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“They’re not trespassing.” She kept her voice down, stepping lightly through the underbrush, taking him further away from the path, where the thickening trees shielded them from view. “I allow them to use the footpaths.”
Gideon was invisible beside her, his hand still in hers, as the torches flickered past them.
“You allow them?”
She was glad he couldn’t see the truth on her face.I do more than that.Sometimes, if she knew no one would catch her, Rune left fresh bread and cheese out for them to take.
“They use the paths to get to the beach, where they fish after sundown.” Technically, allowing Penitents to use the paths on her property wasn’t giving them direct aid, and therefore wasn’t illegal. “Are you going to report me?”
“No. It’s just …surprising.”
“There are children among them. As you pointed out earlier, I didn’t choose to be born into my position, just as those children didn’t choose to be born into theirs.”
“I’m not accusing you, Rune. I think it’s …admirable.” His warm hand squeezed hers.
Oh.
A strange silence descended.
Rune had loathed this boy since the day Alex first introduced them, and here she was, holding his hand in the dark.By choice.
The thought made her tug her fingers free.
Because he’d loathed her, too. Still did. Wasn’t that why he’d pushed away from her kiss?
She wanted to understand it. What, exactly, had he seen in her then that made him reject her so adamantly?
“Do you remember the day we first met?”
Rune had been thirteen. She and Alex had been friends for almost two years when, one hot summer day, he invited her to go cliff jumping in Nameless Cove. The cove, he’d told her, had the best cliffs for plunging into the sea. Rune had never done anything so daring, and the thought of it thrilled her. But it wason the wrong side of town. Nan had adamantly forbade Rune from visiting Alex’s home, which was in an economically disadvantaged part of the city.
But she’d said nothing about Nameless Cove. So Rune didn’t ask permission, or even tell Nan she was going.
When they arrived, she found a group of kids climbing the rocks and throwing themselves into the sea. One boy consistently climbed higher than the others and threw himself furthest.
The boy was Gideon, the brother Alex had told her so much about.
“How could I possibly forget,” Gideon murmured, pulling her out of the memory. The leafy canopy overhead was thinning, and with the moon shining through, Rune could see the frown marring his brow. “Rich girl takes a tour of the Outer Wards to see how the dirty peasants live, and decides it’s not for her.”
“What?”Her cheeks burned beneath the accusation. She didn’t notice when the forest disappeared behind them.
“Isn’t that why you asked Alex to bring you?”
“Alex invited me,” she said, defensive.
“Of course.” His jaw clenched. “To show you off like a piece of treasure.”
Rune looked sharply toward his silhouette. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing. Never mind.”
She shook her head as the long meadow grass swished around them, tilting in the wind and brushing her bare legs. “You were so rude that day. I thought you were the rudest boy I’d ever met.”
“Me?” He coughed. “Iwas rude? You’ve got it backward.”
“You insulted my clothes.”
“I did not.”
