage is coming for us from a friend’s house. It will be here by eight o’clock as we have a long way to go.”
The porter was not particularly interested.
But, as Kyla had tipped him, she thought that he would remember what she had said.
Carrying their bags, Kyla and Terry hurriedly left the inn.
“Where are we really going?” Tory asked.
“We are going to the other inn,” Kyla answered, “but now we will have a different name and I am your Governess. When you hear what I will tell them when we reach it, don’t be surprised.”
Again, as it was still early in the morning, there was only a young groom in attendance in the stables of the next inn.
“I hope you can help me,” Kyla said. “I am Miss Brown and the Governess of this young gentleman, who is the son of Sir Thomas Brampton. Unfortunately the carriage in which we were travelling was involved in a slight accident and the wheel is buckled. As I have no wish to wait for it to be repaired, I would like to hire a vehicle to carry us as quickly as possible to Royston.”
This was a town which she knew they could easily reach by that evening.
The groom scratched his head.
“I don’t know as I can give you a post-chaise,” he said, “without me askin’ the Head Groom.”
“Then go and ask him at once,” Kyla said, “as Lady Brampton is eagerly awaiting our arrival.”
The lad hurried away and, as she expected, the proprietor was impressed by the assumed title.
When he arrived, Kyla. told her story and made it clear that there was no time to be lost.
Almost quicker than she could believe it, they were on the road again.
The post-chaise was not as comfortable as the one that they had ridden in the previous day.
The two horses, however, seemed young and fresh and that was all that mattered.
Once again they stopped for luncheon, but the inn was full of noisy men.
They looked at Kyla in a way that made her feel embarrassed and she was glad when it was time to leave.
She then decided that it was a mistake to stop at inns where there were a lot of people.
For tomorrow, she thought, she would order luncheon to take with them from wherever they stayed the night.
It was a long and tiring journey even though they were on a main road all of the time.
In fact it was so tiring that in the afternoon Terry fell asleep as he cuddled up to Kyla.
She put her arms around him and thought of the future and how she must take her brother to safety.
She was wondering what was happening at the house in London and what her stepmother had said when it was discovered that they were both missing.
‘She will be very angry,’ Kyla told herself, ‘but she will not dare to go to the Police in case they find us and we tell them why we ran away.’
At the same time she could not be certain of anything.
Quite suddenly she felt very young and vulnerable and so alone in the world that it was becoming more and more frightening.
‘Help me, Mama, help me, Papa,’ she prayed. ‘I am frightened – very very frightened.’
Because the horses had grown tired, it was late in the evening when they finally reached the Posting inn at Royston.
It was in no way as comfortable as the one that they had previously slept in.
Nevertheless the beds were clean and no one seemed to take any interest in them, but Kyla told herself that the less notice the proprietor took of her and Terry the better.
There was a badly cooked unappetising dinner, during which Terry almost fell asleep at the table.
At last they were in their beds and Kyla thought with relief that there was only one more day to go.
She kept going over and over in her mind what lay ahead.
She recognised that it would be a great mistake to arrive at Lilliecote Castle without first warning Nanny that they were travelling under assumed names.
She did not underestimate her stepmother’s brain and it was more than possible that she would remember how fond they had been of Nanny.
It might in fact be the first place she would look if she was desperately intent on finding them.
Although Kyla was very tired, she lay awake for a long time, planning out what she must do.
*
The next morning before she left the inn Kyla asked where the stagecoach stopped on the main road.
It was a question that the people in the inn were used to hearing.
Only a few of their guests came in their own carriages or could afford a post-chaise.
She was told not only where the stagecoach stopped but also the route that it followed.
Kyla knew that it would take them within two miles of Lilliecote Castle.
They walked from the inn to the coach stop and Kyla was relieved to find that there was only one farmer’s wife waiting.
She was carrying a basket containing eggs and two dead chickens that had not been plucked.
