7. Kit
Kit
B reakfast was an excruciating combination of questions and incessant chatter from my soon-to-be traveling companion.
In the brief interludes when his mouth was too full of food to talk, I tried not to notice the furtive glances he sent in my direction focused on where I’d shown him my brand.
There was pity or sympathy there, and I couldn’t handle either after the week I’d had.
Thankfully, Penny offered to wash the dishes and clean up after our meal, and I escaped to my room to get dressed for the day.
I had deliveries to make, and if we were to catch the transport when it rolled through town the day after next, I needed to arrange for someone to look after the house while I was gone.
I allowed myself only a few moments of wondering if I’d ever come back here before tucking those worries away for another day.
As much as I craved the silence that existed in his absence, there was no chance I would leave Penny alone in my house while I went about my business in town. So, once I was dressed, I returned to the kitchen where he was putting the last of the plates in the cabinet.
“Go put on some clean clothes and brush your hair. If you’re going to be here, you can at least be useful. I have need of your strong back today.”
A smile lit his face. “I can be useful. What are we going to do?”
“I have some things to deliver, and it’ll be quicker with two sets of hands. But no questions about the Bone Men while we’re in town. I’d rather not broadcast my business for everyone to hear.” I motioned toward the den. “Your bag’s next to the couch. I’ll wait for you outside.”
I didn’t wait for his response before slipping out and settling into the chair on the porch. I breathed in the cool of the morning and soaked in the near silence and intermittent birdsong.
When Penny joined me a few minutes later, I groaned at the sight of him. His hair was combed, but his clothes were rumpled and smudged with dirt.
“Don’t you have anything else?” I asked, and he shook his head. With a sigh, I motioned for him to follow me back into the house. “I won’t be seen with you like this.”
I led him to my room and rummaged through my dresser, handing him a linen button up and a pair of slacks that were a bit tight on me.
“Change,” I said and left him there to reclaim my seat on the porch.
When he re-emerged, he looked only slightly more presentable.
“The pants were too big,” he said while stuffing the tail of the shirt into his waistband.
The top was too big, too. The collar hung askew, and the cuffed sleeves dangled over the scarred heels of his hands. He’d brushed the dirt off the knees of his trousers at least. It would have to do.
“Good enough,” I muttered, and we headed for the forge.
I hadn’t realized how much pleasure I took in my trips around town, walking quiet paths and lonely alleys left to my own thoughts and to make my own pace.
That day’s experience was entirely different.
Penny lagged and looked at all the wrong things, studying the structure of the buildings in town, pointing out inane details in his chattery way, barely taking time to breathe between sentences.
I responded by loading his willing arms with metal goods and pointing him into this shop and up that walkway, reminding him to be courteous to my customers.
Courtesy he took a step too far, striking up lengthy conversations with everyone we met.
He even got himself invited into Missus Higgins’s house and returned with a slice of the bread she had baked.
The delays made everything take twice as long, and it was getting dark by the time we dropped the cart back off at the forge.
As we walked toward the butcher shop, I was glad to have an excuse to make this final visit alone. “Wait outside while I talk to Ben. Considering how the two of you got on last night, I’d rather not deal with both of you in the same room again.”
Penny blushed. “What do you need to talk to him for?”
“If I want a house to come back to, I need someone to keep an eye on it. Ben is a town elder, so he’ll make sure it’s looked after.” That niggling feeling that this leave could be permanent flared up again, but I knuckled it down. “Don’t need to end up with squatters claiming it as their own.”
“Would they do that?”
I shrugged. “Don’t want to find out the hard way. A house sitting empty for months on end could look mighty tempting.”
“ Months ?” Penny paled at the prospect.
“If I’m lucky. Took my father years.” I stopped in front of the butcher shop and shooed Penny toward the bench beneath the front window. “Try not to cause trouble while I’m in there.”
I pushed through the front door and found the shop empty except for Ben behind the counter.
A frown pinched his brows together, and his gaze shifted to me when I stopped across from him. “Afternoon, Kit.”
“Quiet day?” I asked, needing some sort of preamble to the nonsense I was about to drop in his lap. He’d always been decent to me since I showed up here four years ago, and I hated to take advantage of that. But there wasn’t anyone else in town I felt I could rely on.
