Girl in the Red Hood (14 page)

To her amazement, a gray wolf ran alongside
them. Liesel almost cried out to Gil until she realized that he was
running with them, not at them. That must have been who Kurt had
meant when he introduced Johan. But he'd said Johan understood. How
could a wolf understand?

Just then, another wolf broke through the
brush that bordered the road. Without hesitation, he headed
straight for Liesel. It was as if she wasn't hidden at all. Sure
she would die, Liesel was sure closed her eyes and waited. But
nothing came. Peeking through the knothole again, she gasped. Johan
had brought him down to the ground, where they rolled and writhed
in a whirl of fur and snapping teeth. Liesel watched in horror as
they grew smaller and smaller in the distance. Burying her face in
her hands, she sobbed for Johan. No wonder Kurt told her not to
look back.

A terrible thought struck her as another
howl sounded somewhere to their left, and then their right. If
Kurt's family...at least, Liesel guessed it was his family due to
the wolves...was willing to send their wolves to attack Johan, a
wolf of their own, what would they do to Kurt? She nearly told Gil
to bring the cart to a halt right then. But then she asked herself,
what then? All of Kurt's planning would be for naught. She
obviously had no idea as to what they wanted, or if she could even
give it to them. Kurt seemed to think she couldn't or shouldn't,
rather. So she let the cart continue to fly down the road. But a
small piece of her that she couldn't silence was deeply ashamed.
Kurt would surely pay for saving her.

Eventually, Johan caught up to them again.
By the time he did, they had slowed so the horses could cool off.
Liesel was relieved to see that he was still alive, but she felt
another stab of guilt when she saw splotches of blood matting his
silver fur. She prayed it wasn't his.

After an hour of riding, wolf cries began
again. Johan stopped running and disappeared into the thick brush.
He never reappeared.

Liesel didn't realize she'd fallen asleep
until they stopped. As she hadn't left Ward since moving there, she
had no way of knowing for certain where they really were. She
waited under the blankets until she heard Gil climb out of the
driver's seat. Instead of uncovering her, however, she heard him
call back to her as he walked away,

"You can let yourself loose now. Best find
somewhere warm to sleep. It'll be a cold one tonight." Pushing the
blankets off of her head, Liesel sat up and looked around
anxiously. He really wasn't going to abandon her, was he?

"You can't just leave me here!" She called
out to him, trying not to stumble as she climbed down from the
cart, her legs numb from being still for so long. It was nighttime,
but it was strangely light for the late hour it must be. It took
Liesel a moment to realize that the forest canopy wasn't nearly as
thick here as it was in Ward. Moonbeams moved down through the
trees and hit her face for the first time in three years. A bit
overwhelmed, it took Liesel a second to shake off the hypnotizing
beauty and continue to trail after the peddler.

"You're surely not going to leave me all
alone!" she cried breathlessly as she followed him. "I've never
been here! I don't have any money...I don't even know where the
church is!" She was already regretting her failure to hide a few
coins in her skirts before leaving the cottage. Gil paused at the
door of a place that from the outside, sounded and smelled like
Warin did after his nights at the tavern, raucous and sour.

"Here," he took a coin from his pocket and
flipped it at her before going inside. Liesel hesitated before
following him in. She had never been inside a tavern, nor had she
ever desired such an experience. Her only other option, however,
was to wander the streets until she found the church or somewhere
to sleep. Bracing herself, she took a deep breath of the clean air
and followed him through the door.

It was even worse than she had imagined.
Lots of men and a few rough looking women sat at wooden tables
placed as close to one another as physically possible. The scent
was even worse than the grubby chairs and tables she tried to avoid
touching as she walked. The stink of sweat and soured ale nearly
made her gag. Gil was already sitting down at a table in the center
of the room by the time she caught up to him.

"But where am I supposed to go? What should
I do?" The peddler finally turned to answer her, wearing an
exasperated look.

