had been able to get Giles bandaged, medicated, and tucked away without Burleigh tumbling to the fact that she was in cahoots with the two fugitives. Lady Fayth, a willing accomplice, had helped—unwittingly, true, but necessarily. If Haven had known the full extent of Wilhelmina’s involvement she might not have been such a keen collaborator. If things had fallen out differently, Mina would have been forced to join Kit and Giles on the run. But the young lady had kept her head and, when it mattered, backed Wilhelmina’s risky play to the hilt.
Now Mina cast yet another longing look down the trail and, with an exasperated sigh and a roll of her big brown eyes, trudged down the trail and into the valley. When she reached the bottom she paused and then shouted for Kit. She listened, then repeated the call. Satisfied that if he had been within the sound of her voice he would have answered, she moved on—eventually coming to the little half-abandoned village.
The settlement was one of several that seemed to have been settled and constructed by country folk in the region. The few who lived there maintained fields on the riverbanks and on the highlands above. The river provided water for a mill, duck ponds, and a little fishery. She had met some of the inhabitants, and they in turn were used to seeing her now and then; they were simple, peaceable folk who kept to themselves and avoided conflict and confrontation—which is why Mina had felt good about sending Kit and Giles here. They were unlikely to get into difficulties with the locals.
She walked along the valley floor, following the river and calling for Kit. There was never any reply. After walking a mile or more in one direction, she turned and repeated the procedure in the opposite direction. At the end of the exercise, with darkness falling, she returned to the ley and made a last call for Kit to hurry or miss his rescue. She waited. As before, there was no answer.
Turning on her heel, she took up the ley lamp and, in four quick strides, departed the valley for home.
By the time she returned to Prague, the sun had risen on another day. At the city gates she joined the trickle of farmers fresh from the fields, trundling produce to market in barrows and donkey carts. She walked through the old town as the day’s traders were setting up their stalls in the square; she greeted those she knew and promised to return later to buy. Etzel was just opening the Grand Imperial Kaffeehaus, removing the shutters and pulling down the green awning she had designed and Herr Arnostovi had commissioned to be built and installed.
“Good morning, mein Schatz,” she chirped, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
“Ach! Wilhelmina, you are here!” Relief pinwheeled over his round face. “I did not see you return last night—all the kerfuffle—I was worried something might have happened to you.”
She smiled and patted his arm reassuringly. “Nothing is going to happen to me. Remember what I told you?”
“If I should turn around and find you gone,” he said, repeating her words by rote, “I am not to worry. You will always come back.”
“I will always come back,” she echoed. Then, on impulse, she gave him another kiss. He stared at her, blinking in the early-morning light. “That is a sacred promise, Etzel. I will always come back.”
“Ja, I believe you,” he said, dropping his head shyly. “But sometimes I think it might be better if I helped you with this . . .” He searched for a word. “This work that you do.”
“I know, Liebling,” she said, resting her hand on his arm and feeling the warmth there. “Maybe someday you will. But for now, there is too much I do not understand, too much I must learn—”
“I could help you learn these things, I think.”
She smiled. “You are helping me. You help me more than you can possibly know just by being here when I come back.”
“But maybe—”
“It is true, Etzel. I need you to be here, to be my rock and my anchor. One day I will tell you all about my other work. But for now it must be this way.” She held his eyes with her own, willing him to understand. “All right?”
“Of course, meine Liebste.” He gave her a small, contrite smile. “If that is what you want. You know I cannot refuse you anything.”