Chapter Three
They halted an hour before dusk. Hazel wanted to push on—Mottlethorpe was only seven miles away—but Tam was adamant. “It’s too dangerous to travel at night. We need to find somewhere safe to sleep while it’s still light.”
Since she was already deeply in his debt, Hazel forbore to argue.
They turned off the road into the forest, following the course of a small, burbling creek. “How about here,” Hazel said, after they’d gone a dozen yards in. “It’s flat.”
Tam shook his head.
He rejected the next site Hazel pointed out, too. After that, she kept her mouth closed. “Here,” he said finally. “This’ll do.”
Hazel looked around. The road was well out of sight, well out of earshot. No one would hear their voices, see their fire, smell the smoke.
Tam unloaded his donkey and rubbed