When the stagecoach arrived, Terry begged to be allowed to sit on top and as there were only two men on the coach, Kyla allowed him to do so.
She climbed inside.
There were two other women, both of them obviously farmers’ wives like the one who they had waited with her for the stagecoach.
She thought it important for her to arouse no particular interest, so she sat quietly in her corner and looked out of the window.
The farmers’ wives chatted endlessly to each other about how expensive everything was these days and they also complained that they received so little for their farm produce.
Kyla thought that it was an old story that had been repeated over and over again.
At the same time she could understand how much they resented their difficulties, which had been created by cheap food imported into the country from the Continent of Europe and it had undercut the prices of home-grown produce.
It was just on noon when they came to a coach stop, which she knew was only about two miles from The Castle.
She then jumped out of the coach, saying a shy ‘farewell’ to the other occupants and they responded without showing any interest.
Terry climbed down from the top of the coach, saying as it drove off,
“That was spiffing, Kyla! I liked it up there.”
“I thought you would,” Kyla said as she smiled, “and now we have a long way to walk and I expect you are hungry. I am very glad I brought some sandwiches for our luncheon. We will have it quite soon.”
She had told the maid that was what she wanted when they went down to breakfast.
They did not look very appetising and yet, at least, she thought it would sustain them until they reached Nanny.
She was quite certain that once that happened, Nanny would want to feed Terry up and her too.
“I would like a drink,” Terry asked.
“So would I,” Kyla agreed, “but I think it would be a mistake to be seen in any of the village inns near to The Castle. We had better find Nanny first and arrange how we can hide.”
“Do you mean we have to hide even when we are with Nanny?” Terry asked.
Kyla nodded.
“I am sure that Stepmama will look for us here.”
‘If she tries to take us away, I will shoot her,” Terry asserted.
The way he spoke made Kyla remember the pistols they had in their bags.
It, however, did seem to be rather a far-fetched situation.
At the same time her father had warned her so often about keeping their pistols beside them. But it would have been stupid to be caught defenceless.
What money she had left was very precious and it had to be spent wisely.
She then rose to her feet and, going under a tree, undid her baggage.
She felt for her own pistol, which she put into her pocket.
Then she took out Terry’s smaller one.
“Now I can protect you,” Terry said valiantly, “and, if anyone comes to take us back to Stepmama, I will shoot them!”
“You must remember that our Papa said we were never to shoot unless it was absolutely necessary,” Kyla replied, “and I, for one, have no wish to kill anyone.”
“I would not kill them,” Terry said after thinking for a moment. “I would shoot them in the leg or maybe the arm, so that they could not run away.”
Kyla drew in her breath.
It was something she did not want to think about. Instead she concentrated on how they could reach Lilliecote Castle and talk to Nanny without anyone being aware of it.
She tied up her baggage again and they set off, finding it hard going over a rough field.
Kyla knew by the map she had studied when planning the journey that they were going in the right direction.
They had left the main road as soon as the stagecoach had disappeared out of sight.
Now, as they turned to the left, bearing West, they would fairly soon, she reckoned, see The Castle in the distance.
Nanny had written in many of her letters to them, just how impressive The Castle was and that it could be seen for miles around as it was built on the top of a hill.
She had written,
“It has been in the Earl’s family for hundreds of years and I know that both you and Terry would find it exciting because it has secret passages. There are many beautiful rooms, some of which were added after The Castle was first built.”
‘Perhaps we could hide in the secret passages,’ Kyla thought, but did not say it aloud.
She knew that mentioning it would make Terry determined to do so, whether there was danger or not.
They walked on, until they came to some trees overlooking a small valley.
Kyla knew that they had to descend to a stream that ran through it and then up again on the other side.
She sank down onto the ground.
“Let’s have something to eat now,” she proposed. “I am finding my baggage very much heavier than I expected.”
“So is mine,” Terry said, “and I am hungry.”
