Chapter 16: The Border Logs

Kendrick carried the border book into the Council clerk's office the next morning, and he carried it in both arms.

It was a thick ledger bound in black canvas, with one brass corner worn smooth.

The clerk had cleared her desk for it.

Evander stood by the window, and my father stood by the door.

I sat in the chair she had put out for me.

I had decided on the way over that I would sit.

"Every night of the three years," Kendrick said. "Signed in and out by the wall captain. Every page has two hands."

He opened it to the first page and turned it to face the clerk.

"Whose is the second hand?" she asked.

"Alpha Ashdown's captain." Kendrick did not look at my father.

"It's the northern wall. They don't write a man's name unless he stood a watch."

She turned pages.

She had Lenore's counter-petition open beside it, and she laid the house records across the ledger, line by line.

"Greenhaven says you came home on the fourth of March," the clerk said. "For a family visit, three days."

"I was on the wall."

"Signed by the captain."

"The sixth of June."

"On the wall."

"There's a receipt for two dinners at the Greenhaven inn on your wedding anniversary. One for each of the three years."

Kendrick's mouth tightened.

I looked down at my hands.

On every one of those anniversary nights, I had eaten alone in the Winslow dining room.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Brought His Lover Home, So I Left Him to His Regret from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.