Chapter 4: Hanne's Tea

Ravielle read the first line four times.

Then she read the second.

"If I'm careful, she doesn't have to die. Nobody else is going to be careful for her, so I will."

There was no name signed under it.

The entries after it were short, numbered by days instead of dates, written fast and pressed hard into the paper.

Day 3. Can't stand up yet.

Someone who isn't Hanne brushes my hair and won't look at me.

Day 9. Apologized to the duchess.

She dropped her cup.

Day 14. Gave the red dresses away.

I look like a wasp in them.

Ravielle had not looked like a wasp in them.

She turned the pages by candlelight until the candle drowned in its own wax, and then she read by the grey of the window.

She didn't sleep.

She didn't know if she was afraid of sleeping or afraid of waking up, and she didn't care for either.

At dawn there was a knock.

"Come in."

Hanne came in with a tray.

She set it on the table by the window and began to pour.

Ravielle looked down at the open page in her lap.

Day 41. Found Hanne in a laundry by the river.

In the book, she's the maid who puts foxglove in the villainess's tea.

I brought her back anyway.

She deserved her place back more than I deserve to feel safe.

Ravielle read it once.

Then she closed the notebook and watched Hanne's raw hands pour her tea.

Hanne added milk without asking.

She added a spoon of honey, which Ravielle never took, and stirred it, and set the cup beside her.

"Your tea, my lady."

Ravielle looked at the cup.

She looked at Hanne.

Hanne looked back, level and patient.

Ravielle picked up the cup and drank the whole thing without taking her eyes off the maid's face.

It was too sweet.

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