AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tambley points a finger at me. His bones seem to shine under the surface of his skin, which is as pallid as a fish at the bottom of a pond.
“We’re back now,” he says. “For you.”
The birds raise a clamor with their chilling caws. Johnny’s hand grips my cape. I slip the clasp and let the cape drop in his fingers. I waste no time. I turn and scramble for the path. I run hard and fast the way I have just come, for they block the way to Spence. The wind rises behind me, bringing the sounds of cackles and whispers, rat scratchings, and the flapping of wings. The crows’ cries are like the screeches of hell. For all I know, I am screaming with them.
The chapel wavers before me, shaking along with my ragged breath. Whatever is behind me is gaining fast, and now I hear horses as well, horses that seem suddenly to have come out of thin air. I slam hard into the chapel doors. I tug but they will not open. The dirt of the path whirls and eddies around me.
Dogs. I hear dogs barking, and they are near. And just like that, the dirt on the path settles. The sound of horses and birds fades to a throb and then nothing. Torches flicker and smoke in the woods. The Gypsies have come—some on horseback, some on foot.
“Gemma!” Kartik’s voice.
“I saw…I saw…” I put a hand to my stomach. I cannot talk. Can’t breathe.
“Here,” he says, taking my arm to steady me. “What did you see?”
Several gulps of air and my voice returns. “Men…in the woods. Miller’s men—the ones who disappeared.”
“You’re certain?” Kartik asks.
“Yes.”
Immediately the Gypsies fan out. The dogs sniff the ground, confused.
“Mrs. Nightwing sent me to the chapel for a hymnal,” I explain.
“Alone?” Kartik’s eyebrows arch.
I nod. “In the chapel…the windows came alive,” I whisper. “They warned me not to go into the woods!”
“The windows warned you,” Kartik repeats slowly, and I am aware that I sound mad. For all I know, I am.
“The angel, the one with the gorgon’s head…it came alive, warned me. ‘The woods be not safe.’ And that’s not all. He said something about a sacrifice—‘If you be sacrificed in the Winterlands, the magic falls to them, and all is lost.’”
Kartik chews his lips, thinking. “Are you certain it wasn’t a vision?”
“I don’t think it was. And then, on the path, I saw those men, and they seemed like specters. They said they had come for me.”
A sudden, startled cry rings out from the Gypsy camp. It’s followed by more shouts.
“Stay here!” Kartik instructs.
There isn’t a prayer that I will stay here alone. I’m right on his heels. With each footfall, the angel’s voice rumbles through me: The woods be not safe. The camp is in chaos—screams, curses, men’s shouts. There are no spirits here. It is Mr. Miller and his men. They pull the women from the tents and ransack the wagons, stuffing their pockets with whatever they find. When the women try to protect what is theirs, Mr. Miller’s men threaten them with torches. One woman rushes a slightly built thug, beating him with her fists until she is struck across the face by another.
The dogs are loosed. They attack one of the men, knocking him to the ground, where he screams and cowers. Daggers are drawn.
“Inspector Kent has come to call at Spence. I’ll run for him,” I say, but when I think of the unquiet woods, where ghostly figures seem to wait, my feet are like lead. I hesitate, and in that moment, Mr. Miller raises his pistol and fires two shots into the air. “Right. Who wants lead in his belly? I want to know where my missing men are.”
He takes aim at one of the Gypsy men. There is no time for the inspector. Something must be done at once.
“Stop!” I shout.
Mr. Miller cups his hand over his brow, peering into the dark. “Who said that?”
“I did,” I say, stepping forward.
Mr. Miller breaks into a huge grin and a big cackle. “You? Aren’t you one of them Spence girls? What ya gonna do, then? Pour me tea?”
“Inspector Kent of Scotland Yard has called upon us this evening,” I say, hoping I sound much surer of myself than I feel. My insides have gone to jelly. “If you do not leave at once, I shall send for him. In fact, he may very well be on his way now.”
