Page 11 of Red in Tooth and Claw

We checked the traps along the way, getting us two scraggly hares for our trouble. I’d thought it might be difficult to find where we’d gone off path, but I was able to track us easy enough. I led him to where I’d befriended the skunk.

“It’s like a stampede went through here.”

I dropped my pack on the ground, deciding this was as good a place as any to have lunch. My stomach was still mad at me for several days’ deprivation, so I eagerly dug into my pack for the hand pies the cook had made. I handed one over to Will.

“There was a skunk,” I said, biting into the pie. Rabbit and potato. Not my favorite, but I’d eat every crumb. “I’d like to see you act delicate in such a situation.”

He grinned at me. “How bad did it get you?”

I made a face.

“You puke?”

“Worse than the time I got into Pops’s whiskey.”

He chuckled, tucking into his own pie. “You didn’t come back smelling to high heaven, though.”

I paused midbite. So easily caught out, I was. Here I thought myself so clever, and it didn’t take him a moment to narrow in on my lie. This was the problem with getting too comfortable with a person. You let your guard down and things slipped out. “Must have been one of them non-stinking skunks.”

Will didn’t argue—he just waited. When I didn’t offer up anything else, he waited some more.

After his pie was gone, he sipped at his canteen. “Can’t help but notice that we’re awfully close to Rover land.”

“Is that so?” I calmly sipped my own canteen. He kept watching me. Normally, this wasn’t a tactic that worked with me. I had perfected the facade of the sort of person who had no worries and was secure in the path of honesty and plain-speaking. As if I weren’t fibbing up a storm. But I squirmed under Will’s assessment.

And I’m ashamed to say, I broke. I pointed off through the trees. “That way. Not far.”

He nodded, unsurprised. Blame a brain dulled by hunger—but I’d known from the get-go that Will didn’t miss a trick, and I’d forgotten. Well, as Pops would say, no use caterwauling after the horses have left the barn. It just wastes time and spooks the horses.

“They help you out?”

“Course. Washed me up and took a look at Jesse’s ankle.” I narrowed my eyes. Will didn’t seem like the type to be wary of Rovers, but you never can tell. People can be prejudiced about the strangest things.

Will simply nodded again, absently, like my response was expected. Tallis might have irritated me some, but his people were a good sort, and I didn’t want to bring anything down upon them for simply helping us out. Will tapped his fingers mindlessly along his canteen before closing it back up and stowing it. “Take me to where you met them?”

I sighed and scrambled up, brushing off the seat of my trousers as I led him deeper into the forest.

It didn’t take long to find the spot—I was moving much more quickly now that I wasn’t trying to support a limping Jesse. Will put his hands on his hips, squinted, and took in the landscape. As he turned away from me, a small green leaf floated down past my face. I tipped my head up.

Up about fifteen feet, hidden by the branches, crouched Tallis. His lips were moving slowly, mouthing a word at me. Confusion was clear on my face, because he tried again. I still had no idea what he wanted.

He scowled at me, and looked at Will. He flicked his chin at the gunslinger, a questioning expression on his face. Ah. He wanted to know if Will was trustworthy. I won’t lie—I was tempted to leave Tallis in that tree. Nothing good would come from me talking to him. But Rovers didn’t just hang out in trees for fun. He’d been waiting for me, I thought, but I had no idea why.

“Will, how do you feel about Rovers?” I very carefully didn’t look back up.

The gunslinger frowned at me. “I treat Rovers just like any other person—I’m cautious until I get their measure.”

I shouldered out of my pack. “Good, because we’re about to be joined by one, so please don’t reach for your pistol.” With my free hand, I waved Tallis down. Will looked up, surprised, as Tallis nimbly made his way down from the tree.

Will peered into the branches. “I’ve grown too used to city living. Didn’t once think to look up.” He sighed. “Lucky for us, he’s friendly.” His gaze narrowed. “He is friendly, right?”

“He is.” I settled my pack against a tree. “Tallis, this is Will. Will, Tallis.”

To my surprise, Will got the formal greeting. Tallis held out his hands, showing his palms. Then he clasped them together in the middle of his chest, right under his throat.

As greetings go, the Rover one was straightforward. Palms to show that they were empty and that Tallis meant no harm. Then crossed over his chest to show that Tallis would take his share of the responsibility for Will’s health while we were here, protecting us from any outside threat while we were meeting.

