A/N: Thanks to those who are still reviewing. I really really enjoy hearing what everyone has to say about the chapters. If you have any suggestions or comments, I do take those into account.

Chapter Fifteen

The inhabitants of the Exchequer Hotel were sleeping comfortably by the time Helen slipped silently into my room. She had a small knapsack filled with a change of clothes for both her and her doll Ally. She also had some various provisions and saved some space for food. I had taken a carpetbag that had been left by a customer long before I had arrived at the hotel and did the same.

Like Helen, I had little clothing. I left my outfit that Ester had me wait tables in folded and set on the bed. There wouldn't be much need for it and I didn't feel right taking it, even if it had been wearable in public. The change of clothes that I arrived in had been thrown away. After all, I had worn the same outfit for months while working with the Commune and its condition was not mendable, even before my faltering through the snow and plunge into the icy lake. Janette had given me some of her old clothes that were too small for her. I had tailored them further down to fit me and it left me with three outfits. If I needed to, I could hem the skirts and size the tops down by half for Helen.

Helen had already compiled enough food to last us a week if we were careful. Neither of us ate much, so my main concern was the food spoiling before we could eat it. I piled it in our bags, placing the food that would last the longest on the bottom and layered upwards in order of how long it should last.

We worked in silence, making as little sound as possible. We kept the lantern light at its dimmest and thanked our intimate knowledge of our surroundings that we didn't stumble over things. When we had everything put together and our warmest cloaks fastened around our shoulders, I tucked the money I had earned from sewing jobs the customers had given me throughout my stay into the inside breast pocket.

I turned out the lantern and we crept soundlessly down the stairs and past the lobby. I noted with surprise that a white envelope rested on the counter with Ester's name scrawled across the center. I panicked for a moment, worried that the Baron and his friend might have seen some evidence of our flight. If they had, there was nothing that we could do about it now.

I unlocked the front door, pausing to realize that when they left, they must have had someone lock the door again behind them. It was a strange thing to have suddenly come to mind, but I dismissed it as paranoia. I peered outside and saw no movement, so I quickly waved Helen foreword and we slipped out into the cold night.

We kept our footsteps quiet until the hotel was out of sight. Then we lit the lantern again to nearly full light. We warmed our chilled hands by the flame before taking a deep breath and trudging on again.

We stopped briefly a short time later to rest and eat, but the cold quickly set in and we had to keep moving before the chill seeped into our muscles.

We could no longer continue as the sun began to creep over the tops of the trees. We looked for anyone awake that we could beg some warm room of. We still had not reached a town, but we were finally getting into some sparse homesteads. An elderly lady was on her front porch, watching two small dogs roll in the dewy grass. She called out to us as we stumbled past, nearly falling from exhaustion.

"Hello! You there! What are you doing out here this early in the morning? You'll catch your death colds." Her voice was kind, but strong. She reminded me somewhat of a sweeter Madam Giry in twenty years.

Helen and I stopped to catch our breaths and I replied with a practiced lie. "We have been travelling all night. My husband is after us. He hurt us and I'm taking my daughter and fleeing." There was little point in trying to continue the illusion of deafness. It was actually a good thing to leave that behind. Perhaps it would throw anyone looking for us off our trail just long enough to slip away.

"Well, then, you had better come inside and warm yourself. Looks like you're both about to drop. Come on, I've got some tea brewing on the stove. Come come."

Under other circumstances, I would have put on an air of humility and denied her help, but Helen and I both were shivering horribly and our bodies were too weary to continue. I nodded gratefully and followed her into the cozy house with the two shaggy dogs trailing behind us.

In very little time I was sitting on the single bed in the house, with my head lolling against the wall, a steaming cup of cheap tea in hand and Helen sleeping with her head on my lap. I told the old woman, Iris, about my fake husband for a while, until I grew too sleepy and she ceased her questioning, accepting what I had told her as fact. I found my story closely paralleling some of my time with the Commune. It was a wonder she didn't catch on.

Iris pledged to keep us safe for as long as we needed to stay with her. She also promised to keep our presence hidden by any who might come looking for us. We wouldn't be able to stay any longer than it took us to get warmed up again and our strength to return, but it was a thoughtful gesture.

It took us much longer than I had wanted or expected to rejuvenate. Once I had slipped off to sleep, I did not wake again until late afternoon. I hadn't realized until I stopped how tired I was. When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying under the blankets of the bed. It felt so nice and warm that I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. But a strange noise caught my attention and I sat up, rubbing my eyes as my mind adjusted to reality again.

Helen sat cross-legged on the floor not far away. The two dogs were vying for position to lick every inch of skin on her smiling face. I had never seen her smile so brightly as when she tried to figure out how best to pet both wiggling animals at once.

"She's a good one with those beasts," Iris' voice sounded from somewhere off to my side. I jumped and pressed a hand to my heart. She instantly came to comfort me. "Oh that's right, dear. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's alright," I croaked out and thanked her as she handed me a bowl of vegetable stew. I ate it with vengeance against my thundering hunger. Helen finally seemed to notice I was awake and left the dogs to be distracted by chasing each other's tails.

"From her garden," she said proudly as she sat next to me on the bed, pointing to the colorful mixture I was devouring. "That's right," added Iris. "that little girl of yours is quite the helper. She knew just which ones to pull and then helped me cook them."

