“Who—? What—? Who told you such a thing?” she asked, her heart pounding in her chest.
“When he was dying, he wrote me. I had a chance to get home to visit before he passed.”
“You went back there?”
“Of course, Mother. Where else would I go to visit my dying father?”
“When was this?”
He swept the cap from his head and ran a hand over his bristled scalp. “Ten winters ago? Twelve?” His gaze sought the rafters. “I’d been posted to the Southlands garrison, so it must have been ten winters. I spent three there and then moved up here to take over this Lord-forsaken and Lady-lost garrison. I’ve been here ever since.” Heaving a sigh, he tossed his hat onto the nearby table. “I’ll probably die here before they replace me.”
“Ten winters ago? I was in the Southlands then myself. During the border raids?”
He blinked at her, his head cocked to one side as if she’d just spouted gibberish and he was trying to figure out what she’d actually meant to say. “You were where?”
“In the Southlands. About ten winters ago. On the borderlands with Barramor.”
“During the raids?”
“Yes. During the raids. The King’s Own were spread too thin; the raiders seemed to know where you’d be, and they’d strike while you were busy elsewhere.”
“You couldn’t have been.”
“But I was. I stayed with Mother Ashbourne in Grentan from the time of the first raids until the beastly business with the infected cattle.”
“You were in Grentan?” His voice carried his incredulity.
“Where were you?” she asked.
“Torland.”
“Torland? That’s where the infected cattle—” she stared up at him, the reality striking home. “You did that.”
“Yes. We did that. We had to.” His mouth pursed as if he’d tasted something bitter. “It ended the war.”
“You killed thousands of Barramor’s people.”
“If you were there, you know. They were killing our people. They were destroying crops and disrupting trade.” He stopped suddenly. “You were there,” he said after a moment.
“I was,” she said. “And I know.”
“But you left Father to die on his own.” His jaw tightened and his shoulders hunched forward.
“I left your father before he could kill me,” she said, her voice tight and low. “The same reason you left to join the King’s Own, unless you’ve forgotten that part.”
He rocked back on his heels as if she’d slapped him.
Perry burst through the kitchen door. “Commandant, how nice to see you...” His words tapered off as his gaze swept the room.
Tanyth turned to see Rebecca sitting where she had left her, her hands clenched tightly over her mouth and her eyes red with unshed tears. Amanda stood rigid, one hand on the teapot, an empty mug forgotten in the other. Her wide eyes darted back and forth between Perry and the officer, her lips moving but no sound coming out.
Tanyth took a deep breath and turned back to Robert. “Perhaps we might have some tea and catch up? Shall we?”
The man blinked several times before tugging on his tunic as if to straighten it. He blew out a heavy breath. “Yes. A cup of tea would be excellent.”
Tanyth turned to the assembled party. “Everyone, this is my son, Robert.” Looking back at Robert, she said, “I think you already know Amanda and Perry. That young lady is my traveling companion, Rebecca Marong.”
“Richard’s daughter?” he asked, his voice practically squeaking with surprise.
Tanyth looked to Rebecca, whose eyes seemed two sizes bigger as she answered. “Yes. Why?” Rebecca asked.
“We’ve been looking for you since last summer. Your father’s been burning up the backwoods trying to find you.”
Rebecca looked from Robert to Tanyth and back. “That’s ridiculous. He’s known where I was for the last four winters.”
“That’s not what he’s told the garrison here. He had us out sweeping the coastline half the summer.”
Amanda clapped once, sharply. “Well, I think we all have a lot more to catch up on than we thought. Commandant? Did you leave your guardsmen outside?”
“Of course, Ms. Corbet.”
“Perry, take them out some tea and pastry. I have a feeling we may be here a while.”
Perry scooted back into the kitchen and emerged moments later, balancing a tray laden with mugs that looked more like tankards than teacups. He paused on his way past the commandant, who gave a small nod. “I’ll have a cup of that tea, too, if I may?”
Perry grinned. “Of course, sir.”
Amanda made an exasperated sound but said nothing, simply poured tea for the ladies and set about pulling extra chairs around the table. In a matter of minutes Amanda had finished, and Perry had returned with a tankard of ale for Robert and one for himself.
Amanda cuffed him on the shoulder and led him back to the kitchen by the arm. “Family business, dear. We’ve got a dinner to prepare, in case you’ve forgotten.”
Robert stood until Tanyth had taken a seat, then lowered himself onto an empty chair as if afraid it might collapse. He offered her a tentative smile and Rebecca a polite nod. “Perhaps we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot,” he said.
“That’ll happen when you crowd your tongue with your toes like that,” Rebecca said, a cheeky grin on her face.
Robert threw back his head and laughed. “You have me dead to rights, Miss Marong. My apologies.”
“Don’t apologize to me. She’s the one you owe an apology to.” Rebecca flourished her tea cup in Tanyth’s direction.
Robert considered his mother for a moment and then looked down at his tankard. He took a deep breath, running a hand over his scalp again. “Yes. Of course. I’m sorry, Mother.” He looked up at her from under a furrowed brow. “It was a shock to learn you were here.”
“No more of a shock than mine, Robert,” she said, leaning forward to touch his forearm to reassure herself that he was real.
“How did you find out?” Rebecca asked.
“All ships file a manifest with the harbormaster. Eventually they get routed to my secretary and I happened to see this one. First ship of the season and all.” He stopped speaking and looked down at his tankard. “And I wanted to see what the Call had brought by way of supplies.”
“Was there anything good?” Tanyth asked.
He gave a little chuckle and took a swig of ale. “I don’t know. I got to your name and felt like somebody’d hit me with a rock.” He glanced over to Rebecca. “I should have read a little farther down the page.”
“Where is my father?” Rebecca asked, lifting her mug of tea to hide her expression as she sipped.
“We’re expecting him on the Sea Rover when she gets here. He went back to town for the winter.”
“I wonder what he was looking for here,” she said, brow furrowed in frown.
“He said he was looking for you,” Robert said, the words dripping slowly from his lips one at a time.
“Yes, you said that, but he really did know that I was out at Ravenwood with William Mapleton’s party. It’s not like I was hiding from him.” She looked up at the commandant with a small shrug. “He also knew I wouldn’t likely be around up here because I was miles away in a village nobody’d heard of until we named it last fall.”
“Your father did not strike me as somebody who wastes time on pointless exercises.”
“He’s not,” Rebecca said. “And he’d be unlikely to spend anywhere near that amount of time looking for me, even if I were missing. So what was he looking for instead?”
“And why wouldn’t he tell us what it was?” Robert said.
“Perhaps he’ll tell you if you ask him,” Rebecca said with a sly grin.
Robert answered her grin with one of his own. “You can ask him yourself. He’ll be here in a few days. Fishing smack spotted the Sea Rover and Red Wave both beating into the wind coming up the Bight this a
fternoon. They should make port day after tomorrow.”
Rebecca frowned at that. “I may not be here.”
“Where would you be?” Robert asked.
“With her.” Rebecca gestured to Tanyth with her mug again.
“Where are you going, Mother?”
“Inland. Lammas Wood,” she said.
“Lammas Wood?” he looked back and forth between the two women. “There’s nothing out there but bears and wolves.”
“Well, there’s also trappers and lumberjacks and miners, unless I’ve been misinformed,” Tanyth said.
“And the hermit, too, but what truck can you possibly have with trappers and lumberjacks? You going into business?” he asked, a half-smile on his face as if he expected she was joking.
“You’re right. I’m not going out to visit the lumberjacks and trappers,” she said.
“Who, then? The hermit?”
Tanyth didn’t answer, just gave a half shrug and tilted her mug up.
“No. Not the hermit,” Robert said, looking to Rebecca.
Rebecca gave him a little nod.
“Really? You’re going out to visit the hermit of Lammas Wood?” He slammed his tankard down on the table so he could brace himself with both hands.
“Well, I’ve been over twenty winters on the road to get here. Seems like kind of a waste if I get this close and don’t finish it, don’t ya think?” Tanyth said.
“But that’s ridiculous,” he said. “That’s three—maybe four—days’ travel through the back country. You wouldn’t stand a chance out there on your own.”
Tanyth shrugged and regarded her son through half-lidded eyes. “I’ve made it this far on my own. I suspect I can get a little bit farther.”
“You don’t understand, Mother. There’s no law out there. My jurisdiction ends three miles past the tree line. After that it’s anybody’s. Trappers or hunters. Anybody you meet out there might be just as happy to kill you as look at you.”
“Or worse, I suspect,” Tanyth said, her expression not changing. “Lots of ’em have tried over the last twenty winters.”
“None have succeeded, I hope,” Robert said, his face turning red from the neck up.
Tanyth pursed her lips and shook her head. “No. None have succeeded.” She paused as if thinking about it. “Most didn’t survive.”
Robert’s eyes practically bugged out of his head. “Somebody killed them?”
“It’s a dangerous life,” she said. “Trust me when I say I know all about how dangerous it is.”
“No, Mother. I don’t believe you do. You can’t go haring off into the back country alone.”
“She’s not going to be alone,” Rebecca said. “I’ll be with her.”
“You can’t go either,” Robert said. “Your father will be here in a couple of days and he’ll have my hide tacked to the wall if he learns you were here and I let you wander off.”
“Your jurisdiction ends three miles past the treeline. You just got done telling us that,” Rebecca said. “What are you going to do to stop us? Lock us up?”
Robert set his jaw and glared. “If I have to.”
“Now, Robert,” Tanyth said, reaching out to lay a hand on his forearm. “That won’t be necessary. Of course we’ll wait for the Sea Rover. I’ve waited this long, another few days won’t matter.”
Robert looked at her and then took another swig of his beer. He swallowed it and then placed the tankard on the table between them. “Good. I’m glad you’ve chosen to see reason, Mother.” He smiled. “We’ve got a lot to catch up on. It’d be a shame to have to do it while you were behind bars.”
She smiled back. “It would be,” she agreed.
“All right then,” he said, and stood. “I need to get back to the garrison before the dinner mess. Responsibilities, you know.” He looked from one to the other of them and nodded. “I’ll come back tomorrow afternoon and perhaps we can chat a bit more. What do you say?”
“That would be lovely, dear,” Tanyth said. She turned to Rebecca. “Won’t that be lovely?”
Rebecca’s glower practically scorched one or two of Robert’s medals before she said, “Yeah. Lovely.”
“Until tomorrow, then.” He smiled and nodded to each of them before turning on his heel and marching toward the outer door. Grabbing his cap as he passed he settled it on his head, taking care to make sure it was level before he opened the door and stepped out into the late afternoon sun.
The door banged behind him.
Rebecca glowered at Tanyth.
“What is it, my dear?”
“You’re not really going to wait until my father gets here, are you?”
“Of course not. We need to get word to Mother Oakton and be on the road by noon tomorrow at the latest. I want to be five miles into the woods before he discovers we’re missing.”
A bright smile split Rebecca’s face.
“What? You think I spent twenty-odd winters on the road to avoid one Oakhurst male only to bow to the next one I find?” Tanyth made a rude noise with her tongue and lips.
Rebecca’s expression turned serious again. “You sure you don’t wanna visit with the long lost son?” she asked.
“I know where he works,” she said. “I can always find him later, but I’m certainly not going to halt my trip just because he says so.”
“How do we get word to Penny that we need to leave tomorrow?”
Amanda stuck her head through the open kitchen door. “She’ll be here for dinner. You can plot to your heart’s content then.”
Tanyth looked up in surprise.
Amanda laughed. “Don’t look so surprised. Sound carries from there, through the connected chimneys and directly to the kitchen. We heard every word.”
“Eavesdropping?” Rebecca asked, her mouth sagging open in surprise.
