Page 26 of A Court Bright and Broken

He interrupted. “Then there’s nothing to apologize for.”

I leaned against him, accepting his consoling squeeze. Behind me, I heard Tindra gasp.

“What is this, Raewyn?”

“What is what?” I turned to see her holding a creased piece of parchment.

It took me a moment to recognize it. The invitation Sam had given me.

Getting to my feet, I crossed the floor to where the girls stood staring wide-eyed at the flowing handwriting on the page.

How did it get here?I’d handed it back to Sam before taking my leave of him and the Elven soldiers.

Then I looked at the cloak hanging right beside me, its hood suspended from the wooden peg. When I’d hung up the garment, the folded paper must have fallen to the floor without my noticing.

“He must have stashed it in my hood when I turned away.”

I didn’t realize I’d said the words aloud until both Tindra and my father asked, “He who?” at the same time.

Turi sounded like a little owl, echoing them. “Who? Who?”

Now I’d done it.

Just as I’d left the thieves out of the story I’d told the girls earlier this evening, I’d also avoided mentioning the High Fae man I’d met.

I hadn’t told Papa about him either. It had just seemed… simpler that way.

Now I’d either have to tell my family about meeting him and worry my father needlessly—or lie to them, which I never did.

Papa sat up straighter in his chair, worry etched across his face.

“Did you go to the market to rendezvous with a man today, Raewyn?”

“A man? No. Of course not,” I assured him. “You know why I went.”

Taking the paper from Tindra, I refolded it. “It’s nothing important. Just something someone handed me in the market.”

To be precise, Sam hadn’t given it to meinthe marketplace but just outside the gates of Seaspire Castle. But he had given it to mebecauseof meeting me in the market. A lie but a small one.

“What it says?” Turi asked.

“Um…” Time for a slightly bigger lie. “It’s only a flier the button maker was handing out to attract business to his stall.”

Tindra’s face screwed up in obvious confusion.

“But it has the words, ‘invited’ on there and ‘royal ball,’” she said. “And the name of a castle. And it’s written in shiny gold ink.”

Wonderful.Exposed by an eight-year-old.

I was a little surprised. Tindra read print well, but I would not have thought she’d be able to decipher Sam’s ornate handwriting with all its flourishes. And despite the fact it was indeed scribed in gold ink.

“Which castle?” Papa said, leaning forward. “Seaspire?”

“Yes,” Tindra exclaimed. “That was it.”

Though he couldn’t see, he turned to me, and his blind gaze seemed to burn right through me.

“Raewyn?”

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