Aveline by Lizzy Ford Read Free Book Online Page A

resembled his father, from the
strawberry blond hair to his near identical build to the natural
leadership ability.
    The only significant difference between
father and son was one that made Tiana adore her brother. Whenever
he saw her, he smiled, and the skin around his eyes softened with
genuine warmth. No one else was ever happy to see her.
    Lightheaded from being on her feet too long,
Tiana forbade her shaky knees from buckling beneath her. She leaned
against the wall to support her weak body.
    “Arthur. You must wait after you knock. What
if we had been in a state of disarray?” Matilda’s reprimand was
spoken with maternal affection and a smile. Her ability to switch
from resentful loathing to dulcet sweetness in a fraction of a
second never failed to impress Tiana.
    “Father awaits us,” Arthur replied without
acknowledging his stepmother.
    “Of course.” Matilda’s tone cooled.
    Tiana did not need to glimpse her
stepmother’s face to understand the tension between stepmother and
stepson remained. She was unable to pinpoint the day it began, but
it had become much more apparent the past six months until the two
barely spoke when in each other’s presence.
    Arthur stepped aside for Matilda to exit.
She did so gracefully, a cloud of silk, tinkling and jasmine
perfume. She began belting orders to the slaves awaiting her in the
foyer, calling for her cloak and reprimanding one of them for the
bunched skirt Tiana had straightened.
    Arthur strode to Tiana’s wardrobe and
removed her heavy cloak, consisting of a silk shell lined by the
warm fur of animals he had trapped for her fifteenth birthday. He
placed the cloak over her shoulders, and Tiana reached up to button
it around her neck.
    “How are you feeling?” he asked.
    “Like my body will collapse, if I let it,”
she replied candidly.
    He held out his arm, and she eagerly slid
her hand around it, relieved to have his support.
    “One day, Tiana, I will take you to a proper
physician,” he vowed.
    “Matilda would never allow anyone else to
see me. I am well enough, Arthur.” Tiana spoke the words with what
strength she could muster, already aware her brother would not be
fooled.
    “Our stepmother is fickle, but she can fold
a veil like no other,” he said dryly. Once Matilda was out of
sight, his smile became wide.
    “You should be nicer to her,” Tiana said.
“You have seen what happens to our father’s wives.”
    “You should be less forgiving of her. She
deserves our father’s wrath for how she treats you.”
    “Father would not fault her for trying to
fix what I am.”
    “But I do.”
    “At least she tries to heal me with her
teas,” Tiana murmured.
    “Tea will not cure any malady, ever.”
    Tiana pursed her lips. She did not fully
disagree with Arthur, but neither was she one to condemn a woman in
a position like Matilda’s. Their stepmother had seen the two women
who preceded her burnt at the stake. She understood the danger
inherent in her position, as Tiana did hers.
    “I do not care to argue with my beloved
sister over someone who means so little to me,” Arthur added.
    She hugged his arm and leaned her head
against his shoulder briefly as they walked to the door. “I wish
you would come see me more often,” she whispered, thoughts on how
displeased Matilda was going to be after Arthur’s cold shoulder.
When he was present, Matilda dared not touch her.
    “I will, Tiana, after the Winter Hunt.”
    But that’s three weeks,
maybe longer. She almost sighed and shifted
from her own inevitable peril to her brother’s. “What will you do
if you see the Ghouls?” she asked.
    They exited her room and fell into line
behind their stepmother, who was flanked by half a dozen slaves.
The party began walking through the family’s gilded, private
quarters to the elevator at the center of the apartment.
    “What I always do. Tell them to leave me
alone,” Arthur quipped. “I do not fear creatures that may not
exist, Tiana. The natives