Biding His Thyme: 4 (14 page)

Jake came to an abrupt halt and she almost
ran her handcart into his backside. “Stay away from Brother Rick’s quarters.”

“But that’s where I saw them last. They
were in the bookcase.”

“You said the women cleaned everything out.
They’ve probably been moved.” Jake started moving again and she hurried to
catch up. “It’s not safe,” he said. “He has spies everywhere. What happens if
you get caught? What are you going to tell him when he starts asking
questions?”

“I’m not leaving without my mother’s
stuff.”

Jake didn’t reply, merely increased his pace,
not limping until they were within sight of the compound gates. He slowed a
fraction, his gait becoming heavy and uneven.

Puffing from the rapid ascent of the slope
leading to the compound, she pushed her handcart a little harder to reach his
side. The two men on the gates shuffled to push them open. Their pale faces and
shambling gaits put Sorrel in mind of the zombies in the movie posters she’d
seen in town. “Have you noticed a lot of the people who took part in the
gathering aren’t feeling well today? The sister who opened up the store blamed
the celebration punch.”

“It was spiked.”

“But Brother Rick mixed it in front of
everyone. It’s become part of the ritual. They would’ve noticed if he’d put
something weird into the punch.”

“Maybe.” Jake didn’t sound convinced.

The compound appeared deserted, apart from
a group of children playing a game of tag across the other side, nearer to the
children’s quarters.

Jake stowed the handcarts while Sorrel
entered her workshop. She came to an abrupt halt, gaze darting left and right.
The faint scent of freshly mown grass and manure made her nostrils flare. The
hairs at the back of her neck stood to attention. Nothing seemed disturbed. She
let her breath ease out and cautiously sniffed again, trying to distinguish the
alien scents. Frowning, she took two steps and inhaled again. The scent was
still weak, but the clump of mud and sprigs of cut grass on her normally clean
floor confirmed her fears. Someone had entered her workshop while they’d been
away.

Jake padded up behind her. “What is it?”

“I think someone has searched my workshop.”

Jake scanned the shelves and work surfaces.
He checked the area where they placed their pallet at night. “Nothing appears
disturbed.”

She pointed at the pieces of grass on the
floor. “I wonder what they wanted. There’s nothing here to alarm the most
fervent Children of Nature follower.”

“Maybe someone was checking sleeping
arrangements.”

“I pack away my pallet every morning.”

“I know. Don’t let it worry you. Will you
be okay on your own?”

“Of course I will.” She waved him away,
fixing a wide smile on her lips, even though the fit felt downright
uncomfortable.

“I’ll be back in time to take you to
lunch.”

She managed to widen her smile and nod, but
the second he left, her grin dropped away. She ambled through her workshop
picking up jars and bottles that sat off-center. A foreign whiff of smoke
snagged her attention, but it was fleeting and she lost it when she wandered to
her washing up area.

The visitor had done more than sneak
through her domain. They’d touched her things.

The morning passed rapidly. Sorrel
attempted to ignore the sense of violation and mixed a batch of fresh face
packs along with a skin scrub. These products would provide an excuse for her
to walk down to the shop tomorrow morning.

This thought brought a twinge of
despondency. In the short time Jake had been here she’d grown to admire him and
enjoy his company. Even if she hadn’t scared Alice Beasley away with her antics
this morning, she’d still need to find her mother’s books.

She had to face the truth. If Alice turned
down her product, she’d still have to act. Brother Rick was making things
increasingly uncomfortable for her at the compound. She’d turn twenty-five
soon. The idea of being forced to accept one or more of the men…

Sorrel dried the last bowl and stowed it
away. She removed her apron, hanging it on the peg behind the door. The time
for action was now.

Jake arrived back at Sorrel’s workshop half
an hour before the lunch bell. She wasn’t there. The counters were scrubbed
clean and the usual aroma of flowers and herbs filled the room.

Childish laughter carried across the
compound, drawing a grin. Jake backed out of the workshop and pulled the door
shut.

A purple balloon sailed up into the air and
the children cheered. Another one flew after it, this one a bright green.

“Look at the balloon,” one of the boys
shouted.

Jake froze, dread balling in his chest as
he watched an inflated condom sail through the air. It floated toward the
dining room where everyone was congregating for lunch, dipping abruptly and
dive bombing a group of sisters. A second condom floated on the same
trajectory, striking a brother on the back.

“Fuck,” Jake said in vast understatement.
Hell, he must’ve dropped the rest of the packet the previous evening while he
was running across the compound.

Pandemonium broke out, hands flashing in
distress, the shriek of voices filling the air, and when a third condom sailed
over the top of the dining room, the brothers in the group burst into action,
sprinting around the corner of the building to discover the source of the
balloons. He was too far away to hear the exact words, but this had all the
makings of a clusterfuck.

