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something though. You’ve barely eaten these last few days and I can hear you at night tossing in your sleep.”
    “I’m sorry,” Adrianna said. And she was. She tried to focus on what her mother was saying, but her mind drifted. She hummed as she stared out the window. She couldn’t see the river, but she could feel its presence. If she could just find the source of the song, she would be free of it.     
    Her mother sighed as she picked up the basket and left to go and see Frau Luft. Adrianna busied herself stirring the broth that bubbled in the hearth and tried to ignore the song. She banged the pots and pans down, hoping to drown the song out, but as soon as she stopped, it was there calling her. She tried to resist its pull, but she couldn’t stop herself from setting down the spoon and leaving the house and heading out of the town.
    Closing her eyes, she gave herself up to it. She couldn’t stop even if she wanted to. Hearing a splash, she opened her eyes and found herself by the river and far away from the town. A flash of silver in the water caught her gaze. She stepped closer to the river’s edge.
    “Mademoiselle,” a familiar voice called, but she ignored it, her attention fixed on the river and the flash of silver she had seen.
    “Mademoiselle.” Monsieur Gaspard was nearer now, but she was so close to finding the source of the song. Desperately, she scanned the surface. It was there before he had called her.
    “Adrianna,” he said from behind her. She could hear the worry in his voice. She turned, forcing a smile onto her face as Monsieur Gaspard came up, dressed for riding and leading his horse. The song faded away until she could no longer hear it. She wanted to cry out at the loss of it.
    “Monsieur Gaspard,” she said.
    “Did you not hear me calling?” he asked. “I was worried. You were so near the edge.”
    “I thought I saw something in the water.” She tried to remember what she once would have said to him. “You’ve finished your lessons with the prince?”
    “Christian was restless. I couldn’t keep him inside any longer.” He stopped beside her. She kept smiling, hoping it hid her frustration and how much she wanted him to leave.
    “You do not seem yourself, mademoiselle,” Monsieur Gaspard said. “Is something wrong?”
    “No. Nothing is wrong.”
    She could hear the song again. The words formed tendrils, coiling around her and threading through her body. She felt it as a physical pull. With her mind distracted, she struggled to pay attention. “Can you hear something?” she asked.
    Monsieur Gaspard looked around. “Only the gulls.”
    “Nothing else?”
    “No.” He peered at her closely. “What can you hear?”
    She hesitated, unsure of whether to tell him. “Nothing.”
    She glanced back at the river and her gaze met another pair of eyes. She could see a face in the water - a girl, although it was difficult to tell. She could just see her head and the top of her white shoulders. Wet hair, dark from the water, clung to her scalp.
    “Adrianna,” Monsieur Gaspard said.
    She blinked and the girl was gone. “Did you see something?”
    Frowning, he shook his head. “What did you see?”
    “There was someone in the water.”
    “Let me walk you back to the town,” he said gently, putting his arm around her and steering her away from the river.
    He thought she was going mad. Perhaps she was.
    He escorted her all the way back to the town and saw her back into her house. Later that day, she saw him talking to her mother through the kitchen window. Her mother’s face was drawn with worry when she came in and she watched Adrianna closely, but she said nothing. The song continued to haunt her. It was present in every waking moment and threaded through her dreams. At night, she dreamed of the river and a face in the water and a hand reaching out for her. The song called her, becoming more and more insistent. Even when she covered her ears, she could still hear it in