"I dinna know."

*

The neighbor girls came early and this time without Diarmad. Just as they had the day before, they took to their tasks of gathering the materials needed to finish the wall. They tried, but neither Jirvel, Kannak nor Stefan could think of a reason to ask for William's help. Just before the noon meal, a reason none of them could have imagined presented itself.

Suria went missing.

The five-year-old was there one moment and gone the next. Jirvel was the first to notice her missing and shouted, "Where might Suria be?" Everyone stopped what they were doing at the same time and looked around.

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Several yards away, Andrina cupped her hands and shouted, "She be not lost, Jirvel. She likes to catch butterflies, but she knows not to go far. We will find her."

"I pray yer right," Jirvel whispered. She put down her mixing stick and started to head for the river.

But Stefan stopped her. "I will go to the river. Send the older girls that way." He pointed east toward William's land. "Take the others and search the woods. We will find her."

Soon the voices of nine people filled the air, "Suria!"

Kannak was beside herself with worry, but while Andrina was concerned, she was not in a panic. "We might see William," she whispered between shouts for her sister. "He is so handsome." The closer she got to his cottage, the louder she shouted. "Suria!"

But time drew on, the child was not found and by the time William came through the thick trees on his horse, tears were in Andrina's eyes. "The fault be mine," she sobbed. "I am the one charged with watching her, but I let myself get diverted."

He got down off his horse and put a hand on her shoulder. "Dinna fret yerself so, I will help ye find her."

"Truly?"

He grinned. "I'd not lie at a time like this."

She realized her mistake and tried to smile.

"Did ye see which way she went?"

"Nay. Stefan went to the river and Jirvel and the girls are searching the trees."

"Good. Keep looking here and I will search toward the river also." He did not say it, but William was worried. The currents in the river were swift and more than one child had gotten swept away in it.

*

Stefan was terrified. He could not find the child on the shore nor in the water. But then, if she fell into the water it surely would have washed her away by now. Suddenly, he spotted the gray wolf. It was just standing on the bank watching him and as soon as their eyes met, the wolf took off. But then it stopped and looked back as though it wanted him to follow.




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