Alpha Blood Box Set(11)

She tugged on my shirt. “But it’ll be so much fun! I’ve been there before and the woods are really pretty!” Our little fun was interrupted by a knock on the door. Alistair opened it and the girl’s mother stood in the hallway.

“Abby, there you are!” her mother scolded her. She hurried into our compartment and swept her child into her arms. “I’m so sorry for this, my lord, but she’s a very curious creature.”

Luke stood, smiled and nodded. “No trouble at all.”

“Can I stay here until we reach the Sanctuary?” Abby pleaded with her mother.

“Certainly not, Abby! You’ve troubled these nice people and me long enough!”

“Wait a second,” Luke interrupted. He gestured around the room. “We’d be glad to have her with us for a night, and there’s plenty of room for her to run in here.”

The mother bit her lip and her eyes glanced over our faces. “I wouldn’t want her to bother you, and she’s such a handful-”

“I can be good,” Abby protested.

“Hush, naughty girl. You’ve troubled the lord enough,” her mother scolded.

“Are you from my district, ma’am?” Luke spoke up.

The woman blushed and gave a lopsided curtsy with Abby still in her arms. “Yes, my lord. The name’s Stewart.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “From Huntington?” he guessed.

Mrs. Stewart smiled and nodded. “Yes, sir. My husband is an expert tracker.”

“That’s quite a distance, so I’m sure you’d be happy to have us babysit Abby for you.” Mrs. Stewart did look haggled with dark patches under her eyes and her clothes wrinkled.

Abby crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at him. “I’m not a baby!” she protested.

“If she wouldn’t be too much trouble,” Mrs. Stewart hesitantly agreed.

“None at all,” Luke persisted.

Mrs. Stewart set Abby on the ground and the little girl jumped back into my arms. “If she does get to be a handful you can bring her back. We’re in the last car,” the mother told us.

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary, but thank you,” he replied. Mrs. Stewart cast one more reluctant glance over her little girl and left Abby in our care.

Luke smiled and turned to Alistair. “It seems we have a guest for this short journey.”

Alistair bowed at the waist. “I will make another bed in my room,” he replied.

“No, I want to sleep with her!” Abby protested as she latched onto me.

I smiled. “But you don’t even know my name,” I teased.

Abby scrunched up her face. “I don’t?” she wondered.

I laughed and hugged her close to me. “You have to ask someone their name to learn it.”

“Oh!” Abby squirmed from my arms, and stood prim and proper in front of me. She even curtsied. “My name is Abby Stewart. What’s yours?”

I noticed Luke watch me intensely. He didn’t know my last name. “Becky,” I replied.

“Becky,” Abby repeated. She nodded her approval and climbed into my lap. “I like it!”

That was the beginning of a very long night entertaining her and in turn being entertained by her. She was a curious handful, getting into our luggage and wanting to wear my clothes. I was the one stuck with most of the babysitting and the men stayed out of the way, but I couldn’t help but notice that Luke watched me with a careful eye. After one particularly long stare I turned and glared at him. “What?”

Luke smiled and shrugged. “You seem happy,” he commented.

I sniffed. “Well, Abby’s a good distraction, aren’t you, Abby?” I turned back to her and found she’d popped open a makeup kit Alistair had bought for me. “No, Abby, not the lipstick!”

I was forever grateful when Abby’s battery ran low around midnight, and I put her to bed on the bottom bunk in the room assigned to Luke and me. Or rather, assigned to me after I grabbed Luke’s luggage and tossed it into Alistair’s room. There were two bunks in each room so he still had a bed.

“What are you doing?” Luke protested.

I slipped into the room and closed the door most of the way so I peeked out of a crack. “Girls only, no boys allowed in that room,” I replied before I slammed it shut. I turned around and found Abby’s tired eyes staring at me.

“He likes you a lot,” she commented.

I sat down on the edge of the bed and sighed. “He has a really funny way of showing it. Flowers would’ve worked better than kidnapping me.”

“Maybe he didn’t want to lose you,” Abby suggested.

I shrugged and pulled the covers up to her chin. “You’ll understand better when you grow up.”

