The Cottage in the Woods (34 page)

Life in the schoolroom went on as usual, though we were growing as dull as the gray weather. It had snowed several times in recent days, in defiance of the spring season, and the wind was biting cold, but we were marching stalwartly along the Giant’s Walk one afternoon, breathing deeply, when some distance away a human child appeared, bobbing his head out from behind an enormous tree, and pausing as if deliberately waiting to be seen. Goldilocks gave a strangled cry and immediately hid behind me.

“Look at that! Bold as brass!” bellowed Harry. “It’s one o’ that gang o’ vagabonds what’s always playing about on the master’s property as if they owned it!”

“Are they village children? Who looks after them?”

“No one tends to them at all. The master says to send them on home for their own sakes before one o’ them gets hurt, but they’re a canny lot, and I’ve yet to catch one.” It was clear from his tone how deeply this rankled him, as if it were a reflection on his own abilities.

At that moment two other children, behind two other trees, a bit further away than the first, briefly revealed their grimacing faces and laughed in a provoking way, as if daring us to do something about it. The effect on Harry was just as desired. “Here!” he spluttered, handing me his gun. “Keep it pointed up. If you need me, fire into the air.” Then he took off at a run while the offending children scattered from behind one tree trunk to the next, appearing and disappearing, taunting him and throwing stones until they had lured him some distance away, and I could no longer see him in the woods. I wondered briefly what he would do if he did manage to catch one, or if he even had a plan, the chase having become an object in itself.

So engrossed was I in this development that I had barely noticed Goldilocks, struggling to wrap herself inside my voluminous coat, and making a soft keening noise that I had heard from her on occasions when she was very frightened. Teddy stood by helplessly. “Goldilocks,” I pleaded, “come out, dear. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It was just some children, and now they’re gone.”

The girl shook her head vigorously, still keening, and, separating herself from my coat, grabbed one arm free of the gun, which I had been holding with both paws, and tried to pull me back toward home.

It was at that moment that I saw the child, then two, then
perhaps ten, come out of hiding. Turning, I saw that there were more than I could quickly count, approaching us on every side, as grimy and sullen a lot of human young ones as I could ever imagine: an assortment of big and little, boys and girls, wearing a haphazard variety of flimsy clothes inadequate for the weather, surrounding us all in a ring. These were like no children I had ever seen. Faces too cynical to be childlike, eyes dull as lead, they pushed and jostled and kicked one another like savages, so that I barely knew whether to feel compassion or dread.

“Hey, Rat!” one of the big boys barked. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Cries of “Hey, Rat!” and “Yeah, Rat!” rang out around the circle.

Goldilocks clung to me now, tears rolling silently down her cheeks, looking very small and defeated. And then it struck me that
she
, apparently, was “the rat” they were jeering at.

“Goldilocks,” I said softly to her, “do you know these children?”

She wouldn’t look at me, but hid her face in my coat. Teddy, bewildered but steadfast, stood next to her, holding her arm and shielding her with his body.

“Where you been, hey, Rat? Looks like you been living it up,” a girl sneered, looking Goldilocks up and down. “I like that coat. I think it would just about fit me.”

Another shouted, “Somebody go get Gabe! Won’t
he
be tickled!”

My heart began to race as two of the children ran off. Gabe. That would be Gabriel, no doubt, the same overgrown, unwholesome brute of a boy who had accosted me on the driveway. I was suddenly reminded of his enigmatic insistence that
he wanted “the rat.” Now at last it was clear that he wanted Goldilocks! But why? My throat went suddenly dry. Where was our faithful guardian now? At least I still had the gun. “Fire into the air,” Harry had said. This was not as simple as he must have assumed, since I had never fired a gun before, but perhaps the thing would be useful for intimidation if the need arose.

“Who are you? What do you want?” I asked with a feigned calm. I thought quickly that I might have an opportunity here to shed light on the tantalizing mystery of Goldilocks’s previous life, and so I must tread carefully.

“Why, we’re Rat’s
family
,” brayed one boy, “ain’t we, Rat? Did you miss us?”

