"Grandpapa, don't get up." But Elysée was already hobbling across the room to Auguste's outstretched arms.
Elysée buried his white head in his grandson's chest. Auguste held his grandfather tightly; the answering embrace was not as strong as it had been even a few months ago when the old man had visited him in his cell. The fragility and weakness saddened Auguste.
Bare feet peeping from under another nightshirt pattered down a ladder from the second-story loft. Before he reached the bottom, Woodrow jumped and rushed to hug Auguste.
"I been staying here ever since we found out you were coming. So I could tell Miss Nancy right away when you got here."
Nancy. His heart raced as he remembered her in the witness chair defending him and standing up to Raoul's abuse. He badly wanted to see her, to hold her in his arms.
But could he allow himself to feel so much for Nancy, when he hoped to bring Redbird here?
That is looking too far down the trail. I may not live to see Redbird again.
Out there in the dark the enemy might be gathering even now.
"You still live with Miss Nancy, Woodrow?"
"She's adopted me." The boy stared down at Elysée's small Chinese rug. "I guess that makes me your son too."