“I guess,” she murmured. She snuggled beneath the covers, but grasped my sleeve. “Can you sleep with me? Mama sleeps with me on these trips because we hit a bump once so hard I fell out.”

I laughed and nodded. “All right, but just this once.”

I slipped into my new pajamas and squished into the space between Abby and the wall. Soon we were both sleeping soundly as the train sped through the thick woods and a few small towns on its way to the strange place called Sanctuary.





10





Unfortunately, we didn’t sleep all night. We were awoken by a violent toss of the train as it was forced from the tracks. Abby and I screamed and latched onto each other as we tumbled with the train. Luggage spilled everywhere and the mirror toppled off the wall. We heard other screams and shouts, and a terrible noise of metal against wood and other metal. My back slammed against the wall as the entire car fell onto its side. It felt like forever, but the whole episode didn’t last more than thirty seconds. Then everywhere was dark, and I heard a voice among the silence.

“Becky! Becky!” Luke called to me.

“We’re in here!” I shouted to him. I glanced down at the shaking form in my arms. “Abby, you okay?” I whispered to my charge.

“I-I think so,” she whispered.

I heard somebody move in the living room, and soon the door flung open. In the dim light of night I saw Luke in the doorway. “Stay still, I’ll get to you,” he shouted to us. He crawled along the luggage and leaned over bottom of the bunk to our little nook inside the bottom bed. “Give me your hand, Becky.”

I shook my head and shakily stood to my feet. “Get Abby first,” I insisted. We passed her over, and then Luke helped me over the bottom of the bed.

Luke led us out into the living room where the cushions and broken glass were strewn everywhere. The ceiling of the car was now the wall, and beneath our feet were the broken exterior windows and hard gravel from the railroad tracks. Above our heads was the door and hallway. The door swung on its hinges, and through the new skylight we could hear shouts and cries of fear.

Alistair’s face appeared beyond the broken glass above us. “It’s not good, sir,” he told Luke.

“What happened?” Luke asked him.

“I can’t be sure yet as to the cause, but all the cars have derailed. The engine is on fire and the last few cars broke free and slid down the slope into the trees and rocks.

My eyes widened and I tightened my grasp on Abby. I jerked my head over to Luke. “The last car!” I reminded him.

Abigail’s eyes widened. “Mama!” she screamed. She tried to free herself from my grasp, but I held tightly to her.

“Not yet, Abby! Let the men get at your mom and dad!” I told her.

“No! I want my Mama and Papa!” she screamed.

Her wails were interrupted when the car beneath our feet slid a yard. Abby and I screamed, and I fell onto the sharp ground with Abby on top of me. Luke grabbed the wall and grimaced. “The car won’t hold for much longer, sir,” Alistair told us.

“So we noticed,” Luke replied. He helped Abby and me up. “We’ll get out of here and find your parents, Abby,” he told the frightened, crying girl. She nodded and calmed just a little.

Now we had another problem. The new ceiling was a good fifteen feet above us. “How are we going to get out of here?” I asked Luke.

“Alistair, take Abby,” Luke instructed his servant.

Alistair easily dropped through a broken window and the open door. He took Abby in his arms, hunkered down, and jumped upward. His vertical easily cleared the distance, and the pair disappeared over the side of the overturned car. My mouth was still open when I was swept into Luke’s arms. “Hold on,” he instructed.

I yelped when we flew into the air. We whipped past the walls and out into the open air. Luke landed us close beside where Alistair and Abby stood. He set me down carefully so my feet didn’t go through a window, and I got my first glimpse of the area and the wreckage. The area was a rugged wilderness of trees and a sloped hillside that ascended to the left of the train and dropped down on the right side. Ahead of us was the remains of the engine, and flames shot high into the dark night sky. Beyond that was the ruins of the tracks. The thick metal bands were a tangled mess of warped steel, and I wondered how an engine could have caused such devastation.

Behind us lay the other cars, and in the distance I could see that the final three cars were fifty yards down the slope. The cars had left a mess of broken trees and small, scattered boulders. The compartments themselves were a tangled mass of thick and warped sheets of metal. Some passengers stood on the slope above the wreck while the train’s crew and other riders were down among the ruins of the final three cars.