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her. She was bored with their tales and their long faces. Wasn't it enough to
live through the time storms? With enough to eat and decent water to drink?
Clothes to warm their hides? They had no courage, no real fortitude, no
furnishings in their minds at all. She had sloughed off far better companions
than these. Indeed, she wondered at her charity in sustaining such a
collection of lazy louts.
"Wake up, you vagrants, you idlers," she cried, prodding indiscriminately at
the sleeping bodies. "Wake up! Tis well past time to be about the business of
the day. Fresh meat must be caught for I wish to eat a warm meal at supper.
Michael, thee and Destry will help Fensu set traps and snares...."
"We can use the rifles?" Michael threw off sleep quickly in his excitement.
"What? And drive the game away with unnecessary noise? I do not have unlimited
supplies of powder and shot...." She paused, seeing the tightening of his face
muscles. "Ammo" was what Michael called powder and shot. "Snares and traps
will be sufficient for our needs."
"Then we are lodged here for a time?" asked Edward, and silence fell for her
answer.
"Long enough to profit more by industry and application than needless
questions. Edward, the brook is in full spate. Fill the big kettle first, and
then replenish the water butts." It amused Chloe to make a water boy out of
learned man. "Dorcas, start the fire. A goodly blaze will rid this chamber of
the chill of time ... and fear." She glanced around to see if her jibe
rankled. Edward and Destry looked quickly away and began to fold up their
sleeping bags. "Nay, slovens. Take the bedding out to be aired. Faugh!
Malenda! Rayda! There are ripe gooseberries a short step from here. Strip the
bushes...."
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"Then we may not be here long?" asked Michael, catching an inference she
hadn't meant.
She gave him a long stare for his impertinent query.
"Why leave ripe berries for birds when they would sweeten our dry mouths?"
Michael shrugged and moved out of the cave with his sleeping roll.
"Come! I've given you your orders. Do not dally!"
Fensu glided past Chloe, brushing so close that she caught the musky smell of
him. Yes, despite his woodcrafts, he was expendable. Rutting animals such as
he had forced her from her father's fine farm and into this tenuous existence.
"Days in the dark, and no rest on cold stones ..." Rayda's sulky voice
rehearsed her litany of grievances. Destry caught her arm and gave her a shake
to be silent as he pulled her out of the main cavern. Malenda, blankets
bundled in her arms, scurried after them.
Perhaps, thought Chloe in malicious hope, the bear might still be in the
gooseberries and hungry enough to take a few well-placed nibbles out of Rayda.
She heard the crackling of fire consuming dry wood and looked around
approvingly as Dorcas set the kettle tripod in place over the hearth. Too bad
the woman had got herself with child and Chloe had not known soon enough to
remedy the condition. The docile Dorcas was an excellent, undemanding servant,
but not exactly the sort of companion who wore well in the long run,
especially if lumbered with an infant.
"I will fetch meal for johnnycake, Dorcas, and herbs while thee pares
vegetables. Carrots and onions will probably suit whatever flesh the men
snare."
Not a woman to waste breath with unnecessary words, Dorcas nodded
acknowledgment and went to the sandbox where the root vegetables were stored.
As Chloe moved down the short corridor to the stores cave, she reached into
her copious skirt pocket for the heavy keys.
"It's ridiculous to have locks and keys in this place," Douglas had protested
to Chloe when she requested them of him.
"Thee has not yet been through sufficient time shifts to know how the
privations can affect the weak in character. I deem it wisest to keep our
stores close guarded."
"What would happen if you didn't make it back to the cave ..."
"Ah, but, my dear Douglas, I always shall!"
Chloe had seen no point in explaining to a man of Douglas's time the true
significance of the keys. She had received her first set from her father's
hand at the age of fifteen and proved herself a careful chatelaine despite the
inefficient, slovenly colonial indentured servants. How well that training had
stood her through these parlous times.
She selected the heavy key that Douglas had scoffingly forged and slipped it
into the heavy lock, hearing the tumblers snick. She supposed that Douglas was
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much in her thoughts because she was, as ever, grateful for his doors, bolts,
locks, and keys. If only the man has been as honest in his dealings as he had
been as an artisan.
Chloe turned on the diffuse-lamp, noting that its illumination was as bright
as ever, and measured meal into the pannikin. She selected herbs from their
bags, her fingers pausing over the satisfactory plumpness. Sufficient unto the
day! Especially when the demands on her supplies would soon be reduced.
She turned off the lamp, closing and locking the grille behind her. Edward had
returned from his first trip to the brook with the big kettle. One glance at
Chloe and he made haste to get on with his chore. Dorcas had already set the
sheet on the fire for the johnnycake, so Chloe handed her the supplies
silently.
Dorcas was carefully mixing water into the meal under Chloe's watchful eye
when they both heard the bubble-bubble of excited voices. Michael burst into
view, Destry running close behind him.
"The rifle, Chloe! The rifle, quickly! A bear has treed Rayda!"
"A bear?"
"I'd've thought you'd've heard her yelling all the way up here," Michael
gasped out. "The rifle!"
Chloe hesitated. The winter-thin bear and his mangy coat were really not worth
the powder and shot.
"Or did you know there was a bear when you sent Rayda for berries?"
"I picked there myself a scant hour ago!" Chloe pointed contemptuously at the
full pail.
"That tree ain't very big nor strong," Destry added, having caught enough
breath to add his argument to Michael's.
Chloe saw Dorcas watching her, hands suspended over the meal bowl. She
recognized the anger in Michael's eyes and the anxiety in Destry's. She
mustn't seem as if she was eager to be rid of Rayda or she would experience
difficulty in discarding any of them at the appropriate moment.
Chloe moved swiftly then, selecting the proper key as she made her way to the
gun case. She handed Michael the heaviest of the rifles and two rounds of
shot. He gestured impatiently for her to give him more.
"Let thy vaunted skill make the first shot count. The noise will likely
frighten the creature away."
Michael gave her a searing look before he turned and pelted out of the cave,
Destry behind him. Chloe followed more slowly to the entrance and saw the
underbrush flipping back into place after their passage. She sighed with
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