William Reed waited for his son to return. –What could be keeping that lovelorn boy?– Perhaps Ravenna Hawthorne had returned, and he was catching up with her. William sighed. –Best to be off to get my son,– he thought to himself. He wore his traveling jacket, tied his boots, and took the horse from the barn. He saddled the horse and headed toward Canden.
The sun was setting, and William hoped to get his son home and get to bed as quickly as possible. He knew if he didn't go and get Samuel, Samuel would come home as soon as he had settled into bed and wake him up anyway. "Best to just go get my son," William told himself.
William rode along the trail until he noticed something unusual over the horizon. "Whoa," he told his horse, commanding her to stop. He looked at the Hawthorne cottage in the distance. –Is that smoke?– Maybe his son and the Hawthornes were having a fire to celebrate the return of Ravenna. William ordered the horse to continue, steadily trotting toward the source of the smoke.
The blaze of the burning Hawthorne cottage soon became visible. William's heart leaped into his throat. –Where are the Hawthorne women? Where is my son?– He jumped from the horse, tying her to a nearby tree. William ran to the infirmary, and tears flooded his eyes.
"My son…"
William collapsed to the ground, his knees landing next to Samuel. His son was lying on his back, holding hands with the older Hawthorne woman; both were lifeless.
"My son!"
William shouted as he gripped Samuel's upper arm, noticing the long wound in his son's thigh. –Who could have done such a thing? Who would have done such a thing?– The tears dropped steadily from the older Reed man's eyes as he dropped his head onto his dead son's chest. His only son.
The Hawthorne cottage burned a short distance from Samuel and Anne as William sobbed.
The sky turned darker as William gathered his wits. He had cried until there were no tears left to cry. He shakily stood and got back on the horse. He snapped the reins and made the horse run to Canden. William could get help there. His son could lie peacefully next to Anne for a bit longer.
William arrived in the Canden village center and shouted as loud as he could for help. "Anyone around?! Please! Help me!" Curious Canden villagers began to leave their homes and gathered around, intrigued by what could be causing such an upset in their quiet village. Elijah's father, Robert, the blacksmith, was the first to arrive. He placed a large, scarred hand on William Reed's shoulder.
"Brother, what is the commotion? What caused such an uproar?" Robert tried to calm William down.
"My son! My son is dead!" William howled. The Canden villagers that had gathered around gasped. "Anne Hawthorne and my son are gone! The Hawthorne cottage is ablaze! I need help, please! Anyone who is able to help, please…" William's words were cut off with a choking sob.
"....Anne Hawthorne…?"
"...Samuel Reed…?"
"...Hawthorne"?
The village burst into overlapping chatter, and Robert moved William to his forge, getting him away from the crowd. Able-bodied Canden villagers swiftly made their way to the Hawthorne infirmary, buckets in hand. The Hawthorne women had always taken care of the villagers when they needed it, and the time had come to help the Hawthorne women.
Teresa had heard the chatter of the villagers; –could it be true? Could Samuel and Anne be gone?– Tears flooded her eyes. Her husband kissed her goodbye and headed off to be part of the rescue effort, leaving Teresa with Thomas and their daughter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Canden villagers began to arrive at the infirmary blaze. They had to stop the fire before paying respects to the fallen healer and miller. One of the merchants noticed a sizeable leather-bound book near the cottage. She picked it up and placed it next to Anne. The book belonged to her in life and belonged to her in death.
The villagers formed a long line to the stream that flowed past the infirmary and began a chain, passing filled buckets from one person to the next, fighting the blaze valiantly. The fire had a long start ahead of them, but the Hawthorne women had never given up on Canden, and the villagers refused to give up on the Hawthorne home. Bucket after bucket, hand over hand, the villagers worked together.
The smoke rose into the steadily darkening sky as the flames died out. Exhausted, the villagers gathered around to pay their respects to Anne and Samuel, who lay in the grass. They remarked how Samuel's head turned toward Anne as if he had spent his last moments reassuring Anne. The Canden villagers' eyes glistened, the overwhelming loss of a harsh reality before them.
"How could this have happened?" One villager spoke up. Another asked, "How did Samuel get those wounds? Look at his leg, his ribs."
A third villager noticed the broken barricades near the entryway of the cottage. "What happened here? Why is there all this debris near the doorway?" Questions rose throughout the crowd.
Robert and William Reed finally arrived on the scene. Robert seemed to have gotten William to calm down a little, and the two men approached the crowd of villagers. William noticed a body shuffling from the group, crawling on the ground. He pointed the figure out to Robert, and the pair of men went to investigate. A stranger, a bearded man, was crawling on the ground, his jaw and nose broken. The man seemed to be coming around from a concussion.
"Who are you?" Robert looked down at the man at his feet.
"She had to pay. This is her fault." The man's words were unclear, as the strange man's jaw was crushed.
"Who had to pay?" William demanded.
"Ravenna."
"You're the one who killed Anne and my son?!" William roared. Robert grabbed the older miller's shoulders, preventing him from attacking the bearded man.
"Your son was in my way. He chose to die." The bearded man spat, blood spilling onto the ground. "Ravenna had to pay."