"See here, lass, my family lives in the
forest. Now I feel bad for you. I do. But agreeing to take you away
from Ward was a big enough risk as it was. It was done from the
kindness of my heart, but I can't be putting my own family in
danger now. I got you here. Live as you choose. Go where you will,
I don't care. Just leave me and mine be."

"The kindness of your heart and a sack of
gold," Liesel glared at him. He reddened.

"Look, you're pretty enough to find work
somewhere. Save some coins and go to the capitol, wherever you
want. Just leave me alone."

"Aye," the tavern keep spoke, eyeing her
from the table he was clearing. "I need another serving girl here."
A new kind of anxiety hit Liesel as she looked around, suddenly
aware of a different type of predator. Sure enough, there were at
least half a dozen men staring at her with an expression that made
Liesel blush. And this time, Kurt wasn't there to save her. She
felt suddenly as though she might throw up.

"Please," she turned tearfully to Gil. "Just
take me to the church." Taking asylum in the house of the Maker
wouldn't solve all of her problems by any stretch, but it would be
safer than anywhere else, apparently.

"And what might you be needing the church
for, my dear?" A new voice from behind her asked. Liesel turned to
see a tall, well-dressed man, a bit older than her father would
have been. His voice was smooth and confident, and he spoke more
eloquently than anyone she'd heard since leaving Weit. She wanted
to answer, but froze, unsure whether she should trust this genteel
stranger or not. He turned to the tavern keep and frowned a bit,
his black and silver eyebrows pulling together. "Your wife needs
this for the tea I told her to take for her headaches. Make sure
she gets it. No trading it away for favors the way you did last
time." At this, the tall man looked even sterner, and the tavern
keep turned bright red.

"Are you in some sort of trouble?" He turned
back to Liesel, his voice gentler this time. Faintly, Liesel
nodded. She wanted nothing more than someone to trust. But how
could she know if this man was as kind as he looked? He seemed to
sense her fear, and stepped back a bit, giving a little bow. "My
name is Ely Becke. I am the town healer here."

"I'm Liesel," she replied softly.

"I believe I overheard this man offer you
a...position. If you are in need of employment, please consider my
offer instead. My wife needs someone to help her around the house,
and I could use some assistance in my shop. Do you know anything of
herbs?" Liesel swallowed before nodding.

"My mother taught me." He raised his
eyebrows in approval.

"Well, it is growing late. If you wish, I
can bring you to my house to meet my wife." He seemed to catch the
fear in her hesitation, though, and said more gently, "Or I can
take you to the church if you desire." Liesel finally managed a
smile, but she didn't feel as confident as her expression. Along
the way, Liesel grew more and more afraid. Staying in the tavern
was never an option, but leaving it with a complete stranger was
frightening, too. After sending up a prayer to the Maker, Liesel
allowed him to lead her to his home.

She nearly cried with relief when a woman
met them at the door of the home he led them to. It was rather
spacious and more beautifully furnished than any place Liesel had
seen since coming to the forest. Liesel tried to convey her
willingness to work around the house starting that night, but Ros
would hear nothing of it. Tall, like her husband, Ros was a
handsome woman. She kept her silver streaked brown hair pulled back
into a thick braid that was pinned back up into a loop on her head,
and her clothes were stylish but practical. She reminded Liesel a
great deal of her grandmother. Ros insisted on feeding Liesel a
late supper of stew before finding her some old bedclothes and
tucking her into bed like a small child.

Liesel could tell the couple was curious
about her story, but they didn't ask, and she didn't share. Her
head was too muddled from exhaustion, fear, and confusion to do
much but fall into the bed of the small upstairs room they gave
her. As Ros blew out the candle, Liesel tried to recount how
exactly she had gone in one day from her own cottage to running for
her life to this lovely but distant safe haven. She couldn't,
though. There was just too much to remember.

