The Mate He Gave Away novel · Chapter 40 of 40
Chapter 40: Midsummer
He didn't tell me the rest all winter.
I tried everything.
I tried asking. I tried not asking. I tried Davy, who knew, and went red to the ears, and ran away to the stable.
I tried Agnes, who said, "What feast?" with a face like a closed door.
By spring I'd given up and started guessing out loud at breakfast, just to watch him choke on his porridge.
Midsummer came round hot and gold.
Two years since the night I picked up the silver knife.
One year since the Naming.
Ravenscar Hall was full to the doors.
Three hundred wolves, the way it had been.
The same long tables. The same high table on the dais.
The same great fire, banked low for summer, and the same windows open on the river.
But it wasn't the same people at the tables.
The servants' table stood up on the dais, right beside the high table.
The scullery girl sat at it with the under-baker and the pot boy, and they'd been served first.
The laundress sat with them, with her son on her knee.
He was walking now. He kept trying to get down and walk off with the bread.
The river lords' wives had a whole table to themselves, and the woman in brown velvet sat at the head of it.
The free packs sat in a row in their bright wool, and their headwoman kept making the musicians play faster.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–20 of The Mate He Gave Away are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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