Part 16 (1/2)

'What now?' Sherlock asked after they had heard nothing for a few minutes

'I think we need to meet up with my father and Rufus and Matty Soht'

He turned his head Her eyes were only an inch away from his

He wanted to kiss her, but instead he just said, 'Let's go'

The gorse and the heather were rough underfoot The steed across the inia's shoes were a lot le to keep up

They both looked around as they walked, checking the buildings behind the in case anyone had seen theely deserted Sherlock worried that a figure would spring up fro happened

The setting sun cast their shadows across the heather, purple on purple The air was cold, and it smelled of flowers Despite the lateness of the year a handful of bees buzzed slowly around,from bloo?'

He turned his head Virginia was looking at hily She had noticed his preoccupation

'I was just thinking about bees,' he explained

'Bees?' She shook her head disbelievingly 'We're separated fro of et it'

He shrugged, suddenly defensive 'I understand bees,' he said 'They aren't complicated They do whatever they do for obvious reasons They're like little clockwork machines They make sense'

'And you don't understand people?'

He kept walking, not answering for a ?' he asked suddenly 'Because Bryce Scobell decided that he didn't like the American Indians and decided to wipe the somewhere there weren't any Indians? Because your father was sent to catch hi hi the way? Because Scobell becae on your father and followed hi peacefully somewhere else in the world? I don't understand any of it! If people just acted logically, then none of this would be happening now!'

'Scobell is inia said quietly 'He doesn't have any morals, any scruples He does whatever he needs to in order to get what he wants'

'Theabout his own father, 'that's the only thing about this whole business I do understand It's a very logical attitude'

'It's only logical if you're the only person who acts that way,' she pointed out quietly 'If everyone in the world acts that logically, then everyone fights everyone else, civilization falls apart, chaos ensues and only the strong survive'

They walked on in silence for a while Sherlock could feel Virginia staring at hi to say

A sudden movement and a burst of noise startled the itself fro away

By now they were nearly at the stone wall that they had seen earlier Sherlock looked over his shoulder onceto see the same empty landscape he had seen every other ti down by the chapel At that distance he couldn't tell whether they were locals or Scobell'sto take a chance Before he could do anything, Virginia grabbed him by the arh, and she juht He vaulted the wall and dropped down beside her

Sherlock got to his knees and peered over the top of the wall, looking down the slope There were still people around the chapel

'Coet to ht,' he said, 'but carefully Stay out of sight'

Together they scurried along in the wall's shadow, keeping low so that the stones shi+elded the in their direction

Sherlock peered ahead In the distance, across an undulating stretch of ground, was a wooded area

'Cohtfall'

Despite being rife with tension the walk towards the trees was quiet and even boring Sherlock was exhausted after all that he'd suffered that day, and he found that just putting one foot in front of the other, over and over again, was one of the s he'd ever had to do Every now and then he would stumble over a stone, or put his foot in a pothole, and he would nearly fall over a inia's aht mean they had been spotted, but apart from the birds that circled in the sky and the occasional rabbit the only thing that Sherlock saas a round Its antlers spread like small trees stripped of their leaves It stared impassively at them, head turned to one side When it was certain they were not a threat it lowered its head to the ground and began to eat the heather

The sky dio to black as they walked Stars began to twinkle: first one or two, and then, within a few , and how it had casually disetation, Sherlock realized that he was hungry No, he was starving Apart froe, he hadn't eaten since breakfast

Virginia was biting her lip She looked hungry too

What were his options? Try to chase a rabbit down the next time one broke from cover? Unlikely that he would succeed Throw Matty's knife a which was still in his pocket a and hope to hit a rabbit? He didn't know h he'd seen it done at fairgrounds, but he suspected that the knives had to be carefully balanced so that they spun smoothly, end over end Matty's knife had a handle that was much bulkier than the blade He wouldn't be able to aim it properly

He reiven him, back in Hampshi+re in the woods that surrounded Holi were safe to eat and which were poisonous If he could find solanced around There wasn'ttheot into the trees he could find sos in piles of leaf mould

He looked up to see how far they were from the wood The treeline was probably half a inia said 'We can sleep there for the night'

Sherlock followed the direction in which she was pointing At first he saw nothing, but then he spotted a s in the shadow of the trees For a second he thought it was someone's house, but after a lass, and the door-less entrance It was a hut, built to shelter shepherds from storms

'Well spotted,' he said

'Any chance of so'

Sherlock thought for a inia for a bit while he scouted for mushrooms

He told her so She looked sceptically at him 'Mushrooms? You tryin' to poison ood teacher'

She raised an eyebrow 'He ood teacher, but are you sure he knohat he's talkin' about?'

'Only one way to find out'

'Look, why don't I collect soet the mushrooht? There are people after us'

She stared at him, an eyebrow raised 'I can look after myself'

They checked inside the stone shelter Just one room, and leaves had drifted into the corners, but it see brazier, along with a couple of battered saucepans and so?' she asked

He shrugged 'As long as it takes You want dinner, don't you?'