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“Fine,” I said, shaking my head. “But Uncle Gregory is right. What have we got to lose, Father? We need to do everything for Mama—”
“To your room, girl!” His sharp yell cut through the quiet of the house and made me jerk from fear.
With a quick nod, I frowned at Gregory, said, “Nice to see you, Uncle,” and then vanished up the stairs.
I slipped into my mother’s room to be with her for a while, in case these were the last precious hours we’d have together.
She coughed in her sleep, wet and ragged. It was like she was afflicted with a sleeping spell, and her eyes darted furiously under her pale lids.
I crawled on the bed, curling around Mama, and held her hand. In her ear, I whispered, “I wish you would wake up and tell us what to do, Mama. I’m so worried and lost. Father acts like he knows what he’s doing, but I can tell he’s just as confounded as Uncle Gregory.”
I tucked my head into the crook of her shoulder, listening to the sound of her weak breaths through her nose. I felt small and frail, like an infant who needed attachment—more helpless than I even had when Father attacked me.
Time passed and I closed my eyes. I wasn’t sure how long it was, but a croaking voice woke me.
“Get me away from here, daughter of mine.”
My eyes jolted open, heart racing. I popped up from the bed with a gasp. “M-Mama?!”
Her voice was weak, her eyes half-lidded as her head tilted in my direction. She gave me a tiny smile—only as much as she could manage. “If . . . if I don’t leave this place, I’ll never leave this place.”
My mind spun from her words. Was she hallucinating? Was I hallucinating?
I put a hand to her shoulder. Her thin nightgown was soaked through. “What do you mean, Mama? Please, tell me.” I gently shook her. “I don’t understand!”
She couldn’t expand on her cryptic words. One moment she was there, speaking to me, and the next her eyes rolled and she fell back into a deep, comatose stupor.
Tears trickled down my cheeks. Even Father’s assault hadn’t made me so sad, but seeing my mother like this? A child weeps when her mother, who she’s seen as invincible and sturdy her entire life, falls sick and weak.
“Mama, please . . .” I whined, gently shaking her.
It was no use. I played her words over in my head.
A minute later, I realized what she meant. If Mother never gets out of Wilford, she will die here, sure as anything.
She had confirmed Uncle Gregory’s opinion. But who could I tell? Father would never believe that she’d spoken to me in a moment of strength.
I needed to do everything I could to persuade him to take Mama to this Wulfric fellow in Barnsdale.
Chapter 8
Little John
Isat in a corner of the tavern, sipping my ale. Alert, eyes darting around the stuffy confines of the place. I’d thrown back my hood so as not to appear suspicious, revealing black hair that was beginning to gray at the temples.
Revelers drank merrily in the alehouse, fragments of conversation and laughter carrying through the large room. It was packed full this evening, at least two men to every table. Barmaids slid gracefully from table to table, dropping off mugs and steins. Working ladies were on their heels, bobbing eyebrows, smirking coyly, and squeezing their breasts together as they leaned over tables to whisper in the ears of men.
This place would become a brothel as the night dragged on. Where drink, soldiers, and women were involved, it always did.
I sat alone in my small booth, which drew attention from the ladies of the night. More than one of them came over to ply their wares at me, showing milky thighs, heaving bosoms, and garish makeup.
The first girl who came up couldn’t have seen more than fifteen winters. It sickened me to see such a youngling in a bawdy place like this, forced to work for her family afterhours because her father’s trade likely didn’t bring in enough revenue to support his lot.
Alas, these were the signs of the times. Desperate.
She made all the right moves, all the right gestures, yet I could see the nervousness in her face as she approached me—the lone stranger in the corner of the bar.
“Fancy a ride with an unbroken mare?” she asked, dipping forward to present her chest.
