Memory of Morning by Susan Sizemore Read Free Book Online

secondary line - well, your uncle and mother are now heads of the Owl family."
    "Your uncle Charle is now head of the family," mother corrected. "He and I have worked that out."
    A great deal of information rushed to the front of my mind. Maybe it was my brain's way of distracting me from the sharp pain of loss. Mother and Uncle Charle were twins, so of course they would jointly inherit. Mother had no interest or reason for returning to live on Welis to take her place among the Four Families of the island. Even so, her social status was raised a few notches, from that of a daughter of a tertiary noble family up to the secondary level of noble society. This improved the standing of her offspring, not legally, of course. In law, we Cliffs were still gentry, but our bloodline was more valuable in the class structure with mother's change in rank, especially in the marriage market we were about to enter. I was about to enter. Bell's future was already settled. Her future Kestrel in-laws must be pleased by this.
    "May I have a sip of your brandy?" I asked father after a long silence where everyone in the room stared at me.
    He brought me a large glass containing the tiniest amount of brandy. I was his innocent little girl who of course did not spend her time at sea sampling huge amounts of every form of alcoholic spirit imaginable, sometimes just to keep warm, never mind dulling fear and drowning grief. Not to mention pub nights and parties at university. Being his innocent little girl, I did not slug down the drink, but sipped delicately. The warmth it passed through me did help. But I didn't ask for more.
    After such a day I was eager to go to bed, to snuggle under warm covers. Hot water was waiting in the bath chamber off my and Bell's room. She insisted I go first.
    I had a bath, a proper naked in a tub of hot water with flower-scented soap bath. Oh, the joy of that! Star circled the tub suspiciously the whole time I was scrubbing and soaking. She didn't like this one little bit.
    "Don't worry, darling, I don't have an octopus in here with me," I told her.
    Belladem turned away from the mirror where she'd been brushing and braiding her hair. "Octopus? Have you--?"
    I held up a soaking-wrinkled hand from under the water. "I'm not ready to talk about that right now."
    "Promise you will," she said.
    "Not right before bedtime," I told her.
    I gave Bell her turn with the water and put on a fresh new nightrail. You have no idea how sensuous the thin, floaty material felt against my skin. After two years of sleeping in a heavy chemise or in my clothes and shoes more often than not, an ordinary night gown was bliss. I whirled, flaring out the soft material around my legs, twisting it around my body until I was dizzy. Then I fell onto the bed and grew instantly disconcerted. It took me a bit to realize that this was because the bed wasn't moving. The house wasn't moving. And it was so very quiet! It was all so alien, as alien as talking to an octopus. I shivered at that memory and sat up when Belladem came into the bedroom.
    "I didn't cry," I said as she got into the other side of the bed. "I found out family had been killed, and it didn't occur to me to cry." There were no tears in me even as I said it.
    "You've been through a lot today," Bell answered. She pushed my head down on my pillow. "Go to sleep. Perhaps you can cry tomorrow."
     

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    Wise Belladem.
    I didn't sleep very well, though. Or cry when I got out of bed long before dawn to stand looking out the window. Green Moon filled a quarter of the sky, pouring gentle light down on the world. Gray Moon was a silver thumbnail sliver. Red Moon was a fiery, distant dot. It was a perfect spring night, so I worked off my nerves and restlessness by dressing quietly - you learn the habit of not disturbing sleeping bunkmates on board ship - and took Star out for a long walk. The dog was totally fascinated by this new world of ours and I tried to match