Will did the same without my prompting, though he hesitated a little, more like he was trying to remember how something went than actual reluctance.

“You speak Rover?” I asked Will.

“A sprinkling,” Will said.

“If it’s easier, we can speak like this,” Tallis said in my own native tongue, albeit with an accent.

I scowled at him. “You had that trick up your sleeve this whole time?”

He grinned.

I wanted to stomp my foot, but I didn’t because I had dignity. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

His grin widened. “You didn’t ask.”

I threw my hands up and huffed.

The smirk fell from Tallis’s face as fast as lightning as he grabbed my hands. I tried to yank them back, but he tightened his grip. He made a chuffing sound, the Rover version of the motherly tongue cluck. “What happened, Little Fox?”

My scowl darkened.

He let out a frustrated breath. “What happened, Faolan ?”

Like I was being ornery because I didn’t want his pet name? “Nothing.” I attempted to yank my hands away again, but failed.

He held them for another heartbeat, then let them go. “That’s not nothing .” He glowered at Will. “What happened to her?”

Will was watching our back-and-forth attentively, and I realized for a second I’d forgotten he was there. I felt my cheeks flush as I shoved my hands into my pockets.

“She had to spend four days in the Penitent Box,” Will said dryly, though not amused. His tone was cutting, but the blade of it wasn’t directed at us.

I whipped around to look at him. He’d said she …and he didn’t look surprised. I pointed a finger at him. “You knew!”

Will shrugged. “Figured it out when you kept making excuses to use the bathroom by yourself.”

I dropped my hand, confused. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

He snorted. “Why would I?”

Tallis’s brows knit as he stared at the gunslinger. “How can a box be penitent?”

Will barked a laugh. “I think the real question is, can Faolan even be penitent?”

Tallis didn’t smile at the joke, his face thunderous. “What is this box, and how did it hurt her?”

Will’s humor drained out of him as he quickly explained the Settlement’s brand of punishment. For my part, I pinched my mouth shut and didn’t offer a word.

By the end of it, Tallis’s arms were crossed, the scar on his face white from how tense his jaw was. “I don’t think you should go back to this place, Little Fox. It’s not a good place.”

My hands balled into fists in my pockets even though it hurt. “Who are you to tell me what to do?”

Tallis looked like I’d slapped him. “I don’t need to be one of your people to be concerned for you.” He bit the words out carefully.

“I thank you for your concern, but I don’t need it. I can take care of myself.” It was all I could do to not laugh in his face. It was all well and good to say, This is a bad place for you , and another to offer an actual solution. Where was I to go instead, I ask you?

Will rubbed a palm against his jaw. “What Faolan isn’t saying is there’s nowhere to go. No kin. No people.”

Tallis had his mouth open like he was going to say something, but Will’s words snapped his jaws shut.

I whipped around, glaring at Will. He had no right to spill my truths. “I have a cabin. I don’t need no one else.”

“And if you go to that cabin right now,” Will said patiently, “what happens?”

I had the sudden overwhelming urge to claw at both of them and run. I swallowed it down. I felt exhausted and beat, like an old, overwashed cotton shirt on a drying line, so thin you could almost see through it. I looked away, my eyes smarting.

Will continued grimly. “I’ll tell you what will happen. The mayor of New Retienne and his lawyers will send me to wrangle you and drag you back here. If not me, someone else. Maybe someone meaner, understand? They want time, Faolan, and they don’t want you underfoot.” He kept talking, his honesty almost brutal. “And I understood that if you showed up in New Retienne as Miss Kelly, things would go from bad to worse.”

My blood boiled. The forest around us was silent except for a small trapped animal I could hear panting.

It took a second for me to realize that I was hearing myself. I was the trapped animal. Tallis muttered something before gently grabbing my wrist, pulling me somewhere. Will stopped him with a hand, but Tallis snarled something at him. Whatever he said, it didn’t filter into my ears. It felt like I was standing on the top of a hill, a fierce wind whipping past, blocking all sound and buffeting my body.

When I finally snapped out of it, I was sitting on a downed log, my head between my knees, Will nowhere in sight. Tallis’s hand gripped the back of my neck, his touch light. He wasn’t making words, just the kind of soothing noises he would use on his horse.

