A Hunger Most Dark novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Open Square

Davren's POV

I found her note under the inkwell at first light, and I read it standing up.

Count the hours against my company.

Gerrick read it over my shoulder and said what I was already thinking.

"She's gone to her brother, my lord."

"She said she'd be back by dark."

"People say things."

"She keeps her word," I said. "It's the only thing she's ever told me about herself that I believed."

I did not send anyone after her.

I followed her myself, at a distance, because I could not sit in that study and wait.

I stood in the doorway of a candle shop across from the house on Wool Street for three hours, and when she came out her face was bone white.

She walked fast, with her arms held tight against her ribs, toward the Cloth Hall square.

It was noon and the market was full.

I caught up with her between a fish stall and a rack of dyed wool.

"You followed me," Lenore said, without turning her head.

"You wrote by dark. It's noon."

"I keep my word."

"I know. I came to see you walk out."

She stopped so suddenly that a porter bumped into her back.

She turned, and her eyes were red, and they were furious.

"What did Corwin tell you about that night?"

"Nothing. I've never spoken to him about it."

"Of course you haven't." Her voice rose. "You never asked anyone anything."

"Lenore."

"Fifteen years, Dav! Fifteen years, and you bought every Rooke note in the city and never once wondered what became of the girl."

People were turning to look.

Keep reading free with an account. Start A Hunger Most Dark from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.