“Waitin’ on the evenin’ rush.” He tipped his head toward where Penny’s tawny blonde head could be seen through the window. “He follow you here?”
I glanced out at Penny perched on the bench watching people passing by. He’d produced the small notepad and pencil I’d noticed tucked in his boot and was busily sketching, though I couldn’t tell what.
I turned back to the butcher. “He helped me with today’s deliveries.”
Ben grunted and leaned an arm on the counter. “He was tryin’ pretty hard to catch you. Guess he succeeded.”
“Guess so,” I muttered. “Listen, I’m heading out of town for a while. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but I hoped you could keep an eye on things at my house while I’m away.” I tugged a pouch of coins out of my pocket and dropped it on the counter along with a spare key.
Ben eyed the bag for a long time, bushy brows low over his gray eyes. “You lettin’ that boy pull you into his trouble?”
A bitter chuckle slipped out before I could stop it.
Technically, it was the other way around.
Penny was a means to an end, and it wasn’t right for Ben to put the blame on him.
Especially since I’d spent a good portion of the previous night lying in bed coming up with a believable lie to tell Penny when he eventually got around to asking what happened to the bodies after they were taken.
I had tried to tell him he couldn’t get his father’s body back, but I hadn’t tried that hard.
If he knew the truth, I’d lose my ticket back in.
Let him find out once I was inside the gates so I could send him back home. All I needed was the foot in the door.
“It’s kind of my trouble, too,” I admitted.
Ben’s gaze met mine, and I was surprised by the concern there. I was aware the people of Forstford didn’t necessarily dislike me, but I hadn’t expected anyone to care enough to worry. Though given his reaction to the mob a few years back, I suppose I should have expected it, at least from him.
“Don’t have to be,” he said. “You got a good thing here. No one’s gonna blame you for keepin’ your head down and sendin’ him on his way. Kid oughta know better’n to pick away at someone’s past. You put it behind you for a reason.”
Rubbing a hand over the back of my neck did nothing to ease the prickle of discomfort at his concern.
It was the same sensation I’d had thirteen years ago after my escape from the cult when a veritable stranger retrieved me from the mission in which I’d sought refuge.
I’d grown accustomed to kindness while I lived with him, but any expectation of care had died when he did.
The best I hoped for these days was a lack of disdain .
“Can’t run forever, Ben,” I said. “Have to face it eventually. This way I can help someone in the process.” I tried for a smile, but I could tell the older man didn’t buy it. “It’ll be nice to do something good for once.”
“You done plenty’a good here, Kit. You don’t have anythin’ to prove.”
“Maybe not,” I conceded. “But I think I have to do this for me. Find a way to put it all to rest so I can move on, stop hiding. Besides, I don’t want to bring more of my trouble here.”
Ben rested his other arm on the counter so he could lean closer. “We pushed them back once, and we’d do it again.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” I said, more harshly than I intended.
I took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.
“It’s my trouble, and I should have dealt with it a decade ago.
This is long overdue. If I don’t face this, it’ll never end.
And I need it to end. I need this to not be hanging over me anymore.
I need to not spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder and wondering when it’s going to catch back up to me, and I won’t run again.
I’m so tired of running, Ben. I just want to be able to sleep at night. ”
I cast another brief glance at Penny doodling away. “It was always inevitable that things would catch up to me. At least this one’s not calling for my head.” I gave another wan smile. “Small blessings.”
Ben grunted, and the look on his face said everything he was holding back. He thought this was as bad an idea as it actually was.
“Hopefully that’ll cover any upkeep.” I motioned to the bag of coins. “If I’m not back in a year, it’s yours to do with what you will. Sell it and keep whatever you get for it.”
“Not gonna sell your house out from under you,” he said. He slid my key into his pocket, then pushed the coins toward me. “And I’m not takin’ your money, either. I’ll tally anythin’ you owe for keepin’ it up, and you can pay me when you get back.”
At least one person believed I might return when this was over. I tucked the money into my pocket. “Thanks, Ben. I appreciate it.”
“Don’t be gone too long. Nobody else here who can run a forge like you.” He broke into a soft smile, but his eyes remained full of worry. “We’ll keep the coals burnin’ for you.”