Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.
Shadow Puppets
Chapter 17
Lester and Morelli pulled all the tables in the lodge over to the thorn wall while Garrick and Belle collected their limited possessions. They met back at the wall.
"Let's do this," Garrick said grimly.
Lester used his machete to cut a deep alcove into the wall. When it was a couple of feet deep he stood clear and Morelli and Garrick heaved a table into the space.
They waited.
After a few minutes, the wall sighed and moved down. It pushed hard at the interloper and there was a screech as thorns ground across the wood, but the table held.
"Result," Lester said with satisfaction. He crawled underneath the table and hacked into the wall again to make the space a little deeper. Gradually they pushed the tables into position under the wall and opened a tunnel under the thorns.
It was dark and claustrophobic underneath the wall in the tunnel made of tables. Periodically the wall shoved at the tables, making the wood groan and screech. Each time it happened, he stopped and held his breath, hoping that he wasn't about to be trapped for good.
Finally he cut through the last of the branches and pushed out into the sun. "Tank!"
Tank came running over from the campsite.
"Help me widen this. I'll tell you why afterwards."
Tank nodded and hacked into the side of the thorn wall.
Lester turned around and shouted back down the tunnel. "Time to move! Push the tables up then send Belle through and follow her, fast. No time to look for the gun or the radio."
"Belle?" Tank questioned.
"Later, man. Get ready to help them out."
A minute later Belle's blonde hair poked out of the tunnel. Tank extended a hand to help her out. She stared at him wide eyed before accepting it.
He lifted her out effortlessly and passed her off to Lester. Morelli came through shortly after her.
The wall pressed down again, and the wood of the tables groaned loudly with the pressure. Lester heard the sound of wood splintering somewhere inside the wall. He shouted down the tunnel. "Garrick, move!"
They waited for Garrick to get through the tunnel and get out. The splintering and cracking sounds got louder and the leaves on the outside of the wall rattled and sighed as if they were blowing in a strong wind. The air where they stood was heavy and still without a breath of breeze.
There was a loud crack inside the wall as Garrick propelled himself out of the tunnel like a champagne cork. He threw himself forward and clear just as the wood of the tables collapsed under the pressure of the wall. They watched their tunnel disappear forever as the thorn wall reclaimed its territory.
Garrick stood up and brushed himself off. "That gray-haired old sow had better hope that she died while I was asleep," he said conversationally.
There was a thunder of hooves around the curve of the wall and Garrick drew his sword so fast that it was barely visible. "Who's that?"
Tank sighed. "That would be Morelli's horse. She's been pacing the wall since they went through."
The gray horse came galloping round the bend in a mass of hooves and white hair. When she saw Morelli she whinnied and moved even faster.
Garrick swept Belle up into his arms and they all scattered away from the advancing avalanche in case she couldn't stop in time. The horse changed direction to follow Morelli and for a moment it looked as though she might trample him. Instead, when she was nearly on top of him she sat back on her enormous haunches and ground to a halt, leaving deep furrows in the ground. She whickered and nudged her head against him.
"Jesus," Morelli said weakly. "I nearly just filled my pants."
"You're not alone," Lester said from the middle of the stream.
Garrick returned without Belle and circled the horse, looking at her appraisingly. "Your horse?"
She rolled her eyes and aimed a cow-kick at him.
"She seems to think so," Morelli answered.
"Nice ride?"
"I don't ride. She carries the packs."
"Waste of a good horse. You should ride her."
"Maybe some day."
* * *
Tank, Lester, and Morelli took Garrick and Belle to the campsite where Lula and Edna were.
Morelli sniffed as they approached. "What's that smell?"
Tank grimaced. "Edna's homemade plant stuff. Why do you think I was over by the wall when you came through? Turns out she picked a bunch of those leaves she was talking about while we were bathing in the river…"
"Ri-ight," Morelli said dubiously.
"Yeah, I don't think that was all she was doing either. She keeps smiling at me and waggling her eyebrows. It's downright unsettling…" Tank drifted off for a moment and then carried on. "Anyway, as soon as you guys got trapped, she grabbed Lula and set her to shredding and cooking these leaves with her. It stopped Lula from trying to tear the wall apart with her bare hands, so I ain't complaining, but damn, the smell…"
The closer they got, the worse the smell was; an acrid medicinal odor that set up camp in the nose and refused to leave.
"Jesus, what are they doing?" Lester asked.
Tank took a deep breath and coughed. "Let's find out."
