Favor plucked his crow out of the tree and threw it at the boy. "Go away, you. If I wanted to be a laughingstock, I'd have challenged you to a game. I didn't do that now, did I? I asked Repentance."
Tigen laughed. "But the lady doesn't know how to play yet, Favor. She's brand new."
Repentance sighed. "And that's true. Only I'm not a lady anymore, Tigen. I'm a servant now."
"You're still the prettiest lady I've ever seen," he said.
"Tigen," a boy called from across the room. "Come play Tink-tops with us, then."
Tigen threw one more smile her way, then left.
Generosity looked over the top of her book. "Doesn't matter what age they are," she said. "They are bound to adore you."
Repentance thought of the king. And Sober. And the prince. "They don't adore me. Wanting to use someone and adoring someone are different things." Maybe she was cursed. Maybe her beauty was a curse.
"Well, our Tigen, he adores you."
But Tigen was just a child. She looked at Favor, sitting across from her. He didn't adore her. He had eyes-only for Merit even as he played Dragon in the Tower with Repentance. He loved Merit. It was as clear as white tea broth.
She sighed. She'd rather be loved by one man than wanted by many.
Life for Repentance, the maid, fell into a pattern. A grueling, hopeless pattern. Her shoulders ached from taking down and hanging up the heavy suncloths, her hands were red and cracking from constantly being wet and cold, but it wasn't the hard work that made her despair. Nor was it the anger she felt toward the overlords. It was the thought of Comfort, facing her Buttoning Day with no one to love her and no one to rescue her.
The one thing that made life bearable was that the prince had not returned to the palace. Favor had promised to tell her the minute he arrived back. So Repentance was able to relax on that count as she worked on the fifth floor, and she occupied her time thinking on how she might save Comfort from being sold as a concubine when her time on the slave dock came.
All day every day, in the mornings when Repentance washed and hung suncloths or in the evenings as she read in her room or sat in the kitchen with the others, her sister was never far from her mind.
Only one other person could knock Comfort from top place in her thoughts.
Sober.
She didn't want to ever see him again, and yet he intruded into her thoughts. It had been over a week and he'd not been back. Sick, Calamity said.
Monday morning she was on the fifth floor hanging suncloths, when she glanced out the window and saw Calamity's skim wagon winding its way up the drive. She felt sick to her stomach thinking about seeing Sober's smiling face again. She didn't want to meet with him and have her fears confirmed. She didn't want to learn that he'd been using her to gain information.
He'd told someone her secret. He must have.
Wondering about it was driving her mad. She had to find out the truth. She tacked up her last suncloth, wiped her face on her work smock, and headed for the kitchen. He probably wasn't there anyway. He probably was still sick.
She got to the kitchen too late.
Cook told her that Sober had been there, but he and Calamity had made it in and out quicker than a wolf could eat a piglet.
He was not sick, at least. She would confront him on Friday.
A little before noon on Friday morning, after washing a load of suncloths, she sneaked down to the yak barn to wait. She was taking a huge chance. If the king was watching her ... but the prince was gone and he was the one that liked to spy. And she had to see Sober. She had to know, once and for all, if he'd betrayed her.
She hoped for a better explanation than that. She dared to hope ... he did have a close relationship to the Deliverance Day people. He might help her run away. He might save her from the prince. She couldn't run away, though. The prince was buying her and if she ran, he'd take Comfort in her place. She shuddered at the thought of poor Comfort under the prince's control. Her sweet little sister wouldn't last two weeks under his abuse.
Still, she hoped that Sober might find a way to help her.
While she waited, she talked to the yaks, patting their velvety noses as she made her way down the corridor to the end of the barn where the greens were stored.
She was standing by Goldenrod's stall when the double doors slid open, letting in the brilliant mountain sunlight.
Blinded by the glare, she only saw Sober's silhouette.
He walked toward her, stepping into shadow.
It wasn't Sober. It was Belligerence.
"Something you need?" he asked when he saw her staring at him.
She shook her head. "I'm just ... I was just ... where's Sober?"
"Sick today."
Two Fridays in a row! He was trying to avoid her. He was skipping Fridays so he'd not have to eat lunch at the palace.
It didn't matter. She'd be ready for him on Monday, then. The hateful beast. He was avoiding her because he was ashamed. He wasn't going to get away with it.
"He is not trying to avoid you." Generosity sat in front of the reflecting wall braiding her hair. "I told you on Monday he was asking after you."
Repentance lowered herself into the bathing pool until only her head stuck out. They got to bathe every other night, and she and Generosity were on the same schedule. "Say what you want. I know what I know. Sober
