“I said no.” His words fell out as flat and heavy as an anvil.
“But—”
“It’s gone, Greer. The cape is no more.”
Greer knitted her fingers together, feeling cold.
Ailie’s velvet cape had been her most cherished possession. It was the same dark hue as a twilight sky and covered with hundreds of constellations, stitched by Ailie herself. Greer had learned how to read the night sky from that cape, wondering over each piece of embroidery as her mother told her the stories behind every star cluster.
Greer had assumed Hessel had stored it away, saving it as a piece of treasure to bestow upon her one day. That he could have gotten rid of it hurt her more than she had words to say.
Hessel seemed to realize his error and shuffled his feet over the threshold, looking contrite. “They’ll be starting the festivities soon. We oughtn’t be late for that.”
Greer nodded, and gave her room one final glance. The next time she stepped foot into it, she’d be a married woman, packing up her girlhood to bring to Ellis’s cabin. Their home.
She caught Hessel staring at her with a wistful gaze, as if he was realizing the same thing.
“Aren’t you going to try and stop me?” she questioned curiously. “I thought you’d have some last warning, some final plea.”
Hessel glanced out the window, considering her words. “No. No, I don’t. I know that when the time comes Ellis Beaufort will make the right choice. For him. For you. For Mistaken.”
He retreated, leaving Greer behind with an uneasy ache in her chest.
13
Despite the cold,despite the mist settling in so heavily it might as well have been rain, despite the dread hanging over the town like funeral shrouds, despiteit all,the girls of Mistaken looked lovely.
The girls were all rosy faces and excited eyes. They wore light capes in alluring shades over dresses short enough for men to sneak quick glimpses of ankles and lace-trimmed underskirts. Heads were left uncovered, so that all might see and admire the beautiful braids and ribbons pinned in place.
Greer pulled her heavy, long cloak around herself more tightly, feeling chilled just looking at them. Hadn’t their mothers warned them? Didn’t they understand how long they might have to wait? Making her way through the crowd of young women laughing too loudly, brazenly running their hands up the arms of the Hunters, and batting their eyes at whoever paid notice, Greer had never felt so old or tired.
Had she ever looked at Ellis with such swoony, forlorn eyes, with such a fevered intensity of hope and yearning? They’d loved each other for so long and with such equal measure, it was hard to remember.
Her heart hurt for these girls—and they were girls, no matter what the Stewards said—so full of wonderings and wants.
Wanting to be noticed, to be found unique and irresistible. Wantingto be courted and wooed. Wanting for so many things other than the roles they currently played.
Schoolgirl.
Sister.
Friend.
Daughter.
Greer hoped that, by day’s end, each of these fresh-faced girls would be found by a lad who would care for her and appreciate all the things that made her her own person, not just the position she’d been assigned. She hoped that they’d find comfort in each other, each having a hand to hold as the Warding Stones shifted and the skies filled with blood. She hoped they’d find the right someones to be with, to stand beside in the face of uncertainty and peril.
For the good of the town.
Mistaken gathered on the edge of the Hunting Grounds, waiting for the Stewards to declare the Hunt begun. A heightened merriment was rippling through the crowd. People laughed and smiled, waved and called out to neighbors. It was as though the entire community had decided to forget the horrors of the night before, if only for this one day.
For the good of the town.
The scent of the Hunters’ feast made her stomach growl, and Greer longed to grab a hot biscuit stuffed with thick cuts of hot bacon and sharp mustard. She paused, thinking of the day to come. An empty stomach would be far better than one queasy with too-rich food. Greer took a sourdough roll instead and stuffed it into her satchel alongside a small flask of water.
The young women would be sent first, so they could race to find a spot among the trees and tall grasses, the brambles and thickets. They’d hunker against the cold and begin their wait. Half an hour later, the Hunters would come. They’d roam the woods, the clearing, and the meadows with sharp eyes, searching for their intended prey.
Greer could feel those sharp eyes on her now, acutely aware of every lad taking note of what she wore, of the color of her cape. The lure of Hessel’s fortunes could prove hard to resist, even if they had to marry Greer to get it. Their open stares made her squirm. They might be kind, some of them might even be good, but she didn’t knowanything about these men, and she was certain they couldn’t say a single thing of her.
