Page 7 of A Thieving Curse

Raelyn beamed. “What did you smuggle in this time?”

Gareth closed the door with his hip, nearly dropping the candle as whatever he was holding tried to escape. A small bleat sounded from under his cloak.

She grabbed her robe from the chair at the end of her bed and strapped it over her nightgown. “Awww! Let me see, let me see.”

He set the candle down on the nightstand next to her bed, then opened his cloak. A tiny brown and white goat kid spilled out, fumbling about as its hooves caught in Raelyn’s bedding. Gareth stroked the kid’s back, and it tottered to its knees. With a weary bleat, it laid down.

“Easy, girl.” Gareth continued to stroke its back.

“It’s a girl?” Raelyn scratched the kid’s forehead. The little goat pushed against her fingers, its tongue slipping out of the side of its mouth as it relaxed.

“Think so.” He nodded at the goat. “Ideas for her name?”

“Hmm.” She looked around the room for inspiration.

“What about Raelyn?” Gareth stared at the kid, his back rigidly straight and brows pinched.

“So I’m a goat? I see how it is.”

He rolled his eyes. “No.”

“Ah, I’m just easily replaced with a goat—”

He stopped petting the kid and hugged her. “You can’tbereplaced, Rae. That’s the problem.”As abruptly as he had embraced her, he stood.

The kid bleated plaintively. Raelyn scratched under its chin to calm it—and herself, as the sorrow in her brother’s voice stirred her own emotions.

“I thought Mother and Father would relax when your eighteenth birthday approached. Let you spend more time with me and Nate.” Gareth stretched and clenched his fingers in a repetitive motion. “Instead, they assign you a guard andforbidme from seeing you? It’s ridiculous.”

“Apparently, you’re a bad influence.” She smiled, but Gareth just glowered.

“Rae, tell me the truth. Are you ready?”

She swallowed and looked at the goat. Its head swayed, and its eyes blinked as it teetered on the edge of sleep. She could tell Gareth all her fears and sorrows, and he wouldn’t judge her or argue with her the way Mother did. But it would make him unhappy, and she didn’t like making Gareth unhappy.

“Does it matter?” she asked softly.

“It does to me. And we always tell each other the truth. Right?”

A lump formed in her throat. “I’m ready. At least, I’ve studied everything I can. This is what I’m meant to do, and sometimes, I’m impatient to meet my husband.” She hesitated.

“But?” Gareth prodded.

He knew her so well. “I’m scared.” Raelyn barely forced the words out. “I’m afraid of being…alone.” A suppressed sob shook her body.

Gareth sat next to her and put an arm around her, but he didn’t say anything. She rested her head on his shoulder and absently stoked the slumbering goat. When he spoke, it was quiet and intense.

“You won’t be alone.” He rubbed her shoulder. “I’ll be with you in spirit. And all you have to do is write, and I’ll find a way to be there.”

She doubted their parents would let him, but somehow, the knowledge he would try eased her loneliness.

“Thank you.” Raelyn sighed. “I wish you could stay in Rethalyon.”

“I wish you could stay in Eynlae.”

“Apparently I will be here in goat form if you insist on naming the kid after me. Assuming you even remember which one is me.”

Gareth scoffed. “It wouldn’tbeyou. And I’d remember.”

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