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TWO

A SOUL AT ODDS

Hours later, Luce leaned her elbows on the sill of the se looked different from this second-story perch--a led here and there in so like a medieval apartment complex

By late that afternoon,the one Luce leaned out of, were draped with deep-green vines of ivy or dense boughs of holly that had been woven into wreaths They were signs of the Faire taking place outside the city that evening

Valentine’s Day, Luce thought She could feel Lucinda dreading it

After Bill had disappeared outside the castle, for his s had happened very quickly: She’d wandered alone through the city until a girl a few years older than her appeared froht of dank stairs into this small two-roomed house

"Draay froh voice called across the roo in Saint Valentine’s draft!"

The girl was Helen, Lucinda’s older sister, and the s two-rooray walls were bare, and the only furniture consisted of a wooden bench, a trestle table, and the stack of fah straw and sprinkled with lavender--a er attempt to clear the air of the foul sht

"In a moment," Luce called back The tiny as the only place she didn’t feel claustrophobic

Down the alley to the right was the lih, she could see a sliver of the white stone castle

It haunted Lucinda, that tiniest tease of a view--Luce sensed this through the soul they shared--because on the evening of the day Lucinda first arden, she’d co pensively out of the tallest tower caseot, but he never appeared again

Another voice whispered: "What does she stare at for so long? What could possibly be so interesting?"

"The good Lord only knows," Helen replied, sighing "My sister is laden with dreams"

Luce turned around slowly Her body had never felt so strange The part that belonged to ic, flattened by the love she was certain she had lost The part that belonged to Lucinda Price was holding fast to the idea that there le to perforirls standing before her, alar their pretty faces

The tallest one, in the middle, was Helen, Lucinda’s only sister and the oldest of five children in their family She was newly a wife, and as if to prove it, her thick blond hair was divided into two braids and pinned in a non

At Helen’s side was Laura, their young neighbor, who Luce realized was the girl she’d overheard the toh Laura was only twelve, she was alluringly beautiful--blond with large blue eyes and a loud, saucy laugh that could be heard across the city

Luce bit back a laugh, trying to reconcile Laura’s irl’s own experience--pressing pale boys in the cool recesses of the lord’s wood What Luce gleaned from Lucinda’s el, was easy to love

Then there was Eleanor, Lucinda’s oldest, closest friend They’d grown up wearing one another’s clothes, like sisters They bickered like sisters, too Eleanor had a blunt edge, often slicing drea re Lucinda back to reality, and she loved Lucinda deeply It wasn’t, Luce realized, so different from her present-day relationship with Shelby

"Well?" Eleanor asked

"Well, what?" Lucinda said, startled "Don’t all stare at me at once!"

"We’ve only asked you three tiht" Eleanor waved three brightly colored masks in Lucinda’s face "Pray, end the suspense!"

They were simple leather domino masks, made to cover just the eyes and nose and tie around the back of the head with thin silk ribbon All three were covered in the same coarse fabric, but each had been painted with a different design: one red with sreen with delicate white blossoms, and one ivory with pale pink roses near the eyes

"She stares as if she has not seen these sa!" Eleanorold things anew," Helen said

Luce shivered, though the room are for the eggs the citizens had offered as gifts to the lord, he’d repaid each household with a sht and cheery, giving a healthy flush to the girls’ cheeks

Daniel had been the knight tasked with collecting the eggs and distributing the firewood He’d stridden through the door with purpose, then staggered back when he saw Lucinda inside It was the last time medieval Lucinda had seen hiether in the forest, Luce’s past self was certain she would never see Daniel again

But why? Luce wondered now

Luce felt Lucinda’s shaer accoht Daniel wouldn’t care that Lucinda was a peasant’s daughter He knew that she was always and everLucinda was too sad to see clearly But Luce could help her--find Daniel, win hi as she still had to live

"I like the ivory one for you, Lucinda," Laura pro to be helpful