The Nethergrim Read Online Free PDF Page B

share a room. We have since we moved here four years ago, and we will until one of us runs away or Father dies. Must I go on?” He examined his wavering reflection in the moonlight and tried to smooth down a few jutting strands of his hair. Folk carried on downstairs as though that night was all there was or ever would be.
    “So—I think we understand each other.” Edmund ruffled his brother on the top of his head. “Yes?”
    Geoffrey slapped his hand away. “Are you waiting for that girl?”
    “No.” Edmund reached down to fuss with his boots. “What girl?”
    “You know—the big one!”
    “She’s not big!” Edmund caught himself before his voice rose too loudly. “She’s just tall.”
    “She’s a head taller than you, and she could pick you up and toss you like a sack of apples.” Geoffrey stuck out his chin. “Father’s right, she’s an ox!”
    “Who’s an ox?”
    Edmund jumped. A head thrust itself up over the sill of the window beside him. Katherine’s eyes were so dark a brown that in moonlight they were wells, endlessly deep but sparked with mirth.
    “Evening.” She leaned crossed arms on the wooden sill, as though she were twelve feet tall and just passing by the window. “Lovely weather we’ve been having.” All the smooth, clever things Edmund had been meaning to say simply melted.
    Geoffrey scrunched up his freckles. “How did you get up here?”
    “This is hurting some.” A boy’s voice floated softly from the yard below. “Don’t know how long I can hold you.”
    “Sorry, Tom.” Katherine disappeared from the window. Edmund leaned out to see her jumping down off a pair of skinny shoulders, landing in the stack of hay beside the empty kegs and rolling back into the yard with a whoop. Wat Cooper’s dogs set to barking from the next croft over, but they barked at everything.
    “Is that Tom?” Geoffrey pushed up next to Edmund. “Oh, ho, he’s not supposed to be out!”
    Tom slipped back into the shadows under the grain shed. Edmund sighed to himself. Just once he would like to ask Katherine to sneak out with him and have her come alone—just once.
    “If Tom gets caught, I bet his master whips him good,” said Geoffrey. “Emma Russet says his master whips him all the time!”
    Edmund seized his brother by the shirt. “And if Tom gets caught, we’ll know who tattled, won’t we?”
    Geoffrey shrugged him off. He leaned out the window. “Hey, Katherine? Katherine!”
    “Yes, Geoffrey, hello.” Katherine beat bits of chaff from her cloak. “Edmund, are you coming down?”
    “Katherine, I saw what Edmund wrote about you!” Geoffrey leaned out. “He said—”
    “You little toad!” Edmund ripped his brother back from the window. Geoffrey squirmed from his grip and dodged giggling around the tiny room.
    “He wrote a poem!” Geoffrey raised his voice dangerously high, almost as loud as the singing from the tavern below. “He said that your hair was like a—”
    “Shut your face! Shut your face!” Edmund got a grip on Geoffrey’s collar. He threw his brother hard onto the cot and raised a fist.
    Geoffrey sneered at him. “Go on. I’ll scream.”
    “Edmund? Tell Geoffrey I saw him playing down in the creek with Miles Twintree and Peter Overbourne this evening.” Katherine spoke just loud enough to be heard over the noise. “I thought it was a bit odd since the tavern was so busy. My papa saw it too, and thought the same.”
    Geoffrey’s face twisted into the sort of scowl that spoke of unquestionable guilt.
    Edmund smiled. He let go of Geoffrey’s shirt and tweaked his nose. “Sleep tight, little toad.” He swung a leg over the sill and hung from it to drop into the hay.
    Geoffrey sat up on the pallet. “Why can’t I come, too?”
    Edmund pretended not to hear. He shifted over, trying to angle his fall into the soft middle of the haystack.
    “Come on.” Katherine beckoned smiling. “It’s not far.”
    Edmund let go—and knew at once that he had