When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

Author:LaTanya McQueen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 2021-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

XII.

KRISTINA HADN’T MENTIONED searching the fields, so Mira decided she’d look there first, partly because she felt a beckoning to return. She trudged along the path away from the Big House, pausing every few minutes to get her bearings. In the light of the day, the layout of the grounds confused her, and she had a difficult time gauging which direction she needed to go.

“Excuse me. I’m looking for the tobacco fields?” Mira asked a man she came across on the path.

“What do you want to go out there for? There’s no showing today because of the wedding, although that doesn’t look like it’s happening either.”

“Please, I don’t have my map and I don’t have time to go back to my room and try to find it. Do you know which way?”

“The fields are that way, I think,” he said, pointing south, and Mira started in that direction.

While she tried to think about Celine and where she might be, she couldn’t escape the image of the woman in white. Mira had been too far away to recognize her face, but whoever she was, she’d been alone, and no one came out to these woods unless they were looking for something or someone was looking for them. What other reason could a person have, especially with the night’s darkness surrounding them? The woman’s attention had been fixed on what lay hidden deep among the tobacco stalks, something Mira had been unable to see, and she wanted to find what last night she might have missed.

It was a long walk, longer than Mira remembered it being, and the farther she went the more she regretted not changing out of her clothes for the wedding. The dress was too constricting, and the material made her itch in the heat. At least she had comfortable shoes, flats she’d slipped on instead of the heels she’d felt pressure to wear. She continued on the uneven path, trying her best to recollect the way she’d gone.

With the plantation closed for the wedding and most everyone still at the restaurant, the grounds were whisper-quiet, a stark contrast to what she’d witnessed yesterday. Without the conversations of strangers or the sounds of the machinations of plantation life, she heard the sounds of the woods. Its hums and calls. With each step she heard the low whistle of wind or the trill and buzz of insects hiding in the dark.

The foliage grew dense and lush as she continued into the heart of the woods. The trees’ branches above clouded the summer light, and she worried she’d cross a point of no return where she’d be lost forever. It didn’t seem she was getting any closer to the fields but closer to a world unfamiliar.

“This isn’t right.” Mira stopped, finally admitting to herself she was lost. Everywhere she looked the path appeared the same, and she had no idea anymore which way to go. Her worry became a fear as she started again, quickening her pace, her chest tightening as she ran faster in the hope she’d stumble upon something she would recognize.

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