Page 98 of Witchbane

‘Because of her jealousy when she saw us together.’

‘I hadn’t realised she had seen us.’ I tried to think when it might have been.

‘She has.’ He sighed. ‘Twice when I was bringing you home on the cart, and she was at the festival.’

A thought occurred to me. ‘Is that where you met her?’

His head lowered as it did when he was cagey about something. ‘No, I met her a year or so ago, but it was there when I realised she liked me.’

I recalled how he had left the festival with me and brought me home, and I wondered how that might have looked to someone with feelings for him. ‘Has she said anything about me?’

‘No! Why would you ask that?’

It was an unexpectedly defensive reaction. ‘I only meant to gauge how she felt about us being friends.’

‘Ah, that. Well, she struggled about me being close to the daughter of a lord.’ He seemed at odds with himself.

‘I have always seen you as my closest friend.’

He nodded. ‘I explained about us growing up together, and that you’ve only ever seen me that way.’

There was something in the way he spoke that sent a pang through my heart. I rested my hand on his arm. ‘It’s true, Jem,’ I said gently. ‘But the dearest friend I could have ever wished for.’

His expression brightened a little. ‘That’s something, I suppose.’

I decided to change the topic. We both knew my grandmother had always thought it best to keep me close to home when I was growing up, which had meant that, unlike most children, I hadn’t forged many friendships.

I thought of Iris now in trouble with her cousin. ‘I think it’s time I began to make some friends outside the family. Iris is my age.’

He frowned. ‘You’re wittering, Rue. I know it’s because you’re frightened about the outcome today.’

‘You see,’ I said, smiling at him. ‘You know me well.’

‘As you do me.’

I reflected on the night before. ‘Oh, Jem. I must be successful today.’

‘I’ll be there to help if you need me.’

I recalled my mother’s spirit warning me not to trust someone and the discovery of Jem’s closeness to Beattie, and I wasn’t sure how far I could rely on him to be there for us.

‘Is that who I think it is?’ Jem said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I stared at the road ahead and saw a black horse with an unmistakable rider trotting briskly towards us. My stomach flipped and my heart lurched.

‘Theo?’ I tried not to panic. What if Theo refused to listen to me, or, worse, not do what I needed him to do?

‘It’ll be fine,’ Jem said. ‘You can be very persuasive when you choose to be.’

I knew he was trying to encourage me, but he wasn’t wrong. I could be persuasive when I wanted something badly enough. What Jem didn’t know was that I called on my mother’s powers to guide me and bolster my own. Touching the blue ribbon bound around my right wrist, I calmed slightly.

There had never been a time when I needed her help more than today.

‘You’re right, Jem. I can make this happen.’

‘I think he’s seen us.’

Theo’s face lit up and I knew Jem was right. I waved at him, hoping to hide my nervousness. What I was about to ask him was strange and possibly unsettling for anyone doing his job.