Remembrance Jude Deveraux by Jude Deveraux

Author:Jude Deveraux [Deveraux, Jude]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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There was no way that Callie's legs could keep up with Talis's long legs as the two of them ran back to the farmhouse. She half ran out of one shoe, and her hair came untied from its neat braid as she leaped over hedges, dodged three bleating sheep, and tried to follow Talis.

What she saw when she arrived made her halt. The yard was full of big men, richly dressed, their horses' great hooves trampling Meg's flowers. The men were all staring down at a man on the ground; Callie could only see his legs, but from the stillness of them, he looked to be dead. Standing to one side, Meg and Will clung to each other and there was fear on Meg's face.

Callie may have hesitated to run into the midst of the dozen or so men standing about, but not so Talis. He plunged into the midst of them, and in spite of his rough clothes, he looked as though he were one of the noblemen.

Callie didn't think of hesitating when it came to following Talis. Within a breath, she was behind him, taking advantage of the space he made for himself between the silent, staring men.

Peeping out around him, Callie saw a man on the ground, a handsome man with steel gray hair, but now his once-handsome face was blue from lack of air. On the lower half of his face, around his mouth and down his throat, were bloody scratches from where he and others had clawed at him. It didn't take a great deal of intelligence to figure out what had happened, since a half-eaten apple lay near the man's head. He had taken too big a bite, a piece of apple had lodged in his throat and he had choked to death. All attempts to save him had failed, and now all the stunned people could do was look down at this man as he lay dead.

Talis didn't even look to see if Callie had caught up with him; he knew she was there. "Tildy," he said, and immediately, Callie knew what he had in mind.

At first no one noticed the tall young man with the pale girl peering around him. But Talis's quick movements drew their attention.

Before anyone could recover from shock, Talis lifted Callie by the waist, her legs extended straight out, picked her up over his head, then dropped her—straight onto the stomach of the dead man.

Shouts erupted in anger over this hideous disrespect of the dead man. But even as the men started to shout at Talis and tried to grab the girl the boy was protecting with his body, others saw that the mouth of the "dead" man opened and out flew a huge, unchewed piece of apple.

"Quiet!" bellowed a man who obviously had some authority and they all turned to look down at the man on the ground.

Talis had more of an idea of what was going to happen than the others did, so he

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