Challenges by Natalie Grey & Michael Anderle

Author:Natalie Grey & Michael Anderle [Grey, Natalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2018-01-24T07:00:00+00:00

Romania

Over lunch in town, Alexi and Ecaterina shared their findings with the others.

At Alexi’s insistence the dogs had been brought along. Alexi enjoyed much the same reputation in his town that Yelena had in hers. He was known to have a somewhat innate understanding of animals, although there were a lot of jokes about how livestock seemed to hate him.

People were only too eager to tell Yelena how so-and-so’s horse had taken an immediate dislike to Alexi, or how so-and-so’s chickens fled the yard, squawking whenever he arrived. It was clear that everyone in the town considered this hilarious.

Yelena, who knew there was more to the story, only smiled.

Ashur and Bellatrix, brought along under stern instructions from Yelena that they were to be on their best behavior, were making a big show of being dainty. Ashur fairly pranced, and Bellatrix preened whenever someone complimented her coat.

Alexi had insisted on sitting next to Christina, and she was presently clambering onto his shoulders and his head with an expression of dogged persistence, heedless of the fact that they were in a restaurant.

No one seemed to care. This was hardly a formal place, and children were woven into the life of the town here.

Nathan smiled at her before looking at Ecaterina, “So, what did you find out?”

“They’re rich,” Ecaterina said at once.

“How do you know?” Nathan asked her in confusion.

“The traps are very good quality.” Ecaterina nodded to her pack. “I’ll show you when we’re back home, but they’re coated so that they won’t rust, they’re very sharp, and they’re complex, not just a simple trip.”

“They’re powerful.” Alexi looked grim, or as grim as it was possible to look with a small child climbing on his head. “They can shatter bones.”

“And there are a lot of them,” Ecaterina added. “We picked up as many as we could, and disabled others.”

“Is it worth letting them know that you are on to them?” Yelena asked worriedly. “If they see that someone has been taking or disabling traps, maybe your hand will be tipped.”

Ecaterina smiled. It was not a nice smile, and Yelena had the sudden motivation never to do anything that would annoy her.

“I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Ecaterina explained. Her smile turned almost conspiratorial. “We want them to notice. Whoever they are, we’ve just undone a lot of their work. There’s going to be a flurry of activity, and as soon as we have one of them, I’m fairly sure we can persuade him to tell us who they work for.”

Alexi laughed, shaking his head at his niece. “Wasn’t so long ago that you were making mud pies and skinning your knees, and now here you are, making plans like that. Why, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that husband of yours was a bad influence.”

Nathan laughed. There was too much fondness in Alexi’s tone for it to be anything but a joke…and he knew enough to know that Alexi valued Ecaterina’s rather unconventional style of solving problems.

Their laughter was interrupted by a sudden spate of barking.

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