The Midnight Lie (The Midnight Lie #1)(40)

“Baby box?”

“Yes, the metal box for unwanted ones. There are two boxes, actually, one on either side of the wall, so that anyone of any kith can leave a baby there.”

Her face was fierce in the lamplight, her black eyes almost feral. “That is barbaric.”

“Don’t worry. There are holes for a baby to breathe, and a matron checks the box every hour, except at night.”

“How comforting.”

“The Council says it is the best way to protect unwanted babies.”

“If the Council says so, I suppose it must be true.”

I thought her sarcasm was unfair. “If parents had no way to abandon babies in secret, they might murder them.”

“So you were raised thinking that if you hadn’t been left in a metal box, your mother would have murdered you? That if Raven hadn’t taken you in, you would have lived in the orphanage forever?”

“Not forever. When I turned eighteen, if I didn’t show promise as an artisan, and wasn’t apprenticed to a shopkeeper, I would have become Un-Kith and taken outside the city.”

Sid’s mouth was flat. “You say this as if it is nothing to you.”

“I am lucky. I owe so much to Raven.”

She stared at me. Then she shook her head in helpless dislike—which bothered me, since I had done nothing to earn it. I said, “Are you thinking that I am even farther beneath you than you’d assumed?”

“I am thinking that your life has been very different from mine,” she said, which was a politer way of saying yes. Then she said, “I could help you find out where you come from.”

I shook my head. “Impossible.”

“I’m good at finding things out. I want to do something for you. Tell me what I can do.”

I didn’t want to tell her. I didn’t want to choose yet how she would reward me for helping her. I had lived with so little choice behind the wall that it was as if I had never left the baby box. I liked that there was something undecided. I liked that Sid hadn’t yet made me decide.

“Start by explaining what a ladies’ maid is supposed to do,” I said. “I have no idea.”

She cocked a flirtatious brow. “You could always help take off my clothes.”

I flinched, startled by her daring. But it was just a joke, one made for the pleasure of seeing me squirm. She laughed. “I don’t need you to do anything. I asked for you to be my ladies’ maid so that we could talk in private. Though, to be honest, dresses are a pain. All those fastenings in the back.”

“I have never seen you in one before now. You don’t look like yourself.”

She glanced down at her deeply red dress. “Too much fabric. Too flowy. But it’s fine.”

She didn’t sound like it was fine. I said, “You don’t like it.”

She shrugged. “It’s what people expect. But it reminds me of my old life. It makes me look…”

I thought of Annin’s word: beautiful. “Like a prize to be won?”

“Let’s be honest, I am. Tomorrow will you show me the Ward?”

I thought about how it would be for the two of us to walk through the Ward. Everyone’s eyes would be drawn to her. I would look drab by her side.

“What’s wrong?” Though her back was still to me as she sat in her chair, her body had curved toward mine, her face tipped up, studying me. “Are you worried about your employer? She’ll let you go. I paid her well.” Sid’s mouth curled in distaste. “She will do anything for money.”

Defensively, I said, “Of course. She doesn’t have much of it.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Sid said slowly, maybe seeing my anger. She couldn’t possibly understand Raven’s life—or my own.

I said, “I don’t have money.”

“That has nothing to do with what I think about you. That’s not why I don’t like Raven. It’s because she is not kind.”

“Yes, she is.”

“She insulted you.”

“I left the door open.”

“So what?”

“She was anxious to impress you.”

“Why are you defending her?” Her eyes got narrow. “Wait. Is this the woman you mentioned in prison? The one you said was something like a mother?”

I didn’t like the disgust in her voice. I felt like a child caught pretending that a rag doll was a princess. I hated even more the way Sid’s expression was shifting into pity.

“There is no excuse for how she behaved toward you,” Sid said. “I don’t think you see things clearly.”

Which had always been exactly my problem, although after finding streaks of color beneath the white paint on the walls of the Ward, I was starting to wonder whether my judgment was really as bad as I’d always thought. “My life is none of your concern,” I said stiffly. “You and I have a bargain. I will help you, and when you have what you want you will leave. You won’t even remember this conversation.”

“Of course I will.”

I shook my head. How many times had someone forgotten a conversation that I remembered perfectly?

“I will take you anywhere in the Ward you want to go,” I said. “But there’s something important I want to show you.” I told her about the colored paint beneath the whitewashed walls. “I dreamed about it, after I drank a dream sold in the night market.”