The group of children sprang apart when the
men shouted at them. A boy held another inflated condom, releasing it at the
man’s shout. This one sported red and white stripes, and the condom sped
through the air in a manic arc as the air bled from it.

At the men’s shouts, the children formed a
straight line. As Jake neared he could hear the men demanding answers.

“We found them,” one of the bigger boys
said. His right foot drew a line across the grass.

“Where?”

“Over there on the grass,” the boy said.
“We’re sorry.”

Jake joined group of men, wincing at each
haranguing comment they unleashed on the boys.

“Are there more?” another brother demanded.

The children handed over what was left of
the packet.

“Go to lunch,” the brother snapped. “In an
orderly fashion. We’ll deal with you later.”

Once the children were out of earshot, the
men burst into speech.

“Where did they come from?”

“Condoms! Sacrilege.”

“We will get to the bottom of this. Someone
brought them onto the compound.”

Yep, a real clusterfuck.

Jake looked around for Sorrel and couldn’t
see her. He wandered after the rest of the adults and joined the end of the
line waiting for food. Sorrel arrived almost ten minutes later, and he’d
already started eating his meal.

“Where have you been?”

On hearing his snarl, the excited
conversation at the table faded. Everyone turned to stare at Sorrel.

Her chin shot up, and she glared back at
him. “I have been collecting some cuttings from my herb garden.”

“Get some food.” He bit off the words, the
curt tone rattling his conscience free. Damn, his behavior made him no better
than Brother Rick.

She turned and stomped away, joining the
end of the line.

“I don’t know why you bother with her,” one
of the brothers said.

Another nodded. “She’s peculiar. Brother
Rick lets her stay because she makes so much money for us. It helps pay for the
items we can’t grow or produce ourselves.”

Like party pills.

“Her mother was the same. Had strange
ideas. She wanted to change the ways things were done.”

“What sort of ideas?” Jake asked.

The brother gestured with his fork. “She
thought women should have a say in running the place.” He speared his fork into
a pile of salad leaves. “Women are the weaker sex. They have no experience in
leadership.”

Jake nodded in agreement. Let the man spout
any drivel he wanted. The truth was the brother was wrong. His friends were both
married to strong women. While Nikolai and Louie might posture and pretend they
were protecting their wives, Jake knew better. Both men respected their wives
and treated them as equal partners. Nah, this was crap—men wanting to subjugate
their women and keep them barefoot and pregnant. Sandaled and pregnant in this
case.

Sorrel returned with a meal and took the
seat beside him. Once she was settled, Jake ran his hand across her thigh and
squeezed it. He had some heavy duty apologizing in his future.

Sorrel understood why Jake had spoken to
her so sternly. Her absence had worried him, and he’d reacted in a typical
masculine manner, lashing out with words.

Her mother had explained it to her shortly
before she’d died. It was the way of men. Their tongues waggled before their
brains engaged.

She started on her meal, eating too fast,
but wary of Brother Rick appearing without warning and enforcing the one meal a
day edict. With half her mind on the conversation around her, she pondered her
next action.

The faint tick of a clock—
tick, tick,
tick
—reverberated through her mind. Yes, the next time Brother Rick left
the compound she’d break into his quarters and search through his possessions.

She couldn’t see any other way.

“Three of them floated across the compound.”

The disbelief in the words grabbed Sorrel’s
attention.

“Condoms. It’s shocking. I don’t know what
the world is coming to,” one of the sisters said.

“Condoms?” Sorrel asked.

“The children found a box of condoms on the
compound lawn,” Jake said, his tone carrying the perfect nuance of disapproval.
“They thought they were balloons.”

“Oh dear.”

“I don’t understand,” one of the brothers
said. “How did they get onto the compound?”

“Simple,” Brother Rick said from behind
them. “Sister Bitter, I wish to speak with you in my office.”

The hall burst into a babble of
speculation, white noise that didn’t come close to drowning the spurt of unease
rippling through Sorrel.

“Me?” She hesitated, half standing.

Jake stood. “I’ll come with you.”

“Just Sister Bitter,” Brother Rick snapped
before he strode from the dining hall.

Her hand jerked as she set down her glass
of water. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Despite popular opinion, condoms were
not the invention of the devil.

She followed Brother Rick from the dining
hall and dawdled to the room he used as an office. At the door, she paused to
suck in a huge draft of air to steady her nerves. She took another breath for
good luck and lifted her hand to knock. Jake appeared and pointed to indicate
he’d be around the corner should she need him.

“Come in.”

She entered the office to find Brother Rick
plus his three closest friends. The three sat behind the large oak desk with
Brother Rick. There was no chair for her. Obviously she was meant to stand in
front of them like a naughty child.

