The Safe-Keeper's Secret (20 page)

“Then what?” she demanded. She was blazingly furious and did not even know why. “He will invite you to court? He will name you his heir?
Is
that
what you really expect? Is that why you can't settle down in Tambleham or Lowford?”

“No, of course not. Fiona, I want to
know
, can't you understand that?” He flung his hands out and took a few paces around the kitchen, so big and so agitated he seemed to fill the whole room. “I don't have any idea who I am! Who was my mother? Who was my father? Who am I supposed to be?”

“I never knew who my father was, either, but I never questioned who
I
was supposed to be,” she answered. “It's not like we were missing out on any love. You and I were raised by the same woman. The same friends and family cared for us.”

“Yes, but they were
your
family—they were related to you by blood,” he pointed out. “I showed up in the middle of the night, dressed in silence and secrets, and everything that I have become I have had to fashion for myself. I want to know what life I was
supposed
to lead, what I was born for. It might not be a life I would choose, but shouldn't I know where I was destined to belong?”

Now she was even more angry. “There comes a point in every man's life where it does not matter who his parents were—yes, and in every woman's life, too! You are a strong man or a weak one because of your own experiences and your own heart, not because someone else's blood runs in your veins. You are kind or cruel for the same reasons. You might be the king's legitimate son and be a man I would not care to know, or the child of a peasant laborer and be the most beloved man in five kingdoms. Your father's rank might determine some privileges, but it is your own soul that determines who you are.”

He was shaking his head, adamant and unyielding. “You don't understand. It is different for you.”

“I do understand, and it is no different,” she snapped. “But nothing I say will stop you. Go to Wodenderry! Meet the king! Then come back and tell me what you've learned.”

He looked at her, his eyes narrowed. “Why are you so angry? What is it you think I'm going to find?”

She turned away, suddenly weary. “I am angry if you value yourself only at your birthright, and I think you'll find—I think you'll find more questions than answers.”

“Then I'll come back here, as I always do,” he said softly, “and see if the answers are in Tambleham.”

She didn't look at him. “And if the answers are in Wodenderry?”

“I'll come back here anyway. Always. Or wherever it is you are.”

He left two days later. Fiona felt the loss of his presence even more deeply this time; for the first few days, the house was almost unlivable. When Allison and Ed were not around, the silence was too severe for her to endure, so she would go down to Elminstra's or all the way to town just to have company. One day, she and Elminstra made a little excursion of the trip, going to Lacey's shop to order new bolts of fabric, then having a noon meal at Dirk's tavern.

“I don't know if she's had a chance to tell you yet,” Elminstra said, as they ate their bread and cheese and drank glasses of pressed apple juice. “But Allison and Ed have decided to marry in the spring.”

Fiona felt herself come alive with the first real smile she'd managed since Reed left for Wodenderry. “But that's wonderful news!” she exclaimed. “I like him so much.”

“We've been trying to decide where they should live,” Elminstra went on. “She has become so attached to you and your garden that she does not want to move far from you. Ed's father had wanted him to take over his land, but Ed's no farmer. He's been working for Ned in town doing black-smithing, and he likes that much better. So if they lived on my property, or somewhere near it, she could be close to you and he could get easily to town.”

Fiona laughed a little ruefully. “Yes, of course, once they're married Allison won't be living with me any longer. I was too happy for her too soon! Now I don't want her to marry after all.”

Elminstra laughed too. “Well, I have plenty of grandchildren I can summon to come be your companions,” she said. “You need never be lonely as long as my daughters keep producing daughters of their own.”

Fiona shrugged. “I am eighteen now, and I don't think I need someone to guard me from solitude any longer,” she said.

“I disagree! Eighteen and a small blond slip of a thing! Who entertains desperate characters every day! There is no chance I would allow you to live in that house alone.”

Fiona waved a hand. “But we were talking about Allison and Ed! Do you actually have room on your property to build them a cottage?”

“No, but my house is much larger than yours, and I'm getting old enough to feel it. I've been thinking about having one of my grandchildren move in with me to take over some of the care of the house and land. Allison and Ed could live with me, and then have the house after I'm gone.”

“You won't be gone for years and years and
years
, so don't talk that way,” Fiona said, a little alarmed. “I have a better plan, I think. The land across the road from me belongs to Angeline—did you know that?”

Elminstra squinted. “Now that you mention it, I do remember Damiana saying that once or twice.”

“Their mother owned all the property, long before the road came through. My mother kept the house when my aunt moved to Lowford, but the rest of the land belongs to Angeline. She might be willing to sell it to Allison and Ed—or, if not, rent it to them and let them build on the property. It will do her no harm to have a little income.”

“I must say, I like this idea very much,” Elminstra said. “And for you to have Allison and Ed live so close to you—I like that even better.”

“So close I will not need a companion in the house with me,” Fiona said with a smile.

“Ah, now
that
I did not agree to!” the old witch said, and they both laughed, and toasted each other with juice.

That afternoon, Fiona made a white cake with white frosting and had it waiting when Allison came home from an outing with her betrothed.

