Big Teeth: A Steampunk Fairy Tale (The Clockwork Republic Series) by French Katina

Author:French, Katina [French, Katina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A retelling of the Red Riding Hood tale.
Publisher: 3 Fates Press
Published: 2014-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Granny was back on her feet. She still held her shotgun, but at least she wasn't pointing it at Lu anymore. Although, by the look on her face, she might've been debating whether it was too late to shoot her and toss her out the window.

Not that Granny could have hefted her that high. She was pretty tough for a woman her age, but she was a good head shorter than Lu. Years and grief had bowed her spine even since the last time Lu had seen her years ago. But the dark brown, nearly black eyes reminded her of Ma, Clarabelle.

Ma had been Pearl's only child who'd survived to adulthood. Two boys, one older and one younger than Ma, had died as babies. Papaw Fred had left her a widow not long after the youngest passed, from the same fever. Lu had never known him, aside from the faded daguerreotype that sat on the mantel over Granny's fireplace.

Granny hadn't ever consented to the marriage between her daughter and Gregory. He was already the Robber Baron of the Caravan when they'd met. But Ma could be just as stubborn as her mother, in her own way. She'd run off with the dashing young scoundrel, and taken to Caravan life like she'd been born in a painted wagon.

Pearl had warmed a bit to Pa when Lu was born. Lu could faintly remember visits to the cabin as a little girl. A ragged doll Granny Pearl had made and given to her one Christmas still lay tucked into a chest in her wagon back home.

Then Ma died. Pa didn't like to talk about it. All Lu remembered was Pa and Ma heading out one night with a big group, laughing and bragging about the haul they were going to bring back. By the next morning, Pa and a few others had managed to drag themselves back to camp, nursing wounds and weeping over the fallen. Caravan tradition held that when a job went sideways, you left the dead where they fell. Pa refused to leave Ma's body. The few survivors had carried her, limping themselves, all the way back.

Pa broke tradition again by leaving the camp to tell Granny about their loss in person. The old woman told Pa never to darken her door again. Lu could still remember the tears and shouting, the awful words hurled back and forth between them. Grief had twisted their previous differences into a fathomless ravine.

Lu had been too little to understand why the people who loved her mother so much were filled with hate for each other now.

Pa had bundled her up and rode away, vowing neither would ever return.

Would ya rather I let the wolf take me, Pa?

Lu sagged down onto the floor, exhausted. She didn't like to question Pa's decisions, but they seemed to be conspiring to make her life pretty difficult at the moment. If he disapproved of her seeking shelter here, she'd just have to deal with it later. Right now, she needed to concentrate on getting back to the Caravan in one piece.

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