Ash by Malinda Lo Read Free Book Online Page B

died, Ash’s memory of her midnight encounter with the Fairy Hunt had seemed more like a dream than reality. Sometimes she tried to remember what 53

    Ash

    that man had looked like the one who had spoken to her but the shape of his face kept sliding away from her mind’s eye.
    Now, looking at the huntress, she thought that if anyone could confirm what she had seen, it would be her.
    The huntress seemed surprised by her question. “I am afraid I have not,” she said.
    Ash was disappointed, and her face fel . The masked queen said quickly, “But you’ve said, haven’t you, that sometimes you see things in the Wood?”
    The huntress smiled. “I cannot say if those things were fairies.”
    “But they were… unusual?” the woman teased.
    “Indeed, they were unusual,” the huntress affirmed.
    “How?” Ash asked.
    The huntress put down her goblet and looked at Ash intently. “Sometimes,” she said, “at twilight, or in the shade, the light plays tricks. Once I saw something that looked like a woman with wings.”
    “A wood sprite,” exclaimed the woman.
    “Perhaps,” the huntress said. Another hunter came into the dining room then and bent down to whisper in her ear, and the huntress stood up. “I am afraid the time for stories is at an end,” she said to Ash, and her companions also rose to leave.
    “Good night,” she said, and briefly bowed her head to Ash.
    “Good night,” Ash answered, feeling let down. Was that al she had seen? She watched them go, their green-and-brown hunting gear the only solemn colors among the costumed guests, and then went back upstairs. She would rather be alone in her room than alone in the midst of a celebration she was 54

    MALINDA LO
    not a part of.

    It was a week later that the letters came: two of them, thick and bound with black ribbon, stamped with an ornate red seal.
    Ash saw them lying on the hal table before Lady Isobel took them into the parlor to read on her own. Ash was at her lessons with Ana and Clara in the library when Beatrice opened the door and said, “Ash, Lady Isobel would like to see you right now.” Ash glanced at her stepsisters, but they seemed as surprised as she was.
    In the parlor, a fire was burning in the hearth, but the room was stil chil y. A candelabrum was lit at the writing desk by the window where her stepmother sat. The letters were open before her, and when Ash came closer and looked at the seal again, she thought they looked familiar.
    “Do you recognize something?” Lady Isobel inquired as Ash sat down in a stiff-backed chair next to the desk.
    “They look like my father’s seals,” Ash replied.
    “This one is.” Lady Isobel picked up a letter and held it up to the light. “It is from your father’s steward in Seatown.” She picked up the second letter and said, “This one is from the King’s treasurer in the City.” Her face wore a look of grim decision. “Do you know what this means?”
    Ash shook her head.
    “Your father’s business was not doing wel when he died,”
    Lady Isobel said bitterly, “and he spent my inheritance on it. I 55

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    did not know this until now. This letter says that your father has debts that I must pay for him now that he has died.” Her voice took on a steely quality as she said, “I do not have the money to pay for your father’s mistakes. My first husband left me with only this property to support me; that is why I married your father, because I thought he was a good man who would provide for me and my daughters. But he was a liar.”
    Ash objected, “He was not. You—”
    “Be quiet,” her stepmother said. “I am telling you these things because you need to know what sort of family you come from. You are not my daughter; you are your father’s daughter, and you are going to pay his debts.”
    “What what do you mean?” Ash asked in a thin voice.
    “Because of these taxes, I must sell your father’s house in Rook Hill,” her stepmother said. “It is of no use to me.