They had already lost too much, and the fear of losing Katherine and Alexander seemed to snap at their heels and scream at them to move faster, to fight harder, as they rode toward Groton. That fear was their unrelenting companion and it haunted Isobel in the few hours of sleep that she allowed herself when the horses could not go any further without a break and when it became too dark and therefore dangerous for them to travel without risking injury to their horses. It was what forced them all to wake up with the rising sun the following morning and continue, though their legs burned after riding for so long and their tired bodies cried out for more sleep.
The fear was a living and breathing snake that tightened around Isobel’s chest and ripped the breath from her lungs when they fin
