The following morning welcomed them with the early sun-rays shining in through the trees. Guy was the first one to get his eyes opened up. At first he was considering going back to sleep again, when he noticed that one of the horses were missing.

     “Charlie? The horse is missing!” he said out loud. Charlie just murmured something in his sleep, kicking Guy’s leg. “Ouch!”

     “So? Go and get him,” Charlie muttered with a grumpy voice.

     Guy sat up and moaned. They had all been forced to sleep on the ground, all but Connie, of course. She had been sleeping in the wagon by herself all night, with Adam’s precious potato sacks as cover. Although when he gazed towards the warm and cozy wagon, Connie was nowhere to be seen.

     “The girl is gone too,” Guy announced, starting to get worried that something had happened to their talkative passenger.

     “Good,” came Charlie’s answer. “Go back to sleep.”

     Guy decided to be disloyal to Charlie’s request this time. Even though Charlie was almost like an older brother to him, the thought of young Connie being in trouble weighed a lot more on his conscious.

     Adam and Fulton never even looked up when Guy left his place in the dirt. He had been sleeping on a very uncomfortable rock all night, and his neck wasn’t all pleased with that. While he was trying to get rid of the pain caused by the sleeping arrangement, he noticed a trail going in through the woods.

     He just automatically assumed that the horse had strayed away from their camping site. However, that did not explain how Connie could have disappeared along the way. Guy followed the trail through the woods, and ended up by a small lake. In the process, he found Connie as well.

     “Connie?”

     Connie quickly stood up from her place in the sand, but when she saw who he was, she seemed relieved. “Oh, it’s only you.”

     “Sorry if I scared you. You do realize that you’re missing?” Guy asked her, throwing an eye at the horse. “You weren’t trying to elope, were you?”

     The girl gave up a short laugh and sat down with a thud. “Of course not,” she snorted. “Where am I supposed to go? I can’t even make my own food. Your horse was thirsty, so I decided to bring him here. Sorry.”

     “That’s fine,” Guy smiled. “We were just worried about you.” The truth was, Charlie probably couldn’t care less, and the other two were still sleeping, so that only left Guy to be concerned about the newcomer.

     All his life, Guy had been worrying about people that had been standing close to him. The reason for him to leave his home had been to get rid of the guilt he was feeling, whenever he let down the people who’d been needing him. Of course he’d realized along the way that it didn’t help to run from your problems. His troubles still followed him around like an angry rain-cloud. He just had to accept that and try to find solutions to whatever it was that bothered him.

     Back home, his biggest concern had been his mother. Now he had a new target for all his worrying. And it wasn’t exactly the horse his agitation was regarding this time.

     “Yes, I can totally believe that,” Connie muttered. “Your friends hate me. You’re just here to see that I haven’t stolen the horse yet.”

     “It’s not like that,” Guy assured her. “I was worried, and since you’re part of our little gathering now, I feel obligated to...”

     “Obligated?!” she interrupted him with an upset voice. “I’m old enough to take care of myself, thank you very much.”

     “A minute ago you couldn’t even get your own food!” Guy reminded her. “Are you going to play the helpless maid or the tough shrew on this trip?”

     She gave up an angry wail and got up from the sand again. “This is impossible! I can’t travel with you to England, can I? I thought I could, but it’s obvious that I can’t.”

     “Calm down,” Guy laughed. “If you’re going to be one of us, you have to deal with being insulted. And ordered around a lot. And being pretty much terrorized around the clock.”

     “Youngest, huh?” Connie asked, this time with a more understanding tone in her voice.

     “Not anymore,” Guy grinned and put his arm around Connie’s shoulders. “Don’t worry; we’ll get along just fine. Just don’t try and run off with our horse again.”

     They both walked back, accompanied by the now not so thirsty horse.