They walked over to the campfire. A wall of heat hit them from a fire burning small and hot in a circle of round stones. Lula kneeled in front of it, carefully stirring something in a battered cooking pot hanging over the fire. She was stripped to her bra, with her tee-shirt wrapped around her hair instead. Sweat beaded the warm, cocoa skin of her face and breasts. The air above the pot shimmered with heat in the still, airless summer day.
Morelli looked into the pot at the thick, green paste. His eyes started to water immediately and he jerked away. Pain flared in his back where the thorns had torn it and he felt a warm trickle run down his back under the leather jerkin. "What is that stuff?"
Lula shrugged, her breasts heaving in the confines of the bra. "Ask Edna. I'm just the kitchen girl."
"Lu?" Tank's voice had a possessive edge. "You wanna put your shirt back on now the guys are back?"
Lula didn't take her eyes off the paste she was stirring. "I'm hot. I'll put it back on when I'm done here."
He stared at her. "There are strangers with us."
"Yeah? And?"
Tank dropped his machete to the ground, growled and stalked away from the fire. "Morelli, Lester, debrief, now. Bring your new friends."
* * *
Lula gave the thick paste one more stir and took the pot off the fire. She wiped the sweat from her face with the back of her hand, rose and stretched, rolling her head on her shoulders and reaching up high to stretch her shoulders until she felt them click. "It's done!" she called. "You ready?"
"Bring it here," Edna called back from behind the tent.
Lula lifted the pot carefully and took it to her.
Edna had one of the emergency silver blankets spread out in the sun with either a gun or a shoe sitting on each corner. A thin coating of the paste was spread out on the blanket to dry.
"Pour it on that side," Edna directed. "This side's just about ready."
Lula poured the paste over the blanket and spread it out thinly with the spoon she had used to stir the pot. When she looked up from her task, Edna was watching her with an inquisitive, bird-like stare.
"What?"
"What did you just say to Tank? I could almost hear his teeth grinding as he came through here."
"Refused to put my shirt back on just 'cause the boys were back. It's hot."
Edna grinned. "How terrible for him."
Lula moved the paste around, using the back of the spoon to make a pattern of swirling, circular loops and tiny ridges and valleys. "It ain't my problem if he don't want other men lookin' at me."
"We could make it worse. Someone's going to have to put this on the boys."
Lula thought about it and shook her head. "I don't wanna spoil your fun. I know you been lookin' forward to this."
Edna smiled beatifically. "I have. Oh yes I have." She scraped the drying paste together with her fingers and scooped it into a plastic bag. "Call the boys. Doctor Mazur is in the house."
* * *
Morelli and Lester were trying to explain Trenton for Belle and Garrick when Lula emerged from behind the tents, pulling her tee-shirt back over her head as she walked.
"Time to get your shirts off, guys. We got somethin' for the scratches."
"Not that green stuff?" Morelli asked, horrified.
"That's it. Better get your ass in gear, Edna's just about done."
"Oh dear God, no," Lester moaned. "She's going to put it on herself, isn't she?"
Lula grinned. "She's been lookin' forward to it all day. Don't keep her waitin'."
Lester leaned forward and banged his head against the ground. "No, no, no," he muttered into the dirt, "please, no."
Morelli looked helplessly at Lula's departing back. "Can't she do it?"
"Who, Lula?" Lester asked without looking up.
"Yeah."
Lester pushed himself up. "Take a really good look over there at Tank."
Morelli looked over. Tank was hacking great chunks of thornwood out of the wall with one of the machetes and piling it up beside him.
"You see the look on his face?" Lester continued.
"Yeah?"
"I've never seen him so pissed off in all the years I've known him. Nothing pisses Tank off, nothing. I've seen people try to shoot him and he acts like it's just another day at the office. Whatever's going on between those two, I guarantee that you don't want to be in the middle of it."
"You're really going to strip and let Edna rub that stuff all over you rather than risk annoying Tank?"
"Hell no, I'd rather eat worms. I don't plan to let that stuff anywhere near me in the first place."
"Good plan. Count me in."
"Are you two quite finished?"
Morelli and Lester both turned to see Garrick staring at them.
"What kind of warriors are you that you turn down medicine so lightly?" he carried on.
Lester shook his head. "You don't understand, man."
"I understand enough. Belle, up. Go with the woman, Lula?"
Belle nodded obediently, got to her feet and walked after Lula. Garrick fixed Lester and Morelli with a steely stare. "You two stay where I can see you until she gets back."
