Sorry, I'm a day late. Here's the next part of Chapter 8. The next part will not be posted until Sunday at the earliest. With the school year and soccer season starting, I am not sure how much more I will post. It all depends on how busy my schedule is and how much more I can write.
Williams stared at Alejandro. “Your wife is a spy?” he asked in irritation and disbelief.
“She was, but she is not one anymore,” Alejandro answered. “She quit her spying when she joined the rebels who fight against the current government.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Williams inquired.
“It did not occur to me to mention it. We left that life behind when we fled from our farm.”
“But I thought it was the rebels who destroyed your farm,” Williams protested.
“One group did, Señor, because they did not know that she had joined another party of the rebellion.”
“We’re wasting time,” Walters growled, “How do we find her?”
“I am not sure that you can,” replied Alejandro. “She knows how to hide in any cover, and she can survive for days in the country without being seen by anyone.”
“And we’re surrounded by thick forest,” Walters added in dejection. “So, we have no hope of finding her, then?”
“None.”
“Unless,” interrupted Williams, “we can figure out where she might be headed. Do you know, Alejandro, why she might have waited until today to run away? Why not flee sooner?”
“I do not know. Perhaps she was waiting for me to come find her and finally gave up, but I cannot imagine her giving up so easily.”
“Mr. Walters,” Williams asked, “can you think of any reason why she might have run away?”
“No, Colonel,” replied Walters, “I can’t, unless…” He paused in thought for several seconds. “…unless it was because of my insistence that she starting working for me,” he finished. “I had grown tired of her constant refusals to do even simple household chores. I don’t keep servants around who aren’t doing any good. I told that if she didn’t shape up and start working me, then I was going to make life unpleasant for her. I pulled out the whip and cracked it a few times over her just to make the point.”
As soon as Williams had finished his translation of this, Alejandro jumped out of the cart straight at Walters, calling him several foul names in Spanish and pummeling him with ferocious punches. Williams and Roderick quickly leaped off the cart and restrained him before he did any serious damage to Walters.
“Your friend here has a fiery temper, Colonel,” observed Walters rubbing the newly-forming bruise on his right cheek. “You’d best take care of him before he finds himself in serious trouble. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see how the search party is forming.”
“Let us come with you, Mr. Walters,” Williams requested. “We might be able to help you with the search.”
“What do you think you can do?”
“I was in the military at one time,” replied Williams, “and I know a little bit about escape and evasion. I might be able to give your searchers some ideas of where to look. Besides, even if you do track her down, she’s not going to come back here willingly. Let Alejandro go along. He might be able to convince her to come quietly.”
“Besides, there’s still the matter of us taking her from you,” added Roderick.
“If we can find her,” Walters responded, “she’s all yours. I’ll write a letter to my lawyer to have the papers drawn up, and I’ll send it in later today.”
Just as Walters finished speaking, Tyrone ran up. “Mr. Walters,” he said, huffing, “I’ve organized every available man to go search the country side. And Neol is not around. I’m guessing he’s gone after that woman. There are two sets of footprints in the mud along the stream. It looks like they both crossed over it and headed east, away from town.”
“Head that way,” ordered Walters, “follow him, and quickly!”
Tyrone nodded and ran off to lead the search team.
“Gentlemen,” Walters said with obvious frustration, “if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have my stableman get a horse ready for me to ride. I’ll be back in a minute.” He stormed off to the stables.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Roderick spoke. “Quite an interesting man, this Mr. Walters,” he said ironically. He paused before asking, “Colonel, do you have a plan in mind for the search?”
2 comments:
So, I was talking to Arielle, and she was like, so, do we have physics and trig on the same day, and I was like, no.
Then, she was all, that's good, so I said, ya know Seidel isn't teaching us physics.
That made both of us mondo upset.
I was all, it's Mr. Davenport.
And she was like, oh.
This is uber-disappointing, man.
I'm sorry that you're disappointed, but think of it this way: you'll have more diversity in your teachers, which should make the year more enjoyable.
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