Be complacent. Know your place.Tight-lipped, I scowled.
“My sister is not a witch,” Aureus stated, his tone dismissive. “And if you have no intentions of making a purchase, I’m going to ask you to leave our stall.”
The man set his jaw, but it was his wife who spoke.
“I want to go,” she said. Her voice was weak and edged with nerves. Was she afraid of me? The fire in my chest extinguished, and I lowered my eyes.
When they left, Aureus released a sigh.
“I only wanted to help her,” I said under my breath.
“I know.” Aureus dropped his hold on my hand. The absence of his touch gave an illusion of distance between us that unsettled me.
Aureus returned the bag of mineral salts to its place and gestured to the lotion I still held.
“Oh,” I said, handing it to him. The woman’s rash would only get worse without treatment.Just as Kalae’s rough feet would only become more pained without the application of deer yarrow and the use of proper foot coverings.
The thin line of my brother’s lips turned downward. He set the lotion on the table, out of place. “Evera, there’s something we need to discuss.”
The apprehension I felt before, the air of something being off about him, returned. This wasn’t just a lecture about knowing my place; it was about keeping my practice confined to the back room of our shop, where others wouldn’t know of my involvement.
My stomach turned over. “We don’t need to discuss anything.”
Aureus ran a hand over his short beard. “Ruairc came by the shop the other day, and when we were speaking, another man—”
“I don’t want to speak about Ruairc,” I said hotly. As children, we’d been close. Then he grew into a young man and started thinking with his cock. Granted, he was gentlemanly enough, but the lingering gazes were enough to put an end to our time as playmates. Over the past three years, he’d asked Aureus for my hand relentlessly.
“If you would just listen, Evera—”
“Abridged version, Aureus,” I snapped. I ran a hand through my cinnamon hair, caught on a stubborn knot, and clenched a fist. Frustration made me short, and though bitterness stung at my quip, I held my ground.
“Fine.” Aureus’s response was cold, his jaw squared and features hard. I deserved it, but it still agitated me. “I’ve agreed to his request to court you.”
“No.” I took a step back, bumping into the table. Something fell over behind me and rolled over the wooden planks.
“If he should propose, you will accept it.”
“You can’t do this,” I rasped. “You can’t just make these kinds of choices for me.” My voice cracked. The truth was, he could. We had no father, and our mentor was old. That left Aureus as the head of our household and gave him every right to force my hand. But he was my brother, and he knew where my heart lay—in our shop, helping others in the only way I could. Marriage meant leaving to live with Ruairc. It meant giving up my skill, my identity.
For a moment, we held each other’s eyes. His features were harsh, rigid, while mine were soft; his eyes were cobalt, while mine held a hue of green. The only trait we seemed to share was that of our stubbornness.
I expected retaliation, but Aureus only heaved his chest with a long, drawn-out breath. No, damn him, I would not let him soften, not let him speak gently as if he could soothe me. Anger was easier, so I shoved at his chest to rile him.
Taken off guard, he retreated a step to balance his weight and narrowed his eyes. “Evera, what do you think happens if the rumors get worse?”
No one would make purchases from our shop. We’d lose our home to the tax collector, and Leighis would be on the streets with us. All because people thought I was an Alidian, because of daft assumptions based on stereotypes that held no ground. But I was beyond the point of arguing the folly of such claims. To point out that I was only assumed to be a witch because I was a woman—male healers were thought highly of—would only bring us back to the same point we’d come to many times before. It didn’t matter what it was, only what people believed.
The Alidian weren’t even all females; Leighis had told us as much when we were growing up. Still, men would leave that aspect out, write it off as a fluke, an anomaly. Women were expected to marry, raise children, to do as their husbands told them to do. They weren’t permitted to run businesses or own property, and they certainly weren’t allowed to meddle in anything related to healing or the crafting of tinctures. The only true occupation a woman could pursue for herself was as a woman of the night, a prostitute, and that was not a position anyone wanted to find themselves in.
“Are you going to say that this isn’t about me? That I owe as much to Leighis for taking us in?” Despite my resolve, my voice broke. A knot formed in my throat, making it hard to breathe.
Aureus said nothing, only held my gaze.
Leighis was old now, his mind clouded more often than not. He hadn’t ’ only given us a home, but had also let me learn his trade and encouraged my interests. He’d made me who I was,and I owed him everything for that. I chewed on my lip and deflected. “Why Ruairc?”
“Is there someone else you’d choose, Evera?” Aureus challenged. The levelness of his tone only made me want to hit him more. “I want you to be happy, sister. You know I do. I kept hoping you would choose someone for yourself. Gods, I wouldn’t have cared who he was so long as he loved and looked after you, but you’re one and twenty now. Ruairc is a good man, a provider and protector.” He hesitated. “He will be a good husband.”
“I won’t marry him.”
