Read The Consuls of the Vicariate for Free Online

to run, to flee, to jump out the window, but he stood and stared, and the girl made not a sound. Brice couldn’t tell if she was too frightened to scream, or if she held her tongue so as not to alert her mistress. With apparent reluctance, the girl finally stepped through the door and closed it behind her.
    “I suppose you mean to do my mistress harm,” she half-whispered. “I knew the day would come, but I never thought it would be so soon.”
    “No, miss.”
    “No?”
    “We mean her no harm, not this day.”
    “Then you spy upon her. Will you undo her?”
    If only it were that simple. Brice sighed. “Probably. Eventually, we hope. Why do you remain quiet with burglars in your house?”
    “The house isn’t mine. My only purpose here is to make sure it stays clean and its residents well-fed.” The girl touched the bruise and winced. “Some days are better than others.”
    “If you won’t turn us in, will you help us leave?”
    She nodded. “This way.”
    Before following her into the hall, Brice fetched Caleb from the wardrobe. “I’m going now if you’d care to join me.”
    “Two of you?” the girl asked. “Follow me.” They followed her to the stairs, where she whispered, “The dining room is below the stairs.”
    “Here.” Caleb crouched beside her, keeping his voice low. “Climb onto my back.”
    “What?”
    “A single set of footsteps. Once I’m down, you’ll come back for Brice to do the same.”
    Brice grinned widely. “Brilliant.”
    “No time to waste.” Caleb pointed over his shoulder, and the girl climbed onto his back. Once at the bottom, she slid to the floor, whispered to him, and pointed down the hall. Caleb disappeared around the corner, and the girl returned to the top of the stairs. Holding her on his back, Brice made the trek down the steps.
    “What are you doing, girl?” Vicar Forane’s voice echoed through the house, and Brice stopped dead in his tracks on the first floor. “Running up and down the stairs and disturbing my peace of mind?”
    “The waste baskets, madam. I’ve finished the upstairs.”
    Hearing nothing more than silence in reply, the girl climbed off Brice’s back and led him down the hall. She opened the door and pushed him inside. “I’ll come back when the mistress sleeps.”
    Brice glanced around the paltry room. A small bed—probably too small even for the thin, short girl—lay against the far wall, and a nightstand with a lone candlestick sat beside it. Brice and Caleb occupied the remaining floor space, and even with so little furniture, the room was quite cramped. The only thing left to do is wait .
     
    * * *
     
    After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened and the girl entered. The only way she fit was because Caleb had taken the liberty of sitting on the bed.
    “Vicar Forane is upstairs in her chambers. I’ll show you out.”
    Brice stopped her before she opened the door. “You could come with us.”
    “No,” she said, dipping her head. “I’m too close to the end of my servitude to leave now.”
    “Servitude?”
    “My father disobeyed the church’s doctrine, and I was forced to serve to pay penance for his wrongdoing.”
    “That makes no sense.” Brice shook his head. “Why didn’t he pay for it himself?”
    “They can’t force a nobleman who is also head of the household to pay penance in such a way. The burden falls upon his heirs; it fell to me.”
    “What, if I might ask, was his breach?” Caleb asked, rising from the bed.
    “He’d been seen by his accuser philandering with other women. Though this is commonplace when done in secret, he became boastful to the wrong ears.”
    Brice raised an eyebrow. “So you would be punished for your father’s indiscretions? It hardly seems reasonable.”
    “Then you’re clearly not from this land. To the church, it’s quite reasonable—so reasonable, in fact, that it’s become an unwritten law. Now, I’ll never see my father again.”
    “Wait… I thought you