Page 64 of Fire Touched

Carter peers outside. ‘I can do that from in here.’ He opens the door—letting the crashing sound in—and waves his hands, sending the water in the pool spiralling down into the drain to accommodate the heavy rainfall.

I climb up on the kitchen stool and lean forward urgently. ‘Did you two kiss?’

Ella pauses, wooden spoon raised. Scarlet creeps up her pale cheeks. ‘I—’

‘Come on, this is what friends are for!’

‘Should I stay over here until you’re done?’ Carter asks.

Ella laughs nervously, but it sounds like a bird being stepped on. ‘Food! I mean, lunch! Soup…’ she finishes, seemingly unsure how sentences are supposed to work.

‘Smooth.’ I get up, holding out an empty bowl.

Ella glares at me, but she’s too unfamiliar with the expression for it to really work. She ladles soup into the bowl for me and points to the jug and platters on the bench. ‘There is cream to add, and freshly baked bread.’

‘Thank you!’

‘Can I come back now?’ Carter shuts the door.

‘Yes,’ Ella says, voice tight.

I’ll have to work on her gossip abilities. We all move over to the dining table and eat, munching on bread, spoons clattering against bowls. ‘This is really, really good. How did you get to be such a good cook?’

Ella pauses. ‘Well, I was taught. I started as a helping hand in the kitchens, back at the estate.’

‘Oh. That sounds kind of boring.’

‘Katherine,’ Carter chides.

‘No, it’s okay. It was boring.’ Ella sets down her spoon. ‘But my mother sold me to the headmistress of the household, so I had to earn my keep—’

My spoon nearly smashes the edge of my bowl. ‘I’m sorry, you were sold?’

Carter’s mouth hangs open, a dark shadow passes over his eyes.

Ella looks between us. ‘Yeah? Why, is that odd?’

I gape. ‘Yes! People can’t be sold! Ella. Why would your mother do that?’

Ella’s face falls. ‘Because she said she never wanted me. That my father was a one-night stand, long gone and that… that she didn’t want to be a mother.’

‘Katherine,’ Carter growls, as though Ella’s entire sordid tale is my fault.

‘I didn’t know!’ I realise I never knew much about Ella’s past, but since she never offered any information, I didn’t press. I guess I should have kept to that. I close my eyes, wishing I could undo the last two minutes. ‘I… am sorry, Ella.’

My friend recovers quickly, shaking herself a little. ‘It’s fine. No one’s family is perfect. I ended up with a roof over my head, and learned valuable life skills. Cooking, hunting, even laundry, sewing, a bit of first aid, all kinds of things. Plus, I got to help take care of people.’ She shrugs. ‘It wasn’t that bad.’ Her gaze finds Carter for a moment, then darts away.

After a moment, Carter reaches across the table, the tips of his fingers brushing her forearm. ‘I didn’t know about that, either.’ His voice is low, sincere.

Ella shrugs. ‘Doesn’t matter much anymore.’ She takes a small bite of bread. ‘I guess it used to when I was young, but the headmistress, she looked after me well enough. Gave me tasks to do, taught me a lot. I even had my own room. It was small, I suppose, but it was mine. I never went hungry, and my washing was done for me until I was a teenager. I was lucky, but…’ She pales. ‘Not all are. I did hear tales of some savagery among wider trading groups. The traders themselves were beasts, but I never joined. I was born just an hour from the estate, my mother took me there herself.’

Carter lowers his gaze. ‘There were others, sold to my uncle?’ His voice is dangerously low, furious.

Ella sets her spoon down. ‘Of course there were. Are you—did you not know that at all?’ For the first time, anger edges her voice.

Carter withdraws his hand as though she’s burned him. ‘No. I didn’t.’

‘Hmm. Most of your staff were given or sold to your estate by local slave traders. Your uncle’s only rule was that he would only accept Water wolves, no others.’

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