He Left My Rejection on His Desk, So I Signed It Myself novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Fen

Tilda settles in the ruined Fen and decides to carry Hetta's sealed page to the Moot, and Maud rides in with a smile and a question about a page Tilda never mentioned.

Hetta put a bowl of barley porridge in front of me and watched until I picked up the spoon.

"Eat," she said. "You look half starved."

I ate.

She sat across the cookhouse table with her scarred hands folded over her stomach.

Under her skirt I could see the lump of stiff cloth where she kept the page.

"Doran died in the spring," she said. "He gave me three sheets and a stick of black wax. He said the first two go to Tilda by post once he was in the ground, so she has time to sit with what's in them."

"And the third?"

"The third goes into your hand at Black Water, in front of every pack that sits there. He was very particular about that."

"Why in front of everyone?"

"Because a thing said in a hall full of Alphas can't be put out by one man with a bucket."

I put the spoon down.

"Give it to me now," I said. "I'll read it here."

"No."

"Hetta."

"I swore on your mother's grave." She said it kindly and did not move. "And think, girl. You read it alone, you carry it back to your fine husband, and he tells you that you wrote it yourself. Where's your proof then?"

She was right, and I hated that she was.

So I did what I had done at nineteen when I came to Kestrel Ridge with one trunk and no friends.

I decided.

"We take it to Black Water ourselves," I said. "You and I, and every old wolf who can sit a cart."

"Good," Hetta said. "Now eat the rest of that."

The Fen had eleven wolves left that were old enough to count and nine pups too young to.

They came to the cookhouse door one at a time to look at me.

Nobody said Luna, and nobody said sorry.

They said, "Doran's girl," and shook my hand, and went back to mending nets.

On my way to the well I passed the ferry post and saw a new notice nailed to it.

A toll order, three weeks old, on Kestrel Ridge paper.

Every crossing of the Fen's own ferry would cost the Fen a silver mark paid to the Ridge.

It was signed Oswin Quillon, Beta.

I pulled the nail out with my fingers and dropped the notice in the well bucket.

"Better," said a boy behind me, and I turned around and he ran off.

Maud rode in at noon.

Four Kestrel wolves came behind her with a pack mule.

She slid off her horse before it stopped and ran straight at me with her arms open.

"Oh, Tilda."

She held on tight and rocked a little.

She smelled of lavender and cold air, the way she always had.

I stood there with my face against her blue shoulder and felt my throat go tight.

I had not expected to be glad to see anyone.

"I brought your winter coat," she said. "And your mother's brooch from the dresser, and your good boots."

She wiped her eyes.

"Corwin can't say it to you himself, so he told Oswin to see that you had your things."

"He told Oswin."

"He hasn't eaten, Tilda. He went up to the cliff after you left and he's been standing there all night."

I should have felt something about that.

All I felt was tired.

"There's a tin of my willow tea for Hetta's cough," Maud went on, pressing it into my hands. "You said she coughs in the damp."

I had said that, once, a month ago, over supper.

She remembered everything I told her.

Maud stepped past me to the cookhouse door and stuck her head in.

"Hetta! You look wonderful. I only want a moment."

Hetta said, from the table, "Keep it short, I've bread rising."

Maud laughed and kept it short.

When she came back out she asked me, lightly, with her hand on my arm, "Has Hetta got the rest of the letter, then? The last page?"

"Maybe."

"Corwin would want it. He told Oswin to ask for it, you know. For the pack's sake." Her face went soft and sorry. "Hand it over, love, and come home. It's all just grief. You'll both be fools if it goes any further."

"Corwin told Oswin to ask for it."

"Yes."

"Then Corwin can come and ask for it himself."

Her smile stayed exactly where it was.

"Of course," she said. "I'll tell him."

She was gone by dusk with her mule and three of her riders.

The fourth stayed behind, because his horse had gone lame on the causeway.

Hetta gave him a cot in the barn and a bowl of porridge, and I did not argue.

I slept in my father's old cot in the cookhouse loft, on a straw tick with Maud's coat folded under my head.

I woke to a roar and orange light flickering on the rafters.

The barn was on fire, and the cot in it was empty.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend