Page 62 of The Swindler’s Daughter

“Go,” Rowan shouted and they both turned toward me. I pushed through the slit and moved aside, holding the canvas apart so they could more easily get through. John came through, then Rowan, who grabbed my hand and took off at a run.

As we dodged around wagons and slipped past tents, we were joined by Tyson, who I had to assume had helped with the distraction.

15

We ran flat out for several minutes before stopping to catch our breath. “Should we go farther into the forest?” I asked, my breath heaving as I rested my hands on my knees. “They know we work at Sutton, so we can’t go back there.”

“We could go to Bridgefield and hide there,” John suggested.

“Hide from what? We haven’t even done anything wrong yet!” Rowan argued in frustration. “Not that they know about at least.”

“Nothing wrong?” I said in disbelief. “You shot the magistrate!”

He looked sheepish but shook his head. “I mean before they caught us.”

“We broke into Reeve’s house,” Tyson countered.

“But we didn’t take anything. Saints above, they didn’t even see us in his house, they only saw us running away,” he pointed out as he paced back and forth, his hands on his hips. “And just now?” He gestured back the way we’d come. “All we were doing was participating in the festival. We weren’t doing anything wrong at all. If they catch us now, they’ll throw us in prison, even though all we’ve done is feed people and return their stolen items.”

“That’s all we were ever going to do, Rowan,” I argued, worried that he seemed so intent on actually committing a legitimate crime. “The plan wasn’t to create mass chaos or murder anyone.”

He shook his head. “Of course not, but if we’re going to be thrown in prison anyway, we could at least do what we failed to do before.”

I blinked as silence followed his words.

We looked at each other and I started to understand what he was suggesting.

“Right now,” he said, his eyes intent on me. “While most people are at the festival and the constables are going to be looking for us in the forest or at Sutton.”

Heaven help me, he was making sense. “We hit Reeve’s house now,” I breathed.

“Exactly,” Rowan said.

“Brilliant,” Tyson breathed out.

“Hey!” came a call from behind us.

All three men spun and raised their weapons, Rowan stepping in front of me, his bow loaded and drawn.

“Whoa!” Oliver said, raising his hands in a calming gesture. “It’s just us.”

Looking beyond him, I saw that Ansel and Gretchen were a few paces behind, both wide-eyed.

The men lowered their weapons.

“You all should have gone home,” I said.

“No way,” Gretchen said as she scrunched up one side of her face. “This is war. Reeve attacked first, and we have to fight back.” She folded her arms. “I’m not going home.”

I turned to Ansel, hoping to appeal to the protectiveness I knew he felt for Gretchen. He just shrugged. “I go where she goes.”

I groaned, pulling on my hair.

“Come on, Miri,” Oliver cajoled. “You know this is what we’ve been training for.”

Yes. I suppose in some ways, I knew that this was exactly what they’d been preparing for all these years, but I wasn’t like them. Sure, I’d taken to learning the bow and arrow, but I’d never planned to actually use it against someone. Running into a fight had never been part of my plan. But this group…they’d been training for years with the objective of keeping themselves and each other safe. And while I might not have had that goal in mind for myself, I couldn’t deny that it was a noble thing my friends had done. I also couldn’t pretend that I hadn’t already been sucked into it.

I looked around at the group, and when I caught John’s eye, he pointed his chin toward Ansel and his sister. “We need lookouts.”