As she stumbled into the snow covered garden paths, she happened to look up at the house. It was hard to tell with the flakes falling harder, but she could have sworn she saw the outline of an enormous bald eagle clinging to the roof. If she squinted, she could see it gaze out at her with sad, disappointed whiskey-dark eyes.
She had no time for the sorrows of monsters. It was time to go home, back to their warm kitchen with its leaky ice box and cracked tile. She’d even be happy to see that old room of hers, the one with the faded rose print wallpaper and the ratty pink and blue chenille bedspread.
As she trudged along the path and down the road, she finally began to admit, maybe she was a teeny bit lost. The extensive woods outside the grounds seemed all the same in the snowdrifts, endless black brushstrokes and fluffy white mountains crunching under her feet. The crunching was the only sound for miles. Even the birds seem to have fled.
“Hilary!” She turned around to see Maple barreling towards her, followed by Betty. “Are you crazy? The storm’s gettin’ worse. We’ve gotta get home.”
“I am going home.” Hilary kept moving. “I’m going to my real home, thank you.” She made a face at Maple clutching her red cardigan and Betty shuddering in her gray wool skirt and old blouse. “Where’s your luggage? And why aren’t you dressed for the weather? You’ll both freeze to death!”
Betty finally ran in front of her. “Hilary, I won’t let you do this. You were the one Troll wanted. Don’t you want to know why he asked you to marry him?”
“I can’t marry that…that thing!” Hilary put her hands on her hips. “I’m never marrying again, Betty. Not after…not after what he did to me. Not after he dumped me like yesterday’s newspapers. And I certainly wouldn’t marry a skeleton in bad vaudeville makeup!”
“Aw, come on, Hilary!” Maple swung her snow-frosted arm at the house. “I mean, look at this! We’re in one’a those Gothic romance novels ya like to sneak in before bed. Weird sounds, human animals, really cute Eagle who can’t talk, Troll thing who’s askin’ ya to marry him…doesn’t any of this seem even slightly weird to you?”
“Hilary,” Betty went on when Hilary looked away and didn’t respond, “this isn’t about Troll, is it? It’s about you. You’re still hurting. You want Jeff back. You miss him.”
“No!” Hilary gulped, trying not to let the tears spill and ruin her mascara. “I don’t…I’m not thinking about him! He left me! She told me so herself!”
“Ya know,” Maple added, brushing the snow off her knitted cardigan, “somethin’ always seemed a little phony baloney to me about that. Pavla just waltzed with a letter an’ a license, sayin’ Jeff was walkin’ out? Why didn’t Jeff tell you, or at least call you or somethin’?”
Hilary frowned. “I did hear from him, the day she showed up with that letter. He called about twenty minutes before she arrived and said he had the surprise, and he wanted to tell me something of the utmost importance. But the phone cut off before he could tell me what it was. I’ve tried calling him in Europe and his usual friends, but they haven’t seen him.”
“Hilary, I called Scott’s Aunt Agatha after I left you at the library. I got her number in Nantucket from information.” Betty’s chocolate eyes filled with fear. “She hasn’t seen him, either, not in months, and she’s worried. She’s made her own phone calls to his usual poker buddies in Pittsburgh and Boston. He hasn’t been to a game since late August.”
Hilary shivered, pulling her wool coat further around her. “Jeff once told me Agatha Sherwood was Scott’s closest relative. She’s nursed his and Jeff’s hangovers after a night of debauchery in Boston at her seaside cottage before. She always knows what he’s up to, usually before he does.”
“Hilary, ya gotta stay!” Maple impulsively threw her arms around her sister, nearly sending both of them into the increasingly heavy snow. “We need you. No matter how rude he gets, I think Troll needs ya.” She gazed at her big sister through snow-fringed copper lashes, tears spilling over. “And wherever he is, Jeff needs ya, too. He’s not Pavla’s. He don’t love her. He’s yours.”
“I…Maple…” Hilary put an arm around her sister. “I don’t think…”
That was when they heard the sounds, sharp and cutting on the biting wind. The heavy breathing. The deep, raspy voices that weren’t guttural enough to be human animals or soft enough for real ones. The complaints about stumbling over roots and trying to find their way to that big ol’ house an’ wasn’t it bad luck at the snow storm came up when it did, when they were so close to that fancy ol’ house?
“Girls,” Hilary barely breathed, “stay close to me. We don’t know what’s out there.”
That was when the men stepped in. Five of them, all great hulking brutes in black or dark-colored clothing. All wore heavy stocking caps that covered much of their faces, but she could see three-day growth and leering grins with jagged yellow teeth.
“Well, whadaya we have here?” The biggest smirked at Hilary. “Looks like some rich dame an’ a couple’a cuties.”
“Cuties?” Maple squawked. “Why I oughta…”
Hilary put a hand on her shoulder. “Sir, we have nothing to steal. I brought no money with me, and my sisters ran out,” she gave the other two a Look, “rather impulsively, I may add, to ask me some questions. We have nothing that would interest you.”
“Hey, looka this!” The second-largest had already broken the clasp on her luggage and was pawing through her lingerie. “Real expensive stuff! Kinda old, though.”
“Do you mind?” Hilary grabbed her luggage and yanked it away, trying to close the clasp. “Look, we have nothing for you. There’s an entire house nearby. You’d do better to get there or seek shelter elsewhere, before the storm gets worse.”
