of joint?” She grabbed his hand.
He allowed her to slow his pace. When he was about to pull his hand free, she squeezed it. “Because he lied to me.”
Louie stopped so quickly, Bannon bounced backward a little.
He turned and frowned at her.
She stared at him with wide eyes and a soft smirk. It was a smirk he knew all too well—her “I know something you don’t know” smirk.
If the galaxy liked him, he’d never have to know what it was she thought she knew. Guh, that expression never ceased to annoy him.
“You like him.”
Apparently, the galaxy doesn’t like you.
Bannon snorted. “I don’t know him.”
“But you like him just the same, and your feelings are hurt because he didn’t tell you about the com-pad.”
“No, I just….” Bannon’s stomach sank. Bloody hell, she was right. His feelings were hurt. He’d thought he and Ciaran had had a connection.
But you don’t trust him, Timothy whispered.
That much was true. Bannon sighed. He couldn’t afford to trust Ciaran. His family’s lives might be in jeopardy if Regelence’s presence here on Skye got back to the IN, and with the crash…. Trust apparently wasn’t a requirement for liking someone. Still, he had thought they were building a rapport together. Oh bother! What did it matter anyway? He wasn’t staying here, and galaxy knew, he had enough problems. He had already been banished from home because of an indiscretion. He certainly didn’t need to make it worse.
“It’s not going to do us any good anyway.”
What? “Of course it is, we can call home and….”
Louie started shaking her head no.
“Why not?”
“I doubt there are satellites around Skye.”
“Damnation!”
A man started as he walked by with a basket over his back, then gave them a wide berth.
Heat raced up the back of Bannon’s neck, and his eye, the blackened one, began to twitch. That same premonition of doom he’d been feeling last night engulfed him. He hadn’t even considered that. No satellites meant no contacting home.
Bannon pinched the bridge of his nose. The twitching stopped, but his stomach felt woozy. Shaking his head, he tugged Louie along. Maybe there was a passing ship nearby?
Really?
Shut up, Timothy! The Lady Anna had her own telecommunications satellite, so he wasn’t going to give up hope, dammit!
“It’s doubtful we can even get into it. It’s probably password protected and has a retinal scanner or voice recognition. It might need a fingerprint to open it. Actually, it could have all of those. Then again, it might only have a combination of two of those, or—”
“Stop talking!” He was trying to remain positive.
“Just because I stop talking doesn’t mean the com-pad can be opened or that satellites will magically appear around the planet,” Louie mumbled under her breath.
Bannon sighed and let her have the last word. It looked like they were back to plan B, whatever that was.
Outside the portcullis, they found a quaint little village of cottages with thatched roofs and what looked like market stalls selling vegetables and furs and all manner of wares. Only it was like no village Bannon had ever seen. There was so much dirt and nature. It was like being in the country at Eversleigh Manor, but with no technology. The presence of lifts and the electronic hum that accompanied them was conspicuously absent.
As they walked by, Bannon noticed the villagers stopping to watch them. The gazes weren’t exactly hostile, but they weren’t welcoming either.
Bannon waved at a woman sitting next to a stall with furs, and she turned her head away as if she didn’t see him. Hmmm…. “Not a friendly lot, are they?”
Louie elbowed him. “Be nice. They are just wary of outsiders.”
Maybe. Bannon tried smiling at people but got the same reaction—either a hard stare or a cold shoulder. Not that different from Regelence, he supposed. On Regelence, people were much more worried about appearing dignified. At least it wasn’t the cut direct.
After about thirty feet of the winding path they ran out of civilization except for two cottages side by side situated before a wooded area. A gray, heavy mist hung over the woods and through the trees so only the first few yards of trees were visible. The rest took on a hazy sort of shape, as though the woods were looming over the two quaint little huts.
One of the huts was quite normal, with window boxes and a small fenced-in garden. The other? Definitely belonged to Agatha. The door and shutters were purple, but even the spot of color couldn’t quite overcome the