Read Bind Our Loving Souls for Free Online Page B

neighbor’s someone who
lives next to you.”
    “Oh. Then yes! I am your neighbor. How
exciting…I’m Helena, Miss Sarafina.”
    “It’s Sara.”
    “Really? Everyone’s been calling you Sarafina
for days.”
    “Well, it’s Sara.”
    “Hmm...All right, Sara, let’s get you
dressed. Master Halvandor will want to meet you for breakfast.”
    “We met last night, actually.” I climbed out
of bed to go poke at the red coals in the fireplace and put some
sticks on them.
    “But you’re a musician. You’re important
enough to eat in the dining room with the Halvandor family. And you
get to wear the most beautiful dresses.”
    The kindling began to smoke as I turned to
watch Helena, in a ruffly white shirt and long blue skirt, walk
into my closet. “Is that a bun in your hair?” I asked.
    “Yes.”
    “No—I mean a real bun.” It seriously looked
like she had her hair wrapped in a bun around a bread bun.
    “Yep.” She poked her head out of the closet.
“You never know when you might get hungry. Now what’s your favorite
color?”
    I had to fight back laughter. “Red,” I said
with a little burst in my voice. Blood red has always been the most
intensely beautiful color there is, in my opinion.
    Helena disappeared for a minute before
reappearing behind three long red gowns, two of them unnecessarily
elaborate. She threw the craziest one down on the bed and held the
other two up on each side of her. “Do you want to wear one of
these?” She furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head. Then she laid
them on my bed and picked up the other one. “Or this one?” she
asked, nodding her head excitedly.
    I threw a bunch of small pieces of wood on
the first little flames and went to pick up the scarlet one,
velvety with wide-ending sleeves, but simple and elegant. The one
Helena was holding looked more like a five hundred dollar Halloween
costume to me. “This one’s more me,” I said.
    “But this one’s so beautiful, and it looks
more like what the Halvandor women wear.”
    “Really?”
    She nodded.
    I stared at the ridiculous dress. It was pretty amazing, it was just so—so—ridiculous. But the
men last night had been wearing those fancy old suits, so maybe I
should be wearing a matching dress.
    “All right.” I laid down the one I really
wanted to wear, assuming she knew better than I did, and took the
other one from her.
    “I’ll give you a minute to change. Then I’ll
show you where breakfast is served,” she said, walking toward the
door on the side of my room.
    “Wait,” I stopped her halfway. “When will
someone be going to town again?” I really needed to contact my
parents.
    As far as leaving goes, my nerve had deserted
me during the night. I won’t say I didn’t still want to go home,
but I will say my heart really wanted something to happen with
Enock. And I was kind of scared to tell the mistress of the house I
wanted to go home when she’d only just flown me out here.
    “Next month.”
    “Next month?! But I need to let my parents
know I’m okay.”
    Helena looked worried. “I’m sorry. Master
Halvandor only sends Henrik out at the end of each month. It’s
important to him that we keep away from the world.”
    “Why?”
    She shook her head and turned away, reaching
the door before she turned back to face me. “Trust me. It’s better
that you don’t know.” Then the door shut and she was gone.
    So weird
. I wondered if the
secret was simply the true nature of Enock and the other
Halvandors, and why she knew. Everything about this place was
strange, but not any stranger than I’d expected. I just really
hoped Enock would make sense of it all.
    Feeling all kinds of sick and sad—and
cold
—I pulled my clothes off. In a rush, I stepped into my
sneakers, hoping the long skirt would hide them. As I pulled on the
dress, I hoped it would be too tight or something, but it was a
perfect fit. It zipped up easily over my back and the ends of the
skirt hung just above the ground,