Everless by Sara Holland

Author:Sara Holland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-11-16T05:00:00+00:00

17

It’s a strange and uncomfortable thing to be back among the kitchen servants but not be one of them. To be honest, even before being chosen as Ina’s servant, I felt set apart—I was new to Everless though I was not new at all, a secret walking the halls of the Gerling estate. Then in my fog of grief, the wedding preparations were the furthest thing from my mind and I barely spoke to the people surrounding me every day.

In a back room off the kitchen, a group of servants weave ivy and a thick, silver ribbon into the latticed wood of the trellis. Deni, a young girl with a crown of braids, takes the basket from me and begins to spread the ice holly on a long table; a boy I don’t know unspools a thin wire in his hands.

Bea appears beside me. She reaches out to pluck a glittering branch of holly from the table, begins to weave it in with a wire. “So what’s it like?” she says to me. “Working for the Queen?”

Three other girls at the table look up to hear my answer. I am mindful of Caro’s words yesterday—I am not to speak of the Queen or what I learn of her. “I haven’t seen much of her so far, to be truthful,” I tell them. “I hope to—soon.”

“Not if you know what’s good for you,” Ingrid comments. She rolls a berry between her fingertips. Worry gnaws at me as the others murmur in agreement. “She’ll turn you out, Jules, like she did Addie.”

“She’ll turn you into a coin!” Deni blurts out.

“Don’t mind them,” Bea says, shooting Deni and Ingrid a sharp glance. “Lot o’ fearmongers, if you ask me.” She turns back to the group. “My father’s father served the Queen as a boy, and she saw to his education—”

“Is that why you’re here?” Ingrid snorts. Bea furrows her brow, clearly stung, and turns back to the ice holly spread on the table. “I’m sorry, Bea,” Ingrid says. “But it’s for your own good, both of y—”

“I’ll be fine,” I cut in, though every fiber of me screams that I won’t. I nod to the silvered leaves on the table, ready to be pierced and hung. “You all have more important things to worry about than me.”

Ingrid looks like she’s about to protest, but a small figure appears in the doorway and waves to me before a word escapes her mouth. I haven’t seen Hinton in a long time—at least it seems so. He darts through the girls, to my side. I bend down and hug him, but he seems nervous, stiff and fidgeting in my arms.

“Someone’s here to see you, Jules,” he says quietly. “Out in the hallway.” He grabs my sleeve and tugs me out of the group, toward the door.

To my shock, it’s Liam, leaning against the opposite wall with his hands in his coat pockets. He looks in a foul mood, his brows drawn low over his face. He tosses a coin to Hinton, who catches it and vanishes into the kitchen like a rabbit into its den.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.