Along Came a Wolf (The Yellow Hoods, #1): Steampunk meets Fairy Tale (9 page)

Gabriel was beside himself in disbelief. He’d had no idea how skilled she was with rifles. His wife had kept Egelina-Marie’s secret to herself. “Three hundred yards… that’s… that’s nearly impossible.”

“I know, sir,” said the sergeant. “What’s more amazing is that she arrived on the scene, and in one second realized what needed to be done—then took the shot. She shot from a standing position.”

The captain looked at his daughter in amazement. “A snap-shot?”

Egelina-Marie smiled. “They’ve been calling me
Eg the Crack Shot
. Not bad for my first day, sir?”

Gabriel beamed with pride. “Not bad.” Then he violated a few more pieces of his own advice and gave her a big hug. “You saved a very good man today, Egelina-Marie. A very good man.”

“I know, Papa. I know,” she said, hugging him back.

Egelina-Marie had left one thing out. When she and Nikolas had pulled Bakon off LeLoup, she had—for the briefest moment—exchanged a glance with Bakon and, ever since then… she couldn’t get him out of her mind.

CHAPTER TEN

Licking Wounds

The third floor of the treehouse was a six-foot square platform with a sturdy wooden railing. The view was breathtaking as the autumn sun touched the horizon and the adventurous day slowly retired. 

The brilliant colors of the forest mirrored the mix of thoughts and emotions the yellow-hooded trio felt as they sat and thought about their day. They silently watched the leaves dance and the trees sway.

All of a sudden, Elly hiccuped loudly. She tried not to look embarrassed. Her hiccups were more like a bear roaring than a mouse sneezing.

Richy and Tee tried to ignore it and continue the thoughtful mood.

Once again, Elly erupted in a hiccup. This time she was a bit embarrassed. Richy and Tee broke their silence and giggled.

“It was terrifying,” said Richy, looking out at the sunset.

“The hiccups or what happened today?” asked Tee, trying to resist the grin creeping across her face.

Elly, trying to head off the teasing, took control. She looked at Richy. “You saved the day, Richy.”

Tee nodded in agreement.

Richy continued to look straight ahead. “Were you guys terrified too?”

“Yup,” said Elly.

“Oh yeah!” answered Tee. “That hiccup was monstrous.”

Elly reached over and punched Tee in the shoulder.

Richy smiled, nodded quietly, and then continued. “I was trying
so
hard to convince those guards to come. That older guard was just refusing and wanted to put me in jail if I wouldn’t just go away. I was scared he was going to shoot the lady guard when she started to follow me, but I was more scared of you guys getting hurt.”

“You know, when I got captured, I was really scared,” said Elly. “I kept thinking that maybe I should have planned a little.”

Tee turned and looked at her. “I’m glad you didn’t. There was no time. I was out of energy. They would have caught me if you hadn’t shown up when you did. You guys saved my life, and my grandfather’s. I don’t know how to repay you… I’ll never forget it.”

They sat there in silence again, watching the sun dip a little further beneath the distant mountain range.

After a couple of minutes, Richy said, “You’d have done it for us, Lala.”

“Yeah, only you’d have done it with more
style
,” added Elly, grinning.

Richy sprang up and did an exaggerated imitation of Tee’s signature gestures. “Oh, yeah, and about a half dozen
La-la’s
! Fear not, for here I am! La-la! La-la! Fa-la-la-la-la!” 

All three burst into hysterics. It felt good to laugh.

Tee stood up and leaned on the railing. “We have to head back before our parents wonder where we are.”

As they started to walk down to the first floor, Tee said, “There’s one thing I keep wondering about.”

“What’s that?” asked Richy.

“What was all of this about? I can’t explain it, but I feel like there’s something evil out there.”

“In the forest?” said Richy, a bit confused.

Elly corrected him. “No—she means out in the world.”

Tee nodded. “I feel like our fate is somehow tied to it. Does that sound crazy?” 

 “I know what you mean,” said Elly. “I feel like today was some kind of test.”