“You know! My grandmother told you!” Allison cried, and Fiona laughed and hugged her. “Oh, I've been so afraid to tell you, for I feel like I'm abandoning you and I would never do that—”

“Allison, you are not abandoning me! Even if you and Ed packed up and moved to the other side of the country, I would not feel that way. You have been such a good friend to me for so long. I would not begrudge you the tiniest moment of happiness. How could you think that—”

Allison sniffled. “But you're all alone and I have so much.”

Fiona smiled. “I have a great deal as well. Never think that I do not feel surrounded by love.”

So they ate the white cake and talked about weddings and decided that between the two of them, they could make Allison's dress. Though they might get Lacey's help with any fancy trim. Fiona mentioned her scheme about renting them the land directly across from the cottage, and Allison nearly jumped out of her chair with delight.

“And I'll put in my
own
garden, and between us we'll have every herb or healing plant in the whole kingdom, and people will travel from every city to buy from us,” Allison said.

“We will be famous farther afield than this kingdom,” Fiona said loftily. “Next time Reed signs up to be a sailor, we'll make him bring back marvelous cuttings from foreign lands. No one in three kingdoms will have gardens as fine as ours.”

“Have you heard from Reed?” Allison asked.

“Oh, he writes every few days.”

There was a pause. “And has he met King Marcus?” Allison asked next.

Fiona laughed. “Not yet. But knowing Reed, he might actually find a way.”

“And what will happen then, do you think?”

Fiona shook her head. “I cannot even guess.”

Chapter Fourteen

R
ight before the weather turned cold, Angeline traveled to town. She quickly agreed to lease her land to Allison and Ed, and she warmly wished them well, but she had more serious matters on her mind.

“Victoria Bayliss is very ill,” she said gravely. “Kate has been there every day with some new potion, but nothing she tries has had any effect. I know that you have some cuttings that come from no other garden, and I wondered if you might have something we could try. Robert is so sad. He sits by her bedside night and day.”

“Most of what I have you can find in Kate's gardens as well, but I have one or two herbs that might be unfamiliar to her,” Fiona said. “Is it lung trouble? Stomach disease? Is there any pain? If nothing else, I probably have a tonic or two that will let her rest in comfort.”

“It is lung trouble, stomach trouble, pain—it is everything,” Angeline said. “I am very afraid she will die.”

“Well, I'm sorry for it,” Fiona said, though she was not really sorry. She had never been able to bring herself to care too much for the helpless, clinging Victoria. “Is Jillian still keeping their house?”

Angeline nodded, smiling a little. “Such a quiet and generous girl. Victoria has treated her like a daughter, and everyone who meets her simply loves her. I don't know—” Angeline shook her head. “If Victoria dies, Jillian cannot continue living in Robert's house, of course. But there are many places she could go in Lowford. Kate would take her in, as would I, and there are friends of Robert's who could use a good worker.”

“She mustn't come back here,” Fiona said.

Angeline shook her head. “No, I don't think she ever will.”

Winter crept in one night and laid its pale hand over the world while they were sleeping. They woke to a glittering scene of frost and thoughts of Wintermoon.

Letters from Isadora, Reed, and Thomas promised that they would arrive in time for the holiday. “Listen to this,” Fiona said to Allison, amused, as she skimmed through a missive from the Dream-Maker. “Megan has found a patron! A rich older woman who needs a companion
to accompany her to court! Isadora says the older woman is vain and pompous but somehow related to the king—a cousin, perhaps?—and that Megan is beside herself with rapture.” Fiona looked up, smiling. “So Isadora has made Megan's dream come true, it seems.”

“Do you think she'll ever be back to marry Cal Seston?” Allison asked.

Fiona laughed. “The minute she left this town for Wodenderry was the last time Cal was ever going to see that girl.”

“I can't help but be pleased by that,” Allison said. “Cal was always a nasty boy.”

“And I think she was only going to marry him because their fathers wanted to join the land,” Fiona said.

“But didn't her father just marry that girl? The one practically Megan's age?”

Fiona nodded. “And wouldn't you think she'd be producing children of her own soon enough? She'll probably be just as glad if the wedding's called off.”

Allison laughed and spread her hands. “See? Everything always works out for the best.”

The weather grew bitterly cold and the first snowfall came weeks before Wintermoon. While the weather was so bad, construction halted on the cottage being built across the road. Nonetheless, Fiona and Allison went over every day to take a look, strolling through the exposed bones of the house, the ribs of the internal rooms, the templed fingers of the beamed ceiling. This would be the main room, this the kitchen, this a bedroom. Out back, where a layer of snow now covered the wild weeds and knotted undergrowth, would be the garden, half vegetables and half herbs. If there was time for roses, they would be planted at the gate.

“And I'll give you some truelove,” Fiona said, “so you'll have everything you want.”

Fiona had most everything she wanted when, two days after the snow sifted down, Reed arrived. He jumped from the back of a stranger's cart, flipped the man a coin and called a out a word of thanks, and rushed up the walk to where Fiona stood waiting.