Page 107 of Bound in Ashes

The girls ran off—another little mini-stampede, but retreating this time.

“Bridget, you grew up in Brooklyn. How do you know anything about mushrooms?”

“Asia, my darling,” she said, a soft smile on her lips. “I should be offended. I am a very knowledgeable and worldly woman, and I’ll have you know my beloved Irv was a mushroom connoisseur. I remember for our twentieth anniversary, we went to France, and he got to see one of those truffle-rooting pigs.”

“And you enjoyed that?” I asked.

She laughed. “I liked shopping on the High Street in Paris, but the things we do for the ones we love,” she said.

I smiled, and she did too, but I noticed the shadows in her eye. I saw the same whenever Uncle Levi mentioned Aunt Kathleen. I stood up, dusting my hands off, and then went over to grab Bridget’s.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” she asked, even though her eyes still contained a bit of the haunt.

“Those girls have really taken to you. Their dad is gone, and after what happened to their mom…”

I trailed off and glanced toward the bunkhouse where Ellie and Evie’s mother stayed almost all of the time now. I tried to check on her, but as the girls blossomed, she seemed to wither. I hoped she’d shake it off soon, but I didn’t count on it.

“Well, I’m no one’s mother, and never have been, which makes me quite happy, I’ll have you know. But it’s good—people taking care of each other. There should have been more of that in the world,” she said.

Her voice took on a quiet, wistful tone, and I squeezed her hand again.

“Maybe they should have done that. But now we have⁠—”

“Everyone, get out here now!”

I looked at Bridget, her eyes wide, probably reflecting my own surprise. It was Jack, and he was yelling.

Jack didn’t yell.

Ever.

I grabbed the shovel and hustled to the sound of Jack’s voice.

We made a lot of progress on shoring up the farm, and one of the things we had done was subdivide some of the land to create smaller plots that people were responsible for. Jack also tasked some of the hands to construct new outbuildings that we could use for storage. He planned to raid local areas soon, seeing what we could find, and wanted to make sure we had space for it.

So he stood now in the spot that was designated for the next storage building.

“Everything all right?” I said.

The others gathered quickly, and soon all of our new little community—except Uncle Levi and Elliot, who was keeping watch—was here. A group of twenty, all of them focused on Jack.

“No, everything is not fine,” Jack said.

He stood there, glaring down at Travis, who tried his best to wriggle away. Jack didn’t budge, and I watched as Travis pulled—Jack not moving an inch, but the threads of his shirt starting to fray.

“Please!” Travis said.

“What’s going on?” I said.

But Travis either didn’t hear me, or knew who he needed to be focused on. He clasped his hands together in prayer, pleading with Jack.

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I won’t do anything like that again.”

“What happened?” I said.

Jack glanced at me, though he tightened his grip on Travis’s shirt.