The Village looks for some missing teenagers. The Findley’s get a message.
Chapter 7.
The Village
Ryo looked up from the field as Eirina tromped from the edge of the field. “Did you find Laerdya?”
“She and nine others are gone. No one has seen any of them for several days now.”
Ryo frowned. “I will have to speak to the others this evening. Something strange has happened.”
“Liluth says that the Lady has taken them for a task.”
“She says that the Lady does all sorts of things. No one has seen the Lady for a very long time. The caravan is coming soon. If the lost do not return by then, I will see what I can do.”
“Galan will oppose you going outside the village.”
“Galan is the Lady’s Voice, not the leader of the village. If the Lady has taken the ten, then he should have selected them and told us that she was taking them, not Liluth saying that the Lady had taken them and nothing else. If necessary, I will take this to the council.”
“I hope that Laerdya and the others were just off to the lake and did not tell anyone.”
“So, do I, but if they had done so, I think that we would have been told. Laerdya knows better than that.”
Chapter 8.
Rillington.
Artur looked up from his newspaper as Lirial came into his office with a telegraph form. “Bennie sent a telegram. It is rather strange.”
“What is it about?”
“Bennie says that he bought a slave and is sending the girl here.”
“What?!”
“Read for yourself.”
Lirial handed the telegram to Artur, he looked at it and said, “The girl is being escorted by Admiral Tollings and Bennie is hoping that somebody can meet them in Chatsrey. He says that the girl is sixteen and he was forced to purchase her due to her circumstances. He doesn’t explain why.”
“Cillia is shopping with friends in Chatsrey. We could have her meet with the girl, but I am concerned about a scandal.”
“We can keep things under wraps until we meet the girl.”
“You don’t think that she is pregnant, do you?”
“Bennie didn’t mention being in further trouble with the admiral. I need to send a message to Cillia’s hotel and tell her to pick up the girl.”
“This isn’t like Bennie at all. He is putting the family at risk. If word gets out that Bennie is buying slaves, we would never hear the end of it.”
“Bennie didn’t exactly have a lot of money to purchase slaves with. Why he would buy even one slave is a mystery. The girl can tell us what is going on.”
“Could this be some sort of smuggling scheme? Could somebody else be buying the slaves and forcing Bennie to cover for them.”
“Bennie would hardly be sending telegrams telling us to pick up the girl if that were the case. I’ll send something to State and see if they know more. The economics conference is here this year and smuggling underage girls and boys might be part of it.”
“I may have to get together and discuss that with some ladies. We had a mess to deal with after the last conference. Maybe we can get ahead this time.”
“Do that. Let me get George and deal with this.”