Not Your Heroine by Zoe Cannon

Author:Zoe Cannon [Cannon, Zoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zoe Cannon
Published: 2022-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Hanna was wrong. Ashlinde didn’t come back. Early the next morning, the stablehand raised the alarm—one of the horses was missing. A panicked inventory of the kitchen showed Hanna that five days’ worth of food was gone as well, as was Ashlinde’s riding outfit. Ashlinde hadn’t taken anything else. If she had said goodbye to her sister, Sorrelin said nothing of it.

She hadn’t said goodbye to Hanna.

The girls’ father threatened to send Hanna away for it. The way he told it, Hanna was at fault here, more even than Ashlinde herself. Hanna had told him Ashlinde would come back, or he might have sent someone after him in time. Hanna had spoiled her, pampered her, let her get away with too much. He raged for days, and went as far as having a servant pack Hanna’s things for her.

When she caught the red-faced servant in her room, and listened to her stammer about how she was only doing this on the merchant lord’s orders, she was forced to admit to herself that this might not be like his other rages. She might very well find herself without a place to live within days, and forced to seek employment with another family, if anyone would hire her once they heard what the last child she had raised had done.

But in a strange way, Hanna was grateful for all that. Not that it made the fear any less sharp. She could imagine all too well what it would be like to try to find a new position as a nurse after this catastrophe and at her age, and what slim prospects she would have if she failed. But Ashlinde had done this to her with her reckless actions, and that gave Hanna a reason to be angry at the girl. And that, in turn, made it easier to accept the fact that Ashlinde had left without a word of farewell to the woman who had raised her.

Not easy. But easier.

The girls’ father would likely have followed through on his threat if not for Sorrelin. When she saw Hanna’s belongings piled outside her door, she told her father in her soft voice that for her wedding gift, she wanted to bring Hanna with her to raise her own children. Her father agreed without a word of argument, and ordered Hanna’s rooms set back in order, just like that. This was enough to tell Hanna that her father shared her own concerns, even if he wouldn’t admit to them. He should have objected, faced with such recent evidence of Hanna’s skill—or lack thereof—at raising his own daughters. He would have objected, she was sure, unless he wanted Sorrelin to have a friendly face where she was going.

As for Sorrelin herself, Hanna had no way of knowing whether she wanted Hanna with her because she too was afraid, or whether she truly did just want a trusted nurse for her future children, and had no concerns about them turning out like her wayward sister.

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