The Poison Season(76)

Leelo tried to imagine marrying someone she loved as a friend. She knew that marriage provided security and companionship, but after being with Jaren, to marry for convenience would feel like a betrayal of her own heart. She realized now that she had taken it for granted that her parents had always been in love, the way most children probably did. But she didn’t actually know anything about their relationship, other than the little bit she could remember.

“You never told me how you and Father knew each other.”

“To understand that I have to first tell you about Aunt Ketty and Hugo. His father was the island’s only blacksmith, so their family always had steady business. Their house was larger than almost any on the island, in part to accommodate so many children. Hugo had six brothers, and they were all big, strapping boys, their mother’s pride and joy. She was a diminutive woman, standing no taller than her sons’ chests, and everyone marveled at how she’d managed to produce such massive offspring.

“As the youngest of seven, Hugo was the baby of the family, and his mother was always packing his lunch before Watcher duty, sometimes bringing it to him during his shift if he left it at home. Ketty and I would giggle about this. There was certainly no one at home packing our lunches. And Hugo, believing that everyone adored him as much as his mother, seemed to think Ketty’s giggling meant she liked him, because he started singling her out at every gathering, bringing her gifts, and generally making his intentions clear.

“At first, Ketty seemed indifferent to Hugo’s clumsy advances. But as our parents began hinting that an affiliation with Hugo’s family would be very good for everyone involved, she had begun to take him more seriously. Hugo was a perfectly decent suitor, but I had always seen my sister as a wild thing, carefree and independent, not someone who would willingly be tied down.”

Leelo couldn’t help thinking of Sage then, of what her mother had done by betrothing her to Hollis.

“As Ketty and Hugo started to spend more time together, I was often dragged along against my will as a chaperone. That was how I met Hugo’s quiet, fair-haired best friend, Kellan. He somehow seemed younger than the rest of us, and shy, but then, so was I. Ketty liked the idea of the four of us marrying together, in one grand ceremony. And I loved Ketty. The idea of marrying best friends was comforting. We would always be close. And it wasn’t so scary to think of marriage and children when my sister would be going through it with me.

“We were all married two years later, in that grand ceremony Ketty dreamed of. It wasn’t until a few years after that that Hugo started drinking too much and his cruelty emerged. By then, we were both pregnant, and even your father couldn’t calm Uncle Hugo when he’d had too much drink.”

Leelo felt a stab of pity for her aunt. Things might have been different if she’d married someone else. Different for Ketty and for Mama.

“Was there a part of you that wanted to go with Nigel when he left?” she asked.

Mama wrapped her arms tighter around Leelo, like she was trying to keep her from leaving. “Yes, of course. But I knew that I couldn’t.”

“What did Ketty do when she found out about him?” Leelo asked.

Fiona was silent for a long moment. “She found a way to punish me for it. Ketty always does.”

They both startled at a creak on the stairs, and then Sage’s head appeared in the doorway. “Dinner is ready,” she said, flashing a smile that seemed far too innocent to be genuine. How long has she been standing there? Leelo wondered. How much does she already know?

“We’ll be right down,” Fiona said, then waited till they heard Sage descend the stairs before turning back to Leelo. “Now tell me, quickly. Who is this young man you’ve fallen for?”

“You don’t know him,” she said, unable to meet her mother’s eyes.

“No?”

Leelo stared at the carved swans, thinking of the cygnet she and Tate had recovered from the lake. Somewhere in the world, swans swam together on safe waters, bonded for their entire lives. Leelo would always love Endla, because it was her home, but Isola was right. If Mama had helped get Tate’s father off the island, then she might know how to help Jaren. And if Leelo knew her cousin, she wasn’t going to rest until she figured out Leelo’s secret. They had to get him away from here, as soon as possible.

She looked up, meeting her mother’s soft gaze, and swallowed. “I am in love, Mama. His name is Jaren. And he is an outsider.”



Chapter Forty-Five


As they sat around the table eating their dinner in silence, Leelo did her best to appear calm, but she was rattled to her core. It seemed impossible that she and her mother could both have rescued outsiders and then fallen in love with them. She wondered if there was some strange curse on her family or if she was being tested by the Forest to see if she would follow in the footsteps of her traitorous mother. If that was the case, she had failed miserably.

“Leelo, can you please pass me the potatoes?”

She looked up to find Sage watching her, that too-keen look in her eyes. Not knowing how much her cousin had overheard was only making her more uneasy. Sage obviously knew more than Leelo had, but how much, exactly?

After dinner, Leelo and Sage washed the dishes side by side. Fiona was darning a pair of Sage’s torn stockings, and Ketty was checking on the sheep.

“Is everything all right?” Sage asked.