Page 14 of The Starling and the Hatter

Her brow jumped up. “Only fourteen, and a voice like that? You’re a lucky one, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I suppose,” I admitted, my face heating at the genuine praise.

“No supposing about it. You’ll do well with your singing, I have no doubt.” She turned to look up into the loft that was above half of the main room. “Katharine!” she called, then turned back to me. “She’s a year older than you, though half the time she doesn’t act it.”

A girl with dark hair and eyes appeared at the edge of the loft, a bundle of fabric in her arms. “What?”

“Our guest is here,” Dorothy said, gesturing to me.

Katharine’s eyes found mine and she grinned. “Oh! Sorry.” She hurried out of sight and then appeared again at the top of a narrow set of stairs that sat along one wall, her arms now empty. “I was working on Mistress Raven’s skirt.”

Dorothy smiled and said quietly to me, “She gets so involved in her sewing that she can ignore nearly anything.”

Katharine scrambled down the stairs and right up to me, her face bright and open. “You’re the Starling?”

I laughed a little, but before I could answer, Didi piped in.

“She is! But not right now. Right now she’s just a person, and you’re supposed to say, ‘How do you do.’”

Kat just smiled at her little sister’s reprimand and did as instructed. “How do you do,” she said, holding out a hand. “I’m Katharine, but everyone calls me Kat.”

I took her hand and we both dropped a curtsey in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you, Kat. I’m Elise.”

She dropped my hand but then wrapped her arm around mine and led me to the table. “I’m going to have to come hear you sing tomorrow. The girls said you were wonderful, but when Dorothy told me that you really were wonderful and that you were probably only a little older than me, I knew I’d have to come see you.”

“I’m only fourteen,” I corrected.

She stopped her rushed dialogue to look at me a moment. “Are you? You seem older than that.”

I shrugged.

“No matter,” she said, pointing me to a chair and then taking the one next to me. “It’s all just days and weeks anyway.”

The rest of the family took their chairs, making me realize that I was probably sitting in Maddox’s spot. It struck me how lucky I was to have met him that first day, especially as I was about to consume the best meal I’d had in recent memory and it was all because of him.

As we began to eat, the family talked amongst themselves, leaving me free to take bite after bite. The soup felt wonderful sliding down my throat, and the texture of the biscuits was flaky, and yes, still warm! When was the last time I’d eaten a biscuit that wasn’t cold and hard? It must have been when my mother was still alive.

I finished my bowl of soup so quickly that I was embarrassed, but Dorothy just refilled my bowl without interrupting the conversation. After looking around to be sure that no one was noticing my ill-mannered inhalation of the meal, I dipped my spoon in, feeling only grateful. I’d eaten half of my second helping and was slowing down before anyone asked me a question.

Kat turned to me. “Do you and your family follow the same festival route as Father and Maddox?” she asked, her eyes wide and curious.

I chewed for a moment before answering, giving myself a chance to decide on a response. “I hope to start following that route, yes, but I don’t have any family. I…lost them recently.”

A spoon clattered, and I looked up to see Katharine staring at me, looking aghast. “You’re on your own?”

I nodded, mustering a smile to reassure her.

“You’re too pretty to be on your own,” she declared.

That made me sit up straighter. “I beg your pardon?”

“Dorothy, don’t you agree?” she said, trying to enlist her stepmother’s help.

“I—” was all Dorothy got out before Katharine fixed her attention back on me.

“I’m the first to admit there are a lot of good people, but there are also plenty of bad people.” The seriousness of her voice contradicted the youth of her face. “Aren’t you worried someone will take advantage of you?”

“Well, yes”—that worry was deeply ingrained and well founded—“of course, but—”