Star's Crossing

29: Something Wicked This Way Comes

"Lilith!" Mare hastened after the girl, only to trail foolishly to a stop. Lilith was halfway up to the house, and with Teddy on her heels, she vanished into the gardens. Mare placed one hand over her eyes, but her mind only showed his face, his fevered gaze, his hands at her hips.

"Mare." Alison stalked up the lawn. The knees of her dress were stained and grass clung in blades to her hair. She was pale, brows pulled together. "What in the world happened?"

"Nothing," Mare said tiredly. "It's fine."

"Lilith did not look fine," rallied Alison, and Mare turned, surprised at the steel in her friend's voice. "And my cousin went bounding up after her. What did you do?"

Heat sprang to Mare's cheeks, and though Alison was quite right in her accusation, Mare couldn't help but feel betrayed at the speed with which Alison turned on her. "I did nothing, Alison."

"Do not sound so dejected, Mare." Alison grabbed a fistful of her gown and began plodding up the lawn toward the gardens. "Trouble follows you, and you know it."

"For that, I am not entirely to blame. Am I, Alison?"

Alison's purposeful strides slowed, and she turned, glaring over her shoulder. "Are you insinuating something?"

"Your family's hands are not perfectly clean," said Mare with some venom, closing the feet between her and her friend. "Nor are yours."

"The letters—"

Mare's heart hurt to hear those words on another's tongue, and she yearned, bitterly, for the days when they were hers alone. "Were not yours to deliver."

"I didn't know," Alison said, and had the grace to look guilty. "As soon as mother returns, we'll ask how she came upon them and why she's been sending them to the paper."

"Alison." Mare wrapped her arms around herself. It was hot outside but in the shadow of a cypress the wind blew her wet hems against her ankles and sent shivers down her spine. "I am already...disliked. If I am revealed to have written those letters, my prospects will be utterly diminished."

"I will protect you as long as I can," said Alison.

Mare wanted to believe her. She had to believe her.

Can I tell you a secret?

"Atwood." Camden jogged up, halting beside Mare and Alison with the rugby ball recovered and clasped in both hands. Sweat clung to his temples and dampened his hair, and his shirt hung open, sleeves rolled to the elbows. "Coming in to wash up, I hope? Can't go home looking like that." He flicked a strand of hair from Mare's face, and she batted his hand away, face heating.

Of course he did not know what had transpired between she and Teddy down the hill. How could he?

No. He wouldn't. Mare was losing her secrets like threads from tapestry, one unspooling after another. Soon there'd be nothing in her hands. Soon she'd have control over no aspect of her life at all.

She would not give up without a fight.

"Of course I can't," Mare said, slipping her arm through Camden's. "The whole of Star's Crossing would think me a perfect tramp."
"Can't have that." Camden touched Alison's shoulder warmly as he passed. "Meet in a bit, cousin? We ought to raid the liquor cabinet while the cats are away, shouldn't we? Prohibition only applies to the poor, after all." He winked and guided Mare through the garden.