Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment, #2)(63)

“Not that it matters,” she whispered, hurrying to shed her damp clothes for a sweater and a pair of brown trousers, and to unpack her typewriter on the kitchen table.

But she noticed a vase of daisies, brightening the room, and two bottles of medicine on the sideboard, prescribed to Forest. She felt a wash of relief to know her brother had finally gone to the doctor.

Iris had set a kettle to boil and was beginning to type an equally heated article about the chancellor barring Enva’s forces from the city when the front doorknob squeaked.

She paused.

It must be her brother, and she was both excited and anxious to see him again. Iris stood and reached for the locket, hiding beneath her sweater, and held on to it as the door swung open.

There was a shuffle, a low curse as someone tripped and dropped a baguette wrapped in bakery paper.

Iris stepped forward, eyes widening. This person was too short and slender to be Forest, and as they threw back the hood of their raincoat and struggled to keep the other parcels in hand, Iris took in their light-colored hair, frizzy from the rain, and the endearing flash of glasses on their nose.

Iris stopped upright.

It was truly the last person she expected to see stepping into her flat.

“Prindle?”





{29}

Fifth-Floor Signals




Sarah Prindle froze. Her mouth formed a perfect O before she cried, “Winnow? I’m glad you’re back! We weren’t expecting you home so soon!”

We? Iris thought with a shock down her spine, but she seamlessly hurried forward to take the packages from Sarah’s arms. They were heavy and warm—a fragrant dinner—and Iris set them on the kitchen table beside the typewriter before turning back around to hang up Sarah’s rain-dappled coat.

“Do you know when Forest will be home?” Iris tentatively asked, feeling uncertain of things, like she was a stranger in her own home.

Sarah picked up the fallen baguette before she removed her foggy glasses, wiping them on the edge of her skirt. “Should be home any minute. Usually he arrives before me, and—” She cut herself off with an awkward grimace. “I’m sorry, I know this must seem terribly odd.”

“It’s okay, Prindle,” Iris said. “Truly. I take it you and my brother are an item now?”

Sarah flushed scarlet. “No! I mean to say … maybe. If he asked me. But no. I honestly didn’t expect any of this to happen.”

The kettle began to whistle from the kitchen.

“Why don’t you sit and we can share a pot of tea,” Iris said, striding to shut off the cooker. “And you can tell me what happened while I was gone?”

Sarah nodded, but she went pale, like she was worried about what Iris might think. Iris, honestly, also wasn’t quite sure what she thought. But she was eager to hear what Sarah had to say as she carried over the tea tray, sitting down across from her.

“Erm,” Sarah began, wringing her fingers. “I’m sorry to catch you by surprise like this, Winnow.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Iris rushed to say. “Truly. I’m simply … surprised, but only because my brother has been very guarded and closed off since returning from the war front.”

“I know,” Sarah said with a sigh. “But it all began when I came by one evening to see if he had an update about you. When I knocked on the door, I assumed no one was home, because it seemed very quiet and empty. But then he opened the door and he just seemed … so sad. I realized he had been sitting alone in the dark.”

Iris felt a lump well in her throat. It killed her to imagine Forest like that, and guilt flooded her chest as if she had breathed in water. I shouldn’t have left him, she thought, but then realized if she had stayed home, Hawk Shire would have fallen. She wouldn’t have ever received Roman’s message about the assault, and Keegan and the last of Enva’s forces would have been pulverized.

Quietly, Iris poured the tea. She and Sarah added their cream and honey, and only then did Sarah clear her throat and continue.

“Forest didn’t really want to talk to me. And he said that he didn’t have any word from you yet. I decided I wouldn’t bother your brother again. But then I couldn’t stop thinking about him sitting alone in the dark, knowing he had been to war and back. I … well, I decided to take him dinner the next evening, to see again if he had an update on you. He thought you had set me up to do it, because he said, You can tell Iris I’m fine. But then he invited me inside—I think he felt a bit bad, for being so gruff—and we had dinner together. And I thought, Well, this will be it. But he said I could come by the next evening for an update about you, and that this time he would have dinner. To repay me, of course.”

Sarah glanced up to meet Iris’s gaze, her cheeks rosy.

“And that’s how it began. I find it easy to talk with him. Mainly because he is such a good listener, but he remembers everything I say and no one has ever really done that before.”

Iris couldn’t help but smile. She was about to express how thankful she was for Sarah when gunfire popped in the distance.

“What was that?” she demanded, rising from the table.

“It’s probably just a warning shot,” Sarah said, but her shoulders were hunched close to her ears.

“A warning shot?” Iris echoed, incredulous. “Shot by whom?”