Taken aback, I scanned the dirty faces for any resemblance to Goldilocks’s features—the wide forehead, the turned-up nose, the little pointed chin—but, at a quick evaluation, none seemed like hers. I bent over and whispered to Goldilocks, “Is that true? Are they relations?”

She stared soulfully into my eyes and shook her head. I wanted to believe her, but I had to wonder whether she would deny their relationship out of fear of them taking her away from us. A healthy fear, one for which I could hardly blame her.

I turned back to the boy who seemed to be their unofficial spokesman, and said, “If you really were her family, surely you would have claimed her long before now! There were advertisements in the newspapers.”

“In the papers? So what? Ain’t none of us can read.” There was considerable mirth over this, not like children’s laughter, but hard and mean, as if they had never really been children at all.

“Then how did you think to look for her here?” I asked, suspecting that Gabriel had known where to look for her from the beginning, but wanting to see what they might reveal.

“Gabe told us,” piped up one of the younger girls, only to be met with a chorus of reprimands, and a vicious kick from the boy next to her.

“Hush up!” exclaimed the first boy. “Don’t you say nuthin’ ’bout Gabe! He’ll be here any second.” This resulted in a communal silence as they exchanged alarmed glances with one another.

“Is Gabriel your leader, then?”

“He’s our
brother
!”

Another revelation. I wondered if there was any chance that the vile creature was actually Goldilocks’s brother as well. My fears for her multiplied with each passing minute.

“And where are your parents?” I asked, trying another tack.

This was evidently a splendid joke. They reacted as if they had just been asked to deliver up the man in the moon. “Wouldn’t you like to know!” hooted the older boy. Then the group’s hilarity ended in an instant as heavy footsteps behind me signaled the arrival of their big brother. I turned, and confronted him. I held Goldilocks close with one paw while Teddy stayed glued to her opposite side. In my other paw I tightened my grip on Harry’s musket, deciding in a moment whether I would really shoot Gabriel if he threatened us. With some surprise at myself, I realized that yes, I would. I did not immediately take aim at him, hoping to avoid the necessity.

“Well, ain’t this just prime!” the snide voice resounded as Gabriel approached us. “Look what we ’ave ’ere! If it ain’t the teacher lady ’erself, and—what’s this?—my own little sister what’s been livin’ it up, havin’ tea and crumpets while ’er own family starves. Praise be! Won’t it warm
dear old Mother’s heart
?” He followed this with a laugh so ironic and insolent that had I been closer to him, I might have slapped him. The
gang of children laughed when he laughed, and stopped when he stopped. “You make me sick!” he growled suddenly. “Livin’ with a bunch of filthy animals! Puttin’ on airs! And look at this little whelp, born with a silver spoon in ’is mouth!” He glared at Teddy. “Think yer sumthin’ special, I bet. Nothin’ but a worthless
animal
, I say! Somebody oughta taught ya yer
place
!”

He continued his approach until I put my paw up and said, “That’s far enough.” Eyeing the weapon I held, he stopped. “What do you want with us?” I asked, with as much civility as I could summon. Goldilocks burrowed deeper in my coat, still hiding her face, and Teddy, wide-eyed and frightened now, stayed staunchly by her side.

“Why, we’re just lookin’ out fer our dear lit’le sister what we ’ave missed lo these many months.” He took off his battered felt hat and clutched it to his heart in mock sincerity, and I noticed a fresh-looking scar on his forehead.

“You’ve suspected where she was all along,” I countered, refusing to refer to her as his sister until that had been proved.

“Why, what’s she been sayin’ to you? You can’t believe a thing she says! The truff of the matter is, miss, she’s a terrible liar and a thief, though we’ve tried to change ’er ways. She’s such a ’ardened criminal that when I saw ’er ’eaded toward the manor one day, I suspected she’d be up to ’er thievin’ tricks, and I followed ’er. I lost sight of the whelp, going in, and when she didn’t come out, we thought for sure she’d been caught red-handed and sent hoff to jail. Y’see, we knew she’d end up behind bars sooner or later. She’s a bad ’un, she is.”

Goldilocks showed her face then, as outraged and indignant as one small face could be.

