Ingrith scoffed. “You let me worry about them workers.”
There was no sign of movement from the quarry, but still. “It’s got to be dangerous to look at the castle so near where there are men working.” She couldn’t have meant to kill the poor men, could she?
“Dangerous nothing, girl, I just made a mistake. A bird startled me. Can’t blame an old woman for lookin’ when something starts screeching at her.” Ingrith’s mouth clamped shut, and I could see the muscles tense in her jaw. She bent over to reach the walking stick she’d dropped.
Jurij tried to grab the stick for her. “Let me—”
“Oh, no.” Ingrith slapped his arm, and Jurij pulled back, cradling his forearm and staring at the woman with his blank-eyed face. Ingrith snatched her stick and stood back up. “Didn’t need no man’s help then, don’t need no man’s help now.”
Jurij turned his wooden mask toward me. The opened-mouth grin probably didn’t match his real expression underneath as the ungrateful old woman smacked him. But that was the Returning mask, and that was the countenance he was stuck with for the day. Until dusk, anyway. I hope I really do see his face. Surely Elfriede forcing herself to love him is enough. Surely …
“Let me guess. Ol’ Ingrith is the last to know. Ol’ Ingrith just has to be invited, though there’s no one who actually wants her to come, but goddess help us if the lord don’ give his blessing. I take it you two are having a Returning today?” Her eyes rolled up and down, as she examined Jurij from head to toe. “You look too young to get married.”
I didn’t often ask the first goddess for anything, but I prayed that no one would notice the flush that I could feel spreading across my face.
“She’s not my goddess.” He said it in the same manner one might say, “Please pass the potatoes.”
“Huh. If you say so.” The way Ingrith stared at me, I had a feeling the first goddess had failed me. Again.
Jurij didn’t seem to notice. “But I’m having my Returning today. This is my goddess’s sister.”
Ingrith’s eyes narrowed as she looked up at the wooden face beaming down at her. “And let me guess. The goddess is too busy primpin’ to bother with the likes of someone like me.” Her gaze fell on the basket in my arms. “What’s that? A collection for your blessed day? I haven’t got no gifts left to give all these young’uns Returning every other week.”
“No gift is necessary.” Jurij uncovered the offerings within the basket. They looked even more pitiful strewn haphazardly among the old cloth, with plenty of empty space beside them. “We just brought you some food. We thought you might like something. And yes, we’d like to invite you to my Returning.”
Ingrith stuck her head over the basket so fast I jumped backward, thinking she might be intending to ram her head into my chest. She leered up at me. “There’s not a thing here worth havin’, but for that apple.” She snatched it out of the basket and took a bite. I might have heard her teeth crack. “You go take the rest of that garbage back where you came from.” Bits of apple and spittle escaped from her mouth with each bite. “You invited me. The lord is satisfied. I’m not goin’. Now get out.” She tossed the half-eaten apple on the ground, snatched the basket from me, and shoved it at Jurij so quickly he had no choice but to catch it before it fell to the ground. She started hobbling back to what she called a home.
Jurij sighed. It took a lot to make him sigh. Especially when you considered the mother he had. “Come on, Noll. We invited her.”
Ingrith turned around as fast as someone a tenth her age. “No, you go, boy. Girl, you come in here and help me. Time you make up for that foolin’ around you did years ago.”
Jurij’s head tilted slightly. It was possible the only thing he remembered about that day four years prior were the parts with his golden-haired goddess.
Well, why not? What else was I going to do for the rest of the day? Find Elfriede and tuck that golden strand into her bun for the fiftieth time? I squeezed Jurij’s shoulder. “It’s all right, Jurij. Your mother might have noticed you went missing by now. I’ll see you later.”
I let his shoulder go and stepped forward. Ingrith nodded and went back to hobbling. In a few short hours, Jurij would be gone. He would vanish, or he would be hers. Either way, he was gone forever from me.
Goddess, if you hear my prayer, you’ll make time stand still, just for a little while. Or take me back. Back before love could hurt me.
We’d barely stepped inside when there was a pounding on the door. My chest squeezed in fright, but it didn’t bother Ingrith. She hobbled over to the corner of her small shack, where a chest lay at the foot of the rotted wooden frame and the mildew-covered slab of hay she counted as a bed and mattress.
“Ingrith! Ingrith, you in there?”