UNDER THE EARTHLINE by Montgomery Laura

Author:Montgomery, Laura
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ground Based Press
Published: 2020-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Arriving back at the apartments as late in the afternoon as she did, Harriett met with a series of questions from her Aunt Maria, who was not pleased she had been unable to find her niece for most of the day. Maria had been more gratified to hear of the morning ride with Dietrich, but less so that Harriett had visited a fencing school, the fields north of town where she had traded her skirt with a girl she now couldn’t find, and then gone to the palace basement with Maxwell and Thaddeus Dawe.

Maria put her hands on her hips. “What will Dietrich think? I know Maxwell is your cousin—”

Harriett tried a smile. “He’s like a brother to me.”

The smile didn’t work. “And don’t interrupt. Thaddeus Dawe is not your cousin, and I’m sure Dietrich wouldn’t like you spending so much time with the man. And looking for him in a sword school?” Maria pressed her hands to her temples.

Harriett was not seventeen. She did not defiantly tell her aunt about her disenchantment with Dietrich—a disinterest that was definite, clear, and irrevocable—because it would only have upset her well-meaning relative. So she made soothing noises and told her aunt she needed to work on the children’s lessons.

There had been a geometry exam that had not gone well, and they would need to repeat it. Which, her aunt then pointed out, Harriett could have done already if only she’d stayed home instead of wandering the town. Harriett needed to act less like a farm girl, and more like a woman who could become a great man’s wife, a man who was their neighbor back home. She was only glad Clyde had returned to their lands to check on the harvest just that afternoon so he had been spared the mortification of his niece’s behavior.

Eventually, the sharing of all thoughts that had been building in her aunt through the day abated, and dinner had been loud with all the younger Satcoms present. Harriett hid her anxiety for Maddie Kent. Her only hope for Maddie’s safety was that her parents were with her. And Dietrich couldn’t want anything to happen to her with Harriett herself taking such an interest in the girl. Could he?

Harriett rose early the next morning, put on a round skirt—one less noticeable than the previous day’s—a pair of half boots, and a jacket against the chill, and took her breakfast.

Now, Harriett waited for Maxwell and Thaddeus on the balcony. They were going to find the jail, and she was going to do what she could for Maddie. Despite Maddie being the one who approached them, and despite the guards already being at her house when she and the other two WesHem arrived, Harriett felt somehow responsible for the girl. She supposed it was because she was convinced this was all Dietrich’s doing—not that she was responsible for him either. She sighed.

It had rained in the night. The air was fresh, washed clean of chimney and cooking smoke. From

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