The Cottage in the Woods (42 page)

“You’ll pay for that!” he snarled, his eyes filled with hatred, and we began to circle one another like fighters in a ring as he gripped his truncheon and smiled. I was surprised by a deep growl starting in my throat, and growing to a wild roar as some instinct within me responded to the threat, and was pleased to
note that this ruffled his composure considerably. I saw my moment and went for him, teeth bared and claws raking, finding my animal nature at last, but he was fast, and cunning, wielding his truncheon with great strength and efficiency. I believe I might have ripped his throat out if he had not slammed the club down on my sensitive snout with such force that I felt the bone crack and blood fill my nostrils.

I backed away, swaying dizzily, and though he was bleeding from many places, he was laughing at me, and there was something horrible and half mad about his eyes. With obvious effort, he reined himself in and resumed his crouch, one hand turned palm upward and curling toward himself as if to incite me.

“Do it.
Do it
!” He laughed insanely. “You animals, and Rat, and all your fancy airs! So very consid’rate of yous to be all in one place, so’s I can fix you all,
one by one
! First you, and then—”

I lunged, throwing all of my weight toward him, intending to knock him down, realizing too late that this was exactly what he had anticipated. In a deft move, he stepped aside, leaving one foot for me to trip over, pulling me off balance by my arm, and using my own weight against me. I slammed to the ground belly-down, and before I could recover myself, he was sitting on top of me, pinning me, and laughing fiendishly. I turned my face to the side just enough to see him raising a great rock high over my head.

That was the last thing I remembered for some time. When I fought my way back to consciousness, it was with an awareness of pain in my head and all over my body. Moving experimentally,
I felt that Gabriel must have beaten and kicked me severely as I lay insensible, his craven vengeance exacted at last.

As my awareness increased, my thoughts were all for the children. With extreme difficulty, I pushed myself from the ground and stood, looking up the rock face as the last, dying rays of the sun stained it red. There above me a terrible chase played out. While I had lain unconscious, the children and Nurse had climbed some thirty yards up the cliff. One false move now and the fall would surely be fatal. I saw Goldilocks look down at Gabriel, who had climbed halfway up to them, laughing as he gained on them, and I heard her little scream as she frantically quickened her pace. Teddy, struggling to keep up with her, slipped on some loose stones and sent them flying down the cliffside as he hung on with his claws.

“No!” I cried, cringing as I tried to move too quickly toward the low ledge where the children had started their climb. Realizing that my skirts would be a dangerous impediment to my progress, I bent over to tuck them up, crying out as I did so. Determined that nothing would stop me, I began to climb with all the speed I was capable of, reaching a paw out here, straining for a foothold there, and groaning with pain at each movement. It seemed nearly impossible, but I must do it, and do it faster! Even as these thoughts raced through my mind, I felt that it was hopeless. They were all so far above me! How long could this mad chase go on? We were all one slip away from certain destruction. “Please, God—” I repeated incoherently, my eyes following every move above me.

Teddy and Goldilocks had reached a narrow ledge, and could apparently go no further. They held each other tightly, looking down with horror on Gabriel’s progress, as Nurse pulled
herself up to join them. Then I saw Gabriel pause. Even from this distance I could tell that he was covered with blood. Could he be weakening? But with a sudden burst of effort, he pulled himself upward again.

“I’ve got you now!
I’ve got you now
, you dam’d little buggers!” he crowed. A few more moves and he would have them. I beat against the impervious rock helplessly, my eyes riveted to the scene. Directly above him, Nurse looked down, only for a moment, as if considering. Then she spread her arms out, and with a mighty “YAAAHHHH!” launched her whole body at Gabriel’s head, knocking him backward off the cliff. Down they went together, Gabriel’s screams ringing through the clearing, and then there was only the roar of the waterfall as it lost itself in the timeless peace of the lagoon.

Here my memories fade in and out like ghosts. Some moments stand out in my mind with lifelike clarity. Some are as insubstantial as dreams, and some are, perhaps mercifully, lost to me.

I remember being surprised by my own great, gulping sobs of grief, mingled with a kind of fierce joy at the magnificence of Nurse’s final act, which played over and over again in my mind, then and for years afterward. For the rest of my life I would try to sort out the puzzle of good and evil that was Nurse. Now I blessed her on her way and prayed that her Maker would judge her leniently.

Though I have no memory of what must have been a long and torturous climb, I remember reaching the high ledge at last, and Teddy sobbing, brokenhearted, in my arms as Goldilocks patted his back solicitously. Suddenly he raised his head and looked into my face, crying, “We won’t go down! They can’t make us! They’ll have to promise!” I was well aware by then that descending the cliff in the semidarkness would be madness,
even if the children had been quite willing. I knew besides that my battered body had taken all the abuse it could. I felt keenly the damage and swelling on my snout, and I was now barely able to lift a limb. There was no help for it; we must spend the night on this narrow ledge. Looking it over, I saw that it was only about four yards long and about a yard and a half deep, enough space for the three of us to sit safely, with some left over, but we could not lie down. I would have to remain awake and watchful. As my fear of the incipient darkness threatened to overcome me, I tried not to let the children see just how frightened I really was. Already I was imagining a night suspended over a black void, terrified of making one wrong move. And then, before the last of the light faded, I heard the most welcome sound I had ever heard in my life.

