“Do not give that brat any ice cream.” Abe grabbed his arm and hid behind him. “Don’t you dare try and pit this man against me, Abe. You’re not supposed to be here anyway. You’re just lucky that we’re here, or I’d show you what it means when you try and outsmart me. I’d show you in a moment what it means to you when I give you an order.”
Turning his back to the woman, he knelt down in front of Abe. He wasn’t a tall child, Duncan realized then. Hugging him to him, Duncan whispered in his ear to go and find his wife and tell her to come to him. After Abe left, it was all Duncan could do to hold onto his temper.
“You ever speak to him like that again, and there will be no finding your body. I’m not making a threat to you, but a promise. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why he can’t be here as well.” He heard Judith coming toward them. She was still talking to Abe, he supposed, telling him she was glad he loved ice cream as much as she did. “I’m going to go and have some ice cream with the children. Despite what you’re trying to do to them to spoil their fun, they’re having a great time. My wife will deal with you.”
Duncan kissed Judith when she came into the hall where he was. He told her, so that Ms. Holloway could hear him, that he’d had enough, and his temper was getting the better of him. When she smiled back at him, Duncan thought he’d not want to be Ms. Holloway right now. Judith was going to eat her for lunch.
~*~
Judith just stared at the woman in front of her. There was something so very evil about her that she was surprised she’d not seen it before now. Crossing her arms over her ample chest didn’t improve the woman’s looks one bit. In fact, Judith laughed at her.
“You’re not going to impress me with your show of anger. I’ve eaten far worse than you when I was just a bird. Though now that I think on it, you are less than the worms and other disgusting creatures that held their people in slavery as king to their realm.” She’d confused her, and Judith was fine with that. “I’m a bird, Hanna. A large bird of prey that will most assuredly take you apart if you even try to touch one of these children again.”
“You think so, do you? Well, I’m in charge of the little monsters, and I will be gathering them up right now to take them back.” When she tried to move around her, Judith blocked her way. “How about if I call the police and have them come and arrest you? I’m sure you and that fancy man you have would just love having you taken away in cuffs.”
Judith handed Hanna her cell phone. “Go ahead. Give them a call. I’m sure they might have a few words for you too. By the way, the police are at the home now. They’ve found your little video recording room.” Hanna stiffened, and her face paled to a deathly white. “The mass grave too. It’s being excavated as we speak. Also, and this is what I find the most disturbing about you, you’ve been selling off the children’s gifts you have been getting from the state to help them out. I did wonder why you didn’t want the gifts played with. You get more money for them if they’re pristine, don’t you? Or you would have. I’m happy to tell you the police are on their way here, and hopefully, at least as far as I’m concerned, you’ll try and escape so that one or all of them have to kill you. But it could be that I just want you dead.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jude said nothing but walked to the door when the bell rang. “You’re going to regret this. See if you don’t. You have no idea what you’re stepping into with your lies.”
The police, about a dozen or so of them, walked into the main hallway where she and Hanna had been speaking. Jamie Nolan, a friend of Duncan’s, was front and center. Jude introduced him to Hanna Holloway.
“Yes, ma’am, she’s who we’re here for.” Reading Hanna her rights didn’t take all that long. Hanna only glared at her the entire time. Jamie had to ask her twice if she understood her rights as they’d been read to her. “You have to give me an answer, Ms. Holloway. One way or the other. You either understand them,
or you don’t. Just tell me.”
“Oh, I understand a great many things right now. I understand that I’m going to sue each and every one of you for this. I’m going to own this castle once I’m finished with you and that so-called king that you’re married to. I have a lot of big names on my list of clients, and I plan to make full use of them. As soon as I make my first phone call, I’m going to be out and coming for the children again. It will be a sad shame if I have to cut costs any way I can.”
“You mean the mayor? He’s been arrested too. Or do you mean the county seat judge? Sorry to tell you this, but earlier today, he committed suicide. He left a note telling anyone who read it he was sorry for what he’d done.” Jude looked at Jamie as she continued. “Your man Peterson and I have been in contact since you were called to the home for children. He’s been remarkably busy on his end as well for me.”
“I thank you for that, Mrs. Dante. We’ll be taking her off your hands now. Also, we’ve arrested her driver out front. Put up a fuss when we asked him to let us look in the car they came here in. She was apparently making some deliveries. In the name of the Christmas spirit and all, I guess.”
