Isabel: Taking Wing

Brigands on the Road

The next few weeks, Father manages to avoid Isabel’s gaze the whole time. They purchase new travel bags, new boots, new gloves, and a new travel cloak for Isabel to take to Northamptonshire. On the day Isabel’s set to leave, John, one of Aunt de Vere’s servants comes to escort her with a horse. As they leave, Meg runs up and drops a pendant into her hand. It’s a circular necklace, with a red stone in the center. Isabel vows to keep it forever.

A few hours into their journey, their horse loses a horseshoe. John and Isabel have to walk it into a village to be refitted. This delay means the journey will take them three days instead of just two. They make do and stay at a rundown tavern. Isabel is forced to sleep with the innkeeper’s wife, since she’s traveling with no female chaperone, and Isabel is sure the bed has fleas.

The next morning, John and Isabel set off on their way. It smells much better out here in the fields with the flowers, and for the first time, Isabel is happy she has left London. They enter a forest, and John swears this’ll cut hours off their journey.

Suddenly, Isabel hears the sound of horses galloping towards them. A group of brigands come out of nowhere and surround their horse. The horse rears, and although Isabel stays on, John falls and lands on a tree stump.

A man kicks John with his foot, and Isabel sees blood running down his face, and his empty eyes staring into space. The man shrugs—the boy is dead. And then the man mounts Isabel’s horse and gallops away.

Now Isabel has lost all her food and belongings, and is alone in the woods, and her chaperone is dead.