“Leah?”
I whip around to see an old neighbor peering over her garden wall.
“Mrs. Gavere,” I say, lost for words for a moment. I don’t know what people have heard since I left my father’s house, but she’s not looking at me like she’s seen a ghost, so it doesn’t seem people believe I’m dead, at least.
“Are you back from traveling with your new husband?” she asks, studying me from over her glasses. “Your father said you were taking an extended trip. Congratulations, by the way, although I must say I was a little disappointed not to be invited to the wedding,” she sniffs.
“Oh, well, it was a very smallceremony, Mrs. Gavere,” I say apologetically, trying to think fast. “In fact, I’ve only just gotten back this moment, hence my traveling clothes,” I gesture to the practical pants and tunic I’m wearing, nothing like the dresses she used to see me in. “But I was desperate to see Evie and came straight here. Do you know if she’s in?”
Mrs. Gavere’s always been a bit of a gossip, and I thank the goddess for it now as she barely contains her smile. “You haven’t heard? But then I suppose you’ve been away—and Ada’s been trying very hard not to let it get around.” She lowers her voice, clearly delighted to be the first to give methis information. “Your sister left to marry that butcher’s apprentice who works on Famley Road.”
My heart swells and contracts at the same time. Evie listened to me. She used the scavenging money to get out. But she also ran straight into the arms of a man I know almost nothing about.
What if this Jeremy isn’t what he seemed? Evie is so much more sheltered than me; he could have easily deceived her about his true self.
Not that having some experience of the world has served you any better…
The snarky thought stings with its accuracy, but it doesn’t do much to calm my anxiety. I have to see Evie. I can’t come all this way and not make sure she’s okay, and since my mental barrier still seems to be holding, I might have time.
“Do you know where they live now?” I ask.
“I don’t. Though if your stepmother isn’t forthcoming with the details…” She gives me a knowing look, and I decide that I’m very fond of Mrs. Gavere. “Then your best bet is asking at the butchers. Even if he’s not working today, they’ll know where their apprentice lives.”
I pause just long enough to thank her, and then I’m hurrying off again. Luckily, Famley Road is just fifteen minutes away—five if I run—and I’m in sight of the swinging sign shaped like a smiling pig in no time.
Except there’s a long line out the door.
I can’t wait. I need to push in, but I’m just weighing up how to do that without getting decked when I hear a voice carrying on the air.
It’s singing. A gentle, lilting melody I’ve heard a thousand times before as Evie brushed her hair or helped me in the kitchen. Heart leaping in my chest, I round the side of the butcher’s shop, spying a neat row of little houses beyond.
And inside one of them, standing by an open window as she intently kneads a mound of dough, is my little sister.
Chapter 23
Leah
Idon’t let go of Evie for a long time. Too long, considering I don’t know how much time I have before Syrus finds me. But I figure that if I’m going to be ripped away from her again, I need to savor this, my little sister, safe and well in my arms.
“Leah,” she breathes. The word is full of relief, but questions too.
“I’m sorry,” I say, mumbling into her shoulder. “I’m sorry I left you. I’m sorry you had to fix everything on your ow?—”
“Leah,” she says more firmly, pulling back to look at me. “Where have you been? Everyone assumed you’d left with Hathwell on that trip, but?—”
“I haven’t been with Hathwell,” I say quickly. Then I wonder what Iwillsay. Part of me wants to tell her everything. The full truth is so big and heavy that I’m suddenly not sure how I’ve been carrying it alone.
But I can’t burden her with it. If I tell her about the sorcerers and Infernum and the Lord of Malice, I might just send her into premature labor.
“I knew you couldn’t have been with him,” she says. “Nearly two months honeymooning without so much as a letter? You wouldn’t do that to me. But no one’s seen Hathwell either, and when I went to his house, it was all closed up, no servants or anything.”
No Hathwell either? Interesting. Did the sorcerers get to him? Or did he flee the city after the little party he planned for his new bride went so disastrously wrong?
“How have you been?” I ask, my hand dropping to the slight swell on her stomach. “That’s the more important question right now.”
She gives me a frustrated look, but her eyes are soft at the edges, still too glad to see me to be truly annoyed at my deflection.
“I’m good,” she says, and she looks it, round-faced and glowing, her hair tied back in a much more relaxed style than Ada would ever allow. “Much better now I know you’re all right.”