Richy took it in, and asked thoughtfully, “And we passed, right?”

“Time will tell,” said Tee. “For all we know, this was only the first part.”

Nikolas walked up to his daughter’s log cabin. He was tired, but had cleaned himself up. He carried a bottle of wine, as he always did when he’d visit for dinner. 

After wrapping everything up with the guardsmen and Captain Archambault, he was ready for a nice, normal evening with family.

Jennifer was in the front yard splitting a few logs with an old hand axe.

“Oh, hi Papa,” she said. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and glanced around. “Where’s Tee?”

Instinctively, he looked around, but then remembered. “Oh, she went off with her friends. She said she wouldn’t be long.”

Jennifer gathered some pieces of firewood from the ground, and then stopped. “You’re a bit early,” she said suspiciously. Her dad was notorious for being exactly on time. She studied him and her suspicion became concern. “I’ll put some tea on. I can see you’ve had a busy day. Is everything okay?”

Nikolas gave a tired smile. “Yes. Yes, my dear. You don’t need to worry about me.”

Father and daughter entered the log cabin. Jennifer dropped the firewood in the pile beside the wood stove. She took a moment to warm her hands by the fire, and then filled the kettle and placed it on the blackened iron stovetop.

Nikolas pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down. He loved their cozy, little home. It had two bedrooms and a main room. It was decorated with wonderful crafts. It radiated creativity and love. 

Jennifer took after her mother. Nikolas and Isabella had moved a couple of times before settling nearby, and each time Isabella had managed to turn a house into a home within days. 

 “Hello? Papa?” Jennifer attempted to hand her dad a cup of tea for the second time.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, smiling, accepting it carefully with both hands.

“You know, Papa, you are a bad liar—at least to me,” she said, sitting down.

He raised an eyebrow. “Am I?” He paused. “Well, Tee and I, we had some… excitement, today.”

“Indeed. You’re quite distracted.” She took a first sip of her tea.

Nikolas looked at his own cup. “I fear, for some reason I cannot explain, that what has happened is not over.”

“What happened, Papa?”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

In Sheep's Clothing

A short, balding man in his fifties picked up his worn medical bag from the guard’s inspection table. Nervous sweat pooled at the base of his hairline.

“Everything looks fine, doctor. You may enter,” said the young guard, unlocking the thick wood and steel door leading to the jail cells. “This guy gets too much attention, if you ask me. After all these weeks, he’s still getting people dropping by. Most guys only get one visitor, if any, before they’re shipped off… or, you know,
executed
,” said the guard with a slicing gesture.

The doctor forced a smile, making his round face look awkward. “Special circumstances,” he replied as he hesitantly entered the small hallway. 

“We moved everyone else to the jail across the street. You never know with a guy like this one. He’s smart,” said the guard as the doctor disappeared and the door closed behind him.

At the end of the hallway were three sparsely furnished jail cells. LeLoup was in the middle one, lying on its straw mattress and whistling.

Once the bolt of the heavy door was locked back into place, LeLoup turned to see who they had let into his cage—what fresh meat had they thrown him? It had been a couple of days since he’d had a visitor who wasn’t a guard. 

“Hello doc—oh, it’s you. The
other
doctor,” said LeLoup, pretending to be disappointed.

The doctor looked around, uneasy.

LeLoup continued, “If you’re wondering if there is an echo in here, there is—from the stone walls. There’s nothing to drink up the sound. It’s why I like to whistle here—the echo. It does give the place an eerie feel, though. Of course, they wouldn’t want it to feel like home, now would they? It would spoil the experience.” 

He sat up and stretched. “But you know all this already, don’t you? It’s not your first visit.”

The doctor tried to hide behind his bag as he made his way to LeLoup’s iron-barred cell door.

“How… how do you feel, Monsieur LeLoup?” asked the doctor, adjusting his glasses. 

In the weeks that had passed since LeLoup had been moved to the jail from the hospital, he had neither shaved nor brushed his hair. He looked like a wild man.

