either that or get locked up. Or fight it out which, to be honest, is Scavian’s first plan. He could have done it, too, with the fire and the whatnot. But I wouldn’t have given a pin for the chances of me or his old dad or the servants, or anyone really, when they sent a full company of riflemen after him the next time. So we run for it. Only choice, really.’
‘So where is he?’ Emily asked impatiently. ‘I’m coming to it. We think of where best to head, you see, and it’s here. Where the bloody hell else – ’scuse me – can we go? But he knows you’ll cover for him, hide him out, and so we try to make it here. You have no idea how bloody difficult – pardon me – that turned out to be. Denlanders are hot on our trail. We change clothes, buy hats, change trains, and all the while we keep seeing those bloody grey uniforms at every turn. They are most exceptionally keen to catch Mr Giles Scavian. It takes us four days just to make it to Chalcaster, and most of our money’s gone by then – on bribes mainly, so people don’t see us when we’re moving. I mean him with his red hair, and I’m hardly the least conspicuous person you ever saw. It wasn’t easy, I can tell you.’
He shook his head. ‘And we pull in at Chalcaster, ready to hotfoot it for here, wherever here turns out to be, and outside the station there’s a squad of them, and they know him as soon as they set eyes on him. Anyway, he tells me to run, and I thought he was going to take them on, fire against the rifles. God knows how many bloody people he and they would have killed between them, doing that. You’d have seen the lights and heard the noises all the way out here, believe me. But then he just . . . gives up. Trusting me, the silly sod, to find you. Trusting you, more fool him, to do something. He just holds his hands forward for the manacles, and they come at him like he’s death incarnate, I can tell you. They were terrified of him, and I reckon if he’d so much as looked at them funny, they’d have shot him.’
‘So . . . ?’
‘So he’s locked up in Chalcaster,’ Brocky finished. ‘And I am here telling you all this.’
‘But what has this Mr Scavian done?’ Mary asked.
‘He’s a Warlock,’ Tubal replied at once. ‘They must be rounding them up. They must be worried about a revolution.’
‘They must really be worried,’ Emily agreed. ‘They’ve been trying to mend fences since the war ended. This is going to stir people up. They must really think Giles and the others are a threat.’
‘So?’ Brocky asked her.
She blinked at him.
‘So do something,’ he hissed. ‘You’re the only chance the lad’s got. You must know the way things work around here. Go help him.’
Emily looked from him to her family, and nodded. ‘I can do that,’ she decided. ‘I have some influence, I think.’
‘Emily, be careful of what you ask that man,’ Mary warned her. ‘You must not play games with Mr Northway Do not put yourself in his debt.’
Emily smiled at her. ‘Mary, I am already in his debt, so much so that I may never be rid of it. I will explain to you sometime, but now I must go to Chalcaster to free Giles Scavian. Brocky, Tubal, you’re with me?’
‘Certainly.’ Tubal levered himself to his feet with Mary’s help.
‘Now don’t you do anything foolish, Tubal,’ she warned him. ‘I don’t want to find you in the next cell to this Mr Scavian. Remember you have a son.’
‘I know,’ he said softly. ‘I’ll take care. Besides, Emily here’s the one for doing mad things.’
‘Me?’ Emily demanded,
‘He’s got you right there,’ Brocky agreed. ‘Please God, tell me there’s a cart or something to take us back. My bloody feet hurt every bloody way.’
‘Dispenser heal thyself,’ Emily remarked unsympathetically.
‘Besides, you’re not leaving me behind,’ Tubal pointed out, ‘and I’m hardly going to be walking to Chalcaster.’
By that time, Emily was leading the way into the kitchen and out into the yard.
‘Grant! Have the buggy ready!’ she called. ‘I’ll drive it.’
‘I wondered how long it would be before the Denlanders started throwing their weight around,’ put in Tubal, from behind her. ‘All too good to be true, until now. All sweet