Raven's Bride by Kate Silver Read Free Book Online Page B

retired to the country to enjoy the fruits of his labors.
    Anna’s father had approved of hard work and making your own way in the world, lamenting how frivolous England had become under the restored monarchy, and how silks and satins and foppery had replaced sobriety and religion and the love of the Lord. Mr. Melcott, too, clung to the old ways, just as her father had done, though with more fire and brimstone and fear of the Devil than her father had ever preached.
    Although Mr. Melcott’s talk sometimes revolved more around profits and losses than Anna thought could be easily reconciled with Christian charity and the grace of God, he seemed to be an honest, hard-working man. He didn’t look at her as if she were a sweetmeat ready for his palate. He didn’t cause her stomach to be filled with uncomfortable flutterings, and her face to burn when he did so little as glance at her.
    She felt safe with him.
    The sun was getting high in the sky before Anna found a smart blue cart for her mother to ride in, and a dun brown donkey with sad, silent eyes to pull it.
    With a small gesture, she pointed out her choice of animal to her escort. He pursed his lips for a moment, then gave a considered nod. “That one looks sturdy enough.”
    They stepped up to donkey’s owner, a quiet woman in a faded shawl. On one hip she balanced a thin, pale baby, while a ragged urchin clung to the hem of her tattered gown.
    “ What will you take for the donkey?” Melcott demanded.
    The woman named a price Anna thought reasonable. She opened her mouth to close the deal on the spot, but Melcott forestalled her with a quelling look. “I’ll take care of it,” he said to her in a low voice. “It is my Christian duty to see that your youth and inexperience aren’t taken advantage of.”
    He turned towards the woman and gestured dismissively at the animal. “He looks like he’s had a hard life.”
    The woman fixed her gaze on the ground and shuffled her feet together. “We allus took good care of him.”
    Melcott circled the donkey, taking care to keep well away from its wicked-looking back hooves, before forcing the donkey’s mouth open with a practiced hand and examining the beast’s teeth with a critical eye. “How old is he? Nine? Ten? Eleven years?”
    “Seven, sir.”
    Melcott raised his eyebrows and looked disbelieving. “Seven? Are you sure?”
    “W...we raised him from a foal,” the woman stammered.
    Melcott stood silent for a moment, then named a price just under half what the woman had asked for.
    She shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir. I just couldn’t take that for him. He’d be worth more than that cut up for my lord’s dogs.”
    He raised his price by a small margin.
    The woman hesitated.
    He rapped his cane smartly against the ground. “Take it or leave it. It’s my final offer.”
    The woman's forehead creased into a frown, but at last she nodded. “I’ll take it.”
    Melcott stepped back again, a satisfied smile on his face. “There, you see, I got you a good bargain, just as I said I would,” he said in an undertone to Anna. “The beast would fetch double that tomorrow, if you were to take him to the big market in Norwich and sell him there.”
    Anna stepped forward to pay, her small stock of coins heavy in the leather bag. She counted out the price that the woman had asked for at first, and after a couple of seconds of hesitation, added an extra precious silver penny. The woman needed the money far more than she and her mother did. She would not forget her father’s lessons in charity, even though he was no longer with her to remind her of them.
    The woman stared at the money Anna put into her hand and raised a pair of eyes that shone with an almost desperate hope. Anna closed the woman’s hand over the money, and was rewarded with a sweet smile.
    The man with the cart to sell had bold eyes, a thick, red neck, and a strident voice.
    “Hey, pretty miss,” he called to her, as he saw her eying the cart