Page 2 of Tanglewood Legacy (The Three Sisters 3)
“Ah.” She scoffed, and Isis saw her eyes turn hard. “A proper lady with friends in high places. Perhaps I shouldn’t be speaking so openly above my class.” The harsh sting of her tone told her that Delphine didn’t think highly of proper ladies.
“I’m quite certain a proper lady wouldn’t be on a ship to the wilds of America.” Isis heaved a beleaguered sigh. “I hope we can be friends once you’ve made your new home, Delphine.”
The sickly woman made a guttural sound. “Of course. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I find I’ve grown tired again. Sleep well, Isis.” She gave a shallow curtsy and headed for the stairs.
“Delphine?” Isis called, suddenly curious at the talk of sleep. The woman paused her descent and looked at her expectantly. “What wasyournightmare about?”
The woman smiled a mouth of yellowing teeth. “I dreamed of a red-eyed demon,” she said, then grinned wider. “I just hope it wasn’t my future husband.”
Isis hugged herself against an unexpected chill as Delphine disappeared below deck.
ChapterTwo
“The air feels like a damp wool blanket fresh from the boiling cauldron,” Isis said, whispering an incantation to cool herself. “No wonder they need to ship wives in for the men here. LaNouvelle-Orléans has the same climate as the threshold of Hades.”
Circe laughed, rubbing her protruding belly. “Try it pregnant. I feel like I’m burning up from the inside out. Still, it’s no worse than Saint-Domingue. This is where we belong. I’ve seen it.”
“I’ve seen it too,” Isis agreed.
“Careful, sisters,” Medea said in hushed tones, glancing at the crowd disembarking from the ship and gathering on the wooden plank walkway. “Magic is rolling off you like perfume. Let’s not announce ourselves as witches quite so soon. This parish is far less settled than France, but we can assume their stakes and their witches burn just as well.”
Rhys adjusted the Tanglewood tree in his arms. “The land grant I procured in Haiti is for a plot several miles north, along the Mississippi. We’ll need horses, and I am to visit with a man in theVieux Carréto finalize the arrangement.”
“What about the trunks?” Isis asked, glancing back toward the ship.
Medea flourished a hand toward the large leather satchel on her shoulder. “Minimization spell. Wholly reversible.”
“Genius.” Isis noticed the crowd was moving in a common direction. “I’d guess the old square is that way. I’m sure everything we need is there.”
“What are they doing with those women?” Circe asked. She pointed at a group of austere-looking nuns not far from them, dressed in long black dresses with stiff white panels at their necks and heads topped in black veils. The outfits looked miserable in the heat but made it impossible to miss the religious order. They stood out and commanded attention. Between them was a small group of haggard-looking ladies, each carrying chests that Isis assumed contained their personal belongings. Although they must not have much if that was their only luggage.
“Wives for the colonists. The men are already gathering.” Medea pointed to a crowd of rowdy men beyond the nuns. Isis’s heart filled with pity for the women. With leathery skin and sweaty shirts, the men looked uncivilized and disorderly, pushing and shoving one another to take long and lascivious looks at the women, whistling and shouting obscenities. Their raucous laughter and bawdy humor were cause for chastisement by the nuns, but the men seemed to take no mind of them.
One especially brutish man with wild brown hair pulled a knife and held it to another man’s throat for some unheard provocation. After a brief scuffle that thankfully didn’t draw blood, the knife-wielding man prevailed, sending the other running.
“Is that a fleur-de-lis on his forearm?” Circe asked, indicating the man with the knife.
Isis narrowed her eyes, trying to make out the mark from a distance, and finally employed a bit of magic to see better. “He’s been branded.”
Medea nodded. “The fleur-de-lis? A former prisoner, then. I’d heard many were sent here to help settle the land for France.”
“Positively vile.” Isis smoothed her skirts. “Fine neighbors I’m sure they will be.”
The smile Medea gave her was filled with mirth. “Come now, Isis,weare the wickedest thing that could possibly walk these streets.”
Isis couldn’t help but grin back. “Inarguably.”
A hand landed on her arm, and Isis turned to find Delphine, ghost-white and panicked, behind her. “Mademoiselle Tanglewood, might you need a maid or someone to cook for you? My sister would make a talented servant. She has experience—”
Medea removed Delphine’s hand from her elbow before Isis could say a word. “We have no need, but thank you for your offer.”
Delphine’s eyes grew wider, more flustered as she took in the men gathered on shore. “Please…” Two women came up behind her, their trunks in tow. Isis pressed a hand into her stomach. These must be her sisters, Lucienne and Antoinette. All three women looked terrified, but the youngest one, a petite blonde with large blue eyes, seemed particularly horrified by the pick of husband material. Or perhaps it was her age. She was barely more than a child. Too young to be married.
“Please, Isis. I beg of you,” Delphine said, bowing her head slightly. “I do not ask for myself. My sister Antoinette is not suited for this type of… arrangement.” She gestured to the men, who, even to Isis, seemed exceptionally depraved, some touching themselves as they gawked.
The desperation in the woman’s tone broke her heart, and Isis sent a questioning glance in the direction of Medea, Circe, and Rhys. But it went without saying that having the non-magical living and working among them was counterproductive to what they hoped to achieve here. Rhys flashed her a pitying look but raised an eyebrow as if to say he was behind his wife and Medea completely on the matter. All three shook their heads almost immediately. It was simply impossible, especially considering the baby would be coming soon.
Reaching into her purse, Isis pulled out a few coins, enough to feed a family for a week, and pressed them into Delphine’s palm. “I’m sorry. I have no work for you, but please take this. I hope it helps you get your start here.”