She opened the parcel of sandwiches and she found that they were not as unpleasant as she had anticipated they might be.
The bread was fresh and had been spread with butter and the pieces of ham that filled it were quite edible.
Terry started to eat the sandwiches with delight.
He was just telling Kyla again how hungry he was when she heard the sound of a horse coming up behind them.
Turning round, she gave a gasp of horror.
The man riding the horse had a handkerchief over the lower part of his face and there was a large pistol in his hand.
She stared at him in terror.
Then, before either she or the highwayman could speak, Terry pulled out his pistol.
The movement of his hand made Kyla remember hers and, taking her pistol from out of her pocket, she pointed it at the intruder.
He stared at the two of them for a moment and then very unexpectedly he laughed.
“I don’t believe it!” he exclaimed loudly, looking at Terry. “Is that pistol for real?”
“Very real,” Kyla said in a voice that shook a little, “as you will see if you try to make demands on us.”
“Now, what would two children of your age be a-doin’ with pistols?” the highwayman laughed again.
He put his own weapon back into his pocket and went on,
“I reckons there’s a story behind all this. Put them dangerous weapons away and if you can spare I a bit to eat, that’s all I’ll make you deliver.”
The way he spoke was so friendly that Kyla lowered her pistol.
Only Terry kept his pointed firmly at the highwayman.
The man next knotted the reins on his horse’s neck.
It was then that Kyla realised that it was a very fine stallion, so fine that she was sure it was unusual for a highwayman, of all people, to own such a magnificent horse.
“Where did you get such a wonderful mount?” she asked him impulsively.
“Where d’you think?” the highwayman laughed. “I stole ’im!”
He patted the horse on its back and it moved away, lowering its head to crop the grass.
The highwayman pulled down the handkerchief from his face and sat down beside them under the trees.
“Now, what be you two up to?” he enquired. “I’m bettin’ you’ve run away from school.”
‘It is much worse than that,” Kyla answered. “We are in danger and very frightened, so please don’t make it any worse for us than it is already.”
“Of course I won’t,” the highwayman replied, scratching his nose.
He glanced at Terry, who was still standing there with the small pistol in his hand.
“Put the gun away, Sonny,” he said, “but you’re quite right to protect this pretty lady, who I sees be older than I thinks ’er was.”
Kyla handed the highwayman a sandwich and he took it gratefully.
“I be ever so ’ungry,” he said. “I’ve ’ad a couple of real bad days and the only money I ’as goes on the ’orse’s food and not mine.”
Kyla was thinking that he was not such a bad man after all.
No man who would put his horse before his own needs could be cruel.
“Did you really steal him?” she asked.
“’Course I did,” the highwayman admitted. “It was a real fair do. I left me own ’orse in exchange, though ’e’s a bit long in the tooth and much slower than Samson.”
“Is that his name?” Terry asked. ‘It’s a good name for a horse.”
“That’s what I thinks,” the highwayman agreed. “Now tell me what be you two young ’uns up to?”
“As I told you, we are in deadly danger,” Kyla replied.
“Then what be you a-doin’ ’ere?”
Kyla paused and then somehow she knew instinctively that she could trust this man.
He might be a highwayman, but at the same time he looked kind and fatherly.
Anyway it was difficult to think that he could ever be murderous.
“We are trying to get to Lilliecote Castle,” she said, “where we have a friend. We don’t, however, want anybody to know that we are there until we actually see our friend inside The Castle.”
“That sounds a bit complicated,” the highwayman admitted, “but I gets your meanin’. Well, I suppose I’ll ’ave to ’elp you then.”
“Could you do that?” Kyla asked. “We would be so very very grateful.”
She passed him another sandwich as she spoke, which he accepted without speaking.
After a long pause he said,
“I’ve done all sorts of things in me life, but I ’as me principles as no doubt you ’ave yours.”
“Of course we have ‒ ” Kyla answered.
