Chapter 4
An hour and a half later, I’m sitting with Annabelle in her neighborhood café.
Because she and her husband live on an upscale street, the café is nicer than any eating establishment I’ve ever visited before. There are both indoor and outdoor tables, and the food on the daily menu is fresh and well prepared.
I enjoy every bite of my egg pastry, sliced fruit, and rolled cheese and ham.
The news from Annabelle, however, is less good.
She’s never been a complainer. She always got angry at large injustices rather than personal slights. But it’s clear from her dry, matter-of-fact answers to my questions that her situation here isn’t to be envied.
Her husband isn’t a kind man. And despite her comfortable lifestyle, she has even fewer freedoms now than I do.
I was already tempted by Mason’s offer, but after talking to Annabelle for less than an hour, the best decision for my life is now entirely clear.
“I’ve asked him,” Annabelle says, stirring the last of her fruit on her plate, “over and over again if you can come stay with us. We have two extra rooms. He works most of the time, so he’d barely ever have to see you. But he always says no.”
“That’s okay,” I murmur, something softening in my chest at the realization that she hasn’t forgotten about me, that she’s tried to help me in the only way she could, that she never truly left me behind the way it sometimes felt.
I assumed she wouldn’t. She loves me, and we’ve always been close. But there’s knowing, and then there’s knowing.
It’s good to know.
“You tried.”
Annabelle’s long, thick hair is bound loosely in an elegant roll at the nape of her neck, but she fidgets like it annoys her. “I’d do more if I could, but I have no credits of my own. I can only spend what he allows me. And he’s got this big old shadow following me around.”
I straighten as she gestures behind her toward a large man who’s been standing against a wall in the café since shortly after we arrived.
I barely noticed him before, and I didn’t realize anything was strange about him lingering there without purpose because everything about the Capitol feels strange to me.
“Who is he?” I ask, meeting the man’s eyes without thinking through whether I should be subtle about it.
The man is good-looking and plainly dressed. He holds my gaze with bland interest, like he’s wondering why I’m staring at him but not particularly concerned about it.
“Ben. He’s my muscle.” Annabelle turns her head to give the man an impatient glare, but he responds with nothing more than a barely perceptible wink.
“Chad hired him after he got his latest promotion. He says it’s because his position is more important now so I might be a target, but I think he’s afraid I’ll get in trouble or embarrass him.
So Ben trails around after me everywhere I go. ”
“Has he ever had to actually protect you?”
“Once I was taking a walk to get out of the house and I got lost. I had to ask him how to get back home.” She shakes her head with a familiar indomitable spark in her eyes. “Let me tell you, that was mortifying.”
I snicker. “Did he lecture you?”
“No. He never lectures. He never says anything unless I ask a question. Except yes, ma’am. He’s from the wilderness, you know.”
The wilderness is the vast expanse of countryside outside the borders of the Central Cities and the independent city-states surrounding them like Saint Louis, Chicago, and Dallas. There are people who live in the wilderness, but they’re considered mostly uncivilized.
Still giggling, I glance back at the big man. He was taking a quick survey of the room—probably checking for potential dangers—but then his eyes return to mine. His eyebrows go up slightly.
“Stop looking at him. He doesn’t need the ego boost of knowing we’re talking about him.”
“So you’re not really in any danger, are you?”
“No. Once there was some sort of riot that broke out as I was returning from the dress shop, and he helped shoulder people out of the way so I could get out of it. But I’m not in any specific danger.
It’s mostly Chad’s delusions of grandeur.
He wants to be important, so he tricks himself out as if he were.
That’s why he married me, of course. But he would have done better to choose someone more… ”
“Docile?” I can’t help but smile at anyone believing Annabelle to be docile. She was kicking over the mean boys’ snowmen and shouting down bullies from the time she was five.
Fearless.
Not like me.
“Yes,” Annabelle says with a smile. “Exactly that. I fake it as much as I can because if he dissolves the marriage, I’ll be worse off than I was before.
But this kind of situation would be hard on you, Teresa.
You’ve always been sweeter and more sensitive than me.
I’ll help you in any way I can. I’ll introduce you to available men here if you decide it’s what you want.
But if you can think of any other option, I’d go with that one first.”
She’s being serious, and her words confirm my own thinking. “I do have one other option.” For some reason, I get shy, so I stare down at my empty plate. “It was just offered this morning.”
