“Making a play for Ramsey.” She chuckles sardonically.
“What are you talking?—”
The conversation at the table comes back to me.
Curse Kairi and Violet for their reckless chatter.
Amber turns with the basket. I grab the rim.
“I’m not leaving.”
“You have to.”
“Because you say?”
“Because according to the rules of Penticari courtship, which the Tempest men have agreed to, it’s improper for you to be here while Ramsey is courting me.”
My hand falls away, and she leaves with the basket full of my weaves in hand.
They’re a couple.
I should have known.
But why…why do what he did in the caves?
Was I just someone to practice on so he could impress her?
Maybe that’s why he was so angry at my request to search for bugs. He didn’t want to be away from her.
A squeaking sound catches my attention, and I see Harold scurry over to me, climbing onto my foot.
I pick him up, giving his head a pat. “I’ve missed you.”
He runs onto my shoulder, hiding under the outer layer of my clothes, near my back.
Instead of going to the longhouse, I head over to Elena’s tent and ring the bell.
“Come in,” she calls.
She looks exhausted, and I loathe bringing her my problems when she has so many of her own.
But she’s going to want to know about Ramsey courting Amber.
She gestures to the pillow across from her, and I sit.
“Is something wrong?”
Deciding on a less-than-straightforward approach, I ask, “Is there something I could do that no one else wants to?”
Her brow pinches. “What do you mean?”
I lift my shoulders, shrugging. “I don’t know, like instead of taking turns cleaning the privy, maybe that could be my job. And I can haul trash to the pits each day.”
“But your job is to weave.”
“You know as well as I do that it’s not what our tribe needs.”
She sighs. “I know dealing with Ramsey is hard?—”
