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“Ma’am.” This time it was Oliver. “We’re not going to leave. We’re certain she’s here. She was spotted heading this way days ago, as part of her surely impressive, albeit dangerous, ride in the middle of the night through the countryside, by herself. We would like to speak to her.”
“Then I ask again, how did you lose her? My daughter won’t be coming out to see you, and you aren’t welcome in my home.” Mama was quiet for a second. “And I’m sorry that you are so unworthy of her.”
She must have made a move to leave because Truett spoke again. “We would never presume to come into your home uninvited, but make no mistake, we will see our wife. I even imagine she may want to see us by now. The vision she had earlier this week can’t have been pleasant for her. She probably wants to speak to us about it. We’ll be staying in your city-state. I don’t imagine your husband, the Baron, will evict us from the whole area. We are, after all, Judge’s Warriors.” His horse made a sound. “So please expect to see us again, and again, and again, until she comes out to speak to us. We are patient.”
I sighed. This just got ridiculous. Mama came inside holding a grinning Walter. I smiled back at him before I threw myself back on the bed.
“Hang in there, Sloane. And trust me.”
She had a funny look on her face, and I wasn’t sure what it meant. With the mysterious expression still paramount in her gaze, she left the room, leaving me to ponder my situation. What would it take to make them leave?
Chapter Five
Ispent the night tossing and turning. Eventually, I fell asleep, but it was so close to morning, it was almost worse that I fell asleep. Chores waited regardless of whether or not I was tired, so I got busy doing them. I headed to the backyard, whenever possible, because it was harder to see me from there.
The sound of horse hooves told me they’d arrived again, which was okay. They couldn’t see me, and my parents weren’t home. They’d taken Walter to see some of the old women in the village for their monthly snuggle and visit. I smiled at the thought of how much they enjoyed my brother.
The horrible Warriors would just have to cool their heels waiting for me in the front yard without knowing I was there.
None of the servants we employed would tell them I was there, since the standing order was to say I wasn’t home, regardless of the visitor.
Still, I decided to try to catch a glimpse of them. They’d made the trek, so maybe they thought that gave them the right to eventually see me.
It didn’t.
I walked into the house and stared through the same window in the basement I’d once used to watch the Warriors who saved us. Carissa’s Warriors—I loved that I got to meet her, but it might have been one of the few things I did in Hawkseye I didn’t hate.
They were all out there. Frederick took the horses and brought them to our barn, where the stable boy would see to them. I sighed. Maybe I should have told him to refuse the horses? But that would just be cruel to the poor animals. It wasn’t their fault they’d gotten stuck with their owners.
The other three waited.
“I don’t think anyone is home,” Oliver said then looked around. “I think at least one of them would have come out if they were home.”
Good. Let them think that. It worked perfectly for me.
“They wouldn’t have taken her and run, right?” Charles sighed. “I don’t relish having to chase her around the entire kingdom.”
Oh, I won’t bother to use that much energy. He flatters himself. This is my home, and I’m not leaving it.
Truett leaned against the house. He sighed. “We’re never living this down. You know that, right? We lost our wife on our first night with her. She ran for the hills…literally.” He motioned toward the hills in the distance. “We’re a laughingstock.”
Okay, I’d heard enough to understand why they’d come. They were ridiculed for losing me? Well, they can go lick their wounded egos someplace else. I headed back up the stairs then to the backyard. I wanted to get the wrinkles out of my father’s clothes, and I did it better than my mother.
I preferred to wash clothing in water that had been boiled first. So after turning down the flame, I gathered the water. If it was healthier for us to do it for our skin, it was healthier for things we placed against our skin, as far as I was concerned. I poured soup into the pot and put it on the heat. When the water cooled enough that I could touch it, I would start to clean.
Our staff and servants could do our laundering, but the general consensus was I did it best. My mother and I didn’t mind our clothes being washed by others, but my father really preferred it to be me.
So I did it.
There was always something about the work that took my mind away from things. Jayne would have said it was a problem because I lost track of the here and now so frequently, but when it came to menial labor, no one cared if I daydreamed while I worked. Or fretted. Either way, I could be alone with my own thoughts.
That was probably why I jumped and nearly fell backward when Frederick squatted down in front of me. His red hair fell slightly into his eyes, and he brushed it away.
“Let me help you with that.” He took the pants I was about to stick into the pot from me. “I’ll soak it then you can scrub it, how’s that?”
I stared at him. “Why are you back here?”
“Because you’re here. My three brothers are out front waiting for you to return from wherever it is they think you’ve gone, but I knew better. You’re not in town where we might spot you. You’re here. I thought I would just see if you happened to be back here, and you are.” He put the pants into the pot. It was still a little bit hot, but he didn’t complain, just dunked the item. He repeated the action a second time before he wrung it out. He’s clearly done this before. Someone taught him how.
