They Called My Father a Traitor, So I Learned Every Secret They Buried novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Place That Kept Her
Kestrel carried the feverish hound through the kennel door as I pointed Hadley toward the men descending from the watchtower.
'Three riders. One clerk. They are carrying an order.'
Hadley saw them and swore. 'That is a rotten little parade. Do you want the dogs inside or outside?'
'Outside. Bring the injured ones first. Leave the old stock by the warm boards.'
Kestrel lowered the hound onto a folded blanket in the open yard. The animal's legs shook beneath its bandages, and its pale tongue dragged over the snow.
'You chose the least convenient patient,' I said.
'He was nearest the door,' Kestrel replied. 'I thought you admired efficiency.'
'I admire survival. Efficiency is often just haste wearing clean boots.'
His mouth shifted. The expression was gone before anyone else could notice it.
Hadley began calling names. Senn brought the shoulder cases from the treatment room. Jory carried two crates of coal into the yard and set them beside the public board. Errol dragged out the bench where Wynn's claim ledger rested beneath a sheet of oilskin.
The patrol wolves moved without asking why.
That was the part Corvin's men had not understood.
They had come to separate us. They found duties instead.
Old Marta emerged with a kennel boy at her side, one hand on his shoulder and the other carrying a ring of keys.
'Dav, take the winter litter to the east run,' she said. 'Keep the lame pup near the stove.'
Then she turned to me. 'The empty watchtower room needs clearing.'
'Why?'
'Because empty rooms are useful when people decide to become inconvenient.'
She slipped one key free and tied it beneath Dav's harness with a strip of leather.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of They Called My Father a Traitor, So I Learned Every Secret They Buried are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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