The Rambling Spy

by Mackenzie Morgan

  As soon as she saw the house her temper flared. The windows were open. That meant someone was staying there. Lisal stomped across the yard and up the back steps. She grabbed the door handle, gave it a hard twist, and shoved the door with her shoulder. It opened easily, nearly dumping her on the floor. It wasn’t latched. Anyone could have walked in. That made her even angrier.

  She stormed around the kitchen, grabbing the bread, what was left of the cake, the canned fruits and vegetables Gloria had sent down, the cheese, and the eggs that had been delivered that morning and flung it all out the back door.

  When the kitchen counters were cleared, she went upstairs. It didn’t take long to figure out which rooms Hayley and Sherri were using. Everything they’d brought went out the back windows, along with the linens and towels Marcie and her neighbors had brought. When she got to the room Hayley was using as an office, she gathered up the journals, notes, papers, pens, and ink and tossed the whole lot out the window. Papers scattered all over the yard.

  After she’d gotten rid of all of their stuff upstairs, Lisal went back downstairs to see if they’d put anything in any of the rooms down there. When she found the room Hayley was using as an examining room, she pulled the drawers out of the chest of drawers, carried them to the window and tossed the packets of herbs outside. Next the bandages went flying out the window. In less than fifteen minutes she had everything emptied except the strongbox. She grabbed a knife from the kitchen and tried to pry it open. When that didn’t work, she tried to lift it so she could throw it out the window too, but it was too heavy. Finally she pushed and pulled it through the house to the back door, leaving scratches in the floors as she went. With a final shove, she got it out the door and down the steps. Then she dragged it across the yard towards the woods and left it beside a tree.

  Lisal went back inside, quickly glanced around the house one more time, and ran out the back door. It was almost time to set up for dinner. If she was late getting back to the tavern her mother would be furious.

