Marysvale (45 page)

I shrugged, “Please yourself.” Then,
addressing the soldier, I ordered, “Do as she said.”

He made no attempt.

“
Very well—we’ll do it the
hard way.”

I walked up to him.

“
No,” he said quickly. “That
won’t be necessary.” And he stripped down to his
undergarments.

“
I want clothes, too,” said
Hannah weakly.

I nodded. “We can use
Lyman’s.”

“
Please,” she begged. “Not
his.”

The soldier, hearing Lyman’s name,
perked his head up and noticed the body lying on the
ground.

“
Is he dead?” he asked in
astonishment.

I didn’t bother replying and commanded
him to lie down and put his arms behind his back.

“
What are you going to do?”
he asked.

“
I’m not going to discuss
anything with you,” I replied.

“
Then I’m not
cooperating.”

“
That can easily be solved,”
I said, and I aimed the musket at him.

He closed his eyes and tensed his
muscles, expecting the worse.

Instead of shooting him, I slipped
silently behind him and knocked him out.

Quickly, I obtained the clothes for
Hannah, and then tied and gagged both soldiers. After retrieving
their pouches of ammunition, I brought the uniforms to the waiting
women.

“
Why did you tie them up?”
asked Jane. “I don’t think they will be able to do much harm locked
up.”

“
So they can’t undo their
gags. I don’t want them calling out to anyone for help.”

“
Oh,” she said simply, and
then motioned for me to turn around so they could
change.

When Jane finished, both she and Sarah
worked on Hannah, who remained remarkably quiet during the ordeal.
The only sound she made was an occasional sharp intake of pain as
they dressed her.

“
All done,” said
Jane.

“
Good. I’ll need your help,
Jane. Sarah, you stay here with Hannah.”

“
No,” cried
Hannah.

“
We’ll be right back,” I
promised.

“
Please don’t leave us
here,” she pleaded. “What if they come back?”

I thought about that.

“
She has a point,” reasoned
Sarah. “We don’t know when they will return, and if they do,
neither of us are in shape to do anything, other than get
recaptured.”

“
Very well,” I agreed. Then,
turning to Jane, I asked, “Can you help Sarah?”

She nodded.

“
I’ll carry
Hannah.”

“
John,” said
Jane.

I looked at her, “Yes?”

“
What about father? How are
we going to get him out?”

It was the question I’d been dreading.
I knew it was coming, but illogically I hoped it wouldn’t. Again,
the images of his death flooded my mind and, again, I relived the
heartache…and now Jane and Hannah would have to endure it, too. I
didn’t know what to say. I studied my feet and waited for some type
of inspiration, something that would lessen the blow and make it
easier for them to take.

“
Well?” she asked
again.

“
Jane,” I began softly,
still hoping for that inspiration that wasn’t coming. “Your father
is dead.”

She was stunned.

“
I’m so sorry…. There wasn’t
anything I could do.”

Her emotions flowed into me. I could
feel her shock, as well as her doubt that she’d heard me correctly;
yet she knew that she had.

“
How?” she asked.

“
Lyman,” was all I could
manage.

Slowly, the shock gave way to grief,
and tears welled in her eyes. Jane threw her arms around Hannah,
and Sarah gently embraced them both. They all wept.

A
FTER
several minutes, Sarah finally said, “I’m sorry we
don’t have more time to mourn properly. If we are discovered, your
father’s sacrifice will be in vain and we will all
perish.”

Jane nodded and released Hannah. Wiping
her puffy, red eyes on her sleeve, she stood up. Wordlessly, she
took one of the muskets from me, then went over and offered Sarah a
hand.

Sarah took it, rose to her feet, and
put an arm around Jane to use her as a crutch.

I gently scooped up Hannah, who felt
amazingly light. She wrapped an arm around my neck, buried her head
in my chest, and silently wept. Giving her a tender squeeze, I
desperately wished I could take her pain for her; but the best I
could do was to carry her and fulfill my promise to her
father.

Sarah searched Lyman’s coat and
withdrew some gold coins, a timepiece, and a key. She deposited all
of them into her pocket.

We set off, retracing our steps back
through the tunnel. Words of comfort finally came to me in the
dimly lit passage. Hoping it would ease their grief some, I decided
to share it.

“
Do you remember anything
about your mother?”

Hannah shook her head.

“
She is very beautiful.” I
said.

She continued crying for a moment until
what I said had sunk in. Taking a sniff or two, she gained some
composure, then lifted her head and looked at me,
confused.

I continued, “You and Jane look so much
like her, but you even more so—especially your eyes. Though her
smile is very much Jane’s.

Now I had all their
attention.

“
Do you remember my mother?”
asked Jane.

“
No, not exactly…” Then,
searching for the right words, I added, “It seems that, not only
can I see into a living soul, but I can still see that soul for a
short time after the death of the body. I was able to see your
father when he died. Your mother came to meet him, and I saw her,
too.”

