Mrs. Freestone,

I hope you receive this. Victor said something about Pastor sending you messages through your bones. I have no idea how that would theologically be possible, and I’m still not sure how you’re alive without your body, so I’m improvising.

I do not wish to alarm but Victor’s in a bad way. Pastor shot him twice, and both bullets split open in his body. He’s not going to die, not while I’m still breathing, but I can’t find all the damn shards no matter how many times I look, and whatever’s still in his body is making him feverish and nauseous - too ill to try and work on himself. I’m not sure if he would if he could. When he does have his wits about him, he’s set on getting Mattie her voice back.

We were planning to head East, but we stopped by St. Louis to send a warning telegram and that brought the Marshals down on the city. We stopped to plan and then Victor started getting sick, and now we’re stuck in an old cabin Father used to use in his hunting days. deep in the woods. Our horse is weak from the cold, too weak to outrun a Marshal or mounted cavalry, especially with our cargo. Matilda and I were able to beg supplies from a few isolated homesteads; she wrote us a story of being sisters fleeing from a father gone mad. But we can’t even do that anymore. Someone’s been tracking us, someone with guns, and we have to do everything we can to keep them off our trail.

Is there any way you can come to us? They’re looking for two white women with a Negro; you might be able to slip by. We can put you back into your body and you can cut through all this, command wolves or leviathans or whatever comes when you call to help us sneak over the river. I’m not sure how long we can survive like this, and Matilda…if it looks like we’re going to starve to death, she’ll turn herself in, and the Marshals will come. I don’t know what they’ll do to Victor, but if they don’t jail me, they’ll send me back to Henshaw. I knocked out most of the town. I almost got shot. I almost got shot by my father’s best friend. I can’t go back after that.

Geraldine,

Bereft of flesh and torn from my being, stranded miles away, those are still my bones, given to me by God. That should be explanation enough. Don’t put it in the eye socket next time, and do call me Ms. Lilith. ‘Freestone’ is Victor’s personal affectation.

He’s written to me about you. Something of a troublemaker, brilliant but uncontrollable. If he told you about this, then you’ve earned his trust in full. Delightful. Your great-grandfather was still alive when I first came to Henshaw. Four generations of Macy, and finally one that shows promise.

I am not coming to save you. Your warning telegram brought the Marshals down on us as well. They did not catch us, but Birch’s favored peon put some holes in some soldiers on our way out. He’ll get caught if we travel, and I can hardly do it alone. I cannot even help you with the craft; Victor learned that from his father. You will save yourself and my son alone, or you will cure my son and let him save you. You will not give Lamentations the satisfaction of killing my soft-hearted boy. You’re too smart for that, aren’t you? Too full of promise.

I do know a thing or two about death. Lament, that poor stubborn fool, was set on killing me. He has little other reason to own bullets, not while your father is so eager for the gun in his stead. Therefore, the bullets he’s using are likely ones he bought with me in mind, and what is hurting my boy is something intended to hurt me. Perhaps that will help.

If anything else comes to mind, I will try to write, but this reckoning of bone is weary on me. Do not write back unless it’s important. Don’t light fires near your cabin; the trackers will see the smoke. Hunting’s poor in winter, but snares should catch you enough meat to last a while. Tell my son his mother loves him, and would call the songbirds to soothe his ills and ravens to bring him food if she could.

Post-script: I do not know who this Matilda is, but if she intends to put Victor at risk, I expect you to take steps to ensure she doesn’t. Feel free to seek a solution that leaves her alive; it’ll endear you to him.