Page 161 of Moonless

Kestria turns toward her. “Mel.”

“Dust gets in even with the door shut. I was coming past anyway, so I’d give it a sweep. Wipe things down. It’s hardly a large house.”

Birdie lifts her head, rubbing an eye with her fist.

Kestria sets the bow against the outside wall. “How often?”

Mel strokes Birdie’s hair flat. “When it needed it.”

Keer stands a few steps away with the boys against him. Colm’s mouth is open, and Eskan has his fist in his father’s hair.

“Nothing’s been packed.” Mel’s still smoothing Birdie’s hair. “It’s all where you left it. I washed the bedding, but I put it back.”

Kestria touches her arm below Birdie’s legs. “You kept doing that the whole time?”

“Someone had to.”

Mel wipes under her nose with the back of her hand. “I know what they thought. Before Keer found you. Everyone kept telling me about the bond, and I heard them, Kes. I did.”

Kestria’s hand stays on her arm.

Mel swallows. “But they hadn’t found you. So I kept coming. Just in case you came back and needed your bed.”

Her voice gives out on the last word. She shifts Birdie higher and has to try twice before she can talk again. “I couldn’t stop. If I stopped coming, I’d have to—”

Kestria reaches for her.

I take Birdie first, settling her onto my left arm. She comes without a fuss this time. Mel lets her go and steps into Kestria’s arms.

Kestria hugs her with both elbows kept low. Mel puts her head down beside Kestria’s neck, clear of the bandages, and starts to cry.

She tries to talk into the cloak, but I can’t make out a word of it, and she only holds on tighter.

Kestria shifts her feet to take the pull off her ribs. “I’ve got you.”

Mel starts crying harder.

Keer comes nearer with the boys and waits beside them.

Birdie watches from my arm. I rest my cheek against her hair when she reaches for my collar. It’s the one thing I can think to do.

At last Mel gets a breath in, one hand flat on her belly. “It’s the baby. I cry at everything now.”

“Of course.”

It’s not the baby.

“It’s been awful.” Mel’s still got her face in the cloak.

“I can see that.”

Kestria rubs her back with one hand, leaving the other low around her waist. Mel stays there until she can breathe without sobbing.

When she draws away, Kestria keeps hold of her sleeve. “Thank you. For my house.”

Mel nods, wiping her face on the heel of her hand. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“You will.”