Drawing from my memory, I went on to
describe my experience from the time their mother appeared. I told
them how she looked with the light that filled and encompassed her
being. I recounted their father’s words to her and her words to
him. I told of the loving embrace they shared and how she filled
her husband with that same light, as they peacefully departed this
world.

“
Did you really see all
that?” Hannah asked hopefully, wanting to believe it.

“
Yes. Every word of it is
true, I swear it.”

Longing for more, she asked, “Is that
everything?”

“
Only one more thing: before
your mother appeared, your father asked me to look after you. So, I
suppose that puts me in charge. You’ll have to do what I say from
now on.”

She grinned at me weakly. “Now I know
you’re lying…he wouldn’t dare.”

I smiled and she rested her head
against my chest.

We reached the winding torch-lit stairs
that led up to the castle. Using my sight, I checked for guards and
found none.

The ascension went better than
expected, but still required a few rest stops, mostly for Sarah’s
sake.

During our last break, Hannah said,
“You don’t have to carry me. I think I can walk.”

“
I don’t mind. Besides, it’s
not you walking that worries me; it’s your ability to ride a
horse.”

“
I can do that.”

“
By yourself?”

She nodded.

Voices drifted down the corridor as we
reached the top of the stairs. Leaving Hannah propped against the
wall, I investigated.

Peering around the corner, I saw two
women walking away from us. They took a few more steps before
turning a corner and disappearing down another arched hallway.
Their voices faded.

Finding nothing else, I
returned.

“
Who was it?” whispered
Jane.

“
Two women I didn’t
recognize,” I replied back in an equally soft whisper.

“
Do you have a plan?” asked
Sarah quietly.

“
If we can get our horses,
there is a way out through the dungeon.”

“
Why didn’t you tell us
there was a way out when we were down there?” asked
Jane.

“
It didn’t come up in
conversation—and I assumed you knew.”

“
Did you know, Sarah?” asked
Jane.

She nodded. “After I was…questioned, I
guessed that Naehume was getting in and out through
there.”

“
And you plan on simply
walking horses through the castle?” asked Jane
skeptically.

“
It’s easier than breaking
through both gates,” I replied. “Do you have another
idea?”

She thought about it, then shook her
head. “Do you know where the horses are?”

“
Yes, in a stable in the
courtyard.”

“
Then we should get
moving.”

“
We have another problem,” I
confessed. “There are two guards outside the main castle
door.”

“
I think I know a better way
out,” said Sarah. “Lyman brought me in through a side door. Since
it was locked, there were no guards.”

“
If it is locked, then how
are we going to open it?” asked Jane.

Sarah withdrew the key retrieved from
Lyman’s coat and replied, “With this. Follow me.”

Wrapping an arm around Jane, she led us
through the castle. We went through unfamiliar passages,
occasionally hiding when faint voices echoed through the halls, but
no one ever materialized. It was remarkably quiet, as most of the
castle’s inhabitants had already retired for the night.

Halfway down a particularly long
hallway, a burst of loud laughter, from somewhere farther down the
hall, made us stop.

“
What do we do?” whispered
Jane. “Do we keep going, or go back?”

“
How close are we?” I
asked.

“
Almost there,” replied
Sarah.

“
Almost where?” asked
someone behind us with a deep, gruff voice.

I turned, with Hannah still in my arms,
and saw a large soldier walking down the corridor toward us. He had
a pistol in one hand and a bottle in the other. I still had the
musket cradled up underneath Hannah, which he didn’t seem to
notice.

He saw Hannah in my arms and eyed me
suspiciously.

“
What’s this?” he
demanded.

His breath reeked of spirits and his
uniform was in slight disarray. He didn’t look drunk, but then the
pistol didn’t look exactly rock steady either. If I didn’t have
Hannah, disarming him would have been easy enough; but as it was, I
worried about him getting off a shot, or yelling for
help.

My brain raced for something to say and
I stammered, “Uh…we are…uh…”

He didn’t bother waiting for my reply.
“Oi. You sneakin’ women into your quarters, ain’t you?”

My brain still seemed locked,
“Uhh…”

“
I gots eyes, don’t deny it.
Just make things worse for you. Now get a move on,” he flicked his
pistol toward the sound of the laughter, motioning for us to go
there.

Jane left Sarah’s side.

“
Oh, please don’t turn us
in,” she pleaded, and then slipped between his arms so quickly, he
didn’t know what to do. She pressed her body up to his and said
seductively, while teasing his hair, “Surely there is something I
can do to dissuade you.”

He looked down at her alluring smile
and a grin spread across his face, revealing rotting, black teeth.
“Well now, perhaps there is something after all,” he said, in a
pathetic attempt to match her seduction. Stuffing the pistol
loosely into his belt, he placed his arm around Jane, and took a
long swig from the bottle. “I know just the place,” he said,
pinching her bottom.

She giggled playfully, as I watched in
horror.

The soldier led her down the hall
towards the sound of the raucous laughter.

“
John,” whispered Hannah.
“Close your mouth and stop gaping. Good boy. Now put me down and
follow them.”