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Back Cardinal Black Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Title Page
  2. One: Into the Storm
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Two: London Calling
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Three: The Malignant Seven
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Four: Squirrels and Cats
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Five: Revelation
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. About the Author

“Your escort? No questions from me!” said Greta, who began to clear away the dishes.

“Please do check the coach!” Firebaugh was nearly begging. “If you want me alive to reach that damn village, for God’s sake show some mercy!”

“No questions from me, either,” said Oliver, who finished the last of his tea with a single slug and left the table. “Bringin’ more wood in,” he told Greta on his way out the back.

“Go take a look,” Julian decided. “Then we’ve got to get back on the road, whether those horses are ready or not.”

Matthew paused to put on the polar bear coat and his gloves, then went out into the cold. The snowy wind hit him in the face so hard he was staggered. At what must’ve been three o’clock in the afternoon the light was a dim gray dusk. Across the road the forest was a mass of dark seen through a fogged lens. Matthew put his head down against the elements, trudged to the coach and opened the baggage doors. He was gratified to find that inside was indeed a brown canvas bag.

He took the bag, closed the doors and started back, and that was when he heard the horse whinny.

He stopped in his tracks.

Had he heard it, or not? The wind was playing tricks, but he thought that the sound had not come from the barn about thirty yards away and behind him; he thought it had come from off to his left where the road curved into the forest.

But no … no, of course it was one of the team in the barn.

The wind was playing tricks, and how could one tell exactly where a sound had come from in this weather?

He was on edge, that was all.

But then from the corner of his left eye … was there a quick movement from tree to tree, just a dark shape moving among dark shapes? He couldn’t tell for sure, and the movement was not repeated. Snow and wind … blowing across his field of vision.

Better to get inside, he thought. Better to go through this bag as fast as possible, and get moving again.

Within the cottage, Matthew opened the bag on a table as the others watched—Firebaugh in particular with expectant hope—and found a number of blouses, two pairs of breeches, a pair of scuffed black boots … and a pair of woolen stockings.