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I swallowed and tried to breathe my temper away, only it didn’t work. As I met his eyes, my temper boiled over, and I answered him. “You don’t really expect me to answer you when you speak to me like that, do you? If you want an answer, I’m sure you’ll decide instead to speak to me like one civilized person to another?”
“She was saving my life.” The old woman still in my arms whimpered. “I froze…I’ve never seen one before.”
Suddenly, I was surrounded. Jayne, Hannah, Caroline—they all started talking at once, but it was Caroline who yelled the loudest. “She wouldn’t have had to rescue her, if any of you had done it. Why were you all just standing there?”
Charles didn’t seem the least bit concerned with being berated by us. “She was never in danger. We knew where she was and what those things would have done if you had all stayed where we told you instead of making things considerably harder. They’re only nuisances.”
Jayne pointed at the tree. “It was on fire.”
“And now it’s not.” He shook his head. “Stay where you’re told next time. We can’t be expected to rescue you if you’re going to be stupid about it.”
With those words, he left us standing there in the rain. I regretted immediately standing up for them to Jayne. She was right. Maybe she hadn’t meant them specifically, but she was right just the same.
I squeezed the woman. “Let’s get you inside.”
“Thank you. We’ve all waited for you.”
I didn’t know what she meant, and I deliberately didn’t ask, because if she said what I thought she might, I didn’t want to know.
“Truett,” Judge’s wife called. “If all of you were trying to be funny by standing on that hill and doing nothing while the potentials were terrified, then you can take your high handedness and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.”
He bowed slightly to her. “Miranda, your use of language never ceases to amuse. Good evening to you, my lady. You’re welcome for not letting the manor burn to the ground and taking care of the pests that came into the sky tonight. The archers must be failing. How did they get so close to Hawkseye?”
She turned red. We shouldn’t have been watching them, but we were. How could we not? It was like a train wreck. “Thank goodness you were here to save us. If it had just been your son, we would all be dead.”
I felt that dig as if she’d directed it at me. Judge’s wife wasn’t kind in her anger. Truett took a step toward her. “Everyone suffers their first year. He had the sense to do something, and that is half the battle. You wouldn’t know, since you wouldn’t even let your own son try out for the role. Not one of them, and you have five of them. Surely one of them has a spine?”
She seemed so calm, I wondered if she’d become a statue. “Why would I want that for him, when living that life killed my sister? Oh wait, I’m sorry. That was the four of you who let her die. I pity any woman who has the bad luck to be paired with you. Any member of your family, actually. Good night and my thanks, of course.”
Oliver put his arm around Truett. Not like he was hugging him but more like he stopped him from surging forward. Whatever he said, I couldn’t hear.
“Young ladies,” the old woman spoke to us, “we shouldn’t eavesdrop. It’s not polite.”
Well, it was over. I’d heard enough.
I lay in the bed and listened to the wind howling outside. I never saw things like I had tonight. I’d gotten yelled at by a Warrior, rescued a ritual woman, seen things flying through the air, and watched two very important people in our society scream at each other in public. I wouldn’t have ever believed it. Jayne snored across the room, a sometimes habit for her when she slept particularly restlessly.
Sleep wasn’t coming for me. Over the past few years, I’d counted on my gift to tell me when bad things would happen. Then, I would either prevent them or make sure the outcome would be okay, but I didn’t have any warning before things went sideways earlier. It all hit me as an utter surprise.
Word came through right before we got in bed that, due to the night’s escapades, Judge’s wife didn’t feel we should delay the ritual another day. It would happen tomorrow. There was no time for balls and laughter if flying beasts were making it through the archers. They needed the Warriors back at work.
Or maybe she needs them out of her city.
Where is Judge? Does anyone actually see him?
I crept out of bed. The only thing that might help was warm milk or I would be up all night. I dressed in my robe and slippers they provided me and, as quietly as I could, made my way downstairs to the kitchen.
It was empty.
The fridge held so much milk, it startled me. Dairy was hard to come by everywhere…except, apparently, their manor.
Okay. Well that served its purpose.
“May I join you?”
I jumped, nearly dropping the glass bottle of milk. Her green robe showed a crest, but I recognized her as the Warrior wife, the one who had saved us years ago.
I motioned toward the counter. “Of course. Warm milk?”
