He Ignored My Pain, So I Left Him in Regret novel · Chapter 19 of 32

Chapter 19: Read Aloud

Ivy's POV

I did not cry.

I closed the ledger on my father's name, and I was surprised how little my hands shook.

"I'll walk up now," I said.

Nobody tried to stop me.

The stairs went up twenty-two steps, and I counted every one, the way I counted sacks.

Maud stood at the foot of them.

I had to go past her, and the stair was narrow.

She turned her shoulder to make room, and her sleeve brushed my arm.

"Ivy," she said, very low. "Let me tell you why."

"I heard why. Rafe asked."

"It's more than that."

"I'm sure it is."

"I was a frightened old woman with a grandson who could die of a cough."

"I was twenty-five," I said. "I was frightened too, and nobody wrote that in a ledger."

I went on up.

I felt her stay where she was, in the dark, with the lamp guttering in her hand.

At the top the keeper was waiting at the door.

"The rite books are the Hall's to keep," she said. "But the Hall does not hide what it has written. If the bearer wants it read aloud, it will be read."

"I want the page read," I said. "All of it. The terms, the price and the names."

"Where?"

"At the gate. In front of the pack."

The keeper turned to the red-bearded captain.

"You have a good voice," she said. "You read it."

He swallowed.

"I'll read it, keeper."

"Read it plainly," I said. "Don't soften any of it."

We came out into the cold daylight, and the sleet had stopped.

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