As she drifted off to sleep, there was only
one thing that marred the relief she should have felt in the cozy
little bed. She couldn't help but wonder what Kurt's family would
do to punish him for sending her away. Would it have been better if
she'd given herself up? Her fear had kept her from doing such a
thing, and it shamed her to think she might have helped him, but
hadn't. He had done so much for her with no true explanation as to
why. And what had she done for him? Telling him a few stories from
a book was hardly comparable to the way he had sacrificed to keep
her safe. The slumber that should have been sweet and peaceful was
tainted by her guilt, and the last sound she heard before sleep
took her was a single mournful call of a wolf from afar.

It didn't matter how long Liesel basked in the beams of sunlight.
She would never tire of it. Opening her eyes, Liesel looked down at
the apple she held and squeezed it with satisfaction. It would be
perfect for the pie Ros was going to bake that afternoon.

"I will take four," she told the man behind
the stall. Ros only needed three, but Liesel was hungry. She smiled
as she again thanked the Maker for the generosity of her patrons.
It had been a long time since she had gone hungry.

"Whether we like it or not," she heard a
woman one stall over remark, "it's time to put out the Wolfsbane
again."

"Aye, they were loud last night. I sent my
Ada for some first thing this morning," Mrs. Thull answered
dryly.

"Pardon me," Liesel moved closer. "But what
is Wolfsbane?" She had already seen three children running about
that morning with armfuls of the long purple stems, yelling out
that they had Wolfsbane for sale.

"Didn't you hear the wolves last night?"
Mrs. Thull asked. Liesel shivered a little. She had done her best
not to.

"The wolf mother must have died," the other
woman said. Liesel didn't know who she was, but she was short and
somewhat plump, dressed from head to toe in yellow. "The wolves
must be looking for their new one."

"How long have you been in Tag, Liesel?"
Mrs. Thull studied her. Liesel shifted uncomfortably.

"Four years."

"That would be it," Mrs. Thull nodded at her
friend knowingly. "You weren't here the last time we had to put out
Wolfsbane."

"It's been twenty-two years," the woman in
yellow laughed, affectionately slapping Mrs. Thull on the arm. "She
wasn't even alive then! Just us old birds." She turned to Liesel,
still chuckling. "But where are you from, child? Even the babes
know the story here."

"Weit," Liesel said softly. Telling people
where she was born was easier than telling them she had come from
Ward. It didn't matter how often she tried to relate her story to
her friends in Tag, she just couldn't do it. Eventually, the Beckes
had stopped asking her, and so had her other friends as time went
by. Liesel had once overheard Ros telling an acquaintance that the
girl's past must have been difficult because she could never get
more than a word or two about it. Liesel was thankful that they
didn't press harder. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself
to utter a word of her confusing past to anyone in Tag.

Although she missed her grandparents sorely,
coming to Tag had been the next best thing that could have happened
to Liesel. The three years she had spent in Ward had been full of
confusion, fear, and loneliness. The more time she spent in Tag,
the stranger she realized her life in Ward had been.

Not long after her escape, Liesel had made
the conscious decision to try and forget everything that had
happened to her in Ward. And she'd succeeded for the most part. She
no longer flinched when passersby turned to look at her. She came
and left the Beckes' house without feeling afraid. She had friends,
and the Beckes treated her like the daughter they'd always wanted.
There were even two men who were determined to win her hand. And
yet, there were parts of her painful past that she couldn't shake.
She found ways to block them during the day, to stay busy and
productive, but at night, they came to visit her where she couldn't
escape. Last night had been one of those nights, particularly in
thanks to the distant cries of the wolves, something she hadn't
heard since coming to Tag.

"Legend has it that there is a pack of
wolves that live outside Ward," the woman in yellow began. "They
live in the depths of the forest, where the wood is the darkest.
They're no ordinary wolves now, mind you. They can walk about as
men, and no one can tell them apart from his neighbors. But they
cannot just stay that way. They need a wolf mother of human blood
to keep the magic alive so they can continue to appear human. When
the wolf mother dies, they must find a new one, or the magic will
overwhelm them. That's what the Wolfsbane is for, to keep them away
from the doors of good human families with daughters they might
steal." The short woman's eyes shone with excitement as she spoke,
but Mrs. Thull rolled her own eyes.