Read The Usurper's Crown for Free Online

her mouth closed.
    She had no choice but to stick to the road, although dawn was turning the sky silvery gray and soon the men and boys would come trooping down the rutted track to the bay and the boats. They already thought Grace struck down by madness. They would stare, and they would talk.
    Well, the Devil take them if they do . Ingrid found she felt far more worried about what she would tell their family. It was already too late to disguise the disappearance. If she told what had really happened, Mama would insist on a priest. Under the circumstances, there could be worse ideas. Papa, thought … What would Papa think? He had been raised a strict Lutheran, and it came out of him at odd times. There would be words with Leo, no matter what happened. And what on earth would they tell the little ones?
    “You must persuade your family not to try to send her away,” said Avan, as if reading Ingrid’s thoughts.
    “Why not? She’s not safe …”
    “I fear no boat with her aboard would make it across the lake.”
    Ingrid felt her cheeks go pale. The words “is that possible?” hovered on the tip of her tongue. Of course it was possible. If all the other things that had happened tonight were possible, so was this.
    “But you don’t know,” she said, cradling Grace’s lolling head closer against her shoulder.
    “I know she’s being called. I know that in a moment of fearing for her life she bound herself to a dead man. I know that he will not let go that bond easily, and that he is restless under the water.”
    “Then what are we to do? We cannot surrender her to this … thing.”
    “No.” Avan hung his head and was silent for a long moment. Ingrid could not see his face well in the morning shadows, but she felt he was reaching some decision. “Give me a day. I will find an answer.”
    Ingrid looked down at her fainting sister. It wrenched at her heart to see Grace so worn down, and in such a way. Mama had spoken softly of her fear that Grace’s boisterous nature might lead her astray, but this …
    At the same time she distrusted the stranger. There should be a priest, there should be a doctor … but then again it was Avan who banished the ghost.
    “Ingrid? Ingrid!”
    Papa’s harsh voice called from the morning shadows, followed quickly by the sound of heavy boots pounding the dirt road.
    “I will do what I can,” she breathed quickly.
    Papa, Leo, pale Mama, and what seemed like all the men of Eastbay poured up the road.
    “ Ach , Gott! ” Papa cried, seeing Grace collapsed against Ingrid’s shoulder. He swept his second daughter up in his strong arms as if she weighed nothing at all. Mama laid her hands on Grace’s brow.
    “No fever, but her breath’s so shallow …”
    “What happened, Ingrid?” demanded Leo. “What did you see?”
    Ingrid glanced at Avan, and she shouldn’t have. Leo saw, and Leo, of course, jumped to the wrong conclusion. “What’ve you to do with this?” he demanded, stalking up to Avan.
    Avan looked down at Leo, and for one of the few times in her life, Ingrid saw her brother looking spindly. “Your elder sister found your younger on the shore near the bay. She enlisted my help to bring her safe home.”
    “If we find Grace’s been meddled with …”
    “Leo!” thundered Papa. “Enough. Excuse him, Avan.”
    Leo did not appear to wish to be excused, but he did keep his mouth shut.
    “There’s nothing to excuse.” Avan held his hand out, and waited. Leo, glowering still, shook it, and the tension in the air eased a little.
    “What are you fools standing about in the damp for?” demanded Mama with unusual brusqueness. “Is she not sick enough for you? Get inside, get inside, and you as well, Miss Ingrid.” Mama also had a hard glare for Avan, but it was plain to Ingrid it was not Grace she thought he might wish to meddle with.
    Under the eyes of their neighbors, the Loftfields turned for home. Offers of assistance came, and were rebuffed by Mama and