How the Axe Falls

Chapter 5

The sun shone brightly over Edge Cliff in the morning, searing the uncovered half of Talon's back as he crossed the now dry, cracked mud. He should have boiled under the half-cloak, yet, for all intents and purposes, his right side may as well have been lying under cool shade.

The conditions couldn't have been more perfect.

'Gah!'

Buck Owens almost jumped out of his skin when he opened his door to find Talon waiting patiently outside.

The man's face tightened after he'd fully taken in Talon's garb but he too remained silent as to the reason for this reaction.

'What are ye' doing here, boy?' Buck plucked his pitchfork from the floor. 'I'm about to – look, I'm sorry about yesterday, I was – bah! Never mind.'

'It's what I'm here about,' Talon said, before the man could barge past. How was he supposed to look if he had to give bad news? Scratch his head, kick his feet together? He eventually settled on thrusting his hands inside his pockets and staring down at the dirt path.

'What'd'ye mean, boy?' Buck asked.

Talon put a finger to his lips and indicated that the man should come closer.

'What's going on?' Buck demanded.

'Yer' wife's dresses – some of them went missing yeh'?'

Buck's eyes narrowed into a squint and he planted the pitchfork a foot closer to Talon. 'What would ye' know about that, boy?' he asked.

He'd have to be very careful now. Say one wrong thing and, given Buck's previous comments about his mother, Talon could very well end up skewered on the end of that pitchfork.

'Eli Gill,' Talon said quickly.

That caught Buck's attention.

'The toad?' Buck bared his front teeth and growled like a wolf, 'what about him?'

It took all Talon's concentration to suppress a smile; this could be far easier than he thought. Just a little bit of encouragement there, some embellishment here and his plan would be set in motion.

'Ye' think he's been eyeing up your wife, Buck?' Talon said.

'Think? Think?' Buck said, his eyes almost popping out of his head, 'I bloody well know, boy! My woman crossed eyes with the toad once, just once mind ye'! And now he be stalking her!'

Ah, Eli. Talon felt a little guilty for what he was about to do but he had no other choice. While he wasted time with sentiment, the Viscount planned future acts of cruelty from his little tower. He could not balk now.

Talon's jaw set and he drew himself up in his half-cloak against Buck, not that it meant much against the man's sheer bulk.

'I saw her, yer wife, sneaking out the back of Eli's garden,' Talon said. Knuckles whitening against his pitchfork, Buck edged menacingly towards Talon.

'Ye' little –' Buck made as if to grab Talon by the scruff of his neck. The balance was going against him once more, he would have to speak quickly.

'I have proof,' Talon continued, 'just look at the toad's fence!'

'What?' Buck's face scrunched up, resembling something akin to a bulldog.

'I can show ye',' Talon insisted. He raced back across the path, kicking up dry mud flakes in his wake. Buck Owens stood stock-still, staring blankly at the space Talon had formerly occupied.

'Come on!' Talon waved his arms at the man.

Buck eventually followed, hesitantly at that, and, at Talon's insistence, lowered himself into a hunch as they came around the back of Uncle Jack's house to reach Eli's back garden. Fortunately, the toad was nowhere in sight.