“What is it?”
I clear my throat. “Someone asked me to marry him.”
“Just this morning?” Annabelle sounds excited. “Who?”
“Mason. From the village. Do you remember him? The son of the dairy farmers?”
“Oh yeah.” She’s very clearly trying to summon a picture of him in her mind. “He was older than us. Didn’t he move here to the Capitol?”
“He did. But then his parents died, and they sent him back home to tend the farm. It’s too much for one person, so he asked me if I wanted to help.”
“Like a domestic?”
“Like his wife.” I lick my lips, suddenly worried. “At least, that’s what he said.”
“Well, if he’s got his parents’ cottage and farm, then that would be a good situation. You’d have to work, but it’s not going to be any worse than everything you’re having to do for Lorraine now. What kind of a man is he?”
“He seems okay. Quiet. He doesn’t say much. But he’s always been nice to me.”
“Nice to you how?” She looks wary. Life in the Capitol has clearly made her even more cynical than she used to be.
“Nice. Polite. He helped me pick up these balls that got spilled all over the square. He made guards at the outpost back off when they wouldn’t leave me alone. He gave a piece of cheese to a stray dog so the poor thing wouldn’t get in trouble with Lorraine.”
“He was nice to a dog? That’s a good sign. Men will sometimes pretend to be decent to get what they want from us, but being kind to a stray dog is a surer sign. Has he been making advances for a while?”
“No. Not at all. He’s never really paid me much attention. I thought he was engaged to Aria for months because that’s what she and Lorraine always said. But he said he wasn’t. So I guess they just—”
Annabelle bursts into uninhibited laughter—warmer and brighter than anything I’ve heard from her since I arrived at her house. “Oh no! They decided on an engagement but never actually mentioned it to him? You’ve got to marry him now. Can you imagine their faces when you tell them?”
I can’t help giggling at the mental image. “It would be pretty funny.”
“I say go for it. There’s no way to know for sure, but there seems to be a reasonable chance that he’s a decent man. And Aria and Lorraine getting the justice they deserve is simply too delicious to resist.”
I laugh with her some more, but I’ve concluded the same thing she has.
Not for vindication or for getting one over on my stepfamily.
But because Mason is as decent as any man I’ve known since my father died.
And life with him will be at least a little better than my life now.
Annabelle gives me a dress. The most beautiful dress I’ve ever owned.
We don’t wear the same size, but she had it made for me several months ago. She had to guess at the size and pretend it was for her so her husband would pay for it, but she’s had it tucked away in the back of her closet all this time.
Waiting for the chance to give it to me.
It’s a day dress—nothing formal. But it has a square neckline, mid-length sleeves, and a soft skirt that falls a few inches above my ankles. I try it on. The bodice is a little loose but not enough to be a problem. The brighter blue fabric makes my eyes appear bluer than they are.
In it, I’m prettier than I ever knew myself to be.
Annabelle is thrilled with her success, and she helps me do my hair in a loose roll like hers. She adds to my bag a few items that Chad won’t miss—a hand mirror, a new hairbrush, a couple of less expensive necklaces, a few little nightgowns—and then we go downstairs to the entry hall to wait.
Earlier, she told Ben to make himself useful and stand outside to watch for Mason to arrive.
As if on cue, as soon as we get downstairs, the front door opens and Ben ducks inside.
“Is he here?” Annabelle asks him.
“Yes, ma’am.” He’s got a pleasant twang to his deep voice and a glint in his blue-gray eyes I like.
Annabelle hugs me. “Take care of yourself. And let me know how things go. Maybe Mason will let us message more often.”
“Or even come with him when he makes the trip here once a month.” I’m excited about the possibilities.
“I hope so. I miss you. I miss our old life.”
“Me too.” I squeeze her one more time before we pull away. When Ben opens the front door for me, I wave one last time.
Mason is waiting at the end of the walkway. Big and silent and unrevealing. His cart is beside him.
When I get closer, I see his eyes running up and down my body with an urgency I can’t help but like.
“You sure look pretty in that new dress,” he mumbles, dropping his eyes when I reach him. “So you’re gonna stay here with your sister?”
“No.” I gulp, suddenly nervous because my next words will change my whole life. “If it’s still available, I want to take you up on your offer.”
His eyes shoot up to my face. “You do?”
“Yes. I do. I want to be your wife.”