Page 43 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part One

“’If you want to work for me, you’ll need to use words,’” she said.

“’I know words,’” I answered.

“’Very good,’” she said. She shared a smile with the girl at the loom. “’This is Rodicea. She’s been with me about a year and is coming along fine. What’s your name?’”

“’Esmerelda.’”

“’A fine name,’” she said, “’but too grand for this humble cottage. Roddy and I will call you Esme. You call me Widow Mims.” I opened my mouth to speak, but she rose from her stool and looked me over. “You’ll share a bed with Roddy, share what’s on the table with the two of us, and get two shillings a week. That’s if I like your work. Where’s the rest of your things?’”

“’This is all I have,’” I said quietly, thumbing the pocket hem of my apron.

“’Hmmmph. Well, I can’t have you working for me and looking like that. Sometimes we have fine ladies stop in to see what we’ve been up to.’” She turned to Rodicea. “’Go see if the Widow Henry has a suitable dress.’” Roddy immediately stopped what she was doing and headed for the door. “’We’ll get this off you and give it a wash and a brush.’

“That’s how I came to apprentice for the Widow Mims. It was a decent life. Much better than anything I’d known. Maybe spinning and weaving made me feel close to my mother. Maybe I had a natural inclination. Doesn’t matter. It stuck.

“I worked in various places over the next bit of time. About a hundred years ago I met with a spot of good fortune. Lochlan came into my workspace and offered me the chance to have my own shop in Hallow Hill. I’d never thought about being a proprietor and working for myself, but I liked the sound of it and came along. Been here ever since.”

Esme’s shop had been operating for a hundred years?I thought. She didn’t look a day over thirty. I resolved to do the math later and figure out exactly how old she must be.

“So, now you understand why I had to end things with Kagan.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m lost. I reallydon’tsee what this has to do with that.”

She looked dumbfounded. “Haven’t you been listening? I can’t be in a relationship with Kagan because I’mhuman!”

I stared, open mouthed for a few seconds before I laughed out loud. Esme’s expression changed from confusion to horror.

Calming my laughter, I said, “I’m not sure where to start. First, that is ridiculous. You’re not human. I’m human. You’renot. I don’t have a label for what sort of fantastical creature you are and, clearly, you don’t either, but your conclusion is highly flawed.

“Second, even if you were human which, and just in case I haven’t said it enough, you are not, what does that have to do with Kagan?”

“Kagan is a sephalion.” She practically whispered it as if she was awestruck. “He deserves a companion who’s worthy of that?”

“Worthy of that?” I frowned. “What sort of person do you imagine that is?”

“Well,” she sniffed, “fae royalty perhaps. Certainly not ahuman!”

“Esme, does he know why you ended things?”

“No.” She shook her head vigorously.

“Why didn’t you tell him?”

“He’s a good person. He’d probably take pity on me and say it’s not important. But I think too much of him to put him in that position.”

“What position is that, again? Indulge me.”

“Choosing someone beneath him.”

“You mean like Keir did?”

She blanched when she realized where the conversation had taken us. “Uh, no. Of course, not.” She did her best to recover. “You’re the magistrate, perhaps the most important figure of the age. It’s not the same thing as being a shopkeeper.”

“Esme, do you like Kagan?”

I’d never seen Esmerelda looking shy, but she was blushing around the edges. “Yes,” she said simply.

“Is he the one?”

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