Some Arrows and Some Bullets Whistle Keenly

What would the policemen do? She did not wait to find out, she put her arrow on the bowstring.

Out came two policemen from the car. The muscular one remained silent. A portly man with round face said in a jolly manner: "Put that down, young lady. We are not going to hurt you."

"What about Rose and her baby?"

"Well, she can't have a baby at her age. She's not grown up herself." That was not an extremely common sentiment at the time, but some of the responsible people already shared it. Like this policeman.

"So if teens get pregnant, you find murder alright?"

"Wouldn't put it that way, seems there is a medical problem ..." So the lie about Rose's life being endangered was already being spread.

Susan noted the muscular one was getting his hand back towards his pistol, and also that the one inside was phoning.

Twang. Chuck. The muscular officer let go of his pistol, and shouted out for pain, then groaned. There was an arrow in his flesh and it hurt like jiminy.

The portly and talkative officer got his hand back, turning the left side to Susan. She was not waiting for the pistol to appear, but ducked below the fence while taking out the next arrow.

The policeman turned again, shot too soon and missed her with a whistle near her ear, then she shot. Twang, chuck, he too let go of his pistol, and his arrow was just above the elbow, on the inner side. He simply groaned, as a man used to pain and torture.

Susan wondered where George was waiting, but the car was in fact gliding around the corner. The policemen withdrew towards the car, Susan got out of her gate, pursued with another arrow ready, they stepped into the car which backed, backed, backed, while she went forth, forth forth with her arrow.

From the side of her eyes, she glanced people gathering on both sides, at a safe distance, and she was sweating cold sweat.

"Steady now, Miss!"

Some huge man grabbed her from behind. She was lifted up and could not aim properly, he was pressing her arms to her side, so she dropped the bow and arrow. She could however kick backwards from her knee on her captor's face. That did not help. "Whoa, steady now!"

"She's out of her mind!"

"What is it all about?" She recognised the milkman's voice, he did not try to help, although he sounded awkward.

She heard a car start, and it sounded like her own. She turned her head slightly, glanced and saw, yes, George was driving away, and noone seemed to notice.

"Put her down on the ground," ordered the policeman who had stayed in the car. Which they also did. The other policemen came forth , thanked her captors, said it was well they understood she was not quite herself (and they showed off the arrows), and they continued with some groaning, it was again the portly man speaking: "We've called an ambulance for three. Two places for our arrow-wounds - it hurts like fire, I tell you, and one place for her head. She seems to have taken us for some nightmare monsters of hers."

"I took you for policemen trying to ..." she shut up quickly, she did not want to pull their attention to George and Rose.

"Trying to calm a dangerous lady with arrows who wounded officers of the law doing their duty. Right?"

She said nothing.

"Well, let's wait for the ambulance, if you will hold her, my colleague has handcuffs and fetters."

And she was fettered legs together, and she was cuffed arms behind the back, and she was allowed to sit, but she said nothing.

The ambulance came. The three policemen walked in, after the paramedics had carried Susan in like a package. As the doors closed, the two wounded policemen had their sleeves clipped off oround the arrows. "Sorry about the uniforms, Sirs!" - Susan watched this with some interest - and the shoulder and arm disinfected around the wounds and protruding arrows. The muscular man hissed as the peroxyde touched the flesh, but the portly one just bit his teeth together.

"My lady, what kind of arrows were they?" asked one paramedic.

"Normal sport arrows with field points. An iron coating to protect the sharpened wood, basically."

"No poison?"

"No poison."

"Does that mean," asked the policeman, the muscular one spoke for the first time, "that we can pull them out?"

"It will be better to wait till we arrive. If you wish, we have some analgetics for you. Painkillers."

The ambulance driver said: "Two police cars escorting us have arrived, give Lady Marion a pillow so we can drive."

It was the third policeman, the one who had stayed in the car, a small man, who put the pillow between her neck and the wall between driving space and medical space of the car. A safe place from which she could not run away. As the ambulance started driving, the small policeman spoke to her, silently. "How come you did not try to tell the crowd we were forcing Miss Pole to abort? It's regarded as immoral by many, it is still illegal, you could have stumped us there."

Susan did not answer.

"If it was to help Rose escape, it was no use. We did not forget her. I phoned a description of the car and of her, and took a photo of the driver, some redhead friend of yours. Irish?"

Susan, again, said nothing. She gave him a look with less love for him than the arrows she had fired at the other too. If only she had had an arrow now. She bit her lip in order not to cry.