The Burning Bridge- Character Reaction

23

Will took the book from his girlfriend, raising both eyebrows as he saw the first few words.

"Oh joy," he said dryly. "What a perfect part for me to read."

THERE WAS NO TIME TO PUT THE PLAN INTO ACTION THAT night—dawn was less than an hour away. At one stage, Will had suggested that Horace and Evanlyn should leave him behind to burn the bridge, while they rode to take the news to Araluen. But Horace had refused. Horace smirked, while Will rolled his eyes.

"If we go now, we won't know if you've succeeded or not, so what do we tell the King? There might be a bridge or there might not be?" he said, in another example of the solid common sense that had become part of his thinking. "And besides, destroying a bridge this size might be a little more than you can manage alone—even a famous Ranger like yourself."

Halt rolled his eyes. "Lord, you'll give him a big head."

Will smirked. "Like yours?" Halt glared at him, and he grinned.

He smiled as he said the last words, to let Will know he meant no insult. Will conceded the point. Secretly, he was glad they would be with him. He shared Horace's doubt that he might not be able to handle the task alone. Will sighed.

They slept fitfully until dawn, finally woken by the sounds of shouting and whips as the Wargals drove the miners back to their task of finishing the bridge. Throughout the day, they watched with alarm as the completed footway crept closer and closer to the side of the ravine where they lay hidden. With a sinking feeling, Will realized that the estimate given them by the dying miner was not to be relied upon. Perhaps the extra numbers of slaves were the reason, but it was obvious that the bridge would be all but completed by the end of the following day.

Duncan shook his head. "If only we'd seen this sooner." Halt grunted.

"We'll have to do it tonight."

He breathed the words in Evanlyn's ear. The two of them lay prone on the rocks, overlooking the building site. Horace was a few meters away, dozing quietly in the cold morning sun. The girl shifted her position so that her mouth was closer to his ear and whispered back.

"I've been thinking, how will we get this fire started? There's barely enough wood around here for a decent campfire."

Halt and Crowley both smirked, while Will laughed. "I wonder," the younger Ranger said.

The same question had been taxing Will's brain throughout the night.

Then the answer had come to him. He smiled quietly as he watched a group of Celt miners hammering pine boards onto the bridge framework to form the roadway.

"There's plenty of good firewood here," he replied. "If you know where to look for it." Will smirked.

Evanlyn glanced at him, puzzled, then followed the line of his gaze. The frown on her forehead disappeared and she smiled slowly.

"It's a good thing they didn't use stone to build that," Will said softly. Halt grunted.

"That certainly would have ruined your plans."

"Thanks for the positivity, Halt."

As dusk fell, the Wargals herded their weary, starving slaves back from the bridge and into the tunnel. Will noticed that by the end of the afternoon, the work of enlarging the tunnel seemed to have been completed. They waited an hour longer, until full darkness. During that time, there had been no sign of any activity from the tunnel. Now that they knew to look for it, they could see the loom of the firelight from the valley at the other end of the tunnel, reflecting on the low, scudding clouds.