Jude couldn’t help it, she laughed. It wasn’t really funny, but the way he said it, the deadpan look on his face, just tickled her. When they had Hanna in cuffs, Abe came out from behind her and Jude didn’t know what to think, or whether to be worried he’d heard too much. But when he stepped up to Hanna, Jude let him have his say.
“She let them hurt me. All the time.” Jude got down on her knees and turned Abe to look at her. She asked him what he meant. “They had sex with me, the men she invited to the home—all the time. I’m glad she is going to be gone. I want her dead.”
Jude didn’t know what to say to the young boy. Pulling him to her, his little body was stiff, ungiving. Holding him, she felt her eyes fill with tears when his tiny arms came up and wrapped around her. Standing with him still in her arm, she turned to Jamie.
“Get this monster out of my home. Now.” Jamie hustled her out, not taking the time to allow Hanna to keep up with his long strides. When she fell down, the man dragged her out of the house. The men leaving with her closed the door quietly after they were all gone. “It’s never going to happen to you again, Abe. I promise you this on my life, she will never hurt you or any other children so long as I have breath in my body.”
“I believe you.” He lifted his head from her shoulder and looked at her. “I want you to be my mommy, Judith. I want to live here with you and Mr. Duncan with my— Tracy isn’t really my sister. She was helping me get some food when my parents went away, and I went to the home. I love her like my sister. I’m sorry we lied to you.”
“It was a good lie, Abe. I’m so incredibly happy she was there for you. And Duncan and I would be happy if you were to be our son and Tracy our daughter. That would make it real—she’d be your sister for real then.” He nodded and laid his head back on her shoulder.
Instead of going to the dining room where all the other kids were, she went to the living room and sat down on the couch with Abe still in her arms. There was just too much going on right now, and she needed a moment. More than a moment, she supposed.
“When I was just a bird, an eagle, I would soar up into the clouds to get away from my thoughts. There is nothing more beautiful than a sky beneath you with lines of trees and other things growing in the soil.” Thinking of that now, she continued speaking. Jude didn’t care if Abe understood what she was telling him, but she did feel better just with the talking. “Once I was changed into a larger bird, bigger than any other creature in the world, I was able to save people from all sorts of things. Once, when a huge storm came up off the water, I sat down on the ground, and hundreds of people came and hid from the worst of it by getting under me. All of us, the other birds, did the same thing. No one was hurt, and everyone was warm and dry. We had to be careful of people getting sick back then. There weren’t the kinds of medications we have now.”
Jude talked about her life as a bird of prey. How she and the others had been around longer than most people. She thought about the times they’d found castle keeps in worse shape than barns, the people living there all but dead from starvation and illness. The kings of such realms would have so much food in their larders, most of it rotted. Instead of feeding their people, they’d let it go bad.
“Dante wasn’t perfect, but to us, she wasn’t far from it. Her people were very loyal to her. She kept them safe from intruders. There was always plenty of food and meat to go around. Even we—her birds, she called us—had plenty to eat and a place to perch.” Jude thought of the man who had wedded her, the person who had made her his queen. “I don’t remember him, the old king. I suppose he was there while I was nothing more than a bird looking for my next meal. But I saw the people and remembered how there was barely enough for them to eat, much less us. Duncan is his child. Thankfully, from all that was said about the king, Duncan is nothing like him. I love him. Duncan, I mean. He’s the best parts of his mother and a good man.”
She knew Abe had fallen asleep. Jude could well imagine the child hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time. Without the help of Tracy, she was sure the little boy would have perished long ago.
Jude wondered if Tracy had been abused as Abe had. She did think about looking to see. The answer would have been right there in her mind for Jude to look into. However, she decided to wait for the girl to tell her. If it became an issue, then she’d look. But for now, Jude decided it would be all right if Tracy had some secrets she didn’t want to share.
Being a mother had never occurred to her. Not even as a bird had it ever crossed her mind to take a mate and have some hatchlings. There might have been a time she would have. But meeting Dante and being her bird was something she was immensely proud of. Raising a hatchling might have been too dangerous back in those times. There was forever someone stealing eggs from birds for food.
“Are you all right?” Jude smiled at Duncan when he spoke quietly. “You’ll be happy to know that every child has a parent. They’ll be permanent homes for them too, I think.”