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Livvy fell in step beside him, staring out across the slightly curved pathway, lit in blues and greys as the sun approached the horizon from below.
It was the first of May today. She’d always loved this month—her favorite, in fact. When she was young, she’d called it her month, due to her last name and because her birthday was in the middle of it.
As she grew older, however, she learned to appreciate the month because she’d passed by another anniversary of her mother’s death and life didn’t seem so bleak.
Now, life seemed nothing but.
“I know what ye be thinkin,’ Liv,” Father said after a few more steps in silence. “But ye be doin’ the right thing.”
Was she? Still, she nodded, if only to convince herself that Father had her best interest at heart.
She knew he wanted her to be happy. She knew that. But sometimes…
She shook the thought from her mind, continuing across the uneven cobblestones of the causeway.
How often she’d taken this route with a skip in her step, knowing she was merely going to Marazion to enjoy the view of her home.
But now, she was leaving it, with no hope of returning.
“Ye’ll be ’appier off the Mount,” Father continued, unsettling her further. “It be better for ye to escape ’em rumors, too. There be no stoppin’ ’em, after all.”
A thought occurred then that Livvy tried to suppress. But it continued to grow, to fester within her until it cankered her soul.
“Father,” she breathed. “’Ave ye e’er tried to stop ’em?”
He looked down at her with a creased brow. “What do ye mean?”
“The rumors,” she responded, staring straight ahead. “’Ave ye e’er tried to stop ’em?”
He looked at her, his eyes scrutinizing, as if attempting to decipher what her question meant. He looked away the next moment, then shook his head. “Ye know better than I, daugh’er, what comes o’ tryin’ to deny rumors. It only makes ’em grow all the more powerful. Like weeds, they be.”
Livvy knew such a fact. When she was younger, she’d attempted to deny the rumors, but it only made her sound all the more defensive. And yet, what would have happened had Father attempted to stop them? What would have happened had he spoken up, had he shared the truth, and defended his daughter?
That same unsettling feeling came once again—or had it never really left? It scratched at her nerves, leaving marks and scars along her choice to follow her father.
“Did ye ’ear the most recent rumors ’round the Mount?” she asked, a numbness creeping over her body, her tears drying up as if her eyes had discovered their long sought for drought. “That August and I fell—”
“I don’t pay ’eed to ’em. Nor should ye.”
That was admission enough for her. He did not wish to hear her speak of her and August, just as she’d suspected before.
“But what if the rumors aren’t rumors?” she asked, her heart thrumming in her ears.
“Ye be out o’ your right frame o’ mind, daugh’er,” he answered gruffly. “What ye think ye felt for that Moon boy was just a lie, created by ’is own lies.”
Perhaps, had Livvy not spoken with August the night before, had she not heard the truth of the matter from August about Father’s trickery, she might have believed Father. But now? Now she could not trust a word that escaped from his mouth.
“There were also rumors that ye tried to pay others on the Mount to befriend me,” she continued, “and that ye extorted August to do your biddin’.”
She had not mentioned it before now. She had not seen the point of doing so, what with her leaving the Mount and Father forever. But now she needed to hear him speak the truth.
“What about them rumors, Father?” she pressed. “The rumors that were spread so vapidly, me own servants couldn’t ’elp but speak ’em.”
Father scoffed, his face half-hidden in the shadows of the morning. He didn’t look at her, focusing on Marazion that creeped ever closer. “This be why ye’ll be better off elsewhere. Everyone will be better off without ye to be the subject o’ their gossip time and time again.”
A cool wind blew across the causeway, and Livvy shivered as it slid past her neck. Or had she shivered due to Father’s words?
Everyone will be better off without ye.
