Try And Catch Me

"What are you doing here?" Lia ran as soon as she got off the horse from behind Eldric and gave Yolly a big hug. "Are you okay now?"

"Ay girlie. I'm fine. I'll have to thank you and your mother for that." She glanced behind Lia and knitted her bold eyebrows at Lia when she returned her gaze. "Is your mother not with you? My boy told me there's a commotion last night."

Frankie, who was lingering behind his mother, stepped forward to stand beside them. "What happened after-- you know…"

His eyes darted around them and he looked more frazzled than the day he went to their cottage. Lia suspected that he had not told his mother the entire truth of what that commotion was. She fought through her tears and meet their eyes. "She's-- she's gone."

Her words earned silence. Yolly blinked a few times, her grip getting stronger on Lia's arms. "Surely you didn't mean--"

"It's true. They-- they burned the house, along with-- with her." Lia choked back on her tears but did not want to let them fall at all cost. It would be harder to stop it once she let them fall.

Yolly wobbled on her leg that Lia and Frankie rushed to support her. In all the times Lia knew of her mother's friend, this was the first time she had seen Yolly shaken. Most of the time, she was the big lady everyone was frightened of. Lia was even intimidated when they first met. But the Yolly in front of her now was pale and frail, clearly recovering from her illness but her strength was tested once more with the news of Tamara's passing.

In a weak voice, Yolly said, "They? Who're they?"

"The townsfolk. Together with the mayor. They lit our house last night," Lia said.

Yolly placed a weak hand on her forehead and muttered something. Her voice was so low that it was so hard for Lia to catch it.

Eldric came beside them. Yolly and Frankie bowed at him in which Eldric nodded in response. "Why don't you come inside so you can talk more?"

"We actually came to talk you, Sir," Yolly said. "About the gin."

Eldric led them to the study room which also served as his temporary office. Lia stood awkwardly in the doorway.

"You can come in," Eldric said when he noticed her.

So the four of them entered the room and Yolly began. Lia listened as Yolly told them how the guards thrashed at her store. In a fit of desperation, she wanted to drown herself in alcohol. But being strapped in cash, she chose the drink offered at that hole in the wall store.

"It's got the cheapest, you see. But gives enough punch that I needed," Yolly said.

"Who's selling those drinks?" Eldric asked.

Yolly glanced at Frankie, her eyes asking an unspoken question. Her son shrugged in response. "We don't know," Yolly answered.

Eldric tapped the armchair absentmindedly. "So you don't know the name?"

"No sir. We don't know the name 'and' the face," Frankie said. "We-- we never asked. Well! Nobody did! I bet no one knew in this town."

"So he--or she, I guess, hid their face?"

Frankie knitted his brows in concentration. "There's always the cape and a hat. And it covers almost half the face."

Eldric thought for a while. "If you don't mind, I'd like you to repeat your description to Tim and we would appreciate it if you could point us to that store. But one thing, how did you get better? The patients still have fever and hallucination."

Yolly shot a glance at Lia. "That's what I want to know too."