LeLoup’s main doctor had stopped visiting a couple of days ago, saying everything was fine. When he’d last left the jail, he’d been complaining about how the Magistrate wanted LeLoup kept in such good health—a waste of the doctor’s precious time given the prisoner was going to be executed anyway. 

LeLoup had meant to ask him about this
other
doctor, but he had had so much fun terrorizing the poor man that he’d forgotten to do so.

With false graciousness, LeLoup said, “Doctor, I do so appreciate your visit. Without you, I’d have just these kind gentlemen to talk to,” he said, gesturing to the empty cells. “I must say—they aren’t as amusing as they once were.”

The doctor frowned in confusion, looking to the other cells. “There’s… no one there,” he said quietly.

LeLoup stood up and exaggerated his own glance at each of the other cells. “Well, I think they
have
grown a bit thin—the food here is terrible. Even by local standards. Especially the cheese. Substandard.”

Stretching once more, he stood up and found himself feeling a bit disoriented. Andre was vaguely aware that something inside himself had snapped that day outside of Klaus’ house. He wasn’t the man he’d once been. He felt freer and stronger—yet unbalanced, like a heavy club that could smash better but was harder to wield. Thoughts of revenge and restoring his reputation were increasingly dominating his thoughts; meanwhile, his long-held professional code of ethics was melting away.

LeLoup looked at the doctor. “I don’t have many friends here,” he said sadly. “In some ways, I’ve even abandoned myself. How about we declare that we are friends? What do you say? You could call me Andre and I will call you
Doctor
.” 

LeLoup tried to give the doctor his most charming smile, but he was distracted. When he’d said his own first name aloud, it had felt foreign, as if he had said someone else’s name. He was only
LeLoup
now.

“Ah… okay,” replied the doctor submissively, “but my name is—”

“You’re name is Doctor! Don’t demean yourself with a commoner’s name, like
mine
. You are a special man—a smart man. You have devoted your life to an important profession. Allow me the honor of calling you Doctor?” LeLoup gestured dramatically, moving toward the bars. His intense, green eyes drilled into the doctor’s own.

The doctor and LeLoup stood only inches apart, the iron bars separating them. LeLoup then leaned in further. His face pushed up against the bars.

“You are a doctor, right?” he asked, grinning disturbingly.

The doctor gulped hard and nodded. Sweat was running down his face and dripping off his chin.

If LeLoup had wanted, he could’ve reached through the bars and grabbed the frightened man, but he didn’t.

He gave the doctor a sheepish look, and pulled himself back. “I’ve been too forward, haven’t I? How rude of me. My mother always told me that all things come in good time. You can’t rush a good thing like friendship. What do
you
think?”

The doctor lost his grip on his bag and it dropped to the floor with an echoing thump. He quickly wiped his sweaty palms on his pants.

“There’s that echo,” said LeLoup. He watched the doctor’s every muscle as he bent to pick up his bag.

“So, how is my friend?” asked LeLoup, grinning. “That is why you are here, no? My friend, the horseman, visited you and asked you to pay me one more visit, didn’t he? I can tell.”

The doctor swallowed hard. He looked around in case somehow he’d missed seeing someone else in the room. “Y-y-yes,” he stammered.

“Then we
are
friends. We should celebrate our friendship with a good meal. We could have some wine, some cheese, and whatever excuse they have for meat around here. What do you think?”

“Um, yes?” said the doctor, again confused.

In a disappointed voice LeLoup said, “But we have a problem. We cannot do this—not now. Do you know why?”

After a couple of awkward seconds, the doctor replied, unsure, “Because… you’re in jail?” He had been stepping back and now found himself pressed up against the back wall.

“Oh—I thought it was because of my new look. Not fitting for a man of class, I suppose,” said LeLoup, touching his face as he pretended to look in a mirror. He turned back to the doctor, grinned, and tapped his temple. “But you are right. A smart man! That’s why you are the doctor and I am the prisoner. But now, as a friend, you will help me in a smart way, no?”