“Bring Father.”
Now Lily did smile at the child’s back. Annabelle loved Elias. They all did.
She examined several more stems and snipped more cuttings of lavender before she became aware of the silence from outside.
She dropped her cuttings into a basket on the table and, stepping around the table, she walked to the open door and looked outside for Elias and little Eddie. How long had it been now?
She looked around again. Everything was too quiet. The birds, the bugs. Even the wind had stopped. An uneasy feeling washed over her. She left the doorway of the shop and began walking toward Eleanor’s house—where her children were. She felt the need to be near them, to protect them. She passed the church and kept going, quickening her steps until she reached Eleanor’s door. She knocked and stepped inside.
“Annabelle?”
“Aye,” the little girl came hurrying to her. “Here I am.”
Lily breathed a sigh of relief. “Sweeting, where is Charlie?”
Annabelle shrugged. “He and little Eddie left already.”
Lily frowned and went to the window. How come she didn’t see them on the way here? She told Eleanor she’d be back soon for Annabelle and then left the house and headed for the church.
She was being foolish. Of course it was quiet. There weren’t many people left in the village. It didn’t mean something nefarious was going on.
She hurried into the church and called out for Elias. She didn’t care if Father Benedict grew angry with her for it. “Elias!”
#
“I want to hang it in the hall before the sanctuary.” Father Benedict led Elias to the west wall where a very large painting of heavenly beings floating in the clouds was leaning against the wall.
They were in the basement. Father Benedict wanted him to bring the painting above stairs. “Mayhap with Alan’s help—”
“Elias!”
He heard Lily’s voice above stairs and ran toward it.
“Here!” he called back hurrying to her. She sounded alarmed.
“Elias, are Charlie and little Eddie with you?”
“No,” he called back, on his way up. “Annabelle came lookin’ fer Charlie. They went with her. Why?” He reached her, taking three stairs at a time. “What is it?”
“I do not know.” She felt like a fool for alarming him. Charlie probably took the babe home for some food. “They left Eleanor’s but they never passed me. And have you been outside? ‘Tis too quiet and—”
He was gone in the next breath. Out of her arms and into the beginning of a storm.
The skies had changed to charcoal gray and rumbled with thunder, as if from within the earth, for Lily felt the vibration in her feet and in her legs as she left the church and stood behind Elias. She looked around and had the urge to scream for Charlie.
“Should we head home?” she asked Elias as the wind picked up and blew her hair around her face.
He listened for a moment and, twice, Lily thought she heard a babe crying. Little Eddie was the only babe in the village. She moved to run but Elias stopped her. “’Tis the wind.”
She listened again and disappointment filled her. He was correct. The sound came from every direction.
She started for home, but Elias stopped her again. He moved in close so she could hear him. “If they are home, they are safe. If they are somewhere else, I intend to find them. If ‘tis the bishop’s men, we will find their horses first, so keep yer eyes open.”
Aye, horses…unless they took Charlie and little Eddie and left!
Oh, she couldn’t think it. She couldn’t take another threat to her family. She felt for her knives hidden beneath her skirts and the ones secured to the belt at her waist. If she saw any strangers, she would throw her knives at them and question them after that.
After taking a quick look into the few homes leading to the largest one in the village, they came to Norman’s house. They didn’t request entry from their friend or walk right in. They listened through the shuttered windows for any sounds of their children and were about to move around to the other side of the house when they both heard a muffled cry.