“Why are you a highwayman?” Terry interrupted. “If you are caught, you will be hanged from a gibbet.”
“That’s why I ’as to keep on goin’,” the highwayman replied, “and now I’ve got Samson, it’s not so difficult.”
“You mean you can get away quickly?” Kyla asked.
“Aye, that’s the long and the short of it, but I suspects they’ll get I in the end.”
“Tell me,” Kyla asked him, “so why are you a highwayman?”
“I were a good gardener,” he replied, “and I ’ad green fingers with flowers, they used to say, but it be not difficult for me, I guess. I comes back ’avin’ served me King and Country, so to speak, and what do I find? Me job’s gone, me wife’s run off with another man and me cottage be occupied by another family. That’s ’ow they treats ’eroes!”
“I agree with you. It is disgraceful the way that our soldiers and sailors have been left to starve, especially those who were wounded,” Kyla said. “It made my father very angry.”
“It made I very angry too!” the highwayman said. “So I takes to the road and somehow enjoys meself. “Though you may not think so, at least I be free. For the moment.”
“You will have to be very careful,” Terry warned him.
“I am,” he replied. “But I never expects I’d find two babes in arms flashing pistols at I!”
He laughed until he choked and then he carried on,
“Anyway, it’s nice to meet you and if you be wantin’ go to The Castle, I’ll give you a lift.”
“On Samson?” Terry asked excitedly.
“On Samson,” the highwayman affirmed. “He be strong enough to carry the three of us.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Kyla asked. “It is very kind of you and it was very hot when we were walking.”
“’Course it be. Now give me your baggage, miss.”
He took it from them and fixed it firmly in a clever way to Samson’s saddle.
Then he put Terry up in front of him and, having mounted, pulled Kyla up behind him.
She put her arms round his waist to keep herself steady.
They set off, moving between the trees and, she was quite certain seen by no one.
They had gone for some distance when he stopped and announced,
“Here us be. That’s what you be a-lookin’ for.”
He pointed and Kyla could see ahead of them silhouetted against the sky the Towers and roofs of what appeared to be a very large building.
“Is that The Castle?” Terry asked excitedly. “It looks spiffing! I have never been inside a Castle before.”
“You enjoy it whilst you ’as the chance,” the highwayman said, “but if you ’as to get away in an ’urry, remember if I’m anywhere near ’ere I’ll ’elp you out.”
“You are very kind,” Kyla said. “Could you not find a better job than holding up people on the highway?”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little ’ead about I. Jest you take care of yourself and if you be in danger, real danger, you can always get in touch with I.”
“What is your name?” Kyla asked. “And how can I possibly contact you?”
The highwayman thought for a moment.
And then he said,
“There be a very large oak tree in the Park, as everyone in the village believes ’as magic powers and can ’elp when you’re in trouble or when you be ill. Anyone can tell you where it be.”
He paused for a few moments as if he was thinking out what he was just about to say.
“Now what you must do is to put a small red kerchief round one of the boughs of the oak tree at dusk. There be all sorts of charms and little things left there, but I ain’t never seen a red kerchief. A red ribbon’ll do if you ain’t got no kerchief.”
“Then what will happen?” Kyla asked.
“I’ll wait for you at the tree when there be no one about and you can tell I what’s amiss.”
“Thank you – thank you!” Kyla sighed. “It is so very kind of you.”
The highwayman thought for a moment.
Then he went on,
“If things gets too ’ot for me and I ’as to go away quickly, I wouldn’t want you to be disappointed if I didn’t show up.”
“Then what should I do?” Kyla asked.
“Well, if it so ’appens,” he said, “I’ll leave sommat on a bough for you. It might be jest a bit of Samson’s mane, but it’ll tell you that I can’t meet you that night.”
“I will certainly go to the tree every day,” Kyla said. “I would like to see it anyway”
“So would I,” Terry smiled a toothy smile.
