“When?” Thomas asked.
“Near dusk yestereve. Hob found their track where the road softens by the lower hedge.”
Hob’s face had gone grim. “Two horses. Mayhap three. They kept above the road where a man could watch the gate and not be seen unless another man had cause to look.”
“And you had cause?” Amelia asked.
Hob’s mouth twisted. “I always have cause.”
Thomas looked toward the door, toward the grey road beyond the yard, though no one could see it from where they stood.
“They’re still watching,” Amelia said.
“Aye,” Hob answered.
Belmaine had tested the village and failed to cause trouble. Huck had blunted the faery talk before it sharpened into something uglier. That didn’t mean Belmaine would stop. It meant he would change bait.
“They’ll try another angle,” she said.
Huck stoppered the honey jar and pushed it toward her. “Then you’ll need something stronger than sweetness next time.”
Amelia looked at the jar. The last streaks of honey moved slowly down the inside of the glass, patient and golden. Honey didn’t rush. Bees built in cells, one small chamber beside another, until the weight became undeniable.
Her plan had to be undeniable. Not a hope or a clever thought. Not a list that made her feel better because the world looked less terrifying when broken into steps.
Something solid enough that Belmaine could not turn it back on Thomas.
She lifted her gaze. “I need to move faster.”
Thomas’s eyes sharpened. “With what?”
“Everything.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have today.”
He looked at her as if he knew she was hiding half a battlefield under her veil.
Which, in fairness, she was.
“Amelia.”
The sound of her name coming from him almost made her break and tell him, but she took a breath and straightened her spine.
“I’m not going to do anything foolish.”
Hob made a sound.
She turned. “No commentary from the boulder gallery.”
“I said naught.”
Thomas’s mouth twitched, though the worry didn’t leave his eyes.
It was enough. Not enough to fix anything. Not enough to make gossip harmless or Belmaine stupid or the crown merciful. But enough to put one small candle between them and the dark.
Huck watched the two of them with altogether too much understanding.