The Grace Year(85)

The footsteps are getting closer.

Closer.

I haul back the rock, ready to swing, when I hear a high-pitched scream.

“Gertrude?” I exhale.

She’s standing there, eyes wider than a girl’s at her first hanging.

“You almost killed me,” she says, staring at the rock in my hand.

“What are you doing here?” I search the woods behind her. “You shouldn’t sneak up on me like that.”

“I … I just wanted to help. I’m feeling better now … or I was.” She looks down at the trail of urine trickling over her boot.

I let out a deep sigh. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” I say as I lead her up the incline, to the brook.

“You did all this?” she says, looking at all the various ropes and contraptions I’ve set up.

“Here, put your underclothes in this,” I say, showing her the netting I’ve rigged up in the spring for wash.

Wriggling out of her bloomers, she tucks them in the water. “You’re using your veil for this?” She chuckles.

“Seemed fitting.”

“I’m sorry I followed you,” she says, “it’s just—”

“It’s for the best,” I say, checking on the birch pipe. “You need to know how to take care of yourself … the others … just in case.”

“In case of what?” She steps into my line of sight.

I try to play it off, but it’s impossible for me to lie to Gertie. My eyes start to well up, just thinking about the things I have to say to her.

“I don’t know exactly what happened to you out there,” she says, “but I know certain things…”

I pull the cloak tighter around me.

“A boy in a treehouse with cold hands and a warm heart,” she adds.

“You heard that?” I whisper.

She nods.

“Ryker…,” I say, running my hand over the deep scar on my shoulder.

A pained look crosses her face. “Did he…”

“No. He saved me … nursed me back to health.” My chin begins to tremble at the thought. “He wanted to run away with me. Start a life together.”

“Then why did you come back?” Her brow knots up.

“I have a duty—”

“Everything’s different now,” she says, taking my hands in hers. “You must know that.”

“I can’t do this right now,” I say, climbing the ridge, trying to escape her words.

“You’re running out of time,” she says.

It stops me in my tracks. That’s the same thing the girl said to me right before I met Ryker on the frozen lake.

“If it’s because of your sisters,” she says, following after me, “I can speak up for them.”

“And risk being banished to the outskirts?”

“It couldn’t be any worse than having to marry Geezer Fallow,” she says. “Exceptions can be made … especially with Michael taking over as head of the council.”

Michael. It’s been so long since I thought of him that I can hardly conjure his face. It’s like a portrait that’s been left out in the rain.

Gertie gasps when she reaches the top of the ridge. “You were telling the truth,” she says, gravitating to the stark bones.

I join her. “Yesterday, she was lying on her right side, with her legs curled up.”

“And now she’s flat on her back?” she asks, blinking rapidly. “Are you saying the ghost is real?”

“I hope so.” I stare down at the ribbon fluttering in the breeze.

“How can you say that?”

“Because the alternative is even more frightening.”

“Tierney. You’re scaring me,” she says, taking a step back. “What could be worse than a vengeful ghost?”

“A vengeful poacher,” I whisper. “Anders.” Even saying his name makes me feel sick to my stomach. “He found me with Ryker, told me that if I didn’t cross back over he would kill us both.”

“Does Ryker know ab—”

“No. No.” I squeeze her hand tight. I can’t bear to hear her say another word.

“But the curse…”

“There is no curse,” I say, thinking of the vial at the apothecary. “It’s smallpox. Anders survived a bout of it last year, and now he believes he’s immune. He said he’d come back for me if I didn’t follow his orders.”

“But you followed his orders, right?” she asks, getting short of breath.

I wince in her direction.

“Oh God, Tierney.” She starts to pace. “But that still doesn’t explain this.” She nods toward the girl.

“Anders,” I say, swallowing hard. “He likes to play with bones.”

“What do you mean, likes to play with bones?”

“He makes … wind chimes and things out of them.”

“Tierney!” She raises her voice. “A poacher was in the camp … we have to tell the others … we have to warn them.”

“No,” I say in a panic. “Not yet. Not until I’m certain.”

“You sound pretty convincing to me.”