She didn’t like the way the widest, strongest of the brutes eyed Betty. His coarse, hairy paw grabbed her delicate arm, likely giving her bruises under her sweater. “If we’re gonna have ‘em, I claim this one. She looks like a dainty little thing. Wouldn’t mind a bit’a fun with this one, make her really scream.”
“You…you…” Betty struggled wildly. “Let me go, you animal! You bastard!”
Those yellow teeth gleamed, even in the snow. “Ooh, she’s feisty, too! I love that!”
“Don’t you touch my sister!” Maple grabbed at him, but the second-largest wrapped his own furry arms around her, dragging her away and clamping a hand over her mouth.
“You’re too loud, Red.” Hilary could smell the whiskey on his breath, even from a foot away. “Wonder what kinda jewels you got on ya…”
The man never got to answer that before Hilary’s fist landed in his eye. He pulled away, clutching his face. “Don’t you touch my sister that way, you gigantic animal of a goon! She’s far too good for the likes of a common criminal!”
“Thanks, Hilary!” Maple managed to grab another one, even in deep snow, clinging to his back and getting him into the snow. “Get’cha paws off my sister’s stuff! Ya don’t touch a lady’s private under-lings!”
“Maple!” Hilary screamed when the man threw her off, her landing hard in the snow. She started towards her, but the snow slowed her down. The largest of the brutes yanked her arm behind her back. “Let me go, you leftover from a bad gangster movie!”
She gasped when the goon pointed a gun at her chest. “You’re talkin’ too much, sista. I don’t like that.” Her breath quickened when he ran the gun slowly down her sharp cheekbone. “I kinda like old dames. You’re still cute, for your age.”
Her glare would have killed him at 40 paces if it wasn't obscured by the snow. “Old? OLD? I’ll have you know…”
“Shut up, lady.” He yanked her hard into his arms. “If I can’t get money off’a ya…” That long, rubbery tongue licked fat, thick red lips as his gun moved down her chest. “I might have somethin’ else.”
Hilary had just brought up her knee into his private parts when she heard the roar. Even in the snow, that roar shook the forest, knocking snow from black branches and making icicles shake and tinkle like bells. The man doubled over as Maple elbowed her captor…and the skeletal body of a furious, raging, snow-coated Troll leaped onto the horrified man.
She barely managed to duck away as the Troll pummeled the man, his claws raking into his coat, leaving bloody gashes. “Holy moly!” shrieked the smallest. “What the HELL is that?”
“He is a Troll,” Hilary snapped, “and I would thank you not to call him ‘that’!” She sent her knee into his rear as well, leaving him doubled over with his friend.
Betty was struggling with the largest of the men when another roar rocked the woods and sent even more snow shaking off the trees. An enormous black furry paw walloped the man hard in the nose, sending him crashing against a tree. Bear launched himself at the man, roaring in pure fury and pummeling him within an inch of his life.
The man with the gun managed to pull it out shakily. “Monster!” He yelped, his mouth gaping open in shock. “Oh buddy, you’re gonna wish you hadn’t messed with us…”
Maple yelped as the gun went off. “Somebody get that!”
The remaining man also pulled a gun, shooting at Bear. Betty grabbed his arm a fraction too late. The bullet cut across Bear’s arm, splintering the tree nearby. “You…you…” Troll snarled, grabbing his arm as Bear roared, clutching his arm. “I think you should put that down now!”
That was when the other gun went off…and it hit Troll in his thigh, sending him crashing to the ground. “Troll!” Hilary’s growl matched the grotesque creature’s. She rushed to his side. “We need to get you medical attention. I don’t like the look of that. Might get infected.”
“It’s not bad.” He gasped as the snow hit it. “Go back to the house. Tell Mrs. Fox to call the police.”
“And leave the rest of you?”
Maple grinned as the sound of flapping wings just barely emerged in the blowing chill. “He’s comin’! Eagle! I knew he’d help!”
Even as the winds battered him, Eagle grabbed hold of the remaining man’s shoulders with his strong talons and flung him against a tree, knocking him out. He scratched at the fourth man, leaving a gash in his leg and sending him screaming to the ground.
Maple snatched the gun as Eagle handed her something from his talons. “Rope!” She gave him a small kiss on his feathery white cheek. “You’re brilliant! We can tie up these jerks! Thanks, hon.” She swore he turned red to the roots of his feathers, even in the snow.
“Ladies,” Troll gasped as Hilary got him to his feet, “we must…get back to the house, before the snow gets worse.”
Betty held her sweater to Bear’s bleeding arm. “Won’t you…” His wide eyes held nothing but concern for her, even as he clutched his arm. “Be cold? The snow is very bad.”
“It doesn’t matter right now.” She put his paw on the sweater. “Hold on to this to keep the bleeding down. I’ll help Maple tie up the robbers.” Hilary didn’t miss the look of longing and admiration on Bear’s bristly snout as she went to help Maple with the rope.
One glare from Eagle kept the conscious men from escaping. They all stared at him like he was a vision from their worst nightmares. “Thanks, hon.” Maple patted his wing. “You’re a real hero! You showed up at just the right time.” She gave him a hug. “Ya did great, hon!”
Bear grinned as the redness under Eagle’s feathers grew even hotter. “I think..” Bear chuckled, even as he winced at the pain in his arm, “she likes ya.”
Hilary looked up as they heard sirens in the distance. “Come on, brave knights.” She gave Troll a smile of her own as she picked up her suitcase. “Let’s get you boys home, before we have to explain the three of you to Pittsburgh’s finest.”
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