MICAH HAD NO INTENTION of thinking about it. But he did.
Which is to say, he thought about Ellen Bellhaven. Which forced him to think about her offer.
My sister said you would do it for money.
Which was true. Micah had done much more ignoble things for the coin of the realm. He wasn’t picky, as a rule. But the idea of shepherding a woman into the woods so she could check up on her nephew struck him as a chapter ripped out of a Hardy Boys book. The Legend of Little Heaven’s Gold.
But then, considering he did do pretty much anything for money, and providing Ms. Bellhaven had the means to pay . . .
He was trying to talk himself into it. Idiotically, he found that he wanted to spend more time with Ellen. Still, wasn’t it easy money? Guide her to this Little Heaven and let her get a peek at the kid. So long as the boy’s arms weren’t covered in fang bites from handling cobras and he didn’t have a crucifix branded on his forehead . . . well, they could just toddle off again, right? How hard could it be?
Micah dwelled on it for a day. Then he brought it up with the other two. He shouldn’t need them on this job. But there was that old chestnut: Better to bring a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have one.
“So what—this guy and his kid are shacked up with a bunch of Freedomites?” Minerva said once Micah had outlined the situation.
“Something like that,” said Micah.
Ebenezer spanked his hands together and high-kneed around in a little circle. “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna-Krishna-Hare-Hare!”
“How much we talking?” Minerva said.
Micah said, “I am given to understand her family has money.”
Minerva said, “So why not just rob her?”
Micah frowned. “It will only take a few days.”
“We can have a wienie roast,” said Eb, warming to the idea. “And tell spook stories. Isn’t that what you Yanks do on campouts?”
The two of them were game. Micah left it at that. Ellen Bellhaven had probably left by now, anyway. Packed up and returned to wherever she had come from.
She was gone. Micah was sure of it.