The House Of Gaian Read Online Free PDF Page B

too, if there was no other choice.”
    “We’re of one mind about this,” Fiona said. “I’ve lost my mother and my grandmother. My father, too.
    And too many aunts and uncles. We’re a large, sprawling family. Or we were. Sometimes I think we should have fought back, should have stood up to the baron when he started making decrees that took away so much. But we couldn’t have done that without doing harm, and the elders held by the creed—
    and didn’t understand the cost until it was too late for them to do anything but save those they could by sacrificing themselves.”
    “It was more complicated than that,” Breanna said gently.
    Fiona sighed. “I know. But some days it’s easier to blame those I loved for dying to save the rest of us than to admit that breaking the creed wouldn’t have made any difference. Not then. Not there. The Inquisitors already controlled the baron, and the baron controlled the people. What good would it have done to wither the crops in the fields or make the wells dry? All that would have done is hurt the common folk and prove witches are the evil creatures the Black Coats accuse us of being.”
    “You don’t know the elders are dead.”
    “Breanna.”
    Fiona’s voice held so much knowledge and pain. But not acceptance. If the Inquisitors rode into this Old Place, at least some of the witches here would use everything they could summon to fight back.
    Breanna took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “My primary branch of the Great Mother is air. Yours is earth. It would help to have fire and water as well if it comes down to a fight here.”
    “Not everyone will break the creed. Even with what they know, with what they’ve seen.”
    “I know.” Breanna tucked some strands of dark hair back into her loose braid. She looked at the bow in her hand. Even if they didn’t use their power as a weapon, there were still ways for the witches to fight back. “Do you know how to use a bow?”
    Fiona made a rude noise. “Of course I do.”
    “We might as well get some practice in before our ‘instructors’ show up to give us some practice.”
    Fiona laughed, but there was an edge to it. “I imagine Baron Liam and Lord Falco just want to be sure you’re available and waiting so that you can protect them when they show up.”
    “Protect them from what?” Now that Fiona had said that, she realized Liam did tend to stay close to her when he visited, and when he wasn’t with her, he spent his time with his mother Elinore, who, along with his little sister Brooke, was also living at Old Willowsbrook for the time being, or with her grandmother, Nuala. And Falco tended to head for any group of men if he couldn’t be with her. What would two adult men need protection from that they would behave that way?
    Breanna felt laughter bubbling up, threatening to burst free. It was the look on Fiona’s face that made her force the laughter back. “Jean? You think they’re going to that much effort to avoid Jean ? Mother’s tits, Fiona, the girl is only sixteen.”
    “And flirts outrageously with anything in trousers that has a handsome-enough face.”
    “All right,” Breanna said, uncomfortable with the anger rising in Fiona, “she flirts.”
    “You make it sound as if she’s too young to think of men and beds,” Fiona said fiercely. “And perhaps she is too young to think of men in that way, but she’s already become a predator where men are concerned. She wants, and expects, male adoration. She wants, and expects, men to fulfill her every wish and whim.”
    “Didn’t we all want that at that age?” Breanna asked cautiously. The anger and contempt in Fiona’s voice worried her as much as the word predator . “Didn’t we all want the romance of being special?” Don’t we still want that ?
    “You were never sixteen in that way. Neither was I. You never would have ...” Fiona pressed her lips together until they were a thin, grim line. “She doesn’t always live by the