A Restless Truth Sneak Peek by Freya Marske

Author:Freya Marske
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

6

My dear Violet,

I write this note in a moment of impulse. Perhaps I will change my mind. Perhaps in a fortnight or a decade I will consign this to the fire and amend my will and you will never read these words. But my best decisions have been made impulsively, and I have regretted none of them.

Let us assume the matter stands unaltered. Therefore: if you read this, then I am dead, and I am leaving Spinet House and all my worldly goods to you.

The more tedious members of this family will never believe that I am acting out of anything but petty spite. If any lawyers are engaged to contest the issue, on the basis that far closer blood relatives than you exist, you may wave this letter in their faces, but the fact remains that I have sealed the latest version of my will with runes and with wax, and imbued the ink with my intent. The house will recognise you when you come to it.

They will be correct, of course, about the spite.

This society of ours is obsessed with blood, and magicians are worse than most. Yes—by blood our connection is very thin. But I have always considered us kindred of the spirit, and hearing of your recent bold escape to the Americas has only confirmed this. I would like to think that I would have named you my heir even if there was nothing of blood to link us at all.

So. The money is yours. Save it. Waste it. Invest it. Devour it. Use it to live your life only and exactly on your own terms, as I was fortunate enough to be able to do.

Your fond cousin,

Mrs. James Taverner

The first time Violet had opened the letter, breaking the seal with a fingernail and a nudge of an opening-spell, the paper had been blank but for a small inked star in one corner. Memory had come flooding back: afternoons spent visiting her eccentric elderly cousin in the even more eccentric Spinet House, which was full of hidden nooks and secret passageways and puzzles of magic responding to music before all else.

Violet had hummed the tune a few times to be sure she had it, then sung the final verse of Dufay’s rhyme. Old paths we walk anew—The near ones and the far—Burning bright as stars—To pay the dusk its due.

The fluid handwriting had appeared beneath her gaze.

By now she’d read it enough times that she could recite it. She read it again this morning, sitting with knees curled up on her bed aboard the Lyric, as one read the script in the interval on closing night: for comfort more than necessity.

Violet carefully put the letter away. Her body clung both to theatre hours and to the unaccustomed softness of the bed; she’d slept through breakfast, and still had a little time before her planned meeting with Miss Blyth. She washed her face, threw a dressing gown over her nightdress, and was interrupted by Aunt Caroline. Her

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.