Read Teleporter (a Hyllis family story #2) for Free Online

motions to him suggesting that he should move on through the front of the store to the shop in back where the shoes were made.
    Tarc had the definite impression that she did not want anyone to see him in her store. He thought for a moment of dawdling his way through just to irritate her, but thought better of it.
    In the back he found Mr. Calder and Jacob with their heads bent over a boot. Calder was critiquing Jacob’s stitching, though he didn’t sound terribly dissatisfied. They looked up and Calder’s eyes went towards the front of the shop where his wife would be working. Tarc had the impression Calder wondered whether his wife knew Tarc was back there. He cleared his throat, “Hello young Hyllis. What can we do for you?”
    Jacob was staring at Tarc as if surprised to see him. Tarc said, “I was hoping to talk to Jacob for a few minutes Mr. Calder. Would that be okay?”
    Calder’s eyes darted toward the front of the store again for a second, then back to Tarc. “For a few minutes,” he said gruffly, waving towards the door that went into the rooms they lived in.
    Jacob got up and moved towards the door, not really looking Tarc in the eye. No “hello” either, Tarc noticed. Once the door had closed behind them, Jacob asked, “What are you doing here?” Rather than friendly, the tone of the question was mildly accusatory.
    Tarc, already full of foreboding about this conversation, didn’t really know what to say. “Um, I wanted to ask…”
    Jacob didn’t make it any easier, just staring at Tarc and looking put out. After a moment he said, “Well, out with it! My dad’s gonna want me back in there slaving away over a shoe last in another minute or two.”
    “You know how you said… that people were talking about us? Saying… bad things…” Tarc couldn’t bring himself to say the word “collaborator.”
    Jacob crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against a chair, “Yeah. They’re still saying them.” He chewed his lip a second, “And, you know, it sounds pretty bad… you showin’ up with your wagon to haul away the bodies when they killed all those men in the square that first day.”
    “I didn’t ‘show up’ with the wagon!” Tarc exploded. “They had the wagon there. Me and…” Tarc had almost said “Daussie” before he realized he didn’t want anyone to know she’d been there dressed as a boy, “my dad were there in the middle with all the other men. They told me to get the bodies because they recognized it was our wagon!”
    “Yeah, well that’s not the way most people saw it.” Jacob’s eyes shifted around, not looking at Tarc. “Besides, Marie Jarvis hates your guts. She says when she found her husband Eben’s head in that damned cart of yours, that you and a couple of those soldiers ripped open her dress and threatened to rape her!”
    “I… I…” Tarc’s mind gibbered, “didn’t…” His voice trailed off as his throat closed. For a moment he was afraid he would be completely unable to speak, but then he croaked out, “I, tried to, to stop them.” He knew that no one would believe that he actually had stopped them.
    “That’s not the way she remembers it.” Jacob shifted and stood up from where he’d had the cheeks of his butt parked on the back of the chair. “I’ve got to get back to work, but I hope you’ll understand we don’t really want you around here unless you can prove things really were different from the way everyone else remembers them.” He walked to another door, “It’d be nice if you’d go out this back way. I owe my life to your mother, so we’re not spreading any of the rumors, but we don’t want everyone in town hating us too.”
    As Tarc made his way back across town to their tavern, the stares, whispers, and averted looks seemed much more ominous. At one point he realized that he felt horribly guilty. This is crazy, he thought to himself , I not only didn’t do anything blameworthy, I helped kill Krait and