“Don’t loiter,” Brother Felix said, with a
jerk of his bald head. “We don’t have all day.”

Sorrel moved closer to the desk, her quick
gaze taking in the pictures on the wall, the three bottles of alcohol on a
small shelf and the crystal tumblers sitting beside them. To her right was a
bookcase. It was full of books, and when she scanned the titles her breath
caught. She tripped, barely catching herself before she head butted the desk.

Brother Rick’s lips curved into a sneer.
“You’re so inept.”

Sorrel focused on her sandals, all the
while wishing she could flatten his pointy nose. She wasn’t clumsy in the
normal scheme of things.

“You wanted to see me?” She kept her voice
even, proud of her steadiness when inside her emotions roiled like one of her
potions simmering on a high heat.

“You’ve been delivering stock to the shop
every morning this week.”

She stared at him. Was that a question?

“Answer.” Malicious glee fired deep in
Brother Felix’s blue eyes.

“Yes.” Sorrel hurried looked away. Her gaze
shot automatically downward, but something stopped her from concentrating on
her feet as she usually did. Slowly her gaze rose. Her eyes felt heavy as she
forced them upward, awkward almost, yet pride filled her at the small victory
when she finally stared at Brother Rick’s chin.

“Do you visit other shops while you’re in
town?”

“No. Why would I? I don’t have—”

“Yes or no answers,” Brother Felix snapped.

“Have you visited the shops this week?”

“No.”

Brother Rick steepled his hands in front of
him and rested his nose on top, as if he needed to consider his next question.
“Tell me what you did today.”

“I walked down to the town with Brother
Jake this morning. I had to wait because they were late arriving. The first
sister was on her own, so I helped her unpack the new stock and price it.”

“Then?” Brother Felix prompted after a long
pause.

“Brother Jake and I came back to the
compound. I made some face packs and scrubs and spent half an hour before the
lunch bell picking fresh herbs from the garden.” She pressed her lips together,
waiting for one of the men to speak again. The silence lengthened until she
wanted to fidget. Another habit, she intended to break. Brother Rick and his
cohorts were bullies. They’d been the same way growing up, but Brother Samuel
had kept them in line. With him gone, they seemed to think they could do
anything. Someone needed to stand up to them, but it wouldn’t be her because
she had too much at stake.

Two seconds later, her conscience called
bullshit on that, and she took pleasure in thinking the crude word. It was
wrong to let them behave without checks, to run Children of Nature without the
say-so of the rest of the residents.

She stood a fraction taller, seeking out
Brother Rick’s gaze and holding it. “What is this about?” she asked in a sharp
voice.

“You had an opportunity to purchase the
condoms. No one else. You brought them onto the compound.”

“I don’t have any money.” She stated the
obvious because none of the men seemed to grasp the reality. One required money
to purchase goods.

“You were seen meeting one of the owners of
Fancy Free. You spoke to her. Don’t lie to me, Sister Bitter. I saw you
myself.”

“I don’t have money.” This time she
punctuated the words with a glare, since the idea hadn’t seeped through their
thick heads. “Anyway, I wasn’t talking to her. You know that. You heard me.”

“It would be easy enough to barter some of
your products,” Brother Felix said.

Disbelief bloomed in Sorrel, reality
slapping her across the face. Suddenly she got it. No matter what she said,
they intended to stick to their version of events. A jury who’d tried and hung
her, despite the fact common sense said she hadn’t committed the crime. There
was no point arguing.

“Do you have anything further to say in
your defense?” Brother Rick was attempting a solemn judge demeanor. It was so
not working.

“Other brothers and sisters leave the
compound.” Including the real culprit, but she wasn’t about to pot Jake. No
point in both of them getting into trouble.

Brother Rick shot her a look as dark as a
nightmare and just as scary. “But none of them behave in a suspicious manner.”

“How do you know?” She pretended she was
speaking with Jake, a man who didn’t mind challenges, a man who expected her to
express her thoughts, her doubts.

Brother Rick blinked, taking a few seconds
before he recovered his normal aplomb. “I have eyes everywhere.”

“I see.” She doubted it. If he’d seen her
flout his rules, he would’ve confronted her sooner. He didn’t know about her
meeting with Alice and James.

Another silence fell, but Sorrel could’ve
sworn she felt the pulse of Brother Rick’s glee, his pleasure in what was going
to come next. Yes, she could see the sparkle of a secret about to burst from
him.

“Sister Bitter you will leave the
compound.”

“But I went to the store this morning. They
have enough stock to last the rest of the week.”

“You misunderstand, Sister Bitter. Let me
be blunt. You’re no longer welcome to live in the compound.”

“But—”

He held up his hand in a demand for
silence. “Don’t try to contact anyone here because as far as we’re concerned
you’re no one. Nothing. You are officially shunned. You may leave now.”