Chapter 7 #2
Stephen’s eyes widened as Theo grabbed his hand and snapped it back, his wrist cracking as the bone splintered gruesomely through the skin. His mouth fell open in a cry of pain and outrage as the knife clattered to the floor.
Theo grasped a fistful of Stephen’s dirty red hair and smashed his face into the heavy wooden pillar with such force his forehead cracked and caved in. He smashed his head into the post again and then once more for good measure.
He dropped Stephen’s body onto the dusty straw, where he lay motionless. A vile, wet gurgling sound bubbled up from the back of his throat and escaped his lax lips before his chest stilled.
Theo grabbed the knife and spun toward the two girls.
Now that he was paying attention, he realized that they were almost identical.
They must be twins, although one looked slightly smaller and more delicate.
They both had matted dark brown hair to their waists.
Their smocks were dirty and their feet bare.
They must be freezing, he realized as the smaller one shivered.
Her sister wrapped her arms around her as much as was possible considering her wrists were still bound with the strange, flowered rope.
Theo reached for one of the saddle blankets. It smelled strongly of horse sweat, but it would be warm. He watched as the taller child drew back, grasping her sister protectively. Her sister watched him, she didn’t seem afraid considering she’d just watched him kill a man with his bare hands.
“Here, take this,” Theo said, his voice gentle.
“You must be cold.” He held the blanket out to them waiting patiently until a tiny, dirty hand finally reached out and grasped the coarse material.
With a silent nod of approval, Theo moved away and returned a moment later with a pitcher of water, a tin cup, and an item wrapped in muslin.
He filled the cup and held it out to the taller girl first, watching as she hesitated but thirst won out as she took a deep sip and passed the cup to her sister. Theo unwrapped the bundle. It contained a chunk of thick, dark bread and some cheese that he broke in half and gave to each of the girls.
“There isn’t much time,” he told them hurriedly. “Others will come.”
“What’s your name?” the smallest girl asked in a clear voice as she grasped the food in her dirty fist.
“Theodore Beckett,” he said, his voice gentle.
“Hess,” the other girl hissed. “Don’t talk to him, he’s one of them.”
“It’s alright, Bridey.” She touched her sister’s hand and something unspoken passed between them. “My name is Hester.” She turned back to Theo. “This is my sister, Bridget.”
“Do you know why you were brought here?” Theo asked.
Hester shook her head. “They came to our home,” she told him, her eyes filled with pain. “They hurt our mother.”
Bridget’s mouth tightened into a thin line as she watched her sister.
“Where is your mother now?”
“Dead,” Bridget replied unable to mask the bitterness.
“Was she accused of Witchcraft?” Theo asked, trying to understand the course of events that had led him to take a man’s life.
“No.” Hester shook her head again. “The man with black eyes, the one they call Nathaniel Boothe, he was asking her questions. There was something he wanted, and he thought she had it.”
“What did he want?” Theo frowned.
Hester’s stared as if studying him. “He was looking for something called Infernum,” she finally said in a quiet voice.
“Infernum.” Theo’s eyes snapped to hers at the word that had echoed throughout his dreams for most of his life. “Do you know where it is? Do you know what it is?”
Bridget squeezed Hester’s arm so tightly that she hissed. Frowning at her sister before her gaze once again met Theo’s and she shook her head in answer to his question.
Theo stood and backed away, crossing the barn back to the bale where he’d sat earlier. He needed to think… He glanced down at his journal resting atop the bale.
Theo stared down at the knife in his clenched fist as the girls spoke in hushed tones behind him. They didn’t have long before Logan and Nathaniel arrived. There was no way to hide what he’d done to Stephen, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
He drew in a shaky breath. It was no small thing taking a man’s life, even if he had deserved it, but he couldn’t dwell on it, not now. Maybe in some way saving the children would make up for it, but he doubted it.
He glanced back at the girls huddled together.
They were so young, younger than he’d been when he’d lost his own mother, and now, they’d have to make their way in the world alone.
There was no other way. They would have to run, and he would have to stay behind to deal with Nathaniel and, worse, his brother.
