Stepsister(79)

“Thanks,” Tavi said.

“I don’t want a fierce girl. Or a weird girl. I want a sweet girl. A girl who makes me her whole world, not one whose only ambition is to turn the world upside down.” He slumped against the barn wall. “Tavi, can’t you figure this out?”

“I’m trying. Hard as I can.”

Hugo sighed. “Where’s Leo Newdanardo when you need him?” he asked.

Tavi laughed humorlessly. “Where, indeed?”





Eighty-Seven


“I just want you to know, that no matter what you might’ve heard, it’s not true. I swear to God it’s not.”

Felix was in his master’s workshop carving a regimental insignia on the lid of a fancy coffin, a lieutenant’s coffin. He slowly turned around.

“What have you done now, Isabelle?” he said, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

Isabelle, fretting the hem of her jacket, looked down at the sawdust-covered floor. “I got engaged to Hugo.”

Felix’s chisel hit the coffin lid with a loud thud. “What?”

Isabelle’s head snapped up. “But it’s not my fault!”

Two other men working in the shop lifted their heads, casting curious glances in Isabelle’s direction.

Felix, his cheeks coloring, grabbed Isabelle’s hand and pulled her after him. Through the long workshop, past coffins on trestles, and workbenches littered with tools, out of a door at the rear of the building and into the adjoining stables, where the master kept his delivery wagon and the team of workhorses that pulled it.

As soon as he closed the door behind them, Isabelle, talking a million miles a minute, told Felix what had happened, and how Tantine was pressuring both her and Hugo to marry within the week.

“We’re going to come up with a way out of this, Felix. Me, Hugo, Tavi … we’re all trying to figure out a solution,” she said. Glancing at the open stable doors, she added, “I—I have to get back to the market. I left Hugo alone with the wagon and it’s busy this morning …”

Ever since the breakfast at Madame’s, two days ago, Isabelle had been desperate to see Felix, tell him what had happened, and that she had no intention of going through with betrothal, before he heard it from someone else. Tantine had been telling anyone who would listen about the wedding. She’d ordered a fancy cake from the baker, informed the priest that his services would shortly be required, and had even offered to pay for a wedding dress.

All the while Isabelle had been talking, Felix had been silent, his arms tight to his sides, his gaze slanted down. He didn’t move, or speak, even after she’d finished.

“Felix? Felix, say something,” she begged now, worried that he was hurt or angry.

“He’d make a decent husband.”

Isabelle blinked, speechless.

“He’s not so bad.”

“Then you marry him!”

“All I’m saying is that maybe you should think about it.”

Isabelle took a step back, devastated. She felt betrayed by his words, confused by the strange, sad look on his face. Only a moment ago, he’d appeared shocked to hear that she and Hugo were betrothed. Now he was telling her she should consider going through with the marriage.

“Felix, why would you say that?” she asked. “Hugo doesn’t love me. He loves Odette. And I don’t love him. I—I love you.”

Her words were a knife to his heart. She could see they were and it killed her.

“Should I not have said that? Is the boy supposed to say it first? Is that the rule?” she asked, utterly bewildered. “I never seem to be able to follow the rules. Maybe if I knew what they were I could, but I thought you … I thought we …”

“Sit down,” Felix said, motioning to a wooden bench.

“I’m not marrying Hugo!” she said angrily, tears smarting behind her eyes.

“All right, Isabelle. You don’t have to. You won’t have to.”

What does he mean by that? Why is he being so strange? she wondered.

Felix soon answered her questions.

As she sat, he reached into his vest and pulled out a small leather purse, tightly cinched across the top. He knelt down by her legs, opened the purse, and poured its contents into her lap.

Six shiny gold coins glinted up at her like a promise.

“Take them,” he said. “It’s enough to get yourself to Rome. To get your sister and mother there, too. You can find a small room. Live cheaply. You’ll be safe there, Isabelle. Far away from this war.”

“What do you mean Take them? Why would I take your money? And why did you say I’d be safe? What about you?”

“I’m not going to Italy.”

Isabelle’s head started to spin. “I—I don’t understand, Felix. Just a few days ago, you said you were going. You said you wanted me to come with you …”

Felix looked down. “Yes, I did. But things have changed.”

“You’re regretting it. You don’t want me. You don’t love—”

Felix cut her off. “I do love you. I always have and I always will,” he said fiercely. “More than my life.”

“Then why?”

Felix took her hands in his. His blue eyes found hers.