Will called from the floor above. “I can’t,” David said over his shoulder, and continued down the stairs two at a time, with Robbie close behind him. “But I know where they’ve gone!” David came to an abrupt halt and leaned back to look around the curve of the wheeled stairs at his youngest brother. “Bea left a message,” Will said. “Come see!” A short time later, David stood with his brothers examining a childish drawing scrawled on the stone wall. “Bea must have used this blackened stick from the fire,” Robbie said, picking it up from the floor. “Her mother will be angry—” David started to say, but then he remembered that both mother and daughter were gone. “She signed it so we’d know it was from her,” Will said, pointing at the large smudged “B” beneath it. “’Tis only a drawing,” David said, disappointment weighing him down like a boulder. “Will’s right. See, that’s the three of them riding,” Robbie said, pointing to the three longhaired stick figures on four-legged creatures.
