Free Beneath the Black Moon (Root Sisters) by Clara Fine Page A

to put a little space between them. Being in such close proximity
to him was beginning to make her feel a little strange. “We— well, I am
actually going somewhere else.”
    “Where?”
    “I
have a few more errands to run,” Cam told him. “You are free to leave at any
time.”
    “I
know.” Brent said, but he didn’t budge from her side. They walked in silence a
little longer, and curiously enough Cam felt herself relaxing more with each
moment that passed. She knew rationally that he and his questions were a threat
to her, but she didn’t feel threatened by him— except when he stood too close
and she could feel her face flush and her blood pound. As long as he wasn’t
asking questions Cam felt at ease with him.
    ***
    She
allowed herself to linger a little while when she visited the Haskell family.
She hadn’t brought them food, but instead a tonic for their eldest child. Caro
and Grandma had brewed it themselves when Cam brought word that there was a
little boy with a bad cough, and Cam sincerely hoped that it helped. Throughout
her visit with the Haskell family Brent said very little, though Cam could feel
him watching her closely. He didn’t stray far from her, not even when she was
invited into their small home to see the new baby. It was strange to be watched
like that. Normally Cam felt that most people who studied her were hoping to
categorize her as quickly and painlessly as possible. Was she loose like her
sister Diana? An ingénue like young Helen? Was she the sort of girl who would
catch a husband or the sort who would be condemned to eternal spinsterhood?
    Brent’s
observation was somehow different. She didn’t get the impression that he was
trying to fit her into any box. His study of her seemed to be more thorough and
all-encompassing. It made sense, though. He was a man who was searching for the
truth. Cam could laugh at the close-minded, unimaginative county-folk all she
wanted, but it was that close-mindedness that had kept her family safe from
discovery.

Chapter Five
     
    It
was on the way to Mattie Deveraux’s that Brent finally spoke. They chattered
about insignificant things at first. Brent told Cam about his upbringing in
Philadelphia and some of the traveling that he’d done, and Cam tried very hard
not to let her envy show. Then the conversation turned to Cam’s family, and she
could feel the tension pick up. He asked about some of the family history, and
Cam told him whatever she judged to be harmless. He was more subtle than
yesterday at the ball. He didn’t ask one question after the other, but instead
worked each question into the conversation, so that when Cam’s mother came up
it seemed like a perfectly natural topic of conversation.
    “I
don’t remember her very well,” Cam said honestly.
    “Perhaps
you could ask your sister,” Brent said. There was some new emotion— perhaps
pity, in his eyes. “Diana. She is older than you. She likely remembers more.”
    Cam
nearly flinched at the thought of asking her silent, furious sister anything.
“Oh no,” she told him. “No. Diana’s not the sort…. I don’t ask Diana anything
about our mother.” Diana had never initiated a single conversation about
Solange, and she had never given any sign that she would welcome a discussion
of their mother. Cam had never pressed the issue.
    “They
never learned what started the fire?”
    Cam
shook her head. “The carriage house burned hot and quickly. By the time the
flames died there was only ash. They weren’t able to determine anything.”
    “So
there’s nothing left? Are the ashes still there?” His tone changed with this
question and there was a strange expression on his face.
    One
of the day’s few clouds passed over the sun, and Cam shivered. “Good God, no.”  The
only ash that remained from that fire was in a vial hidden in her room, and she
hadn’t touched it in over four years. “It’s long gone.” She said, and this time
the sadness was impossible to