  As she ran across the yard and headed for her horse, she gave herself a quick nod. She’d been right to come. No one was going to use her house without her permission, not anyone.

  ~~~~

  Hayley was tired when they got back from making the rounds, but it was a good tired. Everyone they’d visited seemed pleased to see her. She’d examined every man, woman, and child in and around Bridgeport and quite a few dogs, cats, and farm animals too, much to Sherri’s surprise. They’d left tea packets for various ailments, bandaged some minor wounds, tended a couple more serious ones, and in general had a very productive day. And everywhere they went, people wanted to feed them and send food home with them. By the time they were done, the buggy was packed.

  As Hayley pulled up in front of Marcus’s house, Sherri said, “Let’s put everything on the front porch. Then while you take the buggy to Marcie’s, I’ll get it all inside and sorted.”

  “Sounds good,” Hayley agreed.

  After they’d piled everything on the porch, Hayley left to return the horse and buggy and Sherri started taking the stuff inside. As soon as she went into the room they were using as an examining room, her eyes widened. Someone had been in there. The drawers they’d used for the herbs were half-open and empty. All the bandages were gone. She looked for the strongbox. Gone.

  She ran to the kitchen. The counters were empty. No cake, no bread, not one jar of anything. Everything they’d left sitting out was gone. She checked the cabinet for the flour, salt, and other staples Marcie had put in there. That was all there. Whoever had been in there had missed the stuff in the cabinets.

  Then she ran upstairs to check their rooms. The beds had been stripped, the drawers emptied, the wardrobes emptied, everything gone. Even the spare boots under her bed were gone. She found the same in Hayley’s room. Nothing of theirs remained.

  As she looked in Hayley’s office, she realized the window was open and the notes from her last trip to Bridgeport were gone. Hayley had left them on her desk so she could update them when they got back. She’d been afraid the breeze would blow them around, so that was the one window they’d shut before they left.

  When Sherri went to close the window, she saw what had happened to Hayley’s notes, as well as the rest of their stuff. With a heartfelt sigh, she closed the window and headed back downstairs. It was going to take a lot of work to get everything sorted and figure out what, if anything, was missing, but she needed to get the stuff in from the front porch before she started out back.

  Meanwhile Hayley drove the buggy around to the back of Marcie’s house and started removing the harness from the horse.

  Before she got very far, Caleb ran out the back door and told her to stop. “I’ll run you back to Uncle Marcus’s house,” he said as he refastened the harness.

  “You don’t have to do that,” Hayley said. “I can walk. It’s not far.”

  “I need an excuse to get out of the house.” Caleb climbed up in the buggy and grabbed the reins. “Mother’s in a cleaning mood. I think cleaning up Uncle Marcus’s house started it. I’ve been trying to get out all day.”

  Hayley laughed. “Then I’m glad to be of service. We had a busy day today and I’m tired.”

  The front porch was cleared by the time Hayley got back to the house. It was nice to have an aide, but there were some things she had to do herself, and updating the inventory of herbs was one of them. As much as she wanted to sit down and enjoy a bit of quiet, she needed to check her herbs first. She’d used more during rounds than she’d expected.

  As she made her way through the house, she called out, “Sherri? Where are you?”

  “Out back,” was the muffled answer.

  Hayley frowned and turned towards the kitchen and the back door. “What are you doing out there?”

  “Looking for my other boots, the old ones,” Sherri said as she tromped across the backyard. “They’re more comfortable than these.”

  “Why are you looking in the backyard?” Hayley asked as she opened the back door. When she saw the mess in the backyard, she sat down on the steps and said, “Oh, bother!” at the same time Sherri yelled, “Found them!”

  Sherri sat down on the steps next to Hayley to change her boots. “What are we going to do?”

  Hayley shook her head. “Well, for starters, we’re going to clean this mess up before anyone else sees it.” She got up and started looking around. Clothes, food, papers, even her herbs were scattered around the yard. “What did she do? Stand at the windows and toss?”

  “She must have. It wouldn’t be so scattered if everything had gone out the back door,” Sherri said. “You have any idea who did this?”

  Hayley paused. “I can’t think of anyone except Lisal, and if she did, it’s not about us.”

  “It sure feels like it is,” Sherri mumbled.

  “Have you seen the strongbox?” Hayley asked as she mentally cataloged the mess. “Is it inside?”

  Sherri pointed towards the woods. “It’s next to the oak tree, the big one, right at the edge of the woods. I started to drag it back, but I wanted you to check it before I moved it. I’m not sure whether it’s damaged or not.”

  Hayley looked in the direction Sherri was pointing and spotted the box. When she got to it, she could see the scratches where someone had tried to break into it, but other than that, it looked intact. “Help me get this back inside. Then we’ll start on the rest.”

