Sisters' Fate Read Online Free PDF Page B

gives me a cheeky grin, black hair falling into his eyes. “Course it is, Sister. What else would I be selling?”
    I step closer, lowering my voice. What will he do, arrest me for asking? He can’t be older than Tess. “Do you know where I could get the—other paper?”
    “I don’t know anything about any other paper, Sister.” He edges backward, dark eyes darting sideways. “I work for Brother Augustus Richmond, publisher of the
New London Sentinel.
That’s the only legal paper in town.”
    “Of course it is.” I smile with a conspiratorial air. “But perhaps you would know where I could procure a copy of—?”
    “No, I wouldn’t! What kind of trouble are you after?” The paperboy stalks away.
    “For heaven’s sake, Cate.” Tess plucks at my sleeve, sighing. “You’re going about it all wrong. He thought you were trying to set him up!”
    My face flushes. “Well, what should I do, then?”
    “Think. Who reads that paper? Not Sisters or upper-class girls.” She tucks her arm through mine, and as we walk through the crowded street, her black cloak turns gray. A moment later, the pink lace hem of her skirt turns into tattered blue wool. Her nice fur muff morphs into worn blue mittens.
    “Tess!” I hiss, terrified. I scan the block ahead of us. I don’t spot any Brothers, but two of their guards are lounging outside a café. They could have seen her.
Anyone
could have seen her. My heart is racing. It’s not like her to be this reckless; this is the sort of thing
Maura
would do.
    “I’m not a child,” she snaps.
    “I know you aren’t!” I run a black-gloved hand over my chilled face. “You’re very powerful. And very important. Too important to risk your safety like this.”
    “Because of what I am?” she challenges, coming to a halt outside a flower shop.
    “Yes,” I admit. But that wasn’t my first thought. “And because I love you and I would be lost—utterly lost—if anyone tried to take you away from me.”
    Tess bites her lip, staring at the imported tulips in the window. “Sometimes I think it would be better for everyone if I
were
arrested.”
    I grab her arm. “What? Why would you say that?”
    Tess doesn’t respond. She just tilts her head to the opposite street corner. There’s another paperboy lounging against a grocer’s window, talking animatedly with three working-class men in jackets and suspenders and blue jeans. “I think he’s the one you want.”
    He’s got a bag full of papers slung over his shoulder—a bag with SENTINEL printed on it in wide white letters. “Why do you think that?”
    “He’s doing a particularly brisk business. Look.” Another man comes out of the grocer’s with a pouch of tobacco. He lights a pipe and leans against the wall with the others. When he hands the paperboy his pennies, the boy hands him a paper—but even from across the street, I can tell it’s thicker than the one I was offered earlier. “The
Gazette
must be tucked inside.”
    I gape at her, and Tess shakes her head. “You’ve got to watch before you go blundering into things. Come on, I’ll get you your paper. Give me three pennies?”
    I comply. “See? I’d be lost without you.”
    “I’ll meet you at the stationery shop,” Tess promises, racing across the street.
    I follow her at a more sedate, Sisterly pace. Kneeling at the curb, I pretend to retie my bootlaces while Tess strolls toward the group of men. She greets them with words too low for me to hear, exchanges her pennies for a paper, and thanks the paperboy with a grin. The boy—a rascal with tousled blond curls who can’t be older than fourteen—stares after her, and the men around him chuckle and say Lord knows what to make him blush.
    Tess tucks the paper under her arm and strides off toward O’Neill’s Stationery. I follow her. By the time I reach the shop, she’s transformed into a demure young Sister again.
    “Teresa Elizabeth Cahill,” I scold, voice low. “Why, I ought to—”
    She