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Gabriel seens of bruises beneath his shirt, and find nothing

His liive hietic look, but he doesn’t raise his eyes to me Four others in the same uniform follow him in, with pitchers of water, bottles of wine, a cart of extravagant foods--whole chickens basting in caramel sauces, pineapples and strawberries cut and shaped like pond lilies

The door to the dining rooo I wonder ould happen if I ran--if Gabriel or one of the others would stop ht do that keeps me in place, because surely if I ran, I wouldn’t ht And then--what? I’d be locked in ain, probably, forever marred as the one who can’t be trusted

So I stay, participating in a conversation that is strained and sickeningly pleasant Linden doesn’t talk s spoonful after spoonful of soup to his mouth Cecily smiles at him, and she even drops her spoon, I think, just so he’ll look at her

Houseardens and hoeet the apples are He even makes fruits and shrubbery sound ominous It’s his voice, low and raspy I notice that none of the help looks at hi new dishes and clear away the old

It was him, I think He’s the one who hurt Gabriel yesterday when my door was left unlocked Even with his serous in hi that hinders my appetite and drains the color froerous than heartsick Governor Linden, who stares past us, lost in love with a woman on death’s door

Chapter 5

When the evening is at last through, I languish on the bed in ht stop her if I weren’t so exhausted and her touch weren’t so relaxing She’s kneeling beside ht that she scarcely even makes a dent in the fluffy co a pillow, and she begins to work my calves; it’s just what I need after so h heels She has lit so the room with the warm scent of obscure flowers I’m so relaxed that I just let the words co classy at this point, "So how does this wedding night work? Does he choose us in a lineup? Drug us with sleeping gas? Pool the three of us into one bed?"

Deirdre does not seem offended by my crassness

Patiently she says, "Oh, the House Governor won’t consuht Not with Lady Rose" She trails off

I push h to look over ic look is on Deirdre’s face, her shoulders s "He’s very in love with her," she tells me wistfully "I don’t believe he’ll visit any of his new brides until she has passed on"

It’s true that Governor Linden doesn’t come into my bedrooone, I eventually drift off to sleep But in the early hours of the , I’m awakened by the turn of the doorknob; in recent years I’ve beco toxin in my system, I’ve returned to my usual alertness Still I don’t react I wait, eyes wide open, watching my door open in the darkness

The curly hair of the shadowy figure identifies Linden for me

"Rhine?" He says e I want to ignore him and pretend that I’ of my heart must be audible across the roo door willto shoot me in the head or steal me away Besides, Linden has seen that my eyes are open

"Yes," I say

"Get up," he says softly "Put on so to show you"

So me outside

To his credit, he leaves the rooet dressed in private The closet illu than I bothered to notice earlier I choose a pair of black pants that are warm and fleecy, and a sweater that has pearls worked into the knit--Deirdre’s handiwork, no doubt

When I open the door--which is no longer locked fro--I find Linden waiting for h mine, and leadshow many hallways make up this mansion Even if the front door were left wide open for my escape, I’m certain I’d never be able to find it I try to reen carpet that looks new The walls are a creas that are in my bedroom There are no s, so I can’t even tell that this is the ground floor until Linden opens a door and we’re on the path to the rose garden, down the saazebo The sun has yet to co the place a subdued, sleepy feel

Linden shows me one of the fountains, which trickles into a pond populated by long thick fish that are white, orange, and red "Koi fish," he tells inally froraphy has become such an obscure subject that I never encountered it in , before my parents’ deaths forced me to work instead Our school was held in as once a church, and the students barely filled out the first row of pews in full attendance

Mostly ere the children of first generations, like my brother and me, who had been raised to value education even if we’ll die without a chance to use it And the school had an orphan or tith drea to raphy was that the world had once been made up of seven continents and several countries, but a third world war demolished all but North Ay The dae was so catastrophic that all that remains of the rest of the world is ocean and uninhabitable islands so tiny that they can’t even be seen from space