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Her sister walked around the kitchen, wearing a pretty, yet simple, blue dress, cinched with a corset. She held a steaming bowl of rice. “I caught fish for our meal. I’m happy you came early.”
“We are meeting up with friends that are traveling with us, later. We need to find a ship to get out of this place. We were hoping you might be able to recommend someone.”
“No… You only just got here.” Her mother frowned. “You’re already thinking of leaving?”
“We saw bounty hunters in town,” Violet said, fidgeting. She was still waiting for her mother to realize she was a deserter and throw her out of here. Any moment now.
“If that’s the case, then they won’t come this way. You don’t remember, dear, but no one ever comes to this place. It’s going to be fine here.”
Thalea dropped the dish towel into the cast-iron basin by the kitchen and looked away with a shimmer of tears in her eyes. She was clearly holding something back.
“We can’t count on that. It will put you two in danger as well.”
“Nah! We will be great! Let’s have some food and not talk about doom and gloom. I want to know about the wedding.” Her mother held on to the back of one of the dining chairs, most likely feeling too weak to stand without help. When had she become so frail? Would Violet see her again once they’d left?
Gavin’s hand reached for hers and squeezed. He’d watched every movement her mother made, and his frown only unsettled Violet further.
“The bounty hunters are looking for someone,” she said to Thalea. “If it turns out it’s me, and they’ve followed us here, then you take mother out of her bedroom window, all right? And don’t look back.”
Thalea sat down, her brows pinched together. “Wow, you are serious.”
“Deadly.”
“Then you know I can’t leave you behind.”
“They aren’t here for either of you, but they will do harm to you in order to hurt me.”
“If it comes to it, we can fight a group of bounty hunters so long as we know you two are okay,” Gavin added, taking a seat next to her mother.
They served themselves, filling their plates with rice and fish in a charged silence. There was blackberry wine, too—a welcome balm to her frayed nerves. She wasn’t usually one to drink alcohol so early, but on a day like today, she needed it.
“How many bounty hunters did you see?”
“Four,” Gavin said. “Maybe five.”
“Hmm. This isn’t what I had imagined. Maybe we should change the subject?” Thalea cleared her throat, glancing around the table before taking a bite of her aromatic fish. “Father would have liked to be here to see you.”
It wasn’t how Violet had envisioned her return, either.
“Let’s not talk about him right now.” Her mother’s tense shoulders gave away her distress, although she tried to keep up a chipper tone.
“Mom, Violet hasn’t seen either of us in over a decade.”
Except that Violet had seen both Thalea and her father yesterday. If only she could forget the memory. But it was engraved in her mind.
“Where is he?” she asked.
The silence extended for longer than was comfortable, and her mother’s eyes glazed before she spoke. “He died in the mines five years ago. Along with most of the town’s young men.” She took a tentative, far too small bite and chewed as if it tasted like chalk instead of buttery, salted fish.
“It has been just Lea and I for a while now. We are fine.”
Ha! Her mother was a terrible actress. But Violet refused to let the lie fester further, and her need for answers trumped even the worry of being tracked down here. “Why was he working in the mines? He loved fishing and was proud of how you two supported our family.”
“I don’t want to talk about this!” her mother exclaimed. “What happened to your father is a tragedy we should’ve avoided. I wish not to be reminded of it at every turn.”
Her bony grip tightened around the fork, and her now ill-fitting wedding band moved up her finger, clinking against the cup of wine in her other hand.
“I’ve been gone, but I remember him and who he was,” Violet insisted and looked at Thalea. She wanted to get the information that would fill the gaps in her knowledge. Her sister held her fork in the air, a bite of white fish flaking off it, but she said nothing.
