Cat and Cobra: An Arucadi Novel by E. Rose Sabin

Author:E. Rose Sabin [Sabin, E. Rose]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-11T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

MEETINGS

As she walked along the path, Elyssa pondered the weird events of the past couple of hours, fingering the paper wadded up in her pocket as she did so. The paper was the IOU she’d been forced to sign. She’d retrieved it before leaving Florencia’s house. Madam Enclair and Madam Lavall had been too busy tending to Florencia Trattansy to notice. The IOU was for a wager on the interrupted game, a game never to be finished. So reclaiming it was her right.

She could have taken some of the coins scattered on the floor, too, and had been sorely tempted to take at least those she’d wagered and lost. The women would probably neither have seen her or cared. Those few coins meant nothing to them.

But the game had been played and the coins lost, and taking them back would be stealing. She resisted the temptation. The trappers, carrying Nels, had left with Corbin, and she was too curious not to follow them and see what transpired.

Besides, Val had sat watching her, and his tail twitched as she considered the scattering of coins on the floor. Somehow she felt he would disapprove if she picked up what was not hers. So she left the house, brushing past servants running here and there in states of near panic over what had happened to their mistress.

She had in mind to hurry to town and summon the healer, knowing that even though a private boat would be summoned to go to the mainland and fetch a doctor, it would need considerable time to go, find the doctor, and return. The healer could surely be of assistance in the meantime.

When she heard the voices of Corbin and the healers coming from somewhere among the trees off the path, much as she wanted to listen and watch, she felt she should hurry on. Val heard, too, and veered from the path, and she followed, intending only to gather up the cat and go on. Of course she hadn’t been able to tear herself away from the strange scene transpiring there beneath the trees.

When it ended and Corbin led the trappers to Nels’s home, she trailed along after them, telling herself that the way they took also led to the healer’s house. While she could pass them and go more quickly, she wouldn’t lose much more time staying behind them until they reached the DiLong home.

Again, Val had other ideas. There was a shortcut, a branching path that would take her more directly to the lane where the healer lived. She knew it, but had been suppressing the knowledge until Val headed down it, and she felt required to follow, having accepted the fact that the cat was a reliable guide.

When she arrived at the healer’s house she was relieved to find the woman at home. Quickly she explained that there had been an accident at the Trattansy home while they had been playing cards and the heavy table had toppled onto Madam Trattansy. She did not explain why she had been playing cards with the women or how the table had been toppled.

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