Seeing it there, he was suddenly reminded of the times he and Will Archer had hunted for game in the woods around the farm. Sometimes, they’d camp out, skinning and cooking what they’d trapped over an open fire: rabbits, squirrels or, if they were lucky, wild turkey. Mix in a little salt, a dash of pepper, some wild onions and herbs and you had a supper fit for a king. Thinking of Will Archer brought the prick of tears to his eyes as he thought back to the events at the farm. Inevitably, that brought on a memory of the day he’d learned that his father would not be coming home.

It had been three years ago, late on a summer’s evening, when a messenger had arrived at the cabin. The looks on the Archers’ faces as the rider had galloped away had told him immediately that something terrible had happened. Just how terrible he was to discover when they walked with him out into the soft green meadow and under the shade of the oak tree that grew behind the cabin broke the news of his father’s death at a place called Oriskany.

From that first day when his father had left him in their care, the Archers had treated him as though he was their own kin and it had seemed perfectly natural for him to refer to them as Uncle Will and Aunt Beth. The moment he knew he was an orphan the affection he felt for them had taken on an even greater resonance. The couple had come to mean as much to him as if they’d been his own parents, and for their part Will and Beth Archer could not have loved him any more than if he’d been their own son.

And now they had been taken from him, too, by evil men. He’d been made an orphan twice over.

Blinking back the tears, he picked up the dead rabbit and put it in his saddle bag; as he did so his thoughts turned to the family into whose care he’d been placed. He knew he should have told the pastor and his wife where he was going, but had he done so they’d have forbidden it. No doubt the reverend would have said that Tam was a dog who could fend for himself. He’d have left regardless, but it would have caused bad feeling.

In his search for Tam, he’d mislaid all sense of time. From the position of the sun, he reckoned it must be mid afternoon, so he’d been away for at least an hour, perhaps two. He wondered if anyone other than Libby realized that he was not with the column. If they stopped for a rest they’d notice; he usually joined them then. But they probably wouldn’t be too worried – unless he wasn’t back by the time it got dark.