Part 13 (1/2)

Something was most definitely going on and it probably wasn't good. Why was the Merford stock in his father's barn? Bram knew that his family couldn't possibly afford to buy them; nor would the Merfords sell them.

Bram hurried to the house. Hearing voices raised inside, he entered quietly through the rear door, the better to hear the fast and furious discussion that was going on. The big, single room that held the main hearth was filled with neighbours, many seated on the benches around the kitchen table, others on stools around the room, the rest standing or squatting against the wall.

'It was animals! Wild dogs or something like that!' said Tucker Holsworth, smacking the table for emphasis as he waved his pipe in the air. His face was black with soot and dirt.

'But what about what Lorrie said?' asked Bram's father.

'Y'mean about men doing it with some sort of tool?' Holsworth puffed on his pipe as he sought to keep it lit.

'Well, she was there. If that's what she said she saw should we be doubting her?'

'But those marks were made by some animal's teeth! No knife did that to them,' offered Rafe Kimble, who stood by the kitchen hearth. He was also black from soot.

'And little Rip? Where did he go to if someone didn't kidnap him, then?' asked his wife, Elma.

'He could have perished in the fire, and the girl just didn't see it,' insisted Allet.

'If the animal was big enough then it could have dragged him off to its den.' That came from Jacob Reese, who sat at the table with the other two men.

'But how could an animal like that or even a pack of animals, be in the area and us not notice?' asked Ossrey. 'Where have they gone then? I've heard no rumours of such as happened to the Merfords happening anywhere else.'

'What are you talking about?' Bram exclaimed. 'What's happened?'

'Bram!' his mother cried. Allet jumped up from her seat and made her way through the crowd to embrace him.

'Son!' Ossrey said. 'Good to see you, boy!' He offered his hand across the kitchen table and Bram leaned through the crowd of neighbours to take it with a brief smile. From the leftover food on the table and the open jugs, it was clear the women had been in the kitchen all night, cooking breakfast for the men, who had just finished eating.

'You must be starving,' Allet said. 'Sit down, Bram,' she pushed him toward her place at the table, 'and I'll get you something.'

'I'm fine, Mother,' Bram said, but he did take her seat after he'd unslung his bundle and propped the bow and quiver against the wall beside the door. 'What's happened? It sounds bad.' He looked around at his neighbours, then turned expectantly to his father.

Ossrey bowed his head and looked at Bram from under his s.h.a.ggy eyebrows. He was a dark hairy man except for a thinning patch on top of his head, and broader-built than his son would ever be. 'I'm so sorry you've come home to such bad news, son,' he began. 'The Merfords have suffered a terrible tragedy.'

'Lorrie?' Bram asked immediately.

His mother's lips thinned and she frowned slightly, her eyes s.h.i.+fting to Farmer Glidden to see how he took Bram's singular interest in Lorrie Merford.

'She was fine the last time we saw her,' Allet said, crossing her arms.

'What do you mean the last time you saw her?' Bram demanded. When no answer was forthcoming, he gripped his mother by the arms and asked, 'Mother, what happened?'

'Lorrie's parents were both killed,' Farmer Glidden told him quickly. 'Their house and barn were burned down and we spent the night over there putting out fires in the fields. Just got back here an hour ago.' He was silent a moment, then added, 'Her brother's gone missing. I'm told Lorrie took her horse and rode out. Probably gone after the boy.'

There was a flurry of 'tsks!' both sympathetic and condemning, accompanied by nods and shaking heads.

Bram released his mother's arms. 'So Lorrie and Rip are both both missing?' missing?'

'Didn't I just say so?' Glidden said.

'Has anyone gone after them?'

From the glances exchanged around the room, Bram could tell no one had.

'When did all this happen?' Bram ran a desperate hand through his hair, looking around in confusion.

'The marks on Melda and Sam's bodies looked like they'd been made by an animal of some kind,' Ossrey said. 'We think the boy must have been dragged away by whatever killed them.'

'Animals!' Bram said. 'Here?' He looked around again. 'Has anyone tracked the beasts? Are you saying they...had they eaten Melda and Sam?' Then it struck him. 'Do you mean to tell me that Lorrie has gone alone, tracking some animal big enough and dangerous enough to kill two adults? When did she go?'

'Lorrie said something about men doing it,' Dora Commer said, looking defiantly at Allet and Ossrey. 'Said they tore up the bodies with some sort of tool to make it look like a beast did it, then headed down the road toward Land's End. She wanted to follow them at once, but of course we couldn't let her do that. We thought she was in a panic.' The woman shrugged, looking guilty. 'And there was the fire, we had to take care of that. For all we knew the boy had been in the house or the barn and she just couldn't take the idea. Besides,' she continued into his silence, 'if there were men and they'd killed both her parents what could one girl do against them?'

'We brought her here and put her to bed,' his mother said. 'The men had to fight fires in the fields all night, and have been arguing this thing since they got here. When the Lormers were leaving, a little before you got here, they saw the Merfords' horse gone. I checked your room and it was empty. She'd gone out of the window, wearing some of your old clothing, and she stole your purse from under the bed!' She said the last as if it was more important than the other news.

'She's welcome to it,' said Bram, 'if she needs it to find Rip.'

'I checked her farm,' Long Paul, the foreman of Glidden's farm said. 'I took a lantern, rode out there and checked. No sign of her.'

'Well, there's nothing there for her now, is there?' Jacob Reese's wife asked, sniffing sadly.

'We're going to send word to the constable after sunup,' said Glidden officiously. 'It's their job to deal with things like this.'

Bram looked incredulous. 'The constable?'

Glidden looked displeased. 'Doubt much will come of it. No doubt they've much more important things to do than be after a girl looking for her brother.'

'But wasn't he right there on the minute when it came to evicting the Morrisons from the farm their family had worked forever?' Dora said indignantly. 'They jump right to it if you're a money-lender needing to foreclose.'

At this more arguments broke out and threatened to go on for some time.

Bram watched them in wonder then finally shouted over the uproar, 'What have you been doing to find Lorrie and Rip?'

'And what should we do?' his mother asked, sounding offended. 'We offered her our home and our comfort and she ran away, with your purse, without so much as a thank you or a farewell. If she doesn't want us we can't force ourselves on her.'

He looked at her, then turned to his father. 'And there's been no further sign of these so-called animals?' he asked.

'None,' Ossrey said. 'None before, and none since.'

'We didn't find any tracks to follow,' Long Paul told him.

Bram stared at him. Long Paul was the best hunter in the district; it was he who had taught Lorrie and Bram to hunt. If Long Paul couldn't find tracks then there were no tracks to find. 'Doesn't that strike anyone as odd?' he asked. 'The Merfords' farm is seven miles from any sizeable stands of woods. Any animal large enough to savage a full-grown man and woman would have been seen by someone if it was crossing the fields from the Old Forest or the Free Woods. Unless you think it just trotted down the King's Highway without a trader, traveller, or horseman noticing it, then it turned down the Old Mill Trail to Lorrie's farm.'

His neighbours looked at one another in confusion.

'Well, yes,' Long Paul said. 'Not that it signifies. Tracks I mean. Those marks on the bodies were definitely made by an animal's teeth, Bram. I'd swear to that. The fact that it's odd doesn't change the evidence. Could have been a flyer.' He shrugged.

'A flyer?' asked Bram.