Sisters' Fate Read Online Free PDF Page A

possible.”
    “Good,” Parvati spits, her brown eyes narrowed. “I don’t want compromise. How can you expect us to work with Brothers after what they’ve done to us?”
    “They’re not all bad,” I say, thinking of Finn. Always of Finn. He told me there are moderates within the Brotherhood, men like him who joined to protect their wives or sisters or sweethearts. “And if we don’t want inhumane treatment, we can’t dole it out. Even if Brother Covington and the others were wrongheaded, they didn’t deserve—”
    “Wrongheaded?”
Parvati leaps to her feet. “That’s what you’d call them? You don’t think they deserved what was done to them? Do you think
I
deserved what was done to me?”
    “No! No, of course not.” I jump up, flustered. “I misspoke. They were—are—cruel. But we’ll never gain the people’s trust Inez’s way. Lord knows what else she’s plotting. She’s such a schemer; I wouldn’t trust her to—”
    “
She’s
a schemer?” Parvati plants her hands on her thin hips. “You called us up here to undermine her. I suppose you’re angry with her on account of what she and Maura did to your beau?” I can’t deny that—but it’s not only that. Parvati’s lip curls in disgust. “I can’t believe you were letting a
Brother
court you!”
    “He wasn’t—you don’t understand,” I insist. “Finn isn’t—”
    “You’re the one who doesn’t understand.” Parvati strides across the room and throws open the door. “You’ve been sheltered all your life. You put yourself in my shoes, and then you tell me what the Brotherhood deserves.”
    Blast.
    Livvy stares at her red slippers. “I should—excuse me, Cate,” she mumbles, fleeing after Parvati.
    Oh, hell.
    I should have asked Elena to be here. She would have known how to finagle such a delicate conversation. Now Parvati thinks I’m a fool who sympathizes with the Brothers, and Inez will have at least one more witch with mind-magic on her side.
    I pause beside the window, pushing aside Rilla’s yellow curtains and staring at the dreary gray morning. What’s happening out there? Are the Brothers already meeting to elect a new leader? A great deal depends on whom they choose and whether he’ll lead with vengeance or mercy. Finn predicted they might well vote to resurrect the burnings. I wrap my arms around myself, wishing he were here to comfort me.
    I miss him already.
    This fall, when I was in New London and he was still in Chatham, I hoped perhaps he was thinking about me, too.
    Now he won’t even know to miss me.
    I push those thoughts away. If I stop moving—stop doing—I’m going to fall apart. I can’t give Inez and Maura the satisfaction of that.
    I have little faith in the Brotherhood these days, but I’ve got to believe most men wouldn’t vote to set me on fire if they knew what I could do. It’s one thing to lock a girl up in Harwood for the rest of her life; it’s quite another to burn her at the stake.
    Isn’t it?
    Are Parvati and Inez right? Will the Brothers go that far?
    The prospect of going downstairs, sitting behind a desk, and taking notes seems impossible. How can I concentrate when I don’t know what the Brothers are doing or how the people have reacted to Harwood and the attack on the Head Council? I’m sure the
Sentinel
is painting both events with the same brush—dangerous witches on the loose. But what of the
Gazette
? Can Alistair Merriweather see the gulf of difference between what Inez did and freeing innocent girls?
    There’s a knock on the half-open door.
    “Come in,” I call, and Tess peers into the room, face scrunched into a frown.
    She kicks the door shut behind her and flops onto my bed. “Everyone’s staring at me,” she announces, her jaw set. “I’d like to throttle Sister Inez. Maura, too.”
    “I ought to be first in line.” I sigh, twisting my hair up into a chignon. “Maura had no right to tell anyone without your permission. But neither did