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“No, why?”
“Well, we don’t have any reason not to be out and about, now do we? I am only going to the bloody tavern for a drink before I am off to my bed. What’s wrong with that?” Barnaby grumbled.
“There are two convicts on the run,” the jailer declared dourly.
Barnaby and Marcus looked at each other.
“Well, it ain’t us,” Barnaby drawled challengingly as he patted the padding of his false girth. “So, unless you are going to arrest us for going home, I suggest you go about your business and leave us alone.”
He turned away with a grunt and pointedly ignored the jailer, who stood hesitantly in the gateway for a moment.
“What’s your name?” The jailer demanded.
“Jack,” Marcus replied. “Stone,” he added as he snuck a peek at the stone wall beside him.
“Arthur,” Barnaby growled as he threw his colleague a dark look. “Wallsby.”
He threw Marcus a warning look when his friend made a strange choking noise. “Can we go now, or are you going to keep us talking all night?”
The jailer stood back to allow them past, but watched them avidly as they made their way out of the courtyard, and ambled unconcernedly down the main street.
“Wallsby?” Marcus grinned.
“It was all I could come up with, alright?” Barnaby grumbled as he shook his head in disgust.
“We can’t knock on each tavern door and ask if anyone has seen them,” Marcus sighed several moments later once they had turned out of the road, and were away from the jailer’s watchful gaze. “There is nobody out and about yet though. We are a bit early.”
“Let’s find somewhere to rest and wait for daylight. As soon as this place starts to come alive, then we can move about a bit better,” Barnaby suggested.
There was a slightly defeated tone to his voice that didn’t sit well with either of them. However, they couldn’t conjure Hetty up before them, so had little choice but to wait for dawn to arrive unless they were going to start to ask the jailers if they had seen her.
They made their way across time in search of a better hiding place that was closer to the meeting point Hetty should have gone to yesterday. As they walked down each road, they scoured the area for any sign of the women.
It was damned frustrating, especially because the women could be right under their noses, and neither Marcus nor Barnaby would know it.
They nodded at Joshua, who ambled past them in the opposite direction. The slight shake of his head warned them both that he hadn’t seen any sign of their quarry either.
Given that it was too dark to see if anyone was following them, they made their way out to the meeting place and settled into the shadows so that they could study the area more closely.
Dawn was about an hour away when Hetty climbed wearily out of bed. She was still exhausted, and worried sick about her brother and Charlie.
Having spent most of the night tossing and turning, and listening to Mabel’s snores, it was a relief to be able to get moving again and have something other than her rather melancholic thoughts to focus on.
If I have to dig a tunnel and crawl out, then I am going to get out of this blasted place and never come back, she thought to herself as she quickly drew her shawl on and pulled back one of the shutters so she could peer out into the street outside.
Nothing moved. There were no whistles, or calls from the search parties; not even birds in the trees sang.
Hetty’s heart fell to her feet as she strained to hear any sound of the continued searches. To her consternation, she couldn’t hear anything other her own breathing.
Over the course of the night, she had grown so used to hearing the random calls and barking dogs that she couldn’t remember when they had stopped.
Had Charlie and Simon been caught? Her stomach dropped to her toes. She took a moment to rest her already cool head against the cold window frame. She sent a silent prayer heavenward that the men would remain safe, and tried to f
ind comfort in the silence, but it was difficult given that it was impossible to tell if the convicts had been caught, or the search area had just widened.
“Mabel,” she whispered. “Come on, it’s time to get up. It will be light soon and we need to get out of here.”
The urgency in her voice seemed to shatter the old woman’s slumber because Mabel suddenly snapped awake. Although she was evidently still half-asleep, she still heaved herself out of bed and began to look for her boots.
