“I’ll dry those,” said Mawre, gesturing to my wet nightclothes. “You should go up and change. I’ll wait downstairs.”
I appreciated that none of them fussed. Grateful to escape their gazes, I hurried up the steps and donned some dry workwear, wringing my nightshift out over the basin. The smell of brine made my insides turn over as it hit me just how close I’d come to drowning—like Zennia.
Downstairs, Mawre took the sodden pile and left. Behind her, Tigo and Rhianne still lingered. Rhianne had been hissing something to Tigo as I descended.
“I brought some breakfast from the kitchens,” she said suddenly. “It’s not much, but I thought…well, that you’d need it after all that.”
My jog to and from my room had left me lightheaded, and my stomach burbled, giving me away. I nodded warily and followed her down into the cellar. Tigo leaned his hatchet against the wall and came down behind us, like a watchful chaperone.
Rhianne’s cellar room was surprisingly cozy, with a crackling fire, brightly colored wall hangings, a circle of mismatched, tired-looking chairs, and a narrow, blackened stove on which a kettle was already boiling.
“If it’s any consolation,” she said, handing me a plate, “he’ll probably ignore you now, like he does with us. Just keep your head down, get all your work done…”
I perched in one of the armchairs with my food: slightly stale bread with butter caked on it, dried fish, a hunk of cheese going hard at the edges.
“D’you think it was all his idea?” I said. “You don’t think the siblings helped him plan it?”
Tigo folded his wiry arms.
“Vercha, maybe,” Rhianne said quickly, “but definitely not Catua.” Rosy spots bloomed on her cheeks. “She hates anything like that. Orha mistreatment. Actually, she’s quite progressive.”
“Emment only returned in the early hours,” said Tigo. He’d moved to the stove and was clinking cups around, tense shouldered. “He wouldn’t have had time to confer with his father. And Llir certainly wouldn’t have been involved.”
I frowned. “I think he was. Llir, I mean. He mentioned at the dinner that we’d already met, then ended up practicallytellingRexim about yesterday…”
Rhianne dipped her head over the tea Tigo handed her. From the way she carefully avoided my eyes, I guessed he’d told her what happened on the causeway.
Tigo paused a moment, then placed my tea on an end table. “As I said, Llir wouldn’t have had a hand in something like that.”
I quirked an eyebrow skeptically. “What’s his problem, anyway?” I ventured. I had so many questions, I couldn’t keep them from spilling out. “He seems to have taken against me from the start. And he stalks around the place like the weight of the world’s on him…”
I caught Rhianne flicking her eyes at the Mudmouth.
“If you mean Llir’s lecture on the causeway,” said Tigo shortly, “he was right that it’s foolish to be ignorant of the tides.”
My face warmed as I dropped my gaze to my tea. I hadn’t had a chance to look at his tide tables.
“And if you really must know, he and I were on the mainland yesterday to sort out the latest of Emment’s gambling debts.”
I glanced up, surprised, but Tigo had his back to me, busyinghimself with the breakfast things. “The Brigant, of course, would never go himself, though he seems happy to keep covering his eldest son’s ‘expenses.’ And he won’t send his daughters or any other servants. He doesn’t want them to know.”
“Though we all do,” put in Rhianne.
“So if Llir seemed preoccupied…” After a pause, Tigo shrugged. “The boy has his challenges, like any of us.”
I swallowed the scoff that threatened to spill out of me. What true challenges could someone like Llir have? Born into luxury. The freedom to go anywhere. All his whims catered to by servants like us.
“Fine,” I said. “But something’s going on with Emment. There was something wrong with him up on the cliffs, and it wasn’t just the hangover. And I ran into him on my way back here last night. He was drunk, but as soon as I said who I was, it was like a shutter came down…”
Another fleeting look between them.
“He hasn’t been the same since the accident,” Rhianne said tentatively, keeping one eye on Tigo. “He was out there, after all. Saw…saw her drown.”
“Wait,” I said, dropping a crust onto my plate. “What?”
A few seconds of silence, then Tigo sighed heavily. “Zennia accompanied Emment to Port Rhorstin so he wouldn’t have to row; so the crossing went quicker. The accident happened on the way back, at night. Big waves, he said. They got into trouble.”
Rhianne had paled and was fiddling with her mug. “He was shaking harder than I’ve ever seen anyone…Got us all up, made us go out there looking…”