“Not your horse,” I grumbled.

“Certainly not,” he said easily, but didn’t move his hand. “Neev is wise and a good listener—prudent, even.”

I grunted at him.

“You, I think, would leap into a burning tent carrying a thimbleful of water.”

I slapped his hand out of the way and sat up, ready to tear into him. His smile was serene, his eyes practically twinkling. I realized that he’d very neatly brought me back to myself.

His smile faded. “Is what Will said true?”

“That I don’t have any people?” I said it like it didn’t hurt, my hands braced on my legs, my back straight. “It’s not that big of a deal, I don’t know why—”

Tallis put his hand over mine. “It is. To me, it is. I can’t even imagine—the very idea, Little Fox…” He thought for a moment, his attention elsewhere. “It’s annoying sometimes, my little cousins always after me for one thing or another. Sometimes I wish for nothing but a moment’s peace…but to be alone?” His lashes made dark half-moons as he stared down at our hands. “I cannot fathom it.”

He sounded shook down to his bones, which irritated me. “Didn’t ask for your pity,” I snapped.

“No, you didn’t, and you don’t have it, anyway.” He glanced off to the woods. “Let’s go back to your friend. I have news.”

I stood, squaring my shoulders. He reached out, tweaking my chin. This time when I tried to slap his hand away, he sidestepped easily.

“You’ll keep what’s yours if you want to, Little Fox. I don’t doubt that for a second.”

I pushed my toes against the rag bundle in my boot, reassuring myself that it was still there. A short walk led us back to the gunslinger. He was leaning against a tree, arms crossed, like he had all the time in the world.

“Feel better?”

I brushed off his question, asking him my own—one that had been lurking around in my brain. “Why are you still here? At the Settlement. You’re sticking around for a reason.”

I thought Will would argue or try to dodge, but instead he fished something out of his pocket, handing over a sepia-toned photograph. I took it, Tallis leaning over to see as well. In the picture sat a young woman, maybe a year or two younger than me. She sat primly in an ornate chair before a fireplace. Her hair was up, a small hat pinned to the updo, her folded hands resting in the lap of her gown. Diamonds dangled from her ears, a matching necklace around her neck.

She wasn’t beautiful, but she had a fierce look about her that I liked. “Who’s this?”

“Mary Ellen,” Will said, his voice sad. “After her parents passed away, she was supposed to go to her aunt’s house. Never showed.” He took the picture back from me, looking it over. I had the sense he’d done that many times before now. “She was a steady kind of person, Mary Ellen. Bright.”

“You knew her?” Tallis asked.

Will nodded. “Her mother was a friend of mine. I followed her trail to the Settlement, but she’s not there.”

“What did Miss Moon say? Or HisBen?” I asked.

Will folded his arms over his chest. “I didn’t ask.”

“Something made you uneasy,” Tallis murmured.

Will nodded. “I got hired to escort Faolan, and I thought, Here’s a good a way as any to get my foot in the door without raising their hackles. Only, the whole thing stinks. The mayor paid me handsomely to make sure Faolan made it to the Settlement, just like he paid Miss Honeywell to get Faolan there.”

“The two silver coins,” I murmured, my mind serving up the image of Mr.Clarke putting those coins into Miss Honeywell’s palm.

Will dipped his head. “Yes. Lots of money exchanging hands. Then I get here, and there’s no sign of Mary Ellen. I have no idea what’s going on, but what I do know, I don’t like.” Will rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, his expression weary. “And I got to thinking about Mary Ellen’s no-good cousin, Luke.”

“What’s wrong with Luke?” Tallis asked.

“Luke likes to bet on cards,” Will said. “But he’s terrible at playing them. He owes people a lot of money. Mary Ellen’s parents were wealthy, her aunt is sickly, and I can’t help but wonder if Luke was looking for a payday.” He eyed me. “I’m wondering if the Settlement is the kind of place you send someone if you want them out of the way.”

We stood quietly for a moment, all of us thinking about this. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I suspected Will was onto something. “The real question is, where is Mary Ellen if she’s not here?”

“I don’t know,” Will said, “and I’m not leaving until I find out.”

“This might be a good time to tell you why I was looking for Faolan.” Tallis cleared his throat. “There’s a body, and I think it’s one of yours.”