The highwayman brought Samson to a standstill.
“I’ll not take you any further,” he said. “It’s only a short walk to The Castle from ’ere.”
“I think we shall have to hide somewhere in the garden,” Kyla said, “hoping the person I am waiting to see will come out of The Castle and I can have a chance to speak to her alone.”
The highwayman urged Samson forward and, when he stopped again, he said,
“If you walk from ’ere and go straight through the shrubbery, then you peeps through the bushes, you’ll see the lawns and the Bowling Green ahead of you
“Thank you, thank you!” Kyla said. “You are the kindest man we have ever met and I am so grateful to you.”
“It were nice talkin’ to you,” he replied in a gruff voice. “It ain’t often I gets a chance of speakin’ to a beautiful young lady like you be. I ’ad a daughter meself once, but ’er died after I’d gone to the War.”
“I am sorry,” Kyla said sympathetically.
Then she put up her hand to lay it on his.
“I think perhaps your daughter is glad that we met you and that you have been able to help us.”
“That be a real good thing for you to say,” the highwayman replied, turning away.
But Kyla had already seen that there was a hint of moisture in his eyes.
He turned to Terry.
“Now, young feller, you look after this pretty lady as I guess ’er must be your sister and don’t you let anyone ’arm ’er.”
“I will shoot them if they try!” Terry replied aggressively.
“Of course you will,” the highwayman agreed, “but see you aim straight!”
He then released their bags from the saddle and, as they fell to the ground, he pulled on Samson’s reins.
“’Bye,” he called out. “And don’t forget, if anythin’ bad ’appens, leave a message on the old oak.”
“I will not forget,” Kyla said, “and thank you, thank you again so very much.”
She paused before she then asked hesitatingly,
“I would like to have – a name when I – think of you, but perhaps it is wrong for me to ask.”
The highwayman smiled.
“I’ll tell you. ‘Bill’ is what me friends, when I ’ad some, called me.”
“Then I will call you ‘Bill’ when I pray that you will be safe,” Kyla said.
“You do that, miss,” the highwayman replied.
“And when you think of us,” Kyla said, “I am ‘Kyla’ and my brother is ‘Terry’, but no one must know we are here.”
“I’ll keep me mouth closed.”
He lifted his hat and, as he did so, Kyla saw that he was going grey.
As he put it on again, Samson carried him away quickly and they disappeared amongst the trees.
Terry gave a sigh.
“Fancy our meeting a real live highwayman!” he exclaimed. “I wish I could tell the boys at school. They would never believe it.”
“You must promise me that you will tell no one or we will get him into trouble,” Kyla said quickly. “If there are people looking for us, there will certainly be people looking for him too.”
“Yes, of course,” Terry said, “but he was nice, was he not, Kyla?”
“Very nice,” Kyla nodded.
They picked up their baggage and started to walk through some trees that gradually gave way to shrubs.
Many of them were in bloom and there was a fragrance in the air that was very attractive.
Kyla moved on cautiously as she had no wish to be found by a gardener, who would ask her what they were doing here.
Then, through the bushes just ahead of her, she could see green lawns.
To the right, as the highwayman had told them, there was the Bowling Green.
Now that she was closer to The Castle, it was even larger and more magnificent than it had seemed from a distance.
The walls were thick and sturdy with battlements.
She thought, if they stayed there, even her stepmother would not be able to harm them.
Then she told herself that this was just ‘wishful thinking’.
She had to find Nanny, who might think that it would be wiser for them to go somewhere else where nobody knew them.
Her spirits dropped at the thought.
Then, as they stared up to the top of The Castle, seeing its turrets and Towers, Terry said suddenly in a whisper,
“Look, look, Kyla! There is Nanny! I can see her.”
He was speaking excitedly and he would have run forward.
But Kyla put her hand out to detain him.
“Wait, wait,” she said also in a whisper. “We must wait until we can speak to her out of sight of The Castle.”