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“Frances, can we do this? Please don’t lie to me. If we’re caught, you know they’ll do horrible things to you. And my father might even let them do bad things to me, too, beforethey send me to whomever will still have me.”

“I knew when I met you.”

“Knew what?” Agnes asked.

Frances kissed her nose and said, “That I loved you. You walked up to me, and I knew. I want to be with you, Agnes. We can do this. We can be smart and do this.” She gently pressed her lips to Agnes’s lips. “We can be free.”

“And together?” Agnes asked.

“Yes. Together.”

Agnes pressed her lips to hers this time, and Frances couldn’t believe that this was happening. She deepened the kiss, and Agnes responded by pulling Frances into her body. Frances knew they shouldn’t do anything more right now, but she couldn’t stop herself from enjoying their kiss; her first kiss with the woman she loved.

“I love you,” Agnes said a moment later. “But I have to go now.”

Frances pressed her fingertips to her lips and smiled.

“All right. Tonight?”

“Tonight,” Agnes confirmed. “Um… I need the basket.”

“Right.” Frances reached inside her tree before she removed everything from the basket and handed it back to Agnes. “I’ll pack all this up for the journey. We’ll need it.”

“I’ll try to bring more, if I can.”

Frances nodded.

“Agnes?”

“Yes?” she asked before she turned to go.

“Please…”

“Please, what?”

“Please be here tonight. Don’t let anyone at home talk you into staying.”

Agnes didn’t say anything, but she nodded. Then, she was gone.

???

Later that night, Frances waited. The few possessions she had were packed in a bag she’d brought from her homeyears ago, and she sat in her shelter, wrapped in her pelts, ready to go as soon as Agnes arrived. She didn’t want to start a fire because if Agnes got caught escaping, someone might see it and know where she was running to, so she sat there, cold but not freezing, waiting for Agnes to arrive.

“Something’s wrong,” she said to herself. “It’s too late.”

They needed to be far away by first light, and it was getting too late for them to be able to do that. She stood up, left her shelter, walked carefully to the edge of the woods, and looked at the house. The smoke from the fire inside was billowing out of the chimney, but there were no candles or lanterns lit inside. With the full moon in the sky, she could see, but the house was too far away. The horses were inside the barn, so Frances decided to take a chance and headed that way through the woods as far as she could go before she had to walk through the field. At least, they could meet here and leave faster than Agnes having to get the horse and meet her in the woods after.

“What are you doing out here?”

Frances froze just outside the barn, hearing a male voice inside it.

“Edward, what are you doing here?” Agnes asked.

Agnes was already in the barn. She must have made it outside before Frances had gone to check on her and had been about to take one of the horses.

“One of the horses hasn’t been eating. I was told to check on him. You’re supposed to be asleep. What are you doing out here, Agnes? Why do you have a bag with you?”

“Edward, I need you to pretend like you didn’t see me here and go back inside.”