The Burning Sword Read Online Free Page B

had a laugh doing it too. 

Marian was chatting to Helen as they carried the boar between them; Annie had linked arms with Isabel and a sweet, younger girl named Daisy and they were laughing at something the girls in front had said. Everyone was smiling, everyone walked with a light skip in their step.

Faith looked over to see Sibyl walking alone, slightly apart from the rest of the group. She didn’t look sad, but at the same time, the smile on her face looked a little forced. Though she would never usually have spoken to someone who looked as if they would prefer to be alone before, Martha’s hospitability had obviously rubbed off on her, and she bit back her mental list of excuses, and increased her pace to catch up with Sibyl, falling into step as she reached her.

“You did a great job there, Sibyl,” she said, in what she hoped was a friendly way. It must have been, because Sibyl looked up with a warm, if not somewhat wan smile. 

“Thank you,” she said quietly. “You do a very good job with leading us all, Faith . You’re a natural at this sort of thing.”

Faith didn’t know what to say; Sibyl gave compliments very carefully, as if they really meant something; Faith could tell it wasn’t mere flattery, or a polite, meaningless gesture. “Thank you,” she replied, and Sibyl smiled at her again.

They walked on in what Faith hoped was companionable silence, the babble of laughter and chatter surrounding them. Sibyl looked at her.

“It’s funny,” she murmured. “We would have been sisters.” 

Faith realized Sibyl was talking again. “Huh? What was that?”

Sibyl repeated herself. Faith was puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“I was meant to marry Will,” she stated. Faith stared at her, uncomprehending. 

“I know you’re betrothed to him,” she said. “I was there at the ceremony. What do you mean ‘meant’ to marry him?”

“Oh, Faith ,” Sibyl said, her eyes sad. “You do know that none of them will ever return?”

Faith stopped walking, and stared at her. “What on earth do you mean?”

Sibyl‘s lips twisted downwards as she fought her emotions. “It’s a hopeless case. Didn’t you hear them saying? They have three villages, the squatters. Our army will be outnumbered three to one.”

Faith wondered how she could have missed all this information. It hit her abruptly; they had been having a meeting, which she had interrupted. After her dramatic entrance and exit, they had probably gone on to discuss finer details, which Sibyl had overheard.

“But the squatters are weaker than us,” she said. “Much weaker.”

Sibyl looked thoroughly sorry to be breaking the news to her, her shoulders slumped, her brow knitted into a frown, but she carried on. “They have many more of them, though. I’m sorry, Faith , but there isn’t really any hope for us.”

Faith shook her head, trying to shake her thoughts into order. “If they all die… it can’t happen!”

Sibyl put an arm round her. “Look, Faith . If they all die, the squatters will climb up the mountain, and probably take us to be squatter wives. We’ll be alright, I suppose.”

“Alright?!” Faith knew that Sibyl was just trying to comfort her, but she couldn’t think of anything she’d like less. Her family dead? Taken to the squatter land? She’d rather die.

“We have to join them. Sibyl, we have to be able to fight! If the squatters do come, we can’t just go with them!” 

Sibyl gave her a sad look, and shook her head. “A female army wouldn’t stop them. It just wouldn’t, Faith , I’m sorry. Just concentrate on the here and now. I’ve given up all hope of ever seeing Will again; you should do the same.”

They had reached the village, and despite the cheering and shouts of joy as everyone saw the boar they had caught, Faith felt as if her insides were heavy with what she had just heard. Plastering a false smile onto her face, she let herself be swept up into the