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“Aye, she is that. A stronger woman I’ve never met.”

“It is because of her that I came here,” I admit.

The woman’s eyes widen. “I do hope your journey has been successful.”

In some ways, it has. More than this stranger will ever know. In others, it has been just the opposite. I will forever remember Murwood End as the place where I lost Aiken forever. Aye, ’twas my choice to part from him. After my anger abated, I realized having Aiken break a vow to tell me of his identity would make him a different man than I know him to be. But while I could appreciate his steadfastness and loyalty, our circumstances were no less altered, our future together no more hopeful.

What would happen if I sailed to Meria with him? We would be intimate on the journey south, of that I have no doubt. And my love for him would only grow. Parting from him would thus be an even sweeter sorrow than if we had simply said our goodbyes now.

And yet, letting him walk away from me had been the most difficult thing I’ve done in my life.

“It has,” I say as the captain waves to me. “I must be going. . . . I do not know your name?”

“Aloisa, my lady.”

“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Aloisa. Good day,” I tell her as she smiles once again and departs. Making my way to the ship, I resist the urge to see if Aiken has departed. As I walk across the wooden plank and board the ship that will take me back to Cettina, I consider the midwife’s words.

There is naught like the feeling of going home, aye?

There was a time, not long ago, I’d have wanted nothing more than to return to my sister, to the safety of Breywood. But now?

I look, in spite of myself.

He is gone.

How is it possible that Aiken’s ship could have set sail already? He must have boarded quickly and departed without delay. I stare at the empty space where it was moored just moments ago. Tis gone.

And if I’ve any doubts about my decision, they matter naught now.

Aiken has departed, and it is unlikely I shall ever see him again.

37

Aiken

“We are pulling away soon,” Kipp says as his men prepare to depart.

When I inquired after Kipp about the ship he arranged for Hilla, he reassured me she would be safe. And he invited me to sail with him to Meria, rather than travel aboard the ship I’d arrived on. We hadn’t considered the possibility earlier since I’d planned to visit Silvester upon returning. But Kipp was finally successful in dissuading me from meeting him again.

“Tis done,” he’d said. “You’ve gathered as much information as you can from the man, but seeing him again . . . you could very well be marking your own death. Do you have any doubt how he would punish you if your disguise were uncovered?”

I did not. Hiding behind his robes and the vows to God he’s taken, Father Silvester was as ruthless as any man I’ve met. A lifetime of abuse at the hands of his own father, and a need to be in control of all those around him because of it, coupled with an unmatched ambition, made him the most dangerous of any threat to this Isle.

“When will you ditch those robes?” he whispers to me now in passing.

“When I can find something more suitable to wear,” I say, grabbing ahold of the mast beside me.

“Will you be glad to abandon the ruse?”

I watch as Hilla’s ship prepares for departure.

“Very glad,” I admit.

Kipp follows my gaze.

“Why did you let her go?”

Breathing in the salt air, I say nothing for some time. The strong breeze nearly pulls my cowl back.