Morelli sighed. "You know, we really don't have any designs on her. We were just following the story."
"She's in my charge. You stay here until she's treated and clothed again."
Lester shrugged. "Whatever you say, man. Trust me, we're in no hurry. You'll find out."
* * *
Belle returned ten minutes later with the ragged sleeves of her long dress rolled back and a sharp, herbal smell following her. The exposed skin of her forearms showed several livid scratches coated with pale green paste. "She says to come around now. She's a nice lady, and it doesn't sting. I don't know what you're so worried about."
Garrick aimed a triumphant look at Lester and Morelli.
"Well, I guess you were right and we were wrong. Please, after you." Lester waved toward the tent.
Garrick nodded and walked away, stripping off his jerkin as he walked to reveal a back corded with muscle and the thin white lines of old scars.
"We should have warned him," Morelli murmured as he watched Garrick's departing back.
"We did try," Lester pointed out. "It's not our fault if he thinks he knows best."
They lapsed into silence and waited for Garrick to return.
* * *
He came back a good twenty minutes later.
Lester nudged Morelli. "Uh oh."
Morelli looked up. Garrick's eyes were wide and staring. His mouth opened and closed soundlessly.
"Are you okay… all right?" Morelli asked as he reached them and sat down.
Garrick shuddered. "The hands! The hands were everywhere. I'm sure I didn't have scratches in some of those places. She even put her hands on my…" He trailed off into silence.
Morelli patted his back in sympathy before turning to Lester. "I guess it's time. No-one has to know about this back home, right?"
"Never," Lester said with feeling.
"Swear?"
Lester clenched his fist and shook it in the air. "We are brothers in adversity. We know no fear. Let's do this."
They moved slowly toward the other side of the tents where Edna and her green paste waited for them.
* * *
The stifling heat finally gave way as the sun relaxed its grip on the grasslands and the shadow of the wall lengthened to cast its oppressive spell to the east again. It missed the tiny campsite entirely, leaving their little circle of flattened grass to bask in the sleepy warmth of the setting sun.
Lula left the circle carrying a bowl in one hand and a plastic bag in the other, and made her way across the open grassland between the camp and the thorn wall, her only companion the shadow that stretched out beside her and walked across the grass in tandem steps.
She stopped at the wall, where the crimson flowers seemed to pulse a sullen deep red in the fading light. She found what she was looking for in a hollow formed by the wall and a curved stack of branches piled higher than her head that cast its own dark shadow across the golden grass. The sloping rays pooled in the hidden space like warm honey. "Tank," she said softly.
He sat unmoving on the ground in the hollow that he'd created. "Yeah?"
She set the bowl and the bag on the ground and sat in front of him. "Show me your arms."
He didn't move.
She took one of his enormous hands in both of hers and pulled it toward her, straightening his arm and revealing the livid criss-cross of scratches that covered his wrist and arm. "Dumbass. Look what you did."
"We needed firewood."
"Yeah, I know. You got plenty. Come here." She put his hand in her lap, wrung out the piece of cloth that was soaking in the bowl and used it to bathe the scratches. Drops of warm water dripped onto her lap, soaking into her pants. She carefully laved all the scratches before pulling the other one into her lap too and repeating the action. When she was finished the water in the bowl was pink with blood.
She picked up the bag and dipped her fingers into the green paste inside. She smoothed the paste over each of the angry scratches, one by one.
When all the scratches were treated, she carried on without the paste, tracing the crook of his elbows and the curve of his biceps. She gradually eased up from her seat on the ground to kneel in front of him as she made her way up his arms to his broad shoulders and his neck. When she reached his neck she cradled his face between her hands and kissed him gently once, twice, three times.
On the third he wrapped both his arms around her and pulled her into him, pressing his face against her breasts. "You make me crazy sometimes," he muttered into her body, heating her skin with his breath.
She wrapped her own arms around his head and held him to her. "I love you." She rested her cheek against his head and stayed still, feeling the warmth of the setting sun against her back and the heat of his embrace at her front.
Minutes passed, and she wondered if he would keep her there all night. Finally he relaxed his hold on her and pressed his lips against her in earnest, dropping kisses onto the broad expanse of her breasts through her tee-shirt. He pulled it up to expose the softness of her belly and laid a line of kisses from her navel to her breasts.
