Page 77 of Her Wicker Guardian

Everyone hears it.

The conversation stops.

Rachel steps toward the corner of the cottage. The four teenagers turn that way too. I stay beside the bear.

A car door closes.

Nothing happens.

Then a young man I have never seen comes around the corner of the cottage with his phone already raised.

He stops when he sees Rachel and the four teenagers, but the phone remains pointed at me.

Rachel’s voice hardens. “Can I help you?”

He does not answer.

I look directly at him. “Do not take my picture.”

His attention flicks to my face just as the phone makes a faint sound. He took it anyway.

“Hey!” Rachel starts toward him.

The man turns and runs. By the time Rachel reaches the corner of the cottage, he has disappeared around it. A car door slams. The engine starts hard enough that gravel spits beneath the tires, and a few seconds later the sound is racing away toward the road.

Tessa stares after him. “What the hell?”

Rachel stands at the corner for another moment before turning back toward us. “I guess permission was too difficult.”

The anger moving through me is different from the fear I felt when Ben saw me. He was frightened. This man was not. He came here because he wanted something from me, heard me tell him no, and took it anyway.

Tessa’s face has changed. “I’m sorry.”

“You asked.”

She looks at me.

“I said no, and you listened.”

“Yeah.”

The difference matters more now than it did when she put her phone away.

Eli looks toward the corner where the stranger disappeared. “People are definitely going to come.”

Rachel walks back toward us. “How many people know?”

The four of them exchange looks. Tessa winces. “Probably a lot.”

“What does ‘a lot’ mean?”

Connor says, “The school group chat has it.”

Rachel closes her eyes.

I understand school. I understand group. I understand chat. I do not understand why those three words make her look like that.

“How many?”