Read Where the Dead Talk for Free Online

to the dying fire. He put more wood in the center of the embers, blowing on them until sparks rose up the chimney and the flames caught. There were two squat tallow candles nearby – he lit these off of the flames and put them on the table. A pewter plate and cup were on it, a bit of fish and some greens still on the plate. A wooden fork was on the floor. He lifted the cup and sniffed. Mead. Looking around, he spotted two small casks on a low bench by the door. He went over and hefted one, then the other. The first was nearly empty, the second untapped.
    "First good turn of luck in four days," he said. He carried both to the table.
    Thomas stared at him. Pomeroy drained the cup – strong – and poured another, knocking it back in four swallows. The warmth slid down his tongue and throat and blossomed into his chest.
    That was more like it.
     
    "Your name?" Pomeroy said. The mead was beginning to flush his cheeks.
    "Thomas. Thomas Chase."
    "And why do you talk that way, Thomas Chase?"
    Thomas looked at the floor and turned red. Looked up again.
    "I lost my hearing to a fever, when a pox came through," he said, "I was six. My mother died of it. My aunt, too. Pannalancet was able to save me."
    "Just not your hearing, apparently. Not much of a physician. Not much of a name, either – sounds like someone stammering and sneezing all at once."
    The boy frowned.
    "He'll know what to do – he always knows what to do, and my father told me to go find him. Before what happened at the house."
    "Dreadful luck. And yet you can read my lips?" Pomeroy said.
    "Unless you mumble, or you’re turned where I can’t see you well."
    "Well then I shan’t mumble. And the rest of your family?"
    No answer.
    "That was your house?" Pomeroy said. He got a slight nod for an answer.
    "I see. And what happened? What was in the cellar?"
    Again, Thomas went silent and shook his head. Just thinking of all the blood in the kitchen – let alone the horror of the cellar – he couldn’t blame the child for not wanting to repeat or relive it.
    "Fine," Pomeroy said, standing up and draining the cup for the third time. "I suppose it hardly matters at this point. Fetch the horses."
    Thomas looked at the door, then back at him.
    "I shouldn’t be helping you."
    "A bit more gratitude would be more like it – unless you’ve already forgotten who rescued you."
    "My family wouldn’t want me to."
    "The family in your cellar, do you mean?"
    The boy looked positively torn, and Pomeroy suddenly understood.
    "Don’t tell me you come from a family of uppity malcontents. Colony is rather bristling with them, isn’t it? Well, don’t believe everything you hear, boy – or, in your case, read on others’ lips. Now to the horses."
    "They’re patriots, known far and wide," Thomas said.
    "Well three cheers and huzzah for them," Pomeroy said, raising the cup and then taking another long swallow of mead. He pointed to the door.
    "But it’s dark," the boy said.
    "It’s night, now snap to it. They’ll wander off otherwise."
    Thomas hesitated still.
    "Look," Pomeroy said, "I’ll be in the doorway, both pistols. We’re miles from your house, by horse, so have no fear."
    He pulled the pistols from his belt.
    "And bring Hawkes’s musket when you come back in," he said. He tapped the second cask and poured a cupful. Still the boy hesitated, eyeing the night beyond the doorway.
    "To the horses, lad," he said.
    "I was supposed to get my uncle and I was supposed to get Jonathon, but I couldn't get either," Thomas said.
    "Is that all that’s bothering you? Don't let a trifle like letting people down bother you, boy," Pomeroy said, "I've made a veritable career of it – yet look at me now. An esteemed officer. Now the horses."
    Thomas stepped outside and Pomeroy leaned in the doorway, pistols hanging down. The night around the cabin was alive with wind and crickets. Thomas dutifully rounded up the three horses and brought them to a small trough by the side of the cabin,