“As much as I would have loved to be in the shop all day, I was unfortunately tasked with delivering orders and paying visits to our mostloyalpatrons, per your request,” Anelize answered with an air of feigned interest. “I thought you’d find my absence quite pleasing.”
“You did not have to hear the whining of ingrates begging for tonics without so much as offering a single coin as payment.”
“What a sacrifice on your part to have to work in the comfort of this shop, in the pleasant heat. Perhaps you could take a turn about the port one day to make the visits for me. I believe the fresh air will do you some good.”
“One day that nasty lack of ability to hold your tongue will get you into trouble, and I won’t lift a finger to get you out of it, girl,” Magda chided as she turned away from the several shelves holding vials and jars, each labeled carefully with Anelize’s scrawling penmanship. She made a note with mild annoyance to arrange them back into their proper place before going to bed tonight. She glanced down to the small ceramicjar in Magda’s hands, finally gaging what it was that she’d been looking for. Magda often had a habit of brewing a pot of linden tea and honey before supper. Anelize had once told her that the sweet blossoms had benefits to encourage calm onto those who drank it regularly. Though they certainly weren’t a cure for being a wretched shrew.
Magda eyed her expectantly when she finally snapped, “So?”
“So?” Anelize mused, rounding the counter to see that the once neat pile of parchment and bundle of dried herbs were scattered messily about.
Magda snapped, “Where are today’s earnings? Are you going to make me wait all day?”
“Ah, I seem to have mistaken that your eagerness for my arrival was because you’d grown to miss me. How silly of me.”
Anelize placed the pouch down on the table, the clink of the coins dancing about inside seeming to brighten Magda’s face with something other than disdain. In fact, the few times her aunt directed an ounce of joy toward anything, it was while filling her coffers. There used to be a time, when she was a child, where Anelize gladly worked if only to see her aunt regard her with anything other than contempt. Until she learned her lesson, recognized joy and praise were nothing more than conditional, momentary lapses of judgement when it came to Magda.
Choosing to ignore Anelize’s condescension, Magda quickly snatched the pouch and began counting the coins, “You best not have stolen aruenthis time, or I’ll have you pay me double what you already owe.”
Anelize said flatly, “Wouldn’t dream of it, my dear Magda.”
While the sign outside the shop clearly states the nameYarrow, Anelize knew that her aunt would do everything in her power to ensure that neither her nor Enid would ever own the shop or see a single coin earned in all the years the former had worked as an apothecary. Not until she was paid what she was owed…
After Magda had become a widow when Anelize had been a child, surviving her merchant husband, she’d inherited not only his business but also the small fortune given to her. That all changed the moment the Abanos Sea froze and thus reduced any possibility of trade Elvir might have made with the neighboring kingdom to the south. Anelize’s father with his bleeding heart had come to his sister’s aid by offering to let her reside with the Yarrows when she’d found herself utterly alone with no children to call her own, nor a husband to shield her from those who would prey upon her. In the end, it was because of the fortune Magda had inherited that the shop managed to stay afloat as long as it had, though it had not come without a price. A price Magda had ensured Anelize and Enid paid without exception for nearly fifteen years.
As if she’d conjured her by the mere thought, soft footsteps sounded from the stairs to her right. She was greeted by a bright, albeit nervous, smile on Enid’s lips as she spotted her sister. Her gaze shifted between Anelize and Magda expectantly, and the former stifled a sigh of exhaustion. She supposed she would never know peace tonight now.
“Magda, there is something I wish to tell you,” Enid murmured as she came to stand beside Anelize, her voice entirely too soft.
“What is it?” Magda snapped as she continued counting her coins.
“Well, you see…” Enid hesitated, wringing her hands together as fear ruled over her. It was a frequent effect their aunt had on her. After years of ridicule and unwarranted reprimand, Enid had resorted to remain small before the cruel woman. As if that would ease the wrath she would receive. Anelize was not the same in that regard, if anything she rebelled against being seen as malleable before someone who would take great joy in it. Which was probably why she’d received the brunt of such mistreatment for the both of them for so long.
To keep their secrets, to keep them safe, she would have endured anything. There had never once been a question about it.
Anelize declared outright rather than watch Enid attempt to make her agonizing confession, “The Dobrin boy has asked for Enid’s hand. They wish to be married in the Old Church.”
Magda’s hand froze before she could pluck anotherruenfrom the velvet pouch in her hand. The silence that followed was a practiced art in inspiring apprehension in both the women. It had two entirely different reactions from them as one openly glared down her nose, while the other shifted nervously, only stopping when their hands intertwined in silent reassurance.
When Magda spoke, it was with a snide remark. “Have you now? And what makes you think you have any voice on the matter when you live as my wards?”
Magda looked to Anelize with a glimmer of cruelty in her eyes, as if she knew she wouldn’t be able to argue with that fact. Except she could. Logic was the one tool at Anelize’s disposal that made her a worthy adversary to the woman before her as cunning and wicked as she was. They both knew it which was precisely why neither knew peace in each other’spresence. Why they were often caught in a game of bargains and debts.
“She may have been your ward years ago, but you have done nothing to earn the title of guardian. I’d say your claim of ownership on either of us is moot by now. If Enid wishes to marry the boy, then so be it.” Anelize shrugged at Magda’s pointed glare. “But if you look at it from my standpoint, it would be one less mouth to feed, something which you always made a fuss about up until now.”
A scoff came in answer. “What could that boy possibly offer us? The Dobrins can hardly be considered a respectable family. They run a tavern full of drunks, for saint’s sake.”
“Magda, please—” Enid started only to be silenced at the angry scowl shot her way. It made Anelize’s jaw clench at the sight of her sister flinching beside her, and how quickly their aunt relished at the sight of it.
A cruel smile crept across Magda’s lips. “Be that as it may, you both still owe me a debt. And unless the Dobrins can pay off Enid’s portion, there will be no wedding. Not if I have a say. Argue all you want, but that is the truth that you and I both know,Anelize.”
Confusion riddled Enid’s face as she shifted her attention toward her sister, squeezing her hand as if gathering the courage to speak. “But…our debts are almost paid off entirely. Surely you can make an exception. I-I can continue working the shop in the meantime. That will not change.”
“And make excuses after you marry? You must take me for a fool. The moment you leave this place, you’ll never return. You’ll hide yourself away with the Dobrins and let them dote on you just as your sister has. Well, I won’t be easily swayed by your tears or pleas, Enid. I made the mistake of being mercifulbefore. I was generous enough to grant your father the money he needed to keep this forsaken shop andyou twoalive. Given his unfortunate demise due to his own foolishness, the debt naturally passed down to you girls. As he’d promised me. And it will remain so until every lastruenis dropped into the palm of my hands. Until then, Iownyou. Unless of course…” Magda rounded the counter and reached for a lock of Anelize’s ebony hair only to smirk when she shrugged her touch away with a look of disgust. “You wish for the debt to double itself. There’s no use in sparing Anelize from taking on your half given that you so willingly want to leave this place.”
“You can’t…” Enid murmured.
“It’s either that or you both leave the shop, and I do with it as I see fit. Keeping you both was merely out of convenience, and a sense of duty to my dead brother. In truth, being rid of you would ease my constant headaches.” Magda glanced at Anelize, her cruelty only growing further when she knowingly said, “What say you, Anelize? Will you give up everything your father worked tirelessly for?”