He crossed back toward the girls, who both looked up at his approach. Bridget’s eyes once again held a kind of wariness while Hester looked at him as if he were a riddle she was trying to figure out.
“Come,” he urged and dropped to his knees beside them on the straw-littered ground. “There is not much time before my brother is expected.”
Bridget flinched when he lifted the knife, the blade glinting in the lamplight.
“Do not fear me.” He reached for her hands. “I will not harm you.”
Bridget watched, her tiny face filled with suspicion, as he cut the binding at her wrists. She winced as the blood flowed back into her hands, rubbing the tender and raw skin.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked her brow furrowed in confusion.
Theo sighed. “Because I will not have the blood of children on my hands.”
“They’re going to punish you for letting us escape,” Bridget told him.
“I know,” Theo answered as he pulled down a bridle from its hook. “Can you ride?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “But not well.”
Theo led a chestnut mare from her stall and began to saddle her. “This is Lucky, she has a sweet temperament and is easy to ride.” He bent down and lifted Bridget into the saddle first. “Do you have any family? Anyone you could go to?”
“No,” Hester interrupted. “No one, it’s just us now.”
Theo lifted Hester into the saddle, tucking her in front of her sister. Then he picked up his cloak and wrapped it around them. “This is big enough to fit around both of you, it should keep the worst of the cold out.”
Bridget nodded as she wrapped her arms around her sister’s waist, and Theo handed her the reins. Tucking the heavy cloak around Hester, she turned to regard Theo with troubled eyes.
“You do know what they will do to you when they realize you helped us escape?” she repeated her earlier question.
“Yes.” He nodded with calm acceptance.
“Then why?” Bridget frowned. “Why risk your life?”
“I wouldn’t hand a stray dog over to Nathaniel Boothe.
” Theo scowled. “If he has taken an interest in you, then it can only come to no good.” He attached a stout sack and water skin to the saddle.
“There is food in here. Use it sparingly for I do not know when you will be able to get more. Head south. I will try and mislead them, to cover your tracks.”
“Come with us.” Hester reached for his hand.
“I can’t.” He shook his head, removing a purse from his pocket. “Take this. There is not much coin, I’m afraid, but it is all I have.”
“You don’t have to do this.” Hester frowned.
Glancing at his journal still resting atop the hay bale, he lifted it and tore out a hand full of pages which he held over the flame of the lamp until they caught alight.
He watched with grim determination as they burned to cinders in his hand.
Dropping the remaining embers to the ground, he stomped them out beneath his boot before they could catch.
“What are you doing?” Hester cried out. She scrambled down from the horse and ran over to him grabbing the journal from his hand and cradling it against her chest protectively.
“Hester,” he said with a frown. “There are things in there that my brother and Nathaniel must never know.”
“But she needs to know,” Hester insisted. “She needs to see them.”
“Who?” he asked in confusion.
“The woman.” She shook her head. “The woman with the golden eyes.”
A shocked gasp escaped Theo’s lips, his eyes widening as he sank to his knees. “How do you about her? Do you know who she is?”
Theo’s heart was pounding in his chest as he studied the child.
Her expression solemn as she clutched his journal tightly.
In that moment he recognized the signs. Just like his sister, Temperance.
These children were special, that’s why Nathaniel had gone after them. That’s why he’d killed their mother.
“She’s waiting for you,” Hester said. “This”—she shook the journal—“is important.”
Releasing a heavy exhale Theo handed her his sketch book, pressing it into her arms along with the journal. “Then take them for me, and keep them safe,” he whispered. “No one else must ever see what is written here.”
Hester nodded solemnly.
Lifting her once again into the saddle, he led the mare to the door, but as he opened it, he froze. The mare behind him shied in surprise, and he found himself staring into the furious eyes of his brother.
“What are you doing, Theo?” he demanded.
“The right thing for once,” Theo replied, his face a stone mask of steely determination. “Step aside, brother.”
“They are accused.” He spit the word as if it were something filthy. “Nathaniel himself will question them.”
“No, he will not.” Theo stood firm. “I will not allow it.”
“Who are you to say what is allowed and not?” Logan hissed. “We swore an oath to the court, we swore to rid the world of the plague of witchcraft.”