Royal Assassin by Hobb Robin Page B

you! He’s my cousin, you moron!” Her anger flared past her tears. “When you’re in trouble, you turn to your family. I asked him for help, and he took me to his family’s farm, to help out with the harvest.” A moment of silence. Then, incredulously: “What did you think? That I was the type of woman who could have another man on the side?” Icily. “That I would let you court me, and be seeing someone else?”
    “No. I didn’t say that.”
    “Of course you would.” She said it as if it suddenly all made sense. “You’re like my father. He always believed I lied, because he told so many lies himself. Just like you. ‘Oh, I’m not drunk,’ when you stink of it and you can barely stand. And your stupid story: ‘I dreamed of you at Siltbay.’ Everyone in town knew I went to Siltbay. You probably heard the whole story tonight, while you were sitting in some tavern.”
    “No, I didn’t, Molly. You have to believe me.” I clutched at the blankets on the bed to keep myself upright. She had turned her back on me.
    “No. I don’t! I don’t have to believe anyone anymore.” She paused, as if considering something. “You know, once, a long time ago, when I was a little, little girl. Before I even met you.” Her voice was getting oddly calmer. Emptier, but calmer. “It was at Springfest. I remember when I asked my daddy for some pennies for the fair booths, he slapped me and said he wouldn’t waste money on foolish things like that. And then he locked me in the shop and went drinking. But even then I knew how to get out of the shop. I went to the fair booths anyway, just to see them. One was an old man telling fortunes with crystals. You know how they do. They hold the crystal to a candle’s light, and tell your future by how the colors fall across your face.” She paused.
    “I know,” I admitted to her silence. I knew the type of Hedge wizard she meant. I’d seen the dance of colored lights across a woman’s close-eyed face. Right now I only wished I could see Molly clearly. I thought if I could meet her eyes, I could make her see the truth inside me. I wished I dared stand, to go to her and try to hold her again. But she thought me drunk, and I knew I’d fall. I would not shame myself in front of her again.
    “A lot of the other girls and women were getting their fortunes told. But I didn’t have a penny, so I could only watch. But after a bit the old man noticed me. I guess he thought I was shy. He asked me if I didn’t want to know my fortune. And I started crying, because I did, but I didn’t have a penny. Then Brinna the fishwife laughed, and said there was no need for me to pay to know it. Everyone knew my future already. I was thedaughter of a drunk, I’d be the wife of a drunk, and the mother of drunks.” She whispered, “Everyone started laughing. Even the old man.”
    “Molly,” I said. I don’t think she even heard me.
    “I still don’t have a penny,” she said slowly. “But at least I know I won’t be the wife of a drunk. I don’t think I even want to be friends with one.”
    “You have to listen to me. You’re not being fair!” My traitorous tongue slurred my words. “I—”
    The door slammed.
    “—didn’t know you liked me that way,” I said stupidly to the cold and empty room.
    The shaking overtook me in earnest. But I wasn’t going to lose her that easily again. I rose and managed two strides before the floor rocked beneath me and I went to my knees. I remained there a bit, head hanging like a dog. I didn’t think she’d be impressed if I crawled after her. She’d probably kick me. If I could even find her. I crawled back to my bed instead, and clambered back onto it. I didn’t undress, but just dragged the edge of my blanket over me. My vision dimmed, closing in black from the edges, but I didn’t sleep right away. Instead, I lay there and thought what a stupid boy I had been last summer. I had courted a woman, thinking that I was walking out with a