In the Shadow: Day 10

Word Count: 60,007

Summary of Events:

Rowynna managed to calm her fears enough that she felt inclined to go downstairs, where she sat in the dining room and talked with Lorena and their three sisters-in-law before she was summoned to the door, Vella was waiting there and whisked Rowynna off to meet a man Vella believed fit Rowynna's criteria. Parker, having watched Rowynna and Vella leave, recognised Vella as Parthenia Swanson and immediately he and Linwood gave chase; Linwood took on the man whom Parthenia had found for Rowynna while Parker chased Parthenia, who managed to keep ahead of him enough that he couldn't catch her, but not far enough that he lost her . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

They had been running in all directions and Parker had gotten thoroughly turned around, but as they headed along a row of houses Parthenia suddenly started calling.

“Zane!” she called. “Zane!”

She was calling for Osborne, Parker tried to will himself to go faster, but he didn’t feel like his efforts were succeeding as much as he’d hoped they would.

A door opened in one of the houses and a man who didn’t look that much older than Linwood stepped out, straightened an arm toward Parker, and then came the sound of the gun being discharged.

Dirt kicked up to Parker’s left and he dove to his right as several more shots sounded; the only pain he felt was the aching stitch in his side and the impact of his body on the ground.

Scrambling to his feet, Parker ducked beside one of the other houses along the street and then made his way around behind that house and toward the house that Parthenia and Osborne must’ve been living in until now.

Before he could reach the house the back door opened and Osborne and Parthenia ran out, spying him, Osborne levelled is gun; Parker moved to dodge the shot seconds before he heard the gun go off, the instant after which he felt a white hot pain sear across the right side of his face.

Parker stopped and clutched at his face, keeping his eyes on Osborne and Parthenia as they kept running. He pulled his hand away from his face and saw blood, but there was no time to deal with it, he took off, in spite of the stitch in his side, and kept pumping his legs as he followed the two of them to a building with a sign hanging off the front announcing it as Price’s Livery.

Osborne shot the lock off of the doors and heaved one open. Parker slowed, which his side was grateful for, and crept over to one of the windows in the side, but he couldn’t really see anything when he peeked inside, and he realised that it would be highly dangerous for him to be looking into a window that someone could see more clearly out of than he could see into.

He ducked down and waited close by the front corner of the livery, he heard the sounds of anxious horses before Osborne emerged leading two horses, one a sorrel with socks on its forelegs, the other a bay with a star, a white pastern on the fore and a white coronet on the rear.

Osborne helped Parthenia onto the bay before swinging aboard the sorrel. Parker rushed from his hiding place, but the horses took off before he could reach them, leaving him unable to swing aboard and catch Osborne as he’d hoped to.

Still, Parker pursued them until he lost them heading westward, he then dropped to his knees, his sides heaving, his head feeling a little lighter than usual, he guessed from a lack of oxygen.