What Souls Are Made Of by Tasha Suri

Author:Tasha Suri [Suri, Tasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Heathcliff

I DIDN’T GO STRAIGHT HOME after seeing the rich man sitting in the corner. Annie was waiting outside, half hiding. She hadn’t left. She’d listened. I could see the knowing in her eyes. She told me I should come with her.

“You should speak to Jamie,” she said.

But I shook my head and said I would go on my own. She pursed her lips but didn’t stop me, only drew on her cloak and hurried off, like hell was following her.

Now I’m walking. Seems like, every time I get hurt, I go walking like I’m a ghost that can’t find its way home. I pass a building with the door caved in. There’s bullet holes round the frame. The road is full of women, some clutching children, some holding knives or pans, pacing, swearing. There’s one crying, kneeling on the ground, saying, “They took him, took him. What will we do now? How will we live?”

Some other women hush her, but I hear enough to know that a press-gang’s been by and forced a man out of his own home. He belongs to the navy now, and the woman will be lucky to see him again for a long time.

I keep on going.

It’s almost daylight when I stumble back to the lodging house. There’s someone outside, leaning against the wall, cap low over their eyes. I know them by the shape of their shoulders. The way they’re slumped.

“What’re you doing here?” I ask Jamie.

He lifts his head up. His eyes are red. Doesn’t look like he’s slept.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he says. His voice is scratchy. “Annie told me you got in some trouble.”

“Not trouble,” I tell him. I don’t go closer to him and don’t go in. I just stand looking at him. “I got an offer.”

“An offer like that’s trouble,” he bursts out. “You think a rich man coming round our neighborhood and watching a brown boy get beaten by his men for fun is safe to take coin from?”

“What do you think happens at boxing matches?” Blood, sweat. People screaming with laughter. Even rich gentlemen and ladies, eyes wide with bloodlust, watching close. “I don’t mind fighting for someone else’s fun if it gets me something.”

“Don’t go back,” Jamie says. “Don’t do it. That offer’s cursed and you know it.”

“I won’t turn down an offer that could make me rich.”

Jamie laughs hollowly. “You think he’s going to make you rich? When we first met, I thought you were just green and didn’t know how the world is, but maybe you’re simply not very smart.”

Jamie’s not usually the kind to throw barbs. It stings when I’m not bracing for it.

I didn’t even know I still had places in me that could be hurt.

“I think,” I say slowly, “that some merchant may believe he can test me and use me, but that’s his weakness. I think if he lets his guard down that’s his fault. So if I get the chance to destroy him and take all he’s got, I’ll do it.

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