Out of the Shadow at Last novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Sisters

I found Posy in the sewing room at first light, with the cloak across her knees and a needle in her mouth.

She had not been to bed.

There were three candle stubs on the sill and a heap of grey thread on the floor.

"You're up," she said around the needle.

"So are you."

"I wanted to finish before you came."

She turned the collar over so I could see it.

Along the inside edge, where my name had been unpicked three days before the ceremony, there were four crooked letters in silver thread.

L-I-N-N.

The stitches wandered, and one of them had gone through the lining.

"I can't spell it properly yet," Posy said. "I kept pulling it too tight."

"You're stitching my name into the cloak."

"I'm trying."

"Why?"

She put the needle down on the cloth.

Her hands were pricked all over, small red dots on every finger.

"Because it's the only rune I know how to make," she said. "Letters. I can do letters."

I sat down on the floor across from her.

I couldn't help it, and I didn't try.

"I'm sorry about the cloak," Posy said. "I'm sorry about all of it. I'm not saying that so you'll say it's all right."

"I won't say it's all right."

"Good."

"But I'll say you held me up on the wall."

Her lip trembled.

"I've never been good at anything," she said. "Not one thing. I thought if I kept the cloak, nobody would find out."

"I found out when you were twelve."

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