Amanda grinned and nodded. “Entertainment’s in short supply here. We’ll take it where we can get it.”
Rebecca’s mouth clicked shut and she turned to Tanyth.
“Don’t look at me. News will be all over town by morning anyway.”
“Ha,” Amanda said. “Try by sunset. It’s a small place and news travels fast.”
Chapter Seven:
Time To Go
The aroma of roasting venison must have flooded the village. By the time they started serving, Perry and Amanda had a full room. Perry even circulated tankards to the hungry diners waiting on the front stoop while Amanda kept tea and biscuits moving on the tables. The noise in the dining room went well beyond hubbub and into riotous territory.
Tanyth, Rebecca, and Penny held down a small table at the back of the dining room, almost under the stairs.
“You ladies’ll be out of the way back here and can have a nice chat without anybody bein’ the wiser,” Amanda said, settling the latest in a long line of hot teapots on the table. “I’ll be back with some food in a few minutes.” She paused to survey the dining room. “If I don’t get bushwacked between here and the kitchen.”
“I keep tellin’ you to hire some help,” Penny said with a grin.
“Oh, tosh. Not hardly worth it for once a week,” she said. “Besides, half these people just come in here sayin’ it’s for the food when they just wan’ a good excuse to get together, drink beer, and gab. Waitin’ an extra few minutes ain’t gonna slow ’em down any.” Amanda winked and rushed off to the kitchen, leaving the door swinging in her wake.
Tanyth warmed the cups with fresh tea and looked to Amanda. “So, he’s goin’ to try to stop us. Some misguided Oakhurst man stuck between thinkin’ about protectin’ the weaker sex and bein’ the garrison commander when Rebecca’s father starts askin’ pointed questions, you know he’s feelin’ the pinch.”
Penny nodded, her head barely rising and falling. She looked to Rebecca. “If your father knew where you were, what was he lookin’ for here, then?”
“Dunno, but he most surely knew where I was. He yelled about it from Hunter’s Moon to Flower and Lady alone knows how
long after we left.”
“Could he have been lookin’ for that missing sailor?” Tanyth asked.
“Timin’s wrong, I think,” Penny said. “He had the garrison out all last summer and into the fall. Only gave up when the ice got so thick he risked wintering over if he didn’t leave. He had to take a sledge out to the ice dock as it was. From what I hear, this dead guy had to have been lost sometime before the Zypheria this year.”
Tanyth nodded. “They was mournin’ the loss of ship and crew when we got to Kleesport. Had to have been sometime in early winter that they set sail. Woulda taken time for them to get where they were going, more time for them to be late, and even more time before word got back to Kleesport that they was lost.”
“True,” Penny said, her brow furrowed. “Might have been in the fall, even, but Marong was here at the Call last year. That woulda been before that ship got underway.”
“What’s an ice dock?” Rebecca asked. “You said my father had to take a sledge out to the ice dock.”
“Oh, the sheltered places like bays and harbors tend to freeze first. They can get real thick before the open water beyond the headlands freezes. Generally when that happens the harbormaster builds a kind of floating dock just past the edge of the ice. It rides up and down with the ice and tide and lets us get a couple more weeks of trade in at the end of the season.” She sipped her tea. “By midwinter the sea’s too rough and winds too strong to use it and by Ice Moon, well...it’s ice.”
“Whatever it was, he didn’t find it,” Tanyth said, leaning into the table to be heard over the roar from the main part of the dining room. “He’s comin’ back.”
“Yeah, but why the Sea Rover?” Penny asked looking back and forth between her companions. “Why didn’t he book on the first ship out?”
“P’r’aps he wanted to arrive,” Rebecca said, her mouth twisted into a bitter grimace.
“What’s that mean?” Penny asked.
Tanyth shook her head. “We had a bit of trouble on the way out. Seems like somebody in Kleesport didn’t want Captain Groves—or the ship—to be first to Northport. They put a bomb aboard. We found it before it went off.”