Read Online River Runs Deep by Jennifer Bradbury - Free Book Online Page A

across the tabletop, stretched his neck out to the window, and warbled.
    â€œYou don’t like that streak o’ lean, you might want to know them birds’ not bad to eat,” the voice pointed out. “A job to pluck but taste all right if you know what you’re about.”
    â€œHe ain’t for eating!” Elias looked with horror at poor Bedivere.
    â€œNot for you, anyway,” the voice said. “Think the doc would let you eat pigeon eggs?”
    â€œOnly chicken I reckon, but I don’t figure this fella’s gonna go laying anytime soon.”
    â€œWhat’s yer book about?”
    Elias narrowed his eyes at the window. Why wouldn’t he show himself? Why was he hiding? Not just from Elias, it would seem, but also from everyone else?
    â€œI don’t read,” the pest went on. “Never took to it.”
    â€œYou ain’t supposed to be talking to me, are you?” Elias asked.
    The voice made a sort of clicking noise, like he was sucking the inside of his cheek. Bedivere stretched up tall and cocked his head. “Naw, I reckon I’m not.”
    â€œHow come?”
    â€œCan’t say.”
    Elias could hear plain enough that can’t meant won’t.
    â€œLook, if you’re gonna get into trouble, and if you getting into trouble is gonna give Stephen or the doctor or anybody else a reason to get sideways with me, maybe you ought to just go. Not like we’re friends anyhow, seeing as I don’t even know your name.”
    An injured sort of silence settled before the voice whispered, “M’name’s Jonah.”
    â€œJonah,” Elias repeated, adding, “like in the bible. That one went courtin’ trouble too.” Of course his name was Jonah. He heard tales from his father about men aboard ship who seemed to bring bad luck—storms, poor winds, trouble with supplies—how they were called Jonahs on account of the Jonah in the Old Testament who got himself thrown overboard during a storm and swallowed up by a great fish.
    â€œTell you what,” Jonah whispered, “now that we’re friends, I’ll tell you somethin’ else.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œLike what Croghan do to the others.” Jonah’s voice dropped lower.
    â€œWhy would I care about that?”
    Jonah made a noise. “You got it easier’n some, I tell you that. But maybe you too afraid of hearing—”
    â€œCan’t be that bad,” Elias interrupted, though he remembered from watching his father suffer that it could.
    â€œWorse than you imagine,” Jonah said. “But first you gotta tell me something.”
    â€œWhat?” Elias asked.
    â€œTell me about that Gawain you and the miss was talkin’ ’bout.”
    Elias worked the hem of the scarf. Of course Jonah had been eavesdropping on his conversation with Nedra. He might have even managed to sneak across to listen at her window.
    â€œHow come I have to go first?”
    â€œJust tell!” Jonah whispered fiercely.
    Elias bristled at being told what to do, but he couldn’t afford to be choosy where his friends were concerned. So he told the story of Gawain from memory, the way his father used to tell it, emphasizing the parts about the green giant riding in astride a massive green horse to challenge Arthur’s knights. He told how Gawain accepted the challenge to trade blows with the ax, how later he came by the magic green sash that both saved his life and cost him a measure of his honor.
    Jonah was silent for a long while after Elias had finished. “All that in that book?”
    â€œNot this one,” he said. “The one Miss Nedra borrowed off me.”
    â€œI liked that bit where the Green Knight turned back into a man at the end.”
    Elias had too. “Called a ‘glamour,’ ” explained Elias. “Merlin used ’em all the time. Making somebody look like somebody