Midnight Jewel (The Glittering Court #2)(94)

“Winnifred! Joan!”

Martha came tearing across the room, and suddenly, two very pretty girls pushed past the men in the doorway and ran to her. And then more girls came in. And more. All were drably dressed in variants of blue and gray, but as I took in their ages and beauty, I knew who they were. The foyer filled up, and I had to stand on my tiptoes to find who I sought over the crowd—but there she was, all the way in the back of the group, not even inside the house yet.

I felt weak for a moment, like my knees would give out, and then a burst of energy jolted me to life. I couldn’t get across the foyer easily, so instead, I ran to the office door and threw it open. Adelaide sat with the Thorns and the Doyles, and all looked up in astonishment at my entrance.

Jasper scowled. “I told you lot not to—”

“They’re here!” I cried. “They’re here! I don’t understand it, but they’re here.”

“Who?” he demanded.

“The other girls! The other ship.” I looked at Adelaide, needing her to understand how crucial this was. “Adelaide, Tamsin’s alive!”

Everyone in the room sprang out of their seats and into the packed foyer. Adelaide was right beside me as we sprinted across the room, pushing our way through as we desperately tried to see if the impossible was truly possible. And it wasn’t just us. Chaos reigned.

Every time I’d lost someone, the same questions always tormented me. I’d ponder if I could have done anything differently. I’d ask myself if it was fair that I lived while they died. I wondered how I was going to get through without them.

But I’d never asked what would happen if one of these people came back. Because no matter how much their loss hurt me or how much I ruminated over what had happened, I’d always accepted that it had happened. It was done and over. No one came back from death.

And yet . . . Tamsin stood right in front of me.

We couldn’t stop hugging each other. The three of us laughed, cried, and babbled apologies that none of us heard. We were too consumed with each other, too caught up in the miracle that somehow, against all understanding, we’d been reunited.

“Friends! Friends!” Jasper had climbed on top of a chair and was attempting to be heard over the commotion. “You’re witnessing a miracle right before our eyes. Something none of us thought possible. I’ve just learned that—as you can no doubt tell—the Gray Gull wasn’t lost at sea! It sustained great damage in the storm and was blown off course—far, far north to the colony of Grashond.”

Adelaide’s shock mirrored my own. Tamsin’s grim nod told us he spoke the truth.

“Who do I have to thank for this?” exclaimed Jasper. “Who do I have to thank for saving my girls?”

The young man who’d first spoken at the door—Gideon Stewart—was singled out and promptly became Jasper’s favorite person in the world. Jasper swept him and the other leaders from Grashond away, showering them with gratitude and promises of gifts.

“They won’t take anything,” said Tamsin. She pulled a white kerchief off her head and shook her fiery hair free. “They saw it as their duty from Uros to bring us here.”

She seemed understandably happy to be here, but there was a weariness—both physical and mental—in her that was impossible to miss. “We shouldn’t be standing around like this,” I said. “Everyone should be resting. And eating too. When was the last time you ate?”

“I don’t know,” said Tamsin. “Last night, I guess? It’s pretty much been all salt fish since we left. They have loads of it up there. It all runs together after a while.”




With the initial shock over, Mistress Culpepper had recovered herself and jumped into the organizational and administrative role she excelled at. Along with the returned girls, the Grashond settlers needed accommodations. There were Gray Gull sailors there as well, and although she wouldn’t dream of letting them stay in the house, she did make sure they were made comfortable until they could settle up business matters with Jasper.

Tamsin was assigned to our room, obviously, and Adelaide and I both badly wanted to know what had happened in her time away. She didn’t seem up to any interrogation and simply said that her ordeal had been “not awful,” so we let her be and mostly just basked in the joy of having her back.

When Tamsin was cleaning up in the washroom, Adelaide said to me, “If she really is okay like she told us, why won’t she talk about it?”

I reflected back on the string of tragedies I’d seen in my own life. “Sometimes, when you go through something like that, it takes a while for you to want to talk about it.”

I had no idea what living with the Heirs of Uros must have been like. That sect had settled Grashond years ago in order to build a community focused around the strict and austere principles of their faith. Their religion wasn’t heretical since they didn’t alter any of the orthodox doctrine, holidays, or texts, but they stripped down anything they thought was indulgent or excessive. They didn’t strike me as fun people to be around.

Heloise, who’d become the emerald and now was engaged, gave her clothes to Tamsin. Once clean, fed, and dressed in green, Tamsin was ready to talk. But not about herself.

“I hope you’ve left some men for the rest of us.” She sat on the bed and clasped her hands, looking between Adelaide and me expectantly. “You must have both gotten slews of offers by now.”