Hazel's Promise (The Fey Quartet Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

The din was overwhelming, a roar of voices like a river in flood, above which dogs barked and livestock squealed and bleated. Musicians played somewhere. Song spilled from an alehouse.
    “On the other side?” Tam said.
    “Yes.”
    Tam stepped into the market square, leading Marigold. Hazel reluctantly followed. People jostled her on all sides, more people than she’d ever seen in her life, townsmen and women, merchants, tradesmen, farmers, peasants, all pressing close and shouting to be heard. Smells filled her mouth and nose until she thought she would gag: cow dung, singed leather, a whiff of roasting meat, the stench of sewage, rank human sweat. An elbow caught her in the ribs, a boot nipped her toes, someone butted into her, knocking her a step sideways. A tiny spark of panic kindled in Hazel’s chest. She was close to being crushed in this mob, close to suffocating.
    Tam glanced back, and halted. “You all right?”
    I’m not as brave as I thought I was . Hazel lifted her chin. “Of course I am.”
    “Best not get separated.” Tam took her hand. His smile was kind, brotherly. “Come on.”
    Hazel felt foolish—but she held on tightly to Tam. That firm, warm, strong handclasp was an anchor. She no longer felt as if the mob was going to swallow her whole. It became easier to breathe. She found herself able to look at the wares for sale: candles and spices, lengths of fabric, metalware, leather goods, slabs of bloody meat. “Hot peascods!” someone cried shrilly, and someone else: “Hot sheep’s feet!”
    On the other side of the market square, Tam released her hand. “Where now?”
    Where is Drewet’s house? Hazel asked silently, and the Faerie gift led her down a street to a tall, narrow house.
    “Drewet lives here?” Tam looked dubious.
    Drewet had left the vale to make his fortune. It seemed that he’d succeeded. The house was three stories high, leaning out over the street, the plaster newly whitewashed, the timbers freshly painted. Some of the windows were even glazed.
    “Are you certain he lives here?” Tam said.
    “Yes. Um . . .” Hazel groped for a reason that didn’t involve magic. The door knocker caught her eye, shaped like a lion with an iron ring in its mouth. “I was told a three-storied house with a lion as the door knocker,” she said, and flushed for her lie.
    Tam still didn’t look entirely convinced.
    Hazel moistened her lips. Her heart was banging against her breastbone. She drew a deep breath, stepped forward, raised the knocker, and rapped on the heavy oak door.
     
     

CHAPTER SIX
    A WOMAN ANSWERED the knock. Tam could tell with one glance that she was a servant.
    “I wish to see Drewet Ilbertson,” Hazel said.
    Tam gritted his teeth. He wanted to grab hold of her arm and yank her away, tow her back to the vale. He curled his fingers into his palms.
    “Drewet Ilbertson? Ain’t no Drewet Ilbertson lives ’ere,” the woman said. “It’s Drewet Blacklock as lives ’ere.”
    Hazel lifted her chin. “Then it is him I wish to see.”
    “He’s stepped out,” the servant said. “Missus is in, if you want to see ’er.”
    Hazel lowered her chin. “Missus?”
    “Widow Mercer, as was.”
    Hazel’s brow creased. “Widow Mercer?”
    “Widow Mercer, as was, ’til she married Drewet Blacklock,” the woman explained, her tone patronizing and impatient.
    Hazel paled. Her hands clutched one another. “It’s not the right Drewet.”
    Yes, it is, Tam told her silently. He found himself a wealthy mercer’s widow to marry. His relief was dimmed by the expression on Hazel’s face: bewilderment, despair. She looked as if her dreams were collapsing around her.
    Ten years of dreams, Tam reminded himself. Ten years of holding faithful to her pledge. While Drewet married a wealthy widow.
    I will kill him for this, Tam vowed.
    “Here’s master,” the servant said, with a nod up the street.
    They both turned to look.
    A man strolled towards them. Tam struggled to