Read Online Sisters' Fate by Jessica Spotswood - Free Book Online Page A

Richmond Hospital, what will he do? Go back to Chatham to teach in the Brothers’ school? He might be safer there, but the thought of him being so far away makes my chest ache.
    “I know that.” Tess scowls at me. “I just want one night out. I want to shop for little trinkets for Father and Mrs. O’Hare, and walk around with Lucy and Bekah like a normal girl! Like the world isn’t falling in on my head all the time! Is that too much to ask?”
    “Of course not. I’m sorry.” Chagrined, I press my fingertips to my temple, where a headache is beginning to bloom.
    There’s a wild rapping on the door and Brenna pokes her head in, her chestnut hair falling in a tangled curtain to her waist. “I need to talk to the little one.”
    “Are you all right?” I ask. Brenna is wearing a dress of Rory’s, though she hasn’t the curves to fill it out properly. The vibrant red velvet seems strange on her, like a child playing dress-up.
    I wonder how Rory and Sachi are faring. They should be settled into their safe house by now—a farmhouse in the woods of Connecticut. Will they come back to the convent once they’ve seen the other girls established, or will they opt to stay there?
    I never thought I’d miss Rory Elliott’s company, but I do. She has a way of making me laugh when I need it most.
    “I had a vision. You told me to say when I had a vision.” Brenna’s all-seeing eyes dominate her narrow face—gaunt from two months of being half starved.
    “Yes.” Tess glances at me and then away. “Should we go to your room and talk about it?”
    I cross my arms over the green ruffles of my bodice, stung by her secrecy. “You can talk about it in front of me.”
    “Something terrible is going to happen,” Brenna says, plucking nervously at her red skirt. “He’ll announce it tonight.”
    “What? Who?” I jump to my feet.
    Brenna scrunches up her face, squeezing her eyes shut. “There’s a man with a horse face on a stage, in front of lots of people. It’s dark out. He says something and they all gasp and you—you’re there, little one, and you look sad. And you”—she whirls, pointing at me, almost smacking me in the face—“you’re angry.”
    I’m angry all the time these days; that’s no surprise. But it seems I will be going to the bazaar after all. “What does the man say?”
    “I can’t hear him. He’s underwater, like a fish. It’s like talking to someone in the ocean.” Brenna mimes a breaststroke. “We used to go to the seashore sometimes, Mama and Papa and Jake and me. Before.”
    Before her father turned her in to the Brothers. Before Alice broke her brain.
    “The man was underwater, and he has a horse’s head?” Tess asks, clearly perplexed.
    “Not a real horse’s head, silly!” Brenna giggles. “A great long face. And a shiny bald head.”
    I take a deep breath, trying to stave off my frustration. This is the trouble with a broken oracle: She can tell us O’Shea will announce something terrible tonight, but not what. “Did you see anything like this?” I ask Tess. She shakes her head. “You haven’t had any visions since Zara?”
    Tess turns her back to me, but I catch her blush in the mirror over the dressing table. “I don’t have to tell you everything.”
    “I know.” I promised myself I wouldn’t push her, but it’s so hard. “I really don’t think you should go tonight, Tess. Not if—”
    Tess rolls her eyes at me in the mirror. “I’m not discussing this with you any more. I’m going and that’s that. So are you, according to Brenna, so you ought to start getting ready,” she snaps. “Come, Brenna. Let me take you back to your room.”
    She strides out of the room, Brenna dancing after her. Brenna is still skittish with everyone else, cringing like a whipped puppy if anyone touches her or stares—and everyone stares at Brenna. She ran into Alice again yesterday in the hall and screamed like a banshee. For the most part, though, she stays in her