She stripped the tee-shirt the rest of the way off and tossed it behind her before reaching to his waist and pulling his own tee-shirt out of his pants. She dragged it over his head and tossed it away to join her own before pushing him backwards and following him down to the ground. She kissed him hard, pushing her tongue into his mouth, seeking and finding his own there. Their tongues dueled frantically as they rolled on the flattened grass in their private hollow.
He unbuttoned her jeans and pushed them down over her hips, pressing kisses to her belly as he pulled her shoes off and dragged her pants over her feet and off.
She reached out to do the same, but as she unbuttoned his cargoes he grabbed her hands and pulled them away. "No," he said. "Just you."
She froze. "What? What do you mean just me?" She pushed him away. "Tell me you ain't still afraid of hurtin' me."
"I need a little time."
"No. You ain't got none. This is the first time we've had alone since we got stuck here and I want all of us. I want what we had before."
"Lu, I can't. I'm trying, but I just can't."
"This is hurtin' me more, you dumb son of a bitch."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah. So am I." She picked up her tee-shirt and pulled it back over her head, and dragged her pants back on. "I can't settle for this. I want us back, not you scared to touch me."
She stalked out of the hollow and across the grass, back to the camp and the others.
* * *
Tank came back ten minutes after her with an armful of branches from the thorn wall. He threw them down by the fire where Garrick was arranging two fish in a pan. More were hung on sticks to dry around the fire.
Lester grinned at him. "Look what we got! Turns out there's trout in that stream. Garrick flipped them clean out of the water."
"Good." He dropped the machete down next to his pack. "We move on in the morning. You might want to pass the word on to bathe in the stream while we can. Don't wash that green stuff off if you can help it."
"Sure thing."
* * *
A bundle of thin sticks tied tightly together was sitting next to Morelli's leather jerkin on his rolled up sleeping bag when he got back from the stream. Water dripped from his hair onto the fabric as he picked the sticks up and examined them. "What the hell is this?"
The sticks were long and thin, and twined around with long strands of the golden grass to keep them together and make a single shaft. More of the grass was twisted around one end to form a crude grip. He grasped it using the grip and swished it through the air experimentally.
A movement at the edge of his vision alerted him and he jumped back just in time to avoid Garrick's vicious slash at his ribs with a similar weapon. "What the fuck are you doing?"
Garrick responded with an overhead swing at his head.
This time he didn't move fast enough and the bunch of sticks dealt him a stinging blow to the ear. He shook his head and ignored the burning pain. "Have you gone insane? I told you we were no threat to her."
Garrick whirled around and brought the sticks down again in a slash that would have cut the eagle on his chest in half if it were a real blade.
Morelli brought his sticks up instinctively and blocked the attack. The force of the collision sent pains shooting through his wrists. "Jesus. You've completely lost it!"
Garrick stepped back with a grin. "Better."
As he stepped away, Morelli saw the others clustered by the tents watching the two of them. Belle and Edna were laughing and clapping, clearly delighted with the display. Lula looked worried, while Tank and Lester were just standing there making no move to come to his aid.
"How about some back-up?" he called as he circled slowly to keep his bundle of sticks between himself and Garrick. Garrick prowled ceaselessly from side to side, watching his movements carefully.
"Sorry man," Lester called back. "Can't interfere."
Morelli didn't get a chance to answer as Garrick moved in again, slashing at his thigh. He got his sticks in front of the blow in time but watched in dismay as Garrick twisted his wrist and hooked the bundle out of his hand and away behind him. He heard the others gasp.
Garrick nodded at the makeshift weapon. "Pick it up."
"Okay." Morelli leaned down, not taking his eyes off Garrick. As soon as his hand closed on the grass handle Garrick moved in, hacking at his neck.
This time Morelli swung his weapon up in a clumsy imitation of Garrick's slashing dance and forced the other up. He ducked underneath it and threw himself forward in a brutal headbutt to Garrick's midriff. As the older man fell back he followed him down with a flurry of punches in a style perfected over a hundred bar-room brawls. He could distantly hear the others whooping and cheering, but all of his attention was focused on the attack.
Garrick choked out a laugh as he went backwards. "All right! I yield."
Morelli stopped with his fist poised ready for another punch to the solar plexus. "For real?"
"Yes."
Morelli lifted himself off and backed away. "Better be." He stalked over to the others, ignoring Belle's shining eyes and Lula and Edna's blatant up and down assessment of his body. "So why the fuck didn't you help me?"
Tank shrugged. "Not how it's done."
"You want to explain that?"