“So you had no idea whether she was here today? You just happened to run into us by chance?”

A cunning look came over his detestable face, and his voice lowered as his hand crept toward his belt. “Oh, I’ve got my reasons, miss. See, I’ve got a coupla scores to settle with you. First is this,” he hissed, pointing to the red puckered scar on his forehead. “This is what I got from my dear old mother that day when you wouldn’t accept my little commission. Just a little cooperation from you is all it woulda took. Wouldn’t ’ave cost you nuthin, but it cost me somethin’, see? A stick of firewood upside the ’ead is what. Me dear old mum don’t like bein’ thwarted, not ’er. And then you went an’ ratted on me, miss, and after I was so careful to hexplain to you that you mustn’t cross me.”

His voice lowered to a dangerous growl. “Don’t think I don’t know why all these guards have been set about the place, or who set ’em after me, but they won’t do you no good.” He slipped his hand under his coat, and brought out a lethal-looking dagger, glinting like his steely little eyes.

“No, Gabe, no!” a tiny voice squeaked beside me as I raised the gun to my shoulder, and inexpertly pointed it in his direction.

I dared not withdraw my attention from Gabriel to look down at Goldilocks, or to register my astonishment that she had spoken. Gabriel now turned all his malice on her.

“What did you say, Rat?” he snarled, his malevolent eyes boring in on her, either not seeing the pointed gun or not caring.

“D-don’t hurt her, Gabe. She didn’t do nothing. It was me. I saw you out the window and I told!” Goldilocks’s rusty little voice was stronger now as she lied to protect me.

“So you’ve been shootin’ off yer mouth, eh? What’d I tell you? Eh? What’d I tell you?”

“It’s not true!” I interjected desperately. “These are the first words I’ve ever heard her speak! She’s been mute, from the day she came here.”

“Mute, eh? Then she better go
back
to bein’ mute if she knows what’s good fer ’er! You hear me, Rat? You hush your mouth, or you know what I’ll do! I
told
you, didn’t I? I’ll cut your
gizzard
out, I will!” He accompanied his threat with an illustrative
thrusting and twisting motion of the knife, and Goldilocks clutched her throat as if she literally felt it being ripped open. With a choke, she fell silent again, and Teddy, who had remained by her side, stepped forward and with astonishing courage interposed himself between Gabriel and the terrified child.

Meanwhile, I lowered my eye to look down the length of the gun barrel at Gabriel. Aiming as best I could for the broad target of his middle, I said, “This child is the legal ward of the Vaughns, who own this property. If you threaten her, you’ll face the full force of the law. Also, you are trespassing. Drop that knife and remove yourself at once, or I
will
shoot.”

Gabriel looked considerably less cocky, staring down the barrel of my gun, but he kept a firm grip on the knife. The children on either side of him backed swiftly away from him, as if they did not trust my aim, while I prayed that it would not be obvious that I was trembling, and tried to recall having seen a musket fired, and how it was done.

With a quick look around his audience, Gabriel seemed suddenly aware that his dignity was at stake. He puffed out his chest, and blustered, “Ha! You don’t have the nerve!”

“I assure you,” I responded, “I do have the nerve.” My right paw fumbled for the small metal switch on the back of the gun, pushing and pulling at it until something clicked, then I slipped my claw around the trigger. “Drop the knife,” I repeated. Perhaps it was that little click, cocking the gun, or perhaps it was the decision I had already made to shoot him that showed in my eyes. The color left his face. He dropped the knife, and put his hands in the air. The gang of children scattered and melted back into the woods.

“Now get off this property,” I demanded, hoping he would not hear the quiver in my voice, “and stay off!”

He backed up slowly until he reached the safety of a large tree trunk, then, darting behind it, he stuck his head out and growled, “I’ll settle with you another time!” Pointing a finger directly at Goldilocks, he ground out, “This is yer fault, Rat! You went and opened yer big mouth after what I told you! You think you’ve got yerself a real sweet deal with all yer new friends! A regular princess, ain’t you! But just you wait until Mother hears about this!
She’ll be comin’ for you!
You can betcher life on it!” With that, he wheeled around and bolted away into the woods.