  After she and Sherri got the strongbox back inside, Hayley paused and shook her head. “No. We’re going to take this back outside.”

  Sherri raised her eyebrows and looked at Hayley.

  “We can’t be sure she won’t be back, and she may bring an ax with her next time. Marcus put a cellar under the house and there’s a door hidden under the back steps. We need to put the herbs and clinic supplies in there for now. We’ll keep out a basic supply, but I want the rest hidden.”

  After they carried the strongbox back down the steps, Sherri looked around. “
Where’s the cellar?”

  Hayley moved a section of the lattice under the back porch. “Through here, but we’re going to need a glowstone. Would you mind…?”

  Sherri darted back up the steps, took a glowstone out of one of the kitchen lamps, and ran back outside. “Did you see the marks she left in the floor?”

  Hayley shook her head as she held out her hand for the glowstone. “I didn’t get a chance to look around inside. Anything else damaged?”

  “Not that I saw. You really think she’ll be back?”

  “I’d count on it.”

  Hayley used the glowstone to find the hidden latch and then opened the door to the cellar.

  Sherri walked inside and looked around. Marcus’s cellar was almost as big as the house, not the little cellar most people used to store fruits and vegetables. The floor was stone and shelves lined all the walls, half of them empty. Across the room, near the far wall, were a desk and chair. Two armchairs with a table between them sat next to the wall to their left, and a large work table stood in the center of the room. Glowstone lamps were scattered all around. “It’s like a secret room.”

  “That’s because that’s what it is. He put it in after the first time Lisal broke in.”

  “Why? Rayne said he puts wards all over the place.”

  “He does, but sometimes people stay here. He has to remove the wards then, so he built the cellar for things he wants to keep safe, to keep them ‘away from prying hands’ as he put it.” Hayley pointed to a block of shelves to the right of the door. “We’ll put the herbs and bandages on these shelves. I think the strongbox will fit under the bottom shelf.”

  After they got the strongbox in place, they went outside and started gathering packets of herbs and bandages.

  “For now, put them on the table,” Hayley said. “We’ll sort them and get them on the shelves later.”

  “What about our clothes? If we put them back upstairs and she comes back…”

  Hayley thought for a moment. “Let’s put them in the parlor. We’ll figure things out later.”

  An hour and a half later the backyard was clear. Hayley had taken all the food that had been ruined and buried it near the edge of the woods. Anything that could be eaten was back in the kitchen. While Hayley got a fire started in the stove, Sherri went through the remaining food along with the food they’d been given during the day to figure out what she could fix for dinner. Before long they were both sitting down with a plate full of food.

  “Back to the question I asked earlier,” Sherri said, “What are we going to do?”

  “I’m not sure,” Hayley said slowly. “I don’t want to start a war, and if Marcie finds out about this, it could happen.”

  Sherri raised her eyebrows. “A war?”

  Hayley quickly shook her head. “Not one with people killing each other. The kind where people get mad, argue, and take sides. They can get ugly though, and we do not want to be the cause of anything like that.”

  “How can we be the cause? We didn’t do anything!”

  “Apparently our presence in this house is a problem, at least for Lisal. Her problem’s with Marcus. We just happen to be caught in the middle of it, and that’s one place we do not belong, so we’re going to find somewhere else to stay.”

  “And we’re going to do that without anyone finding out what happened?”

  Hayley stood up and carried her plate to the sink. “That’s right. And you cannot tell Rayne anything about this. Remember earlier today when we were talking about the confidentiality of patient reports? Well, this falls under the same thing.”

  Sherri’s forehead knotted up. “How?”

  “Anything involving chapel business is confidential.”

  “You said this isn’t about us, so how is it chapel business?”

  “It affects us, and decisions I make concerning where we live, where we hold clinics, when they’ll be, or anything else like that qualifies as chapel business, and all chapel business is confidential. Understand?”

  Sherri got up and rinsed her plate off. “So what do we say when they want to know why we’re moving?”

  “There’s a perfectly valid reason why it’s better for us to be somewhere else, something I didn’t consider when I decided to stay here.”

  Sherri scrunched up her forehead. “What reason?”

  “I have no idea. I’ll tell you as soon as I figure it out.” Hayley wiped her hands and put the towel back on the counter. “As for now, let’s sort our clothes. No one has room for both of us and all our stuff so we’ll need to store most of it. Keep out enough for a week and we’ll bag up the rest and put it in the cellar with the herbs.”

  Sherri took a deep breath and followed Hayley to the parlor. “Where are we sleeping tonight?”

  “Here. I shook out the sheets when I picked them up. We can use them for one night. We’ll make up the beds with fresh linens tomorrow morning.”

  “So we’re leaving tomorrow?”

  Hayley nodded as she folded clothes and stuffed them in bags. “But don’t ask where we’re going. I haven’t gotten that far yet. For now, just sort.”