Lester shrugged too. "Ranger does this to us all the time. Keeps us sharp."
"You're all fucking nuts." Morelli threw the bundle of sticks to the ground and stalked away from them.
* * *
He was sitting by the stream tossing twists of grass into the water and listening to the horse quietly crop the grass when Garrick found him and sat down next to him.
"You did well."
"Whatever."
"Your friend has asked us to come with you when you move on, help you find Ash. You know, the big one that looks like a giant."
"And?"
"I'll help you as much as I can, but I won't risk Belle. If I can find her family or a new chief and leave her safe, I'll find you and join you."
"Fine."
"I did it to the others too, you know. Tested them."
"I hope they beat the crap out of you."
"They could have, but then they're already warriors. They knew the game. You, on the other hand, only had your instincts to help you. I'll say it again: you did well."
Morelli didn't take his eyes off the water. "Thanks, I guess."
Garrick stood again and dropped the bundle of sticks into his lap. "Here. You'll need this when you start training in the morning. I'll see you at dawn."
"Training? What do you mean, training?"
Garrick just walked away.
* * *
Garrick and Belle travelled with them for three days, across the grasslands and back into the forest again. Every morning Garrick would throw the hated practice sword at Morelli and proceed to batter him with it under the guise of training. Every afternoon Edna would offer to dress his bruises with her green paste.
He had to admit that the stuff worked. The scratches from the thorns had healed quickly and cleanly. The only problem was that the stuff came with a price: Edna's wandering hands applying it and copping a feel on the way. Faced with a choice of that or bruises, the bruises were surprisingly easy to accept.
When Lester tossed a stolen plastic bag of paste into his lap on the second day, he decided that Lester might possibly be the best friend that a guy ever had.
* * *
On the morning of the fourth day, they walked into another village. Garrick looked relieved when he saw the wooden palisade in a field ahead of them. "At least some things still look normal."
As before, people stared at the newcomers, but there was an edge of fear that hadn't been present before. They didn't stop and stare; instead they sneaked furtive looks as they hurried past.
"What's going on?" Morelli asked. "They weren't this scared at the last place we visited."
"At a guess, Ash," Garrick said grimly, "but it could be anything. I need to ask around, find out what happened to our people, who's got the power around here, anyone that might need a warleader. I'll need you to take care of Belle for a few hours."
"Of course."
"Just remember that you don't need to touch her," Garrick went on.
Lester snorted. "You know, one day I'm going to kiss her just to give you a reason for that suspicious mind of yours."
Garrick slowly drew a belt knife and made a show of examining the blade. "You could. If you wanted to say goodbye to your lips."
Morelli sighed. "Garrick, put the knife away. You know damn well that she's safe with us. Lester, knock it off."
Lester grinned and gave him a mocking salute. "Yes, boss."
Tank shook his head. "Consider that an order from me, Santos."
"Yes, boss." This time Lester saluted with both hands.
"One day, Santos," Tank growled. "Go ahead, Garrick. We'll keep Belle with us. What are your plans?"
"I'm going to find out where our people went, or if I can't, somewhere else that Belle will be safe, stay long enough to make sure that she's settled, then I'll come after you. If Ash is still alive, I have a score to settle."
"What are you going to do?"
Garrick looked at him bleakly. "Don't ask unless you want to know the answer."
Tank nodded slowly. "Just let us interrogate her first."
"Interrogate?"
"Find out what we need to know."
Garrick nodded in turn. "Agreed."
"You could do us a favor and arrange us some provisions if you can. We can pay if they don't mind the face on the coins."
Garrick nodded once and strode away into the crowd. It parted before him, whispering, and closed behind him again.
Looking around, Morelli spotted a large trough in the open space in the middle of the village. He took the horse over to it and let her have a drink.
She stuck her head in gratefully and took several deep gulps of the dark water. When she was finished she lifted her head and blew out a big, gusty breath before brushing her wet, whiskered muzzle across the back of his neck, dribbling cold water down the back of his jerkin.
"Argh!" He sprang away. "Thanks, horse!"
She ignored his complaint and put her head down to the water again.
A female voice giggled behind him and he spun towards the sound. Belle was standing there, her eyes sparkling with laughter. "She did that on purpose."
"Sure felt like it."
"I made something for you." Belle brought a hand out from behind her back and held a yellowish object out to him shyly.
He took it and looked at the bundle of twisted, golden grass. "Thanks. What is it?"
