Page 79 of The Threadbare Queen

He pulled one out and she tipped the tea into it, placed the lid back on and set the box back on the shelf.

“Burn it.” She thought about it for a moment. “But try to do it when no one is looking. Magic things sometimes burn green.”

He gave a nod, folded the tea into the kerchief and slid it into his pocket.

“What’s going on here?”

Evelyn’s voice was loud, but she wasn’t at the cart yet. There was an edge of panic, and a strident, harsh blade to her tone.

Ava looked calmly around the interior, making a note of which boxes on the shelf she still had to examine.

She hadn’t found what she was looking for, but everything was back in its place.

“I fainted,” she whispered to Gregor, then let herself crumple to the ground, one arm grabbing at the bed linen, to make it look like any disturbance had been caused by her half-pulling it onto the ground with her.

“Your sister is ill.” Gregor turned, Melodie still on his hip. “She collapsed and I carried her to your cart.”

Evelyn shouldered past him, and Ava let her eyes flutter open a little to see Evelyn glaring down at her.

“She can’t be in here.” Evelyn turned to look at Gregor. “Carry her back to the fire.”

“There’s nothing for her to lie on there.” Melodie piped up with her sweet little voice.

The thoughtfulness of it pricked tears into the back of Ava’s eyes. She had managed to endure a great deal without ever shedding a tear, but the sweetness of a child seemed to cut her to the quick.

“That’s life on the road.” Evelyn only just kept her tone civil, and only because Gregor stood right in front of her. “And the fresh air will do her good.”

“Go fetch a pallet from the back of our cart, sweetling,” Gregor said.

“If you want me to carry her to the fire, you need to move.”

Ava knew the moment he addressed Evelyn. His tone was cool and through her half-raised lashes, Ava saw Evelyn stiffen at the shift.

“I’m just thinking of what’s best for her,” she said defensively.

“Is that so?” Gregor leaned in when Evelyn had jumped down from the steps, out of the way, and scooped Ava up.

He carried her to the fire and stood waiting with her in his arms as Melodie tried to carry the pallet on her head, so it wouldn’t touch the ground.

“I’ll help you with that, sunshine.” Vanin Gruger, the old man who had slept by the fire that first night while she braided the horse hair for her rope, hopped down from the back of his cart and lifted it out of her hands. “Now where do you need it?”

“At the fire, Mr. Gruger. Evelyn won’t let Avasu lie down in the cart, even though she feels sick.”

“How peculiar.” He flicked Evelyn a look, and then set the pallet down at Gregor’s feet.

Ava had noticed Vanin Gruger looking at her from under his bushy gray eyebrows a few times since that night, and she wondered how much of it he really had slept through.

He had never commented on his shaving blade being blunt, as she was sure it had been by the time she was finished with it. She wondered why not.

Although he didn’t say much in general, so perhaps he simply preferred to keep his own council.

She thought there was tension in the camp. An uneasiness that she guessed had grown since Reckhart had invited Sirna to join them.

“There you go, Avasu.” Melodie danced around her. “That will be more comfortable.”

“I’m sure she’s fine.” Evelyn stared at the little girl, face hot, and then spun on her heel, her damp hair from her bath in the river flicking tiny drops of water as she turned and stomped to the cart.

Vanin Gruger wandered back to his cart and Melodie skipped after Blackie. For a moment, Ava was alone with Gregor again.

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