Into the Wilderness
Page 282

The judge's face contorted at this, but Curiosity's froze. "Since when you a doctor, Axel Metzler? Let me in there, I want to see that child for myself,”
“Go on in," Axel said. "But you should know first that it was Richard here who pulled her out of the gorge."
Halfway up the step, Curiosity stopped. She pivoted toward Todd, her mouth as hard pressed and shiny as a knife. Her eyes traveled over his wet clothes and bare chest, and then she fixed on Richard's face.
"Close to a year now, I been wantin' to speak my mind to you and I guess the time has come. Money talk louder than truth in this world and I don't doubt you can still make folks see things your way by rattling the coin in your pockets. But not me. No, sir. I got something for you, though: I got what you need to hear."
Galileo made a soft sound, and she silenced him with a flash of her eyes. Richard stood with his arms crossed, a vaguely curious expression on his face.
"Go on, then," he said. "I suppose there's no stopping you."
"You sowed some seeds here last winter," she said, as if he had not spoken. "Got men's minds all twisted up about these people, about this mountain, and whose right it is to call the Wolf home. Then you run off after a woman who didn't want you and you didn't want, neither, thinking you could have your way if you just grabbed hard enough. While you was gone, things got nasty around here. We buried four men who would be alive today if you hadn't put your greed to work on 'em. I guess you probably know about Julian—I can see from your face that you do."
She came closer, one long, bony finger poking at his chest.
"You pulled our Elizabeth out of the gorge today and saved her life, that's a start. I guess you owe her that and more, the way you been houndin' her. But I'm here to tell you, Richard Todd, that what happened here don't put paid to everything you got to answer for."
Liam felt slightly sick to his stomach, but Todd looked down at her calmly.
"I am aware of all that."
"Are you?" she said, grimly. "We'll see, now won't we?"
And Curiosity turned on her heel and walked to the door, where she stopped to stare back at the judge, one brow raised. With his face averted from Richard Todd, he climbed the steps and followed her inside.
Axel ran a hand over his face. "Jesus nah, that woman could carve oak into toothpicks with that tongue of hers." Then, reluctantly, he smiled. "And ain't she fine to listen to?"
Richard grunted, and pulled his mangled shirt back on. "If you're not on the other end of it, I suppose. I expect Nathaniel will have words for me, too. Tell him I'll come by as soon as Elizabeth's on the mend. We've got things to discuss."
"Ja, if he can wait that long," Axel said. "Where can he find you, if he can't?"
"If I'm not at home, I'll be calling on Kitty."
"Mrs. Middleton." Liam spoke up. "She's Mrs. Middleton now."
Richard nodded. "For the time being, at any rate."
* * *
It was terribly unfair, but Hannah had seen that look on her grandmother's face before and she knew that no argument would shift her purpose. Her eyes burning with exhaustion, she finally gave up her spot at the foot of Elizabeth's bed and climbed the ladder to the sleeping loft. But not before she had extracted a promise from Doves that she would come to fetch her when Elizabeth woke. She used those words, but her eyes said something else. Twelve hours after the accident, Elizabeth had still not broken through to them; Hannah did not need to be told that this was a bad sign.
The cabin seemed overcrowded with people: the women moving back and forth, always with something in their hands. Liam and the judge and Mr. Witherspoon sat at the hearth, talking little and dozing now and then. Other men from the village were out on the porch. Bears would have let her come and sit with him, but he was gone with Joshua Hench to find her father on the Albany road and bring him home. The only comfort about going to bed was that perhaps when she woke, they would have returned. Hannah wanted her father very badly. She pressed her face into her blanket, willing her tears not to come.
* * *
Elizabeth had never had a talent for colorful dreams. Perhaps, she had always thought, because her daydreams were so elaborate and carefully detailed that she had no imagination left when she finally went to sleep. But somewhere, somehow, she had learned the art of dreaming in color, for all around her was a deep hyacinth sea, a color she had never seen before her first voyage by ship, when she had left England for a new life with her brother at her side.
Julian stood beside her at the rail now, the wind ruffling his dark hair and his face shadowed with beard stubble.
"Watch the birds," he said, pointing. "They will show you the way."
"Come with me," she said, but he only smiled. There were wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. She saw too that there was white at his temples, and that the line of his jaw had softened with age in the month since he had traveled on ahead. He walked away from her now; his boots made no noise.
"Come with me," she called after him again, but he only waved his hand in salute, and walked on. There was no sound except the calls of the birds overhead: gulls, wheeling in rainbow colors against a stormy sky.
"I can't fly," she called after him, but he was suddenly gone, leaving her alone on this ship in the middle of an endless sea. "I cannot fly!"
She tried, then. Tried to follow the birds and got just far enough to catch a glimpse of her father's face: a blur of pale skin and the familiar features. She slipped away before she could hear what he had to say to her.