The Brothers Lionheart

So I followed you.”

Yes, lie away, I thought. Sooner or later you’ll Sofia to deal with, and then I’ll be sorry for you.

“Where is Jonathan?” said Hubert. “He, who’s supposed to be hunting wolves, should have been here to shoot a few.”

I looked around. The wolves had disappeared, every one of them. They had probably been frightened when their leader had fallen dead, and perhaps they were grieving, too, for I heard plaintive little howls far away in the mountains. “Well, where’s Jonathan?” persisted Hubert, and then I had to lie, too.

“He’s coming soon,” I said. “He went after a wolfpack over there,” I said, pointing up the mountain.

Hubert grinned. He didn’t believe me, I could see that.

“Shouldn’t you perhaps come with me back home to Cherry Valley, all the same?” he said.

“No, I must wait for Jonathan,” I said. “He’ll be here any minute now.”

“Oh, yes,” said Hubert. “Oh, yes,” he said, looking strangely at me. And then---then he drew out the knife he had in his belt, and I let out a little cry. What was he going to do? As he stood there in the moonlight with the knife in his hand, he frightened my more than all the wolves in the mountains put together.

He wants me dead, went through my head. He knows that I know that he’s the traitor, so he’s followed me and now he wants to kill me.

I began to shake, my whole body began to shake.

“Don’t do it,” I cried. “Don’t do it!”

“Don’t do what?” said Hubert.

“Don’t kill me,” I cried.

Then Hubert turned white with rage and rushed at me, coming so close that I almost fell backward, I was so scared.

“You little scamp, what are you saying?”

He grabbed me by the hair and shook me.

“You silly dolt,” he said. “If I wanted to see you dead, I could have left that to the wolf.”

He held the knife right under my nose, and it was a sharp knife, I could see that.

“I use this to skin wolves,” he said. “Not to kill stupid kids.”

I got such a kick in the backside that I fell on my face, and then he set about skinning the wolf, swearing all the time as he did so.