Free The Safe-Keeper's Secret by Sharon Shinn

think it’s poisonous?” Reed asked. He said it as if that would please him.
    Fiona didn’t hear what the other girls replied because she was already inside the schoolhouse. A few steps down the hall and she was turning into the upper-grade room.
    Where Miss Elmore was nowhere to be found, but Cal Seston was making his presence felt.
    He was standing on a chair in front of the blackboard, drawing naughty pictures in chalk. He spun around when he heard the door open, and then relaxed when he saw it was only Fiona. He grinned at her.
    â€œThought you might be the old witch,” he said.
    Fiona studied the illustrations, mostly crude images of naked women. The subject matter didn’t offend her, but she wished he’d shown a little more artistic ability. This must be the first thing she’d come across that Cal wasn’t good at. “She’ll know you’re the one who did it,” was all she said.
    â€œNah. I’ll tell her I fell asleep and they were on the board when I woke up. Someone trying to make me look bad.”
    â€œShe won’t believe you.”
    He shrugged. “I don’t care what she thinks.”
    She admired that level of self-assurance; she tried not to care what people thought, but sometimes she still did. “Where did she go?”
    He hopped down from the chair and was standing so close to her she could smell the soap and sweat on his body. “She didn’t bother to tell me. What do you want her for?”
    Reed’s cut was not deep and he rarely bothered to stop for small wounds, anyway. Fiona doubted he was even still waiting for her to return to the playfield. “Oh—I had a question for her. But I’d rather talk to you,” she said in a rush.
    He folded his arms and leaned back against the board. “Me! I’m not good at answering questions.”
    She smiled at him. “Not a math question or a history question, silly. I just wanted to know if you’d ever—if you thought—if you realized—I think you and I were meant to be together.”
    It took a moment for him to digest the words; she watched his face change as he understood and considered them. “What do you mean, together?” he asked presently. “Like, you want me to kiss you? Go to the festivals with you? Stuff like that?”
    â€œThat would be fun,” she agreed. “But I meant—forever. We were meant to get married and live together and have children and spend our lives with each other.”
    There was a moment of blank silence, and then he hooted with laughter. “I’m not going to marry you!” he exclaimed.
    â€œNot now, of course,” she said patiently. “But you—”
    â€œNot ever!” he broke in. “You’re a bastard child! No one is going to marry you! And you’re ugly, too, with that pale face and those funny eyes. I’d give you a kiss or two if you really wanted, but I wouldn’t court you for real. Nobody will. You don’t have a father or a name. Or enough of a face to make up for it.”
    Fiona stared at him and could not speak.
    He stared back at her a moment and then laughed again. “Damn,” he said. “This day’s getting crazier all the time.” He pushed past her and walked back toward his seat.
    Fiona stared at the place on the blackboard where his body had just been. It seemed to shimmer and be on the point of dissolving. Her ears seemed to be expanding and contracting, allowing sound in and then shutting it off in an uncertain rhythm. She thought there might be the sound of footsteps crossing the room, but with the unreliability of her hearing she could not be sure.
    â€œShe thought I might want to
marry
her,” Cal said from behind her. So someone else must have entered the room. Fiona closed her eyes in mortification. She had thought it could not get worse, but if Calbert was going to repeat every word she