"It's a wisp. You can use it to brush her." She indicated the horse that dwarfed the both of them. "If you ever forgive her for sharing her drink, that is."
"You have to brush them?"
Belle laughed again. "Of course you do! Don't you know anything about horses?"
"Not a damn thing."
The horse lifted her head from the water and nickered as if agreeing with him.
"And you can shut up," Morelli said dryly. "You know, my Grandmother has a name a lot like yours. She's called Bella."
They started walking slowly back toward the others, talking as they walked. The horse ambled behind them.
"What's she like?"
"Honestly? Scary, most of the time. But I always knew that she loved me."
"Sounds like Garrick."
"Did Garrick ever threaten to put the eye on you?"
"She's a witch?" Belle's eyes went round.
"I never thought so until this happened. I always thought she was just a crazy old lady. I didn't think there were witches at all."
"I wish there weren't. Then I'd still be home with my mother and father and my brother."
"I know." Morelli pulled her in to his side and hugged her briefly before releasing her. "It sucks."
She looked at him, brow wrinkled with confusion. "What? What sucks, my brother? He isn't a baby. He's ten."
"No, I meant… never mind. It's just a phrase. I don't even know where it comes from. I mean that it's rough, what happened to you."
"But why would anyone say sucks? It doesn't mean anything. Why not blows?"
"We say that too."
"And what does that mean?"
"Exactly the same as sucks."
"But how can it mean–"
"It just does."
"But that's just–"
"I know. Can we drop it?"
Belle nodded. "Some of the things you people say make my head hurt."
"You get used to it."
* * *
Garrick came back a couple of hours later leading two horses and carrying a jute sack over his shoulder and a bundle wrapped in oilcloth under his arm. He threw them to the floor at Tank's feet. Whatever was in the oilcloth clanked loudly. "Weapons," he said, "and your provisions. They accepted your coin happily enough."
"We already have weapons," Tank said. "But thank you."
Garrick eyed the handgun at his hip dubiously. "So you say. I have my doubts. Keep the blades anyway. There's a short sword for each of you. Morelli has some natural talent there, if he can control his temper for long enough."
"Hey!" Morelli interjected.
Garrick raised his eyebrows. "You see my point? Rise to the bait that easily and you're a soft target for any experienced warrior. Learn to control it." He returned his attention to Tank. "I found a contact, a chief two days west who lost his warleader to an infected wound last month. One of his men is here on business and we can go back to Fellbridge with him. I'm going to set it up now. We'll start looking for our people properly there." He moved his attention to Belle. "Get ready to go. We'll ride out shortly." He gave her the reins to the two horses and left again.
Morelli walked over to Belle. "Are you sure about this?"
"Of course. Where else would I go?" She stood up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. "Thank you. For waking me up and helping us get out. He won't say it, but he's grateful too. That's why he gave you the sword."
"Are you sure you're safe to go with him? He's… hard. A killer."
She nodded. "Garrick's been in charge of my safety since I was a little girl. He will have taken it hard that he failed. He loves me like a daughter, as much as my family ever did."
"You're sure?"
She smiled and patted his arm. "He's a warrior. I've lived among men like him my whole life. They don't tell you what they feel, you see it in their actions. You see a killer, but I see the man that watched over me for a hundred years. We'll be fine. And I think you'll see him again if he can get us settled in time to join you."
She looked across the square. "Time to look harmless," she whispered, "he's coming back."
Garrick joined them again and took the reins of the larger horse. "It's time. Mount up and let's go." He offered his hand to each of the men in turn. "Good luck with Ash, and don't trust anything you see."
Lula stuck her hand out too and he hesitated.
"Our women may be a little different from yours," Tank murmured. "Ignore them at your own risk."
Garrick took Lula's hand gingerly and shook it. "My apologies, Lula. I'm not familiar with your ways."
"S'alright," Lula said grudgingly.
"What about me?" Edna extended her hand, wiggling her fingers suggestively.
Garrick looked at the hand as if it was a live snake. He took it and shook it once before dropping it and stepping back.
Morelli bit back a grin as he watched Belle laughing silently behind Garrick from the back of the smaller horse. She waved to him as Garrick mounted the larger one and carried on waving as they disappeared into the bustle of the village.
"Damn," Tank muttered. "We could have done with some local help."
"I know what you mean, but you'll forgive me if my bruises disagree with you," Morelli answered with feeling.
"Since he's the only person we know who's even met Ash, he could have beaten your ass black and blue with my blessing," Tank said. "Let's move out."