We broke away from each other.
Evangeline was striding towards us, appearing to have just exited the camp. “I thought you had gone into town!”
“Robbie,” Reed said under his breath, eye on me but a hand raised to Evangeline. “I’ve better eyesight than you know. And I can somewhat see in the dark. I don’t know what I saw through the trees, but I saw something, and while I would rather not that you were entertaining another man, if it was anything else, if you were in some kind of danger, I expect you to?—”
“I thought you were in town!” the lady warrior repeated, coming closer. “What’s this?” she asked, smiling, eyes darting between us. “Robbie, does he try his luck with you again?”
“I was foraging,” I proffered and stepped past her. “Have a good night, the both of you,” I said over my shoulder.
“I expect an explanation,” Reed muttered. “And soon.”
58
NOW: WHISKEY
Igot no sleep that night, unable to shake the terror of being seized and marched towards my death. And when my mind had relived that over and over, it began to dwell on the scorching heat and blossoming flame that my flicking the little drop of blood into the cresset torch had caused.
And then, stupidly, when there were more important things to worry over, I obsessed over Reed’s use of “another man,” as if he implied that he was the first man and anyone else was “another.” Or had I read into that?
Whiskey had been passed out, a jug per wagon, even ours. Ilsit and Tessa had quickly opened it and added it to their tin cups of tea, but I had waved them away after the first few drams, claiming it was best left for medicinal use.
“Just go into town and buy more,” Ilsit protested.
I caved in and let them use it, too distracted and too tired to argue.
With an entire day set aside for rest, the campgrounds were happy. Some folks complained of a sore head from the whiskey the army had purchased. Others, who had kept the whiskey for thingslike toothaches and medicine, who found drinking it to be sinful, were rather happy with themselves over this outcome.
Word had got out who traveled in wagon four hundred and twenty-three, and with folk settled for a day, they decided to inquire after their aches and pains. What was supposed to be a day of rest was not for me. I walked up and down the campgrounds, folk finding me, giving me the numbers of their wagons, and asking for different things. I stitched up a cut, pulled a bad tooth, provided oil for aching joints, and so on.
When I returned to our camp, Ilsit and Tessa were playing cards while Fox combed nits out of Daisy’s fur.
“Where is Jade?” I asked.
“Went drinking with the scouts in town,” explained Ilsit.
“Shewhat?” I snapped.
Tessa looked up. “What’s the trouble?”
“Thetrouble? None of us should be left alone with anyone?—”
“Oh piss and hell,” Ilsit said in dismissal. “They’re like us. They invited us, remember? We’re too tired to make the walk.”
I glared at her. “You’re the one who said we shouldn’t trust anyone!”
“Well, I changed my mind,” she said and looked at Tessa. “Are you hearing this? It’s pretty godsdamn insulting to Jade. Like she doesn’t know how to look after herself.”
“I agree,” said Tessa, and her clipped tone surprised me. “They’re not of the church or of Sheridan. They’ve no judgment for folk like Jade or folk like me and Ilsit. In fact, the one with the braid and the big Helmsman used to be lovers. And, yes, Jade is nearly your age, Robbie. She’s not a girl. No offense, Fox.”
Fox smiled at Tessa.
“Fox is no girl,” Ilsit countered, slapping a card down and grinning at Tessa, who groaned. “She’s practically a woman now, and a smart one.”
Outraged, I charged across the camp, making for the road that led into Griston, making the remarkably stupid decision to be alonein the dark after having nearly been killed the night before. By the time I realized my own idiocy, I was closer to the town than the camp and reasoned I may as well make for whatever tavern they were in. I had put myself in the danger of being alone at night. Then I understood my second stupid choice of not asking my family if they knew where Jade and the scouts were, especially as Griston was a sizable place.
“Sir?” I called to a man in the street. “Where are most of the penitents drinking tonight?”
He looked at me, bleary-eyed, and pointed behind him to a loud tavern.
