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We four sisters are sitting in the courtyard at dusk in what passes for peace in our house Well-brought-up girls do not fidget nor fume nor ever betray the least impatience or boredom But it is so hard to sit still when all I can think about is how I a ive me permission to do

I say to , Merry?"

She hunches over an open book Its pages are bathed in the golden light of an oil lamp set on an iron tripod The words so absorb her that she does not even hearto, Alare from her heavily kohl-lined but nevertheless lovely eyes "I aant skill you have no acquaintance with, Jes Now hush, I pray you, for I just thought of themy eyes"

She pretends to brush a few letters, but instead she retrieves a folded note fro place beneath the table I happen to know it contains execrable love poetry sled in from a secret admirer As her poelance atto share a joke at Amaya’s expense, but Bett sits in the shadoith her back to us She is weaving string between her fingers, h undertone I do not wish to knohat she is saying, and I hope she does not intend to share it

Mother sits on the e couch, the plushly cushioned double-chair that she and Father share when he is hoe expanse of her pregnant belly Her slightly unfocused stare ht in another woman be described as vapid, but in her it si of Father All is harmonious and peaceful, just as she likes it

I want to get up and race around I want to climb the walls, which is the plan for to diversion during which I will clamber up one of the sturdy trellises and escape unseen over the roof

Instead ill sit here until the Junior House Steward comes in to announce supper Girls like us have to be hters of other officers because our father is a lowborn arh valor and bold leadership Which one of us would dare jeopardize his steady, hard-fought cli in disreputable behavior?

"You are restless, Jessa troubling you?"

"Nothing," I lie

She exaaze Then she picks up her eins to stitch with the easy patience of a wo for the reward she loves best

The handsoht In his last cah prize money from his victories that he had the courtyard repaved with marble We now sit on carved ebony-wood couches with silk-covered pillows, just as highborn people do What matters to Father is that the courtyard has beco in which Mother can entertain without embarrassment those wives and mothers and sisters of arhts again to the forbidden thing I aet out of the house, how to be gone fro to , how to bribe A a way to repay Maraya and Bett for all the ti suspicious I’ve done it a hundred tio exactly as planned, just as it always does

I smile

And that is when disaster strikes

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Mother looks up as an eruption of voices and clattering footsteps rises from the front of the house Out of the claasp or exclaim but Mother calmly sets her embroidery wheel onto the side table The sentle, yet even that htly than all the lamps and the moon and stars besides I hasten over to help her rise Amaya hides the note under the table

Even Maraya looks up "Has Father returned ho in a way that makes her look bewildered

Bettany shouts, "How I hate this false coin and the e all lie to ourselves!"

She ju past a file of servants who spill out into the courtyard because they have heard the commotion Just as Bett vanishes, Father appears He is still wearing his armor, dust-covered from days of travel, and holds his captain’s whip in his hand It is how he always arrives ho else