“Miss Brown! Miss Brown!” a voice called out. “Are you all right up there?”

There was no mistaking that voice. I crept to the edge of the ledge and peered over. Down at the foot of the cliff stood the one bear in the world I most wanted to see: Mr. Bentley—Jonathan! I didn’t know how he came to be there, and I didn’t care. All that mattered was his presence.

“Are you all right up there?” he repeated.

My body racked with pain, I hardly knew how to answer him. I took a deep, ragged breath and shouted down, “The children are all right! I’m not so well. I’m afraid we must spend the night up here!”

“Then I’ll come up and stay with you!” he called.

I hesitated a moment as relief flooded through me, but then I thought of him making the hazardous ascent in the dim light, and yelled down, “No! It’s too dangerous!” to no effect. I was
filled once again with the cold dread that had become normal to me in the past few hours, and at first I thought I could not stand to watch. Finding, after a time, that not watching was worse, I looked down and followed his slow progress up the cliff. After watching his every move for what seemed like an eternity, I even came to feel that my vigilance was somehow helping to keep him safe.

As he made his interminable climb, more and more figures came bursting into the clearing. I thought I could make out the faces of Fairchild and Harry, and I saw them take off their coats and lay them over the still forms at the base of the cliff. Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn appeared amid a crowd of others, and several strong bears had to restrain Mr. Vaughn from attempting to climb the cliff himself. I heard someone call for torches and lanterns, and a number of them went away, presumably to fetch them. Constable Murdley was there, telling everyone to keep back, and Reverend Snover stayed close by the Vaughns. It looked as if everyone from both sides of the conflict had followed them home from the courthouse, the curfew ignored, or forgotten, by the Enchanted in numbers too great to be subdued. I could imagine what the outcry must have been when the crowd had reached the manor house only to find Goldilocks and Teddy gone. Probably no force on earth could have stopped them from swarming along on the hunt to find the children. Now they were all gathering here, their attention fixed by the crisis unfolding before them.

On came Mr. Bentley, meanwhile, defying the great stone wall, and the failing light, and gravity itself. When at last he pulled himself over the lip of the ledge, I could not help my foolish tears. I profoundly wished that I could have thrown my arms
around him, but instead I only gave him a look full of gratitude and hoped that he could see it in my eyes.

“You came,” I said.

“I couldn’t leave you alone here in the dark,” he answered.

At his words, warmth suffused me. The cold claws of fear that had clutched my heart melted a little, and I suddenly felt that I could face the night to come. The children too seemed calmer in his presence. There was just enough room for him to sit at the opposite end of the ledge. All around us darkness was descending, and the air was turning bitterly cold as the last of the light faded away.

“How did you get here?” I asked.

“I wanted to attend the hearing, but I arrived too late to get into the courthouse. It was packed to overflowing by the time I got there. When word came of the judge’s decision, I was caught in the crowd outside, and it was bedlam. I could barely move. I waited for what seemed like an eternity to see the Vaughns coming out, but I must have missed them in the confusion. Finally, I worked my way free of the crowd and came back to the manor. That’s when Betsy told me that you and the children had gone, and I followed you here.”

“Thank Heaven you did,” I replied with a groan.

“Are you hurt? What has happened?”

I described to him the rock fight with Gabriel, and waking up bruised and battered. Teddy told him with tears in his eyes of the savage beating, which the children had witnessed.

“I’ll kill him!” was Mr. Bentley’s response.

“He’s already dead,” I assured him. “That was his body at the foot of the cliff.”

Teddy and I must have filled him in then, though I don’t
recall doing so, on the story of the wild chase up the cliffside, and of Nurse and her heroism. I have a hazy recollection of time passing, and the noise of many distant voices. My gaze was drawn to the masses of torches and lanterns below us, yet even as I marveled at the united show of concern among all the villagers, I couldn’t help but wonder if some of those concerned citizens were satisfied now with what they had driven these children to do.

I remember Teddy repeating his ultimatum to Mr. Bentley, explaining with an earnest resolution beyond his years that he and Goldilocks would not come down until they had everyone’s promise that Goldilocks would not be forced to go with Mother Shoe. Mr. Bentley listened attentively, then put his paw on the cub’s shoulder and told him that he admired him for taking a stand, and would do whatever he could to help. I remember him shouting Teddy’s message to the crowd below us, and hearing their cries of dismay.

“Oh, the poor dears!” yelled one.

“Oh, what have we done?” cried many others.

I remember Reverend Snover’s voice calling up to us, blessing us, and telling us that everyone down below would be standing together, keeping a vigil with us through the night. Would it be too much to hope, I wondered, that the children’s plight could soften some hearts, change some minds? I thought of the tale of Romeo and Juliet, bringing a city to its senses with their deaths, and prayed that it would not require so much as that. Preparing ourselves for the night ahead, Mr. Bentley and I settled the children between us, sitting them with their backs to the rock, and arranged our bodies on either side to shelter them from the sharp wind that had whipped up.

It was some time later, as the first stars were appearing, that I began to hear the music. Softly at first, it blended with the flow of the waterfall in an otherworldly harmony. As it increased in volume, I recognized it as the sound of a multitude of voices raised in song.