Page 94 of The Witch

I do not know what to say to that. I cannot claim I have shed any tears for Deputy Strickland either.

“We can rest,” Jonas says. “But I will not leave you—not here. It is not safe for a woman to be walking about the forest late at night.” His voice lowers to an ominous tone. “Not while he is still out and about.”

He is speaking of the Night Reaper. If he asserts his innocence of those misdeeds, then it follows that the killer is still at large. He might be watching us right now, biding his time to strike.

But I very much doubt that, for I still believe Jonas to be guilty.

“You do not need to stay with me,” I say firmly. “I know these parts. My home is not far from here.”

“I am aware,” Jonas says.

I frown and shiver in the night air. “How do you know this?”

“Archibald Eldridge is a wealthy merchant. Everyone knows where he resides.”

I believed it was a coincidence that we took a path that happened to pass near my home. But now I realize that Jonas planned this route. “Why are we here?” I ask him.

He lets out a long sigh, his dark hair falling in his eyes. “It will be a long journey to safety. If it is possible, we should obtain money from your husband’s house. Or your jewelry. Whatever can be spared and is easy to carry. He is unlikely to miss it, is he not?”

“You are mad. I will never be able to enter the house without him knowing.”

“No?” He raises an eyebrow. “You know where every item lies, do you not? You do not think you could snatch a few things before we flee?”

He is correct. If we continue on this path, it will be very late by the time we reach Pemberton. Archie will be long asleep. He is a deep sleeper, and he will never be the wiser if I slip in and out through the window.

And it is true that if we are leaving Woodhaven, we are better off if we have more than just the clothes on our backs. Money—which is plentiful for Archie—would be extremely useful.

My only concern is Molly. But she cannot stop me from retrieving my own belongings.

“Will you do it?” Jonas presses me. “Will you try?”

There is another reason to fetch money from my house. If I ever hope to escape Jonas, I will not get far on my own. Five pounds could make the difference between finding a home in a new settlement and dying at his hands.

“I will try,” I agree.

69

PRESENT DAY

JULIA

Celia Caine doesn’t exist.

At least, I can’t find the woman after multiple internet searches. Sure, I found a few people with the same name. I found a life coach. A cheerleader in Texas. A woman who posts cute videos of her cats on YouTube. But none of them are the right age to be the woman who worked at Pemberton when Ethel was allegedly pregnant.

Henry and I grabbed dinner tonight to talk about it. We’re still waiting on the DNA test, but he said that it’s extremely unlikely that Celia Caine still lives in the Woodhaven area. If she did, he would have found her during his search at Town Hall. Even after we’re done eating and he’s driving me back down the dark path to Pemberton, we can’t stop talking about it.

“So where did she go?” I ask him. “She didn’t just vanish into thin air.”

“Maybe you should ask your grandmother.”

“She won’t remember anything,” I grumble. “She barely knows my name.”

He frowns, and I remember his words of concern when he told me about his grandfather’s memory problems. “Are you sure she’s okay in the house without twenty-four-hour-a-day care?”

I nod hesitantly. “Someone is there almost all the time.”

“All the time or almost all the time? You know, it only takes a minute for something to go wrong…”