  ~~~~

  Tuesday morning Hayley woke up shortly after sunrise. She’d been so worn out when she’d gone to bed she’d fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. At some point during the night, she must have decided what to do because it was clear when she woke up. She and Sherri were moving in with Morris and Gloria.

  She’d tell Morris that Marcus’s house was too far out. And she’d tell him she needed to hold clinics at least three times a week, and the only logical place to hold the clinics was at the tavern. She was pretty sure Kent would agree, especially if Morris was the one doing the asking. Then, if anyone was sick and needed to stay where she could keep an eye on them, she’d put them in one of the rooms at the inn and see to them there. She could handle all of that a lot easier from Morris’s house than from Marcus’s.

  But she needed another reason to give Marcie. During her rounds Monday, she’d checked on the building site and it wasn’t any farther along than the last time she was in town. She could tell Marcie that if she stayed at Marcus’s and worked out of his house, the townspeople wouldn’t be in any hurry to get it done. They’d be perfectly happy with the situation as it was. She needed to be where the people of Bridgeport could see her every day, see her lugging supplies around every time she held a clinic, and see her holding clinics in the tavern. They needed to be reminded on a daily basis of the chapel they hadn’t finished.

  During breakfast she told Sherri what they were going to do and the reason they were going to give Morris, but she kept the reason she was giving Marcie to herself.

  After breakfast she asked Sherri to strip the beds and make them with fresh linens while she went to Bridgeport to discuss her plans with Morris. Then she left for Marcie’s to pick up the buggy.

  When Hayley got to Marcie’s, she and Marcie sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of tea.

  “So, how are things going?” Marcie asked. “Everything all right at Marcus’s?”

  “Everything’s great, and I want to thank you for all the work you did getting it ready.” When Marcie waved off her thanks, Hayley sighed. “Which makes what I’m going to say even harder. I need to stay in Bridgeport if I ever want to get into that chapel. Yesterday while I was making rounds I checked on the work site. Marcie, it hasn’t been touched since the last time I was here. If I stay out at Marcus’s, it’ll never get finished. They’ll figure I’ve got a place and forget all about the chapel.”

  Marcie shook her head. “I’m sorry. I was thinking you’d be more comfortable at Marcus’s because you’d have plenty of room and your own kitchen, but you might be right.”

  For a moment the two women sat quietly. Then Marcie asked, “Have you decided where you’re going to stay in town?”

  “I might take Morris up on his offer. When I talked to him a month ago he said we could stay with him. And since he’s the town director…”


  “And he does have three empty bedrooms. Thom, Marcus, and Shel all had their own room when they were growing up. He may have turned one of them into an office, I don’t know, but that would still leave two. At least you and Sherri won’t have to share a room. Have you talked to him about this yet?”

  Hayley shook her head. “I was going to ask if I could use the buggy again today to go to town, talk to him, and hopefully move our stuff this afternoon.”

  “In the buggy? All your stuff?”

  Hayley shook her head. “Just enough for now. We’re taking a week’s worth of clothes and enough herbs for a couple of clinics. I’ll store the rest at Marcus’s. I can always run out here and pick up whatever I need.”

  Marcie frowned. “I don’t know about leaving all your stuff there. Someone could get in and take something, especially your herbs.”

  Hayley smiled. “You know he put a big cellar in, don’t you?”

  Marcie grinned. “I wasn’t sure you knew about it. I was going to suggest it.”

  “We’ve already moved the extra stuff down there. Sherri’s putting fresh linens on the beds this morning. I’ll get the ones we used laundered and back to you by the end of the week, but you might want to keep a check on his place until he puts the wards back up. You never know…”

  Marcie nodded. “You never know is right. And you can drop your linens off here. I’ll take care of them.”

  Hayley shook her head. “You’ve done enough already. Besides, I’ve got an aide now. She needs to start taking care of stuff like that. Once we have the chapel up and running, she’ll be doing laundry on a regular basis.”

  “You aren’t afraid of scaring her off?”

  “If she’s not cut out for this work, it’s better for her to find out now.” Hayley stood up. “I hate to cut this short, but I need to get going if we’re going to get everything done today.”