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“Did you see the lad release the dogs too?” the guard asked, looking between them with suspicion.
“Oh yes,” the woman said. “I saw the boy clearly.” She gave a dramatic shiver. “About fifteen years old with red hair.”
The guard looked back to where the roosters were running, a few stopping to peck at the ground. The boy had run off, and Greer didn’t see the two young lasses.
“I think he had dark hair,” the guard said.
Greer shifted the puppy who continued to try to lick his face as if he was coated in honey.
“Oh no,” the woman said loudly. “I saw him up close. Red hair when seen in the light. And his eyes…” She shook her head. “Unnatural. One was blue and one was brown.” She touched her face to the right of her lip. “And an unusual, dark mark right here on his face.”
Greer hadn’t seen any of that on the boy and yet she met the guard’s gaze without blinking. The woman was a masterful liar.
“Would you like to write my description down?” she asked. “Or I could draw something and return it to you if that would help you find the villain.”
Before the guard could answer, the woman’s gaze diverted, and she let loose a scream that made both puppies yelp and the guard jump.
“Damnation, woman!” the leader of the guards yelled. “What is it?”
She pointed toward the circular arena. “I saw Blind Bess! The fiend opened the bear cages! They’ll eat us alive!” She placed her hand on Greer’s arm as if she might swoon.
“Edgar, Gabe, get the poles!” the lead guard yelled, running off. “We can’t let the bears get away!” Chickens and dogs were replaceable, but not the champion bears that had been imported from the continent.
A horse whinnied, and Greer looked toward the road that ran along the Thames where he’d left his large black horse, Darach. Two of the large dogs were circling him. They were used to chained bears, not a horse that could deliver a blow to their heads that would knock them dead.
“Be gone,” he yelled as he ran toward Darach, while clutching the pup to his chest.
The lass ran after him but stopped short while he chased off the dogs. She began to walk quickly away from the arena. “Lass, the pup,” he called to her.
“I’ll show you to Whitehall,” she called back. “You’ll need to go back over London Bridge.”
“Lord help me,” he mumbled. It had taken him nearly an hour to traverse the crowded, shop-lined bridge the first time. Dog tucked under one arm, Greer took Darach’s reins, turning him in a wide circle. His horse’s shiny black coat was covered with dried mud from the week’s long trip down from Edinburgh. Actually, they were both coated in dirt.
“Come along,” she called over her shoulder and continued at a pace that fell somewhere between a walk and a run, both her arms holding the pup against her bosom.
Barking in the distance wove with the sound of Darach’s clopping and their footfalls on the cobblestone. The lass glanced behind them at the empty street and exhaled fully, her smooth cheeks puffing out with it. “Thank the holy Mother Mary,” she whispered.
“Ye’re Catholic?” Greer asked.
Her eyes snapped up to his face. “No.”
“Ye pray to the Virgin Mother.”
She kissed the dog in her arms on the top of its tawny head. “’Tis merely something I learned as a child. My mother… She was Catholic.” The dog looked up at her, its tongue hanging out as it panted. “Ho there, little one. You’re safe now.”
Greer looked down at the young mastiff in his own arms. “Ye know they won’t stay little? They’re mastiff pups.” His father had owned several.
“They’re just old enough to be weaned from their mother.” She frowned. “She wasn’t in the run.”
“What exactly was your plan back there?” he asked.
“To free the dogs so they would have a choice if they wanted to return and fight.” She smiled. “Mission accomplished.” She looked over the head of the puppy in her arms and continued to march forward.
“You risk being arrested for stealing from the crown?”
“For the dogs? Yes.” She laughed when the dog licked her face. “For your kiss, little one, yes.”
They continued to wind through the streets. The guards didn’t seem to be giving chase. “Did ye release the bears too?” he asked.
