Page 149 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
Rose licked powdered sugar from her upper lip. “We knew you’d come, so we brought over everyone’s favorites.”
For Bristol, the delicacies were only a colorful blur.
“She didn’t get any sleep,” Sashka explained. “She needs coffee first!”
“Got it!” Hollis said, lifting a flowered pot, then poured a cup, adding cream because she knew how Bristol liked it.
She settled into a chair, and Rose pushed a plate of raspberry cream tarts in front of her. “Maybe these will perk you up too.”
When Bristol made no move to eat them, Rose frowned. “I thought those were your favorite? I can get something else if—”
“The tarts are fine.” Bristol lifted one to her lips and took a small bite to appease Rose.
Sashka continued a story she was telling about a letter she got from her older brother, how happy he was that she had already made such loyal friends. “It wasn’t always easy to make friends in Frankfurt. There aren’t many fae there, and all I wanted to do when I got home was get rid of my glamour. Not that glamour was hard, but it’s kind of like wearing a bra. After a whole day of wearing one, you can’t wait to hang that sucker on a doorknob.”
They all laughed, and Rose talked about her family, too. They couldn’t wait to join her in Elphame and settle in. “They worry about me, but I told them I have all of you. That we look out for each other.”
Avery said her boyfriend complained in all his letters, wondering when she was coming home. “I hate to tell him that I might not.”
This news spawned a flurry of surprised questions. “I like it here,” Avery explained. “And Wynn and I were already iffy.”
“What about your studies?” Julia asked.
“They have a university here, too. And the farms here are amazing.”
Bristol listened to all their plans, their hopes, but they all hinged on the outcome of the Choosing Ceremony and who ultimately ruled Elphame. All their plans that, in a mere blink, could go so wrong.
“I found him,” she blurted out. “I found my father.”
They stared at her, confused. It should have been happy news. It was what she came here for, and yet it was obvious to them she was troubled.
“That’s great news—isn’t it?” Hollis said uncertainly. “Where is he now?”
“Gone again. He went to find my mother. He thinks he’ll find her in an abandoned cottage on the banks of the Runic River.”
Avery choked on her sip of nectar, spilling some onto the table. “I thought you said your mother was dead?”
“According to him, she’s alive.”
“Is he not quite well?” Sashka asked, tapping her temple.
Bristol’s gaze circled the table like she was seeing them all for the first time. “Did you know all along who my parents really were?”
“What do you mean byreally?” Rose asked.
Bristol’s voice trembled as she told them, like she was unzipping a dark secret she was never meant to know and certainly never meant to tell, like she was confessing a sin that she didn’t commit. She was tangled in something ugly that she didn’t create, and all sides had made her an unwitting fool in the process. By the time she finished, she had shed her foggy daze and her anger burned bright again.
They all sat quietly, as disturbed by the news as she was.
“No, we didn’t know,” Hollis whispered.
“I knew,” Julia said, stunning them all to silence. “I only found out a short time ago, and wasn’t sure how much you knew—or wanted anyone else to know. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
Bristol shook her head. “I guess we were all caught up in a web of lies.”
Sashka blew out a long breath. “It’s all so fucked up.”
“Yes, it is,” Bristol agreed.