I thought of all the things Helen had done at the hotel for Ester and mused that picking vegetables from a garden were probably one of the easiest things she had ever done to help.

Iris proved to be a very incredible woman. For as long as someone was willing to listen, she told story after story about everything. She told us about her husband who had passed away thirteen years before, and how he built the very house they were sitting in. She had promised him to keep it for as long as she could. "Didn't expect him to go before me, though," she paused to add with a twinkle in her eye. "If I had known that, I wouldn't have promised to watch out for his two mutts too. Shoulda buried them with him."

We listened until the sky lit up with the colors of the setting sun. I had lost track of the time completely. I meant to be gone long before then. When I conveyed my thoughts to Helen and Iris it was met by unhappy looks from both. "Just stay the night," said Iris. "There's plenty of room on the floor and you get can started first thing in the morning."

"We should really get going. We've tarried too long as it is. Besides," I added. "I'm not the least bit tired after sleeping all morning." Helen looked at me with sad, but agreeing eyes. We both knew that we needed to be further away, despite how much we wanted to stay.

When we finally convinced Iris of our position, she reluctantly agreed before her face lit up with a thought. "I just remembered! I've got something that'll help you. Follow me." With that, she stood and made her way out the back door. Helen and I exchanged a look but got up and did as we were told.

She led us to the side of the small stable barn in the back of the house. "Something else my husband left me before he took off after all the young skinny woman in the sky – er, before he died," she corrected to our confused expressions. She pointed to a pile of wood, held together by a thread and a prayer.

"I don't have much use for a wagon now. It's pretty ancient, but it'll get you farther than you can get on foot."

"That's very sweet of you, Iris, but we don't have a horse." I didn't want to be rude, but it was going to be obvious very quickly that it wouldn't actually be of any use to us.

Iris smacked herself on her wrinkled forehead. "Of course, of couse. What am I thinking?" She opened the barn door to reveal a small inside with a single stall. In the stall was a ragged looking brown mare, flicking flies off her spotted fur with her tail. "She's about as old as that wagon out there, but she's got some miles left in her hooves. I haven't had a use for her since I started needing to only plant for one. She needs one last adventure and I can think of nothing nobler than helping the two of you."

"Oh, Iris," I protested. "we could never take your horse from you. How would you get into town to buy supplies? Or what if you got hurt and needed help? You must keep your horse."

"Nonsense," she replied with a wave of her hand. "I can get one of the neighbors if I need to. Don't deprive an old woman of a chance to help."

I couldn't argue with her. She had a response for every counter. Finally, I relented and accepted her generous offer. She clapped her withered hands together like a child. "Good! Now, my littlest dear, you go inside and grab that basket of cookies on the oven while your mum and I get Genny here hitched up."

In a surprisingly short amount of time, we were all ready to go, with our bags in the back, snuggled next to a large quilt that Iris had insisted upon us taking along. We hugged Iris, thanking her repeatedly for her generous hospitality. We got into the front of the wagon, the well-used leather straps of the harness in my hands.

The sun had just slipped behind the hills when we started off. I was surprised that the wagon held together, it creaked and groaned at every turn of the wheel. As Iris had said we would, we went much further than we would have gone on foot, but I worried that it wouldn't be fast enough. When Genny could go on no longer, I tied her loosely to a tree where she could eat and rest, then we climbed into the back, pulled the comforter over us and let our bags serve as pillows.

We woke a few hours later, ate and then began again. This routine served us perfectly for three days. We were able to avoid the smaller towns where someone might remember us and headed in the direction of a larger town where we might go unnoticed.

The Commune had taken me south of Paris before Richard had us cutting east towards Switzerland. I was finally able to figure that we had ended up closer to Italy. I spoke only limited Italian and my miniscule knowledge was from the few Italian pieces we had performed at the Opera. Even then, I didn't know what we were singing half the time. I hoped that if we stayed in well populated areas once there that enough people would know either French or Swedish. It was the best chance we had of disappearing forever.

On the fourth day, we decided it would be best to give Ginny a prolonged rest and risked staying the night at a small inn. It took our money down to a pittance. After getting Helen settled down I asked at the desk if there was anything local that I could do to earn some extra money, but the young woman assured me that I would find nothing.

On my way back up, I stopped on the stairs, just to the left of the desk, but invisible to the girl, to consider our position. We had enough money left to buy food for maybe two more days, but then I would have to find something to make us more money. As I sat with my head in my hands, I couldn't help but overhear as the girl I had just spoken to called back to another person to come talk to her.

Another female voice soon answered and they began conversing in excited tones. "I think that woman is staying here tonight," said the girl. The other voice asked for clarification, which the young woman was all too happy to give. "The woman that that guy came in here yesterday to ask about, I think she's checked in here. She just asked me what she could do to earn some money."

"What should we do?"

"He said he was coming back tonight. Do you think we should tell him?"

"Did he say what he wanted with her?"

"Just that it was very important that he finds her."

"I say, hold out until he offers you some kind of reward, and then tell him where to find her."

I listened with horror, unable to say or do anything. These women were talking about selling me out to make some money as though my life mattered nothing to them. When the other woman finally retreated back to wherever she came from and the girl at the desk began humming absently, I mustered the motivation to creep up the stairs, trying to not make a sound. I had to get Helen and get out of there as soon as possible.