three
Jadwiga felt certain that, if only she listened hard enough, there would be something to hear. But the harder she listened, the harder the silence pressed in on her, and the pressure condensed and refined her fury. Her fingers itched to close around that man’s neck. That man! She knew who he had to be: the vile lordling her parents would never have made her marry, one apparently unaccustomed to the word no.
If I’m not dead, she decided, I’ll kill him. No, I’ll haunt his dreams until he goes mad, and then kill him. The thought felt good. And if he hurt Mama or Papa, I’ll kill him slowly. I’ll hold him under the water until the bubbles stop.
A shudder rippled through her, and the thought drifted away.
But if I am dead…
That thought did not feel quite right, though she could not ha
