Silence, broken when Dalton says, “What?”
“I said—”
“We all heard what you said,” Dalton says, “and we’re waiting for the punch line. Casey just suggested you came to tell us about the settlers, not knowing we’d found them. Now you’re revealing that your ‘critical information’ is bullshit. Either that’s your idea of a joke or you might as well put up your hands and say ‘you got me.’”
“I hardly consider an attack on my people ‘bullshit,’ Eric.”
“It sure as hell isn’t a reason for you to come all the way here personally.”
“Is that really all you have to tell me, Edwin?” I ask.
“I consider an unprovoked attack on my people an egregious—”
“I have no further questions for this witness.” I walk to the door, open it, and turn to Edwin. “You are free to go. You will be escorted from town. Please do not see this as a lifting of your banishment. You are not welcome back. Nor is your granddaughter until I have cleared your settlement in this matter. If you decide you have further information for me, you may send Felicity to the edge of our patrol area, where she will wait for a militia member to bring her message to me.”
“We had nothing to do with the deaths of those settlers, Casey.”
“Maybe not, but you’re playing a game I don’t have time to join. I will not forget your assistance in this matter. Now please leave.”
He rises stiffly and says, “May I at least see the bodies of the deceased settlers? We have had members of our community leave over the years, and I may be able to identify them.”
“They have already been identified. They’re not from your settlement or Rockton. They were a married couple and a teenage boy, trappers who came north a few years ago.”
His chin drops in a slow nod. “We did know them, then. Thank you.”
I wait to see whether he’ll still find a reason to view the bodies, proof that his “excuse” was just that. He doesn’t. As I hold the door, Dalton glances at me, that glance questioning my decision to let Edwin leave. It’s a mild question, though. If he felt strongly about it, he’d interfere.
I lead Edwin outside and flag down Kenny, who hasn’t gone far. I tell him to escort Edwin to the main path. I’m about to ask whether he’s seen Felicity when I spot her sitting with Sebastian.
Edwin doesn’t notice Felicity and Sebastian. He’s keeping his gaze forward, avoiding any hint of curiosity about the town. I murmur that I’ll find his granddaughter and send him on ahead with Kenny.
* * *
Once Kenny and Edwin are gone, I make my way toward the young couple. They’re on the edge of town, sitting on a bench, Felicity gripping the edge of her seat, hunched forward as Sebastian leans in, talking to her.
I contrast that with the first time I’d seen them together. Felicity had come to town, and Sebastian took it upon himself to play host. Not being creepy, just considerate. He’d regaled her with amusing stories, and she’d sat there, both mesmerized and terrified. He’d fascinated her, this first glimpse of a “regular” boy, one from down south, but I know it’d be uncomfortable, too, wondering how she looked through his eyes.
As the “kids”—Sebastian, Felicity, Sidra, and Baptiste—began hanging out, I’d felt compelled to tell Sebastian about a First Settlement resident who murdered three people, and who almost certainly shared his diagnosis. How did Sebastian handle it? Promptly told Felicity what he was and what he’d done.
If I feared that would end the friendship, then I misjudged them both. Sebastian wanted her to know what he was and how he was coping with it, and Felicity appreciated the opportunity to make her own informed decision.
Then, last winter, Felicity herself killed someone. In my gut, I call it justified, but a court wouldn’t agree. There is no provision in our legal system for what Felicity did. We’ve been working on her feelings around that. I think I’ve helped, but Sebastian has helped more.
Now, seeing her leaning toward him, pouring out her thoughts about the meeting with her grandfather, Sebastian listening intently, my heart lifts for them, finding each other in this corner of the world.
“Hey,” I say softly when I reach them. “You need to go, Felicity. I’m sorry. I also need to ask you to stay out of Rockton until this is settled. It’s not you…”
“I know.” She rises. “I apologize for my grandfather’s behavior. It was inconsiderate.”
Inconsiderate on all levels. An insult not just to me, but to his granddaughter. Émilie needled him about not having grandsons. It’s true, though. I wonder whether Felicity feels that if there’d been a male heir, he’d have only needed to be half as capable as her.
“You make him uneasy,” she says, as if reading my mind. “He likes that you are Chinese. He would like it better if you were a man.”
I quirk a smile. “He can’t have everything. I don’t think he minds me being a woman—he just wishes that meant I was easier to handle.”
She returns a ghost-mirror of my smile. “That is true. But if you were easier to handle, he would not respect you. He tells me I am too headstrong. Yet if I were not…” She shrugs.
“You wouldn’t be his heir.”