In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

"Why, memory loss after a blow to the head. When I worked on a cattle station one summer, a fella got kicked in the head by a wild steer. He claimed he didn’t know who he was either. Of course, we didn’t believe him at first, but we came down to it in the end."

Lewys rubbed his chin. "As I recall, that fella never did get his right memory back."

Andre carefully set his cup down on the wooden chest next to him. "Do you know who I am? How I got here? How did I get hurt?"

"Whoa son," Lewys flung up a hand. "One thing at a time. First, your name is Andre Benoit and you’re engaged to marry my eldest granddaughter Rebecca."

Lewys told that whopping lie without a blink. He rushed on before Andre could question him. "You’re in bed because it looks like someone took a whack at you. We’re not sure how it happened. You rode off hunting pronghorns yesterday and your unicorn brought you back. I’m afraid there isn’t a lot more I can tell you about yourself before you joined us a couple of weeks back, because we only just met you, but your war bag is under the bed."

For once in his quick-tongued life, Andre was struck speechless. The story sounded fantastic and he wanted to hear more, but he was tired and found himself drifting back to sleep. Lewys watched him for a minute more, before he rose and left the wagon.

That had been relatively easy compared to what was next—explaining to Rebecca, Catrin and Owen what he had done and getting them to go along with it.

The girls were down by the creek, washing clothes. Owen was making a fresh pot of kophie. He had heard what had gone on between Lewys and Andre. He scowled at his grandfather and opened his mouth to speak. Lewys shook his head at him.

"Where are Rebecca and Catrin?"

"Down at the creek doing laundry."

"Good. Come with me; we’re going to have a family conference."

"We just did yesterday," Owen grumbled under his breath as he followed Lewys. "Much good as it did us."

Arriving at the creek, Lewys said jovially, "You two girls look as lovely as flowers in springtime this morning."

Catrin and Rebecca exchanged glances over the bucket of dirty clothes. When their Grandfather started showering compliments, it generally meant he was up to something.

"Thank you," Rebecca said politely.

Both girls waited.

Lewys cleared his throat. "All of you read the wanted notice I brought back from town, didn’t you?"

"We read it, Grandpa," Catrin replied.

"Well, you know there weren’t images of us, just a description of an old man, two girls and a younger man. We can't avoid the villages and trade stations forever and it occurred to me what we need here is a bit of misdirection. Now we can’t change our looks, but we can become a party of five instead of four. Ironlyn is still many weeks' travel from here and there are several villages between it and us, including Buttersea where we have to stop if we want to look for your sister. If we travel through those villages as a party of five, everyone who sees us will think of us as a group of five people not four, even if the fifth member of the group doesn’t stay around long."

Catrin was the first to speak. "You’re talking about the man on the war unicorn. Has he agreed to this?"

Owen made a rude noise. "He’ll probably stay. You should have heard the pack of lies Grandpa fed him!"

"What if he finds out about the wanted notice?" Rebecca asked. "He might decide to collect the two thousand coins by turning us in."

"He might not turn us in, but not want to stay either—"

"Quiet!" Lewys glared them individually into silence.

"Our young friend—his name is Andre Benoit incidentally, has lost his memory because of that clout on the noggin he took."

"Permanently?" Owen asked. "What if he starts remembering?"

Lewys waved the objection aside. "Makes no difference. It’ll stay lost long enough to suit us. Now stop interrupting me! Where was I?"

"Memory loss," Catrin supplied.

"Yes. Well I told him we met him a couple of weeks ago on the trail. He went hunting for meat and came back with a cut across his head. I also told him he was engaged to Rebecca so he’d have a reason to stay around."

Benignly he smiled at his offspring, who stared back at him with varying degrees of exasperation, horror or amusement.

"Why you old reprobate!" Catrin exclaimed.

"You," said Owen forcefully, "are a sneaky, underhanded, unscrupulous old—I don’t know what."

They both carefully did not look at Rebecca who had gone dead white. She raised stricken eyes to her grandfather.

"I’m sorry Grandpa, but I can’t," she whispered. "He might want—I can’t do it."

Lewys jerked his head at Owen and Catrin. "You two go back to camp. Rebecca and I need to talk. And mind, you remember what I told you if you talk to Andre."

Obediently they started back to the fire. Lewys put an arm around Rebecca who stiffened involuntarily.

"Child, you’ve got to do it. Ironlyn is the last hope of the Magi. You know we need a safe place to go—it’s getting dangerous to keep up the traveling medicine wagon, we are beginning to be too recognizable. The Proctors were asking questions about us in the last town before Joppa. The flyer will give them the excuse to hunt us down. It takes one of the blood to hold Ironlyn and control the Gate. We can’t allow it to fall into any hands but ours. Besides the Magi Cadre is counting on us to take over at Ironlyn. You know how important it is to what we do."

She pulled away from him and covered her face with her hands.

"Don’t you see, he’s going to think its real! I dread having even you or Owen touch me and I know you aren’t going to—every time a man even touches my hand I