“Kit—”
“Yourmotheris out there, Pen.” I slid my hands up to curl around his biceps and hold him in place.
“I don’t care,” he said, pulling against my grip. “She can hear me say it, too.”
As much as I might have enjoyed watching Penny tell Merrick off in front of the rest of his family, now wasn’t the time.We were in a precarious position whether Penny realized that or not.
Merrick knew enough to get the two of us arrested, or at the very least to destroy Penny’s relationship with his mother. It would break her heart to find out where we’d been for the last six months and to find out what we’d done. I never wanted Penny to have to go through that, and Merrick was too big of a threat to confront here.
“As far as your mother knows, Merrick and I just met for the first time.” I dipped my head to meet his narrowed eyes. “Unless you’re prepared to tell her about our time in Ashpoint, and the Bone Men, and everything else, it needs to stay that way.”
“So, I’m just supposed to tolerate him?” Penny seethed. “Act like he hasn’t tried to kill us more than once? Like this is allnormal? For how long, Kit?”
I loosened my grip on his biceps and ran my hands up and down his arms in a vain attempt to ease some of the tension that bound him up like a spring-loaded trap poised to snap. He didn’t relax, but he didn’t pull away, either. I took the small concession.
“We just need to get through planting. Making sure your family is in good shape is more important than fighting with your brother.” Penny opened his mouth to protest, but I corrected myself before he could do it for me. “Half-brother.”
His shoulders loosened and he expelled a heavy breath. I pulled him in and slid my arms around his back. He settled heavily against me and pressed his face into my shoulder.
“You sound like Sayla, you know.” His words were muffled against my shirt. “Everyone asking me to keep secrets. I thought we left that in Ashpoint.”
I pressed my nose into his hair and let my eyes slide closed. “I know, and I’m sorry.” A tiny smile crept across my lips. “But your mother introduced me to Merrick as your intended, so that’s one thing we don’t need to hide anymore.”
“Good,” Penny groused, but I heard the hint of a smile in his voice. “Rub it in his stupid face.”
“Thatyou’re free to do as much as you want.” To be honest, I would enjoy it as much as Penny would.
The wind shrieked past the window, and I frowned. With the Merrick situation mostly under control, the weather demanded my attention.
“Weather’s foul today.” I leaned back, and Penny reluctantly took back his own weight and looked up at me. “I want you to take it easy and stay out of the cold and the rain as much as you can. We can’t have you getting sick, and it’s best if Merrick doesn’t realize you have lasting effects from the hemlock. He doesn’t need that satisfaction.”
And he especially didn’t need to know Penny’s weakness. That was too easily exploited, and I wasn’t about to let that happen. After Wendwood, I wasn’t ready to see him that sick again, either. I’d be useless around the farm if I was fretting over him.
“I’ll manage,” Penny said. He took a deep breath and shook his head before turning to pull clean clothes out of our pack. “I’ll be fine.”
One way or another, I would make sure of that.
31
Penny
Breakfast was a debacle.
Sayla and Warren returned to find the same unpleasant surprise that had been my wakeup call. And, since I’d spent a large portion of the previous night telling my sister all the things Merrick had gotten up to in Ashpoint, she scowled across the table at him like he was a viper in our midst.
He always had been.
Warren and Mother remained ignorant, and they carried on a conversation about some new smelting technique that may have interested me if my ears hadn’t been full of my own thundering pulse. Blood well past its boiling point spiked into my face and stung the tips of my ears while I stabbed a fork into my eggs and wished the broken yolks were Merrick’s eyes.
I held my tongue and swallowed every bitter thing that begged to be spoken until everyone finished eating, and Kit handed out work assignments.
Seeing that we hadn’t discussed the division of labor, I was a bit surprised to hear Kit taking charge. Not half as surprised as Merrick, though, who chased Kit to standing, unwilling to be talked down to in any capacity.
“I’m not sure how or when you’ve gotten the idea in your head that you have some stake in this place,” Merrick said. “If you want to lend your strength and sweat to the labor, so be it, but I’ve been working this farm since I was born, and I know the lay of things better than some stranger.”
“Kit’s no stranger,” I snapped, joining them on my feet. “He’s my intended, and he has as much right to this farm as I do. Which, I will gladly remind, is measures more than you.”
Kit’s dark eyes flicked my direction, and I remembered his warning before we left my bedroom. Secrets and lies abounded, as did caution. Be careful around Merrick. Here, there, and everywhere.
