Marrow Fen's Arc

Chapter 11 of 11

Marrow and Lucy walked out of the hollow with the collie ahead of them on the trail. The dog had come back on its own, cutting across the field to meet them a mile from the cherry tree. Lucy held the flask against her ribs. Her feet made real sound in the grass now. Marrow kept one hand light on her shoulder and watched the road ahead. They still had hours to walk before the outskirts of Copsefire, and Marrow had not thought past the walking until the collie stopped and pointed its nose at the fence line. Two men stood by the stile where the trail met the lane. Marrow knew one by his coat. He ran the mill on the south road and had been at the bulletin board the week Marrow first posted notices. His brother stood beside him with a stick. They were not armed past that, but their faces were set. "That the Fen child?" the miller said. "Word came down you walked something out of there. Something that isn't right." Marrow stepped in front of Lucy. "Her name is Lucy. She has a family. I'm bringing her home." "Names can be put on anything," the brother said. "Constable will want to see her before she goes anywhere. There's talk you brought a thing back wearing a girl's shape." He moved toward the stile. The collie stepped between him and Lucy and held its ground without a sound. Marrow's hand went to the knife at their belt and stopped there. A fight on this road would end with Lucy taken and Marrow held, and the flask would not survive it. Marrow spoke fast and even. "Then walk with us to the constable. Not ahead. Not behind. With us. He struck Orin Wanderwood's notice off the board on my word and Kate Bush's. Ask him. He'll know me." Marrow drew Lucy forward so the men could see her face. "Look at her. Say her name back to her." Marrow said it. "Lucy." The girl's eyes tracked to the miller. She mouthed the word, and this time a small clear sound came with it. Her own voice, thin but hers. The miller's jaw worked. He looked at the collie, then at the flask in Lucy's hand, then at Marrow. "We'll walk you in," he said. "Both sides of you. Constable decides." His brother lowered the stick but did not drop it. They fell in at Marrow's shoulders and the four of them, five with the dog, took the lane toward town. Lucy reached the constable's office by late afternoon under escort, safe but not free. The constable knew Marrow's face and did not take the girl. He wrote her name in his book and set a man at the door until a family could be matched from the bulletin board. Marrow stood outside in the road and understood the next problem. Lucy had a keeper now who was not Marrow, and the board still held names Marrow had promised to bring home.