Servant of the Crown by Melissa McShane

Author:Melissa McShane [McShane, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Night Harbor Publishing
Published: 2015-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Alison sank down onto a chair, put her elbows on the desk, and put her face in her hands. “They took it with them,” she repeated. “Did any of you see them do it?” Silence. She lifted her head and glared at them. “Did you?”

Declan said in a small voice, “They came back for it. They told the guards it wasn’t in the Library so it was theirs. They took it away.”

“You saw this? You didn’t say anything? You all knew what it was!”

“Nobody listens to apprentices,” Gwendolen said smugly. Alison itched to slap her.

“Gwendolen,” she said, as calmly as she could, “is there a reason everything you say comes out sounding like ‘I told you so’?”

“I’m sorry, milady, but I’ve been saying all along the Masters were doing something shady, and no one listened.” There was that sneer again. Alison imagined smacking the girl so hard she fell on her skinny rear end.

“You have not,” Trevers said hotly. “You only ever complain and brush your hair. Some days you don’t come in at all.” That was true. Alison had seen Declan and Trevers in the scriptorium, but she’d never seen Gwendolen before today.

“It’s not like I have to be here,” Gwendolen said. “My mother is Evangeline Burns. I can have any apprenticeship I want. This one isn’t very interesting, anyway.”

“Fine,” said Alison. “You’re fired.”

Gwendolen stood up, outraged. “You can’t do that!”

Alison still wasn’t sure she could, but she didn’t care. “I just did. Get to the apprentices’ hall and get your things, then go back to your mother, whoever she is.”

“You don’t know who Evangeline Burns is? Of the Westover Burnses?”

Alison’s fingers curled up into a fist. She opted for verbal violence. “Gwendolen, I don’t even know where Westover is. And I don’t care. If you think you can swan around here on the strength of whatever connections you think you have, then I don’t need you. And you don’t need this job. So get out. Declan, pull out those acquisitions logs. Trevers, do you know where you can get paper and pen and ink? Good. Bring those here. It doesn’t have to be a lot. Are you still here?” This to Gwendolen, who stood perfectly still with her mouth open in outrage, sputtering, unable to find words. “Look, Gwendolen, you’re going to be happier somewhere else. Now get out before I have a guard throw you out.” Was it acceptable to threaten violence to a girl no more than fifteen? Well, legally she was an adult, and Alison was in a temper. No catalog. Even a disorganized, inaccurate one. Alison wanted to cry.

Gwendolen came to herself, said, “I didn’t want this apprenticeship anyway,” and stormed out. Alison helped Declan bring all the acquisitions logs to a desk and organize them by year. Trevers returned with writing supplies. “Now, I’m going to make several lists, and you two are going to tell me everything you remember about your tasks and the librarians’ duties,” she said. “And then…we are going shopping.

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