Free Ambergate by Patricia Elliott Page A

have had the same teacher, for I know Miss Jennet, who taught in the village. She now lives at Murkmere and
     has taught me!” It gave me pain to think of Miss Jennet.
    “She was a fine teacher,” said Erland, “though I was no scholar. She would box my ears.”
    “Mine too!” I said, forgetting my bitter thoughts. We smiled at each other.
    “You look nice when you smile,” he said. “Not frightened anymore.”
    “I’m always frightened,” I said in a low voice. “The world is too big.”
    “Is it the birds that frighten you? You wear an amulet.”
    “Most people wear amulets,” I retorted. “Are you so brave you’d defy the birds, or aren’t you a believer? Did you never attend
     Devotion and listen to the scriptures in the Divine Book, never learn the
Table of Significance?” He is heathen!
I thought.
    “How can any bird mean wickedness?” he said. “They are all the Almighty’s creatures. They behave as their natures guide them,
     and He has given them those.”
    “Oh,” I said. I thought a minute. “Do you believe He has given us our natures as well?”
    “Indeed He has.”
    But mine is a bad nature
, I thought.
He can’t have given that to me
.
    “You look frightened again,” said Erland. “Is it because you think they will catch you?”
    He gently touched the brand mark on the inside of my bare forearm; it was showing where I had rolled up the sleeve of my blouse
     in the warmth of the sun. I snatched my arm away at once and bent my head so that my hair hid my face.
    “I’ve noted it before, I couldn’t help it,” he said. There was such compassion in his voice I pushed my hair away and looked
     at him.
    “I came to Murkmere from one of the Orphans’ Homes in the Capital,” I said at last. “In the Homes they brand the children
     when they first arrive.”
    He looked grim. “They should not do such a thing to any child.”
    He was so innocent, I thought. “It’s to identify us. They can reclaim us to work for them without wages if we run away later
     and are found by the Capital’s Enforcers. It’s called—Recompense.” I stumbled over the word. “They see it as a return for
     our keep when we were small. You can never escape if you’ve been in a Home.”
    In silence we looked at my scar, a raised whiter mark on my white skin—the number 102, and a square to show I was from the
     Gravengate Home—then I covered it up again. But I had not minded showing it to him.
    “You escaped,” said Erland.
    “I was sold to Silas, the steward at Murkmere. Sometimes they’ll sell off the children as servants. I was small and weak.
     They thought I wouldn’t be any use to them.”
    “So that’s why they’re looking for you? For their Recompense?”
    His eyes were gazing into mine, clear, concerned. I would have to tell him the truth, or some of it; it would not be right
     to keep silent. “I’m putting you and Gadd at risk,” I burst out. “I’m a wanted criminal, Erland! Soldiers of the Lord Protector
     are looking for me. They’ve traced me after all this time. If I’m found they’ll take me back to the Capital and try me in
     the Courts. I’ll get the death penalty, most like!”
    He was silent; I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
    “You’ll be sorry now that you took me in,” I said in a small voice. “Shall you tell Gadd?”
    He shook his head. “He may know already—he knows most things. We looked after you because you needed us, not merely because
     you rescued me long ago.”
    He paused. “I think my grandmother took a fancy to you. She often talked about you afterward—the girl with no name.”
    “You must wonder at my wickedness,” I said nervously. “You must want to know about my crime.”
    Erland looked away from me, at the soft feathery tops of the reeds. “Let the Almighty judge what’s wicked and what’s not,”
     he said. “It’s not for men.”
    The Almighty has allowed me to survive in spite of my crime
, I thought. A tiny flicker