“So, the stories were true,” she said. She reached out and Tesara was compelled to offer her hands. Madam inspected them, and then she said, “Place them on the table.”
Many an exasperated governess had rapped Tesara’s knuckles in punishment. Relieved she would get off so easy, she placed her hands flat. Madam tsked as if she were foolish, and made Tesara fold her hands awkwardly, not as fists but with the knuckles against the tabletop. Somewhere a girl began to sob, and another girl shushed her.
Madam took out the brass-knobbed baton she always carried, and she smashed it down on Tesara’s hand. Pain shot up into her arm. Tesara screamed and tried to wriggle away. Madam easily grabbed her wrist and held her hand in place. The baton did not finish the job the first time; Madam had to strike two more times before the joints cracked.
“Little girls with naughty fingers must learn a lesson,” she said. She let Tesara go and she fell to her knees keening and sobbing, trying to shake the pain from her fingers and only making it worse.
There was another shout and for a brief instant Yvienne was next to her, and then her sister was hauled away, screaming.
“Don’t hurt my sister! Don’t hurt my sister! You evil witch! I’ll see you before the magistrates!”
Yvienne’s voice faded away, and Tesara closed her eyes, sobbing with pain. It was all her fault. This was her punishment for her wickedness.
I want to go home. I just want to go home.
Chapter One
The Harbor Master has stated that all vessels that have not paid their docking fees for the quarter must be moved, by tow or under sail, to the West Pilings, or be fined 10 guilders per day. Dock sources say that the move is to open up berths for an expansion by House Iderci after their ship, the Iderci Empress, comes out of the shipyards for her maiden voyage. She is expected to be the largest, fastest ship in the St Frey shipping fleet. In other business news, the Guild is to review the charges against House Mederos this afternoon, in the first step to determining if the offending family has met its civil and criminal obligations and is to be released from further sentencing. Guildmaster Trune and the council will preside over the proceedings.
Dockside Doings, Junipre, Treacher’s Almanac
Tesara pretended she didn’t hear the loud whispers as she browsed the open window display of Sturridges, on the Mile. The fine gifts emporium was decorated for Saint Frey’s Day. It was filled with gilded ribbons and chocolates, delicate porcelain, and fragile silk scarves of yellow and green for spring. She cocked her head exactly as if she were contemplating the difference between a delicately painted blown-glass egg and a cameo brooch, and in the meantime, took in all the none-too-subtle gossip around her. She and her sister had only been home two weeks, but the rumor engine of Port Saint Frey was nothing if not efficient.
“I can’t believe she shows her face in public.”
“Look at that bonnet. Can you imagine?”
“She’s gotten so worn. I heard she and her sister were reduced to scrubbing floors at a school for paupers.”
Tesara schooled her face into a smile and turned to face her tormenters. The cluster of merchant misses huddled near the door, and as one they gasped and fled inside the store, their skirts rustling as they whisked inside to safety, where she dared not follow. She could look all she wanted, but she knew what would happen if she tried to enter. Even worse than the gossip of her former peers would be the crossed arms and forbidding posture of the shop girl. The humiliation of denied entry would finish what the misses had wrought – her complete and utter dismissal from society. Once more alone, she turned back to her private contemplation of the lovely things she could no longer afford.
Her fingers ached, and she rubbed her hands absently, a routine gesture, her crooked fingers swollen and misshapen. Her fingerless mittens were no match for the brisk winds coming off the harbor. In the spring, no matter how fine the day, the winds of Port Saint Frey bit, and bit hard. Despite the almost constant pain, her hands felt leaden and dull.
It was exactly like Madam Callier to eliminate an aggravating problem with forthright action, Tesara thought, trying to will away the pain. A troublesome new student had a troublesome talent? Problem solved with brutal efficiency. It had worked – for six long years, she had not experienced even the slightest frisson of electricity. Madam Callier had not only broken her will, she had broken her power.
She could almost believe that she was mistaken that six years ago she had sunk the family’s shipping fleet from her bedroom window.
“Miss Mederos? Tesara?”
Tesara turned to see a young man calling her name and her heart sank. Oh please. Oh no. She managed a smile and a curtsey, and hoped that both looked easy and confident.
“Mr Saint Frey, what a pleasure.”
“Please, we’re old friends. Jone. Remember?” Jone Saint Frey smiled a charming little smile. It did not mollify the bitterness in her breast, so she smiled wider, hoping she wasn’t clenching her teeth. How much longer could she keep smiling? Couldn’t he see the tendons in her neck were about to snap with strain?
“Of course. Jone. How are you? Your family?”
“Well, thank you. We are all in fine health.”
He had grown up after six years. He was tall and thin, and he had the pallor of a man who spent much time indoors. He had the long sideburns and mustache of a fashionable young man in Port Saint Frey, and his trousers were of fine summer wool. His coat was gray, and she wagered the pocket square of bright scarlet perfectly folded like a splash of blood over his heart was silk from the Qin traders. He must be twenty now, Tesara thought. Yvienne’s age. They
