“Cruel,” I retorted, “to remind me, in the span of one conversation, of my niece having left and of my husband’s, my sister’s, and my parents’ deaths.”
His smile was gentle. “Or perhaps it is kind to remind you that your only protector, your brother-in-law, travels for his work. And at present, he is gone for some time. Turn yourself in, Roberta. Ask for Saint Rodwin’s mercy.”
“Not in a thousand winters,” I replied.
2
NOW: HIDING
Ispun on my foot, making like hell for the public hitching post. I swung up on Zara, my big, white mare who was half my age and no longer as speedy as she had once been. She was healthy and had been put to little labor in her life, though, only occasionally carrying me from place to place. I prayed she still had some speed left in her. I clumsily tied the basket to the straps at the back of her flat saddle, and it bounced against my rear and right leg as I urged her to relive her youth and carry me as quickly as she could. When I dismounted at our property line and drew her through the gate, my friends and my apprentice came out of the farmhouse to greet me, alerted by the flurry with which we had arrived.
“What’s the rush?” said Ilsit, not bothering to remove her pipe when she spoke, her usually drawn brows even more gathered.
Jade, the more patient of the two, was wiping her hands on her apron as she asked me if I was hungry for dinner and how Tessa was.
My apprentice, Fox, teenaged and observant, her eyes darting from Zara’s sweat to whatever expression was on my face, began to sign to me,What is wrong? Why are you riding her sohard?
Fox had a soft spot for all animals but particularly for an actualfox, her pet, whose name was Daisy and who was winding herself around my ankles, mewling for a treat.
“Daisy,” I shooed her half-heartedly. “Fox, stable Zara. Rinse her off. Water her. I did work her too hard. I had to get home.”
The girl was obedient and savvy. I could tell she wanted to know more but was too self-contained to do so. Daisy running behind them, she led Zara past the little farmhouse and our gardens to our small stable.
“What the hell is going on?” Ilsit asked.
Jade dropped her apron and seemed to agree. “Yes, something is wrong.”
“I was caught collecting and leaving a book at Kate’s window. The wheelwright’s woman. It was Starling who saw me.”
They both gasped.
“They’re coming here—right now, they’re coming,” Ilsit half shouted. “He’s been to the keep and spoken to Bertram and Torm by now. He’s been to Gerard. They’ll come for us. I can guarantee it. Within the hour, I wager. Oh and Gerard would loveanyreason to make me actually dead.”
“What should the two of us do?” Jade asked.
Jade and Ilsit were both listed as deceased by the church and by the magistrate, Jade since she was a child and Ilsit a winter ago, when her husband Gerard had wanted a divorce, something the church would not allow, and declared her dead. She had shown up on my doorstep, having walked the hour or so from town, and begged me for shelter. Having known her, from when we were girls, to be proud and even a bit mean, I was taken aback at first. We had not spoken in more than twenty winters. But I had let her in and now, a handful of seasons later, as with Jade, she was like my kin. And oddly enough, the two of them had become close.
I could not imagine two different women—one tall, sturdy, and striking, her surly expression keeping her from being called a beauty, a gripe always on her lips; and the other slender, smiling, and good-natured, a solution to the first one’s gripingalways on hers.
“Robbie,” Jade spoke again. “What should we do?”
My fear for them and my fear for the moss we had just harvested eclipsed my even thinking of the books. The books were what would lead them here, but when they arrived they would be more upset by the mother’s moss—shelves and shelves, crates and crates, all containing medicinals meant for controlling a woman’s womb.
All outlawed.
“We just harvested moons’ worth of moss,” I sighed. “I can’t let him catch us with it. Not only will there be a punishment on me, it’ll damn every woman in Sheridan.”
The weight of that truth descended on us. If we did not hide the moss, others’ homes would be ransacked as well.
“We take it into the forest,” Jade exclaimed. “They’re afraid of Nyossa. They won’t go in. And we had best begin now.”
Ilsit turned and made for the house, her hand catching a returning Fox by the arm and dragging her along.
“I want you to take Fox with you and keep her there until morning,” I said to Jade. “You can camp out in your old warden’s shed. Keep Ilsit with you.”
“Leave you all alone?”
“The two of you are listed as dead. I don’t want to draw attention to you, and I don’t want Fox to see anything they might do.”
