The Springborn

SABELLA

JUNE 3, 1886

EARLY EVENING

A s dusk veils the woods, my hopes wane.

We have found no sign of Delphine since we lost track of her footprints, and to make matters worse, I am fairly certain we are lost.

Few words have passed between Calder and me since our misunderstanding, all of them practical. “Be careful there,” or “watch out for that.” Things a person would say to a stranger.

Calder stops to pick something up. He turns and shows me a yellow silk handkerchief embroidered at its corner with a fancy letter D.

I open my mouth to comment but he lays a finger on his lips. He cocks his head to the side, listening intently. After a minute or two, he points up the steep, rocky slope to our right.

She’s up there? I mouth.

He steps close to me and whispers into my ear. “There are caves in the rock face. I’ll climb up and look for signs of Delphine. You wait here.”

“I’m going, too.”

“You can’t scale the rocks in that cumbersome dress, and I don’t think you want to go without it.”

I cringe at the idea of abandoning my frock in order to climb in my nightdress and knee-length drawers. He is correct. I may not be the most modest of maidens, but I will not appear before the man in my undergarments.

He accepts my silent concession and whispers, “I’ll be back soon.”

Calder climbs with the deftness of a mountain goat, hardly pausing as he ascends to a jutting ledge. Once atop it, he disappears from view.

The woods grow dim as time slogs along. I sit on a fallen tree trunk and try to occupy my thoughts with memories of gathering fiddlehead ferns and mushrooms with Sparrow, but worries intrude all too quickly—concerns for the stolen children, for Calder, and for my own safety.

Soon, night will clothe the forest with heavy shadow—if not utter darkness. The moon tonight, if I remember rightly, will be three-quarters lit, but the sky is already roiling with thick clouds which promise to obscure its light.

An owl hoots nearby. Leaves rustle, stirred by an opossum or raccoon—I hope. Insects hum and buzz as the air cools. A sprinkling of stars peeks through a gap in the clouds.

I wait and wait.

Calder has been gone too long.