But as they parted where the corridor divided, her laughter faded, and she shivered. That had been a very narrow escape.
And how many more lay ahead of her?
15
NO ONE, NOT EVEN A DEDICATED HOYDEN, COULD possibly have thrown herself more earnestly into the role of “Abel” than Bella did. From the moment they sat down to dinner to the moment when she left him after the second riding lesson, she acted as much the boy as she could, deliberately aping every would-be young swaggerer she had ever seen — and since there were generally a lot of them swarming around her sisters, and they tended to ignore her in favor of the twins, she had been able to observe quite a few in action.
It seemed to work. By the time they parted to get their respective suppers, he was treating her as he had out in the tin country — like a boy.
Which was all very well, except as she settled down to her book on The Tradition with the beeswax stuffed in her ears and another flagon of hot mulled wine beside her, and picked up where she had left off, she came across another Traditional Path she was going to have to steer wary of — Gone For a Soldier — the girl who really was disguised as a boy, and who subsequently fell in love with the man in whose company she found herself most. Usually this was a girl who, fed up with a stifling life at home, or overwhelmed with patriotism — or just having no other options but to go whoring — struck out for adventure in breeches.
There were variations, as always. Sometimes it was a girl following her lover to war — well, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about that one. Sometimes it was a girl escaping marriage to someone awful, and very rarely, it was a girl taking the place of her father or brother to save them from conscription.
Now, so long as she steered clear of the trap of falling for Eric, that could play out for her, she realized, since The Tradition had very firm ideas about the conduct of the man in question. According to the book, he seldom realized that the “boy” in whose company he spent so much time was really a girl. It generally resulted in a surprise revelation after the girl had heroically saved his life and gotten dangerously wounded. Sometimes the “boy” would tell him of a beautiful sister until he fell in love with the girl she actually was, and eventually she would come forward as the sister, her ruse abandoned.
Well, I won’t be doing anything like that, thank you very much.
Just as long as she kept a firm grip on what she was doing, and he became oblivious to her femininity, she just might manage to steer clear of any complications with Eric for the next two months. Complications with Eric…surely the very last thing she needed right now.
At least I am not going to become a she-wolf. That was…well, it made this look like a trivial hurdle to jump, truth to tell.
If she closed her eyes, she could feel that pressure, now, like a storm waiting to break. The Tradition really wanted to find a place for her.
She rubbed her temple and sighed. All this was hideously complicated. People had no idea how much they did was being dictated by this force! And this was just ordinary life, without any magic involved! It was a wonder that Godmothers didn’t go mad.
Then she turned the page and read some more.
Oh, wait. They do…
As the full moon passed into the waning moon, Bella took advantage of Sebastian’s absence to continue searching his parents’ rooms for clues as to the curse.
She found clothing, carefully preserved, and a few very rudimentary books on magic in his mother’s rooms. She found a chest of baby clothing, and in it a box of tokens of Sebastian’s infancy: a lock of hair, a silver rattle, an ivory teething ring. Buried deep behind the closet were half-embroidered garments and bed linens, sad evidence of the things she has left behind at her death. But there were no letters, no journals. A check of the Old Duke’s belongings was even less fruitful; she couldn’t even find any evidence that the Old Duke had done any of his own correspondence, much less kept any sort of journal. In neither room did she find any token or suspicious object that might have carried a curse. A bit discouraged by her lack of success, she reported to Elena, who encouraged her to keep investigating.
After the three days, Sebastian was at breakfast again, and tilted his head like a curious bird to see her in her new guise. “Are those my old clothes?” he asked.
She nodded, her mouth full — deliberately copying how Eric ate, rather than abiding by the appropriate — and ladylike — table manners she used at home. “Eric’s teaching me his business. Can’t do that sort of thing in skirts. Have to say, I like it! I may never go back to skirts again!”
“I’m putting it about that I’m training an assistant,” Eric explained. “If people think there’s going to be a man regularly patrolling at night as well as by day, they’ll be less inclined to prowl the woods by dark. It won’t matter when she leaves — she’ll have been seen with me for two months, and people will assume she’s still here.”
Sebastian looked worried, his brows creased, and his eyes clouded with concern. “But will you have time for magic lessons now? I mean, if Eric is taking you out on his rounds. If that is what you want to do, I don’t want to interfere, but I promised the Godmother I would see to it you got all the magic lessons I could give you — ”
Eric guffawed. “Don’t fret. Abel’s mine in the morning. You get her in the afternoon.”
Sebastian tilted his head the other direction. “Abel?”
“Abel. Bella. It’s what we’re calling me so they think I’m a boy,” Bella said with a guffaw. “Poachers are getting bolder — that’s why Eric’s putting it about he’s training an Under-Keeper.” She jabbed her thumb at her chest. “I think I can do a convincing job of it.”
Sebastian blinked, then she saw something dawn on him, though what, she couldn’t tell. He nodded cautiously. “Right, then, Abel, Eric. I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Or after, if we’re a bit late.” She finished an instant before Eric did, and shoved away from the table. “All right! I’m ready! Let’s go put the fear of the devil into those bastards, since God doesn’t scare them!”
They were “in luck” — though it wasn’t very lucky for the poor fellow they caught — for one of them must have noticed Eric’s absence in the woods over the past three mornings and changed his own routine. She was the one that noticed the telltale, furtive movement into cover, and pointed it out to Eric. She hated to — she knew this was going to get ugly when the man was caught — but she also knew the fact she’d seen the man before Eric had was just pure luck. The Tradition would see to it that she became a good Gamekeeper — she was beginning to think that it was due to The Tradition that she had mastered riding the hunter, using the crossbow and defending herself so quickly.
Which made her wonder, had it been luck, or had it been The Tradition that let her spot the man?
It doesn’t matter. What matters is what I do, not how it gets done, as long as I keep making Eric treat me and think of me like a boy.
But Eric was giving her directions, his horse pressed up against hers, his voice pitched low and soft so it wouldn’t carry. “You ride down that way, and keep your eyes on that trapline — see it? There’s a fat hare in the noose right there — ”
She nodded.