The Amaranth Enchantment Read Online Free PDF Page B

spleen upon me. I stumbled around the corner, rubbing my hands together.
    My tears for Uncle froze upon my cheeks. Heaven reward him for his kindness to me, was all I could think. Perhaps he was with my parents now. And Evangeline, his first wife. I hoped wherever he was, there was roast pork and bread pudding aplenty.
    I almost envied Uncle.
    I walked for a while, thinking only of putting each foot 45
    forward. When Aunt and the shop seemed truly behind me, I found a sheltered, abandoned doorway where I could sit and think. No use in just walking without making a plan.
    I had no place to go, no person to go to. I couldn't stay out in the cold or I wouldn't survive the day.
    Just yesterday seemed like a lifetime ago. Meeting the pretty prince and letting my fancy take hold of me. Meeting Peter, the rascal. Meeting the mysterious Beryl, and learning she was called, by some, the Amaranth Witch.
    Yesterday I doubted the priest. Today I depended on him being wrong. Witch or no, if Beryl wanted a servant, she'd have one. In my pocket was my entrance ticket.
    Her address was the Palisades, Riverside. Easy enough to remember. Almost as if I'd always known it.
    The cold flagstones in the doorway chilled my backside right to the bones. I hugged my arms around myself and huddled into the smallest ball I could make.
    The Palisades, Riverside. I was curious to get a glimpse of that place.
    On the other hand...
    The lady was nothing to me. Uncle would never know if I didn't return the stone. I could sell it for enough to live on in comfort for a long time.
    Comfort. Something I hadn't known since I was five.
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    I didn't feel I owed Aunt any favors. It would serve her 46
    right to have the woman come looking for her stone. Maybe, if she was a witch, she'd turn Aunt into a lizard. More likely, Aunt would blame me and haul me before the magistrate.
    Aunt had accused me of being a thief. Did I want to prove her right?
    I sat there confounded in the doorway until I noticed a light tugging on my hair.
    A goat was eating it! A small brown billy had apparently ambled past me and decided to stop for lunch. He nibbled on the loose ends of my hair that spilled out from under my cap.
    "Shoo! Go on!" I teased my hair from between his teeth and tried to scare him away. He looked at me out of one eye, like a rooster, and baaaahed.
    "Where did you come from?"
    He nibbled on my chin with rubbery lips.
    I patted his coarse hair. A cloud of warmth hung around him, and I rubbed him with both hands to warm my fingers. He bleated, twisting his spine and backing up until his rear end was practically in my lap.
    "What do you think you are, a dog?"
    He butted me with his behind in reply and wagged his docked-off stump of a tail.
    "Right then, Dog," I said, scratching between his stubby horns. "You're the strangest goat I ever did see."
    The stone slab I sat on became unbearably cold, and 47
    at last I rose and continued on my way up the main road, still unsure what to do. Dog fell into step at my heels, his hoofs clacking on the pavement. He baaahed and brayed at people we passed like he was announcing a passing dignitary.
    The streets were full of people pouring in for the Winter Festival, which started in earnest the next day, but vendors came early to stake out the best spots. Even the royal family came and joined the party at festival time. All the city went wild, eating and drinking and spending to celebrate the winter solstice.
    Dog and I pressed on. I wondered if he'd go back to where he'd come from. But he just butted my legs along when I paused.
    I made my way in the direction of the bridge that would lead me to Riverside.
    Was that it, then? Had I made my decision to go to the Palisades and return the jewel?
    Better to cast myself at this woman's mercy than to freeze to death or be trampled underfoot at Winter Festival. Wasn't it?
    Dog and I trotted on until we came to a wide