As far as he knew, the only person who’d seen him leave had been Libby. The two of them had been riding a few yards behind the reverend and his wife when he’d told the girl that he hadn’t seen Tam for a while and he was going to look for him.

He’d not exchanged many words with the pastor’s daughter during the march and because of that he suspected she would probably tell on him if he did not take her into his confidence.

The obvious solution, therefore, had been to involve her in his plan by asking her if she could keep a secret. He knew all small children liked to keep secrets, especially from grown-ups, even if their father was a reverend. Her shy grin and nod of acquiescence had sealed the bargain. Whereupon he’d hung back, letting the column wend its way past while he waited anxiously for the dog to reappear. And when that didn’t happen, he’d left.

Libby obviously hadn’t told on him, else someone would have called out or tried to stop him. Not that there had been any reason for concern; as soon as he’d caught up with Tam the two of them would simply rejoin the line and no one, other than his partner in crime, would be any the wiser.

Only it hadn’t worked out that way. After twenty minutes or so of searching and calling Tam’s name, the dog was nowhere to be seen. That’s when he’d begun to worry that something had happened and that Tam might not be coming back. But instead of returning to the column, he’d continued in his search.

It had been sheer luck that he’d chanced upon the deer trail. He’d not been following it long when he heard snapping and snuffling from patch of wood ahead of him. Taking it for granted that Tam was involved in the altercation, he’d called out the dog’s name but there had been no answering bark in response. With mounting trepidation he’d crept towards the source of the disturbance, softly repeating the dog’s name over and over, conscious that Tam wasn’t the only sharp-toothed beast at large in the woods.

And then came the response he’d been hoping for: a single excited bark. This was followed immediately by a series of yaps and a muffled grunting sound that swelled suddenly into a ferocious snarl, causing the short hairs to prickle like stalks along the boy’s forearms. Jonah, who until that point had been content to proceed along the trail, immediately planted all four hooves firmly into the ground and stopped dead, ears flattened, before backing away, snorting with fear.