August 15, 1859

August 15, 1859

Dear Lucy,

You’re going to have to tell me more than that.  How has Cindy been treating you lately?  Have you apologized to Duncan yet?  Have you seen Jaime at all?  Do you want to move in with Agnes?  I’ll have to look into her, to see if she’s a suitable foster mother, but I’m sure she’d be fine if you want to move there.

Back to the story.  I’m sorry I stopped so abruptly, but something came up that I couldn’t ignore so I just sent the message as it was.  Anyway, as you know, Frederick was going to make Julia join the mainlanders whether she wanted to or not, and he was just about to hit her when the door to the office was burst open.

Julia was hit in the head by the debris, so she wasn’t entirely sure what happened next, but I heard this from a different person, so I know that standing behind the door was the very Thomas that Julia had been so angry with not an hour before.

Frederick growled at him, “What do you want, you filthy Brit?”

“I want my friend back,” Thomas replied calmly.  “I’d like it very much if you could give her back to me.”

“You know I’m not going to do that.  She’s part of the Family.  She’s going to help us find the Old Magic, and it doesn’t matter that she doesn’t want to,” Frederick spat.

“It matters very much.  You know that if she doesn’t want to she won’t, and that’s that.  No matter who she’s with and how much she loved him, she won’t find it if she’s being forced to look,” Thomas said.  His tone of voice mimicked that of the voice of a lion tamer soothing his feisty beast.

It didn’t work.  Frederick reached into his cloak and threw a knife at Thomas, but he easily caught it in the air and threw it back at him.  Frederick wasn’t so lucky.  He was struck in the shoulder, just under the collarbone, puncturing his lung.

This is when Julia woke up.  She opened her eyes quickly and jumped up, only to fall down again.  Thomas caught her and whispered, “Careful.  Don’t want to get even more hurt, now, do you?”

She shook her head.  Julia looked from him to Frederick.  “What just happened?”

“I just caught the spy,” was all that he told her.  “Come on, we must be quick.”

There was a whimpering from the tunnel.  Thomas and Julia looked over to see Sara staring at her uncle’s bleeding form.  Julia said soothingly, “He tried to kill me, Sara.  He deserved whatever he got.”

The girl hiccuped.  “I can’t believe that he would do that.  I mean, I sort of knew that he was a Mainlander.  He’s the leader, I think.  But I didn’t think that he would try to kill you!”

“I’m so sorry, Miss Sara.  If you want, you can move into my apartment with me, but right now we need to get Julia to safety.  Can you go and get a guard to come and get your uncle into custody?” Thomas asked kindly.

Sara nodded and left the room, and as soon as she was feeling a bit better, Thomas picked Julia up and carried her from the tunnel to her own apartment.

They sat in her living room in silence, staring at each other.  Finally Julia asked, “How did you know that I was with him?”

“I followed you after a while.  Someone saw you and Frederick enter the tunnel and told me, and so I went after.  I didn’t want you to be alone with him,” Thomas explained.

Julia stayed quiet for a little while.  Then, “It’s your fault, you know.  If you hadn’t left me alone for so long, I wouldn’t have started seeing him.”

“I know, and I’m sorry for that, but as soon as we got here, we were told that there was a spy, and we had to find him or her.  It turns out that there’s a lot here.  All eleven,” he replied.

“Are you going to catch them all?”

He shook his head.  “Most of them have escaped.  Frederick was the last one remaining.  I think he stayed behind so he could get to you.”

Julia scoffed.  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I didn’t know that he was already speaking with you.  I should have figured it out, because Sara is his niece, but I thought he would have waited for the others to be gone longer.  They haven’t even been gone a week.”

Julia nodded.  “That would make sense.”

They were quiet for a long time.  Thomas was the first one to speak again.  “Are you going to stay here?”

Julia sighed.  “I don’t think so.  They’ll know where to find me.  I have to get as far away from here as possible.  I think I’ll go to America.  I can work there easily, maybe move in with some second-cousin of my father’s.”

“Why can’t you stay?  I need you here,” Thomas pleaded.

Julia looked at him levelly.  “You weren’t there for me when I was in the most danger.”

“I saved your life!  Twice!”

She shook her head.  “I don’t mean that.  I mean when I was falling in the love with the man who was planning on capturing me and keeping me prisoner.  Now, if it’s not too much to ask, I’d like to be alone so I could pack.”

“Will you at least come to the mess hall for dinner tonight?”

She thought about it for a bit.  “Okay.  Then I can say my good-byes.”

Thomas nodded and stood.  He walked out of the room and left Julia alone, just like she had asked.

It didn’t take her long to pack.  She had some borrowed clothes and luggage, and some basic necessities like soap and food, and some jewelry that she had had from before that she could sell for tickets to America and to use as starting money.  In an hour she was finished.

By that time she was ready to go to the mess hall.  Just like promised, Thomas was there.  So was Sara.  The little girl’s eyes were puffy, and Julia just couldn’t help it.  She went over to her friend and gave her a tight hug.

Sara sniffled.  “I’m so sorry.  I should have told you about my uncle sooner, but I didn’t want to make him angry, and you sad.”

“It’s fine.  I’m fine,” Julia replied.

“But you’re leaving!  How can you be fine when you’re leaving?” she cried.

Julia just laughed.  “I need a new start.  My father’s dead, my uncle is missing, and I have family in Illinois.  I’ll be fine.”

Sara started crying even harder.  “I’m going to miss you so much!”

“I know.  I’ll miss you, too.”

“If I can, I’ll come and find you later.”

“Okay.”

“Until then, write to me,” she insisted.

“I will,” Julia promised.

By then a lot of people were staring, so Sara sat back down and started eating her chicken quietly.  Julia turned her attention to Thomas, who was standing there uncomfortably.

“Can I come with you?” he asked.

“They need you here,” she replied.  “And this is something I need to do by myself.”

“I’ll come with Sara, if I can,” he replied.

“Don’t do it if you’re needed here.  Which I’m sure you will be.”

He looked up at her sadly.  “Are you saying that you don’t want me to be with you?”

“I’m not saying anything of the sort,” she laughed.  “I’m just saying that these people are more important than me.”

He sighed and put a small box into her hand.  Leaning in close and whispering in her ear, he said, “No one’s more important than you.  Don’t open this until you get to America, okay?”

She nodded and tucked it into her pocket.  Then she turned around and left.  Not before she snatched a bun.

And that is the end of your grandmother’s story.  How have you been?

Sincerely, Safiya

Author's Note

3.5 pages long! This is the longest chapter so far. Just so you know, this isn't going to be the last chapter in the book, since I have to finish Lucy's plot, but Julia's plot is pretty much done. Please review!