Angel page 2

            Amy moved from the window to circle back around to the food. Amy was very good at moving around in the background, having been everyplace but not being seen. She was trying to eat as much as she could without being noticed. Amy especially liked the small, soft breads. Not only did they taste good but were easy to hide, both on her and from others seeing her get them. If the Family caught her eating she would be publicly scolded now and lashed later after being made to repay the cost of the stolen food. But Angelina made her eat anyway, made sure it wasn’t just bread and made sure she avoided anything that would make her ill. Amy always found meats and greens stashed in the pouch hidden beneath the bodice. The food from such a party would last them for days before having to worry about finding food again.

            “Eat this,” Angelina told Amy as she slipped a piece of food directly into Amy’s mouth. Amy didn’t resist. They only ate breads while at the gatherings, so that no one could smell any trace of food on their breath. Angelina took care of her even though she was only a simple, stupid thing.

She talked softly to Angelina about different aspects of the party and Angelina was making Amy giggle about them. They wandered to the entrance of the room, hoping to leave soon; they really had work to do, but they couldn’t leave until this new man in town had been introduced to the nobility by the Family. Amy had to stay until then so she, too, could be introduced as a ward of this family.

            “Maybe he came to his senses,” Angelina told Amy.

            “Maybe he’s lost,” Amy whispered back, watching the entrance.

            “Lost his mind, maybe,” Angelina quipped back and Amy softly giggled again as Angelina kept a watchful eye to the room.

            The herald came forth to make an announcement and they hoped it was this new man. “Margrave Bennu of the Eastern Realm,” the herald called out.

            “That’s odd,” Angelina mentioned. “There are no Margraves in the East.”

            “Maybe the herald heard him wrong,” Amy suggested, not wanting to think badly of anyone. She waited for Angelina’s reply and gazed at the man. She thought him handsome with shoulder length dark hair and a short beard that followed his jaw line. His skin was darker than the people around here but not as dark as she expected. “Angelina, is his skin dark enough to be a Margrave? Angelina?”

Angelina watched the new man walking in and Angelina froze. “It’s a ghost,” she told Amy. He was supposed to be dead, this Margrave. Angelina knew he was no Eastern Lord, he was a native to this very city. He was a man that her thoughts turned to nearly every day. This was the man she herself had killed and now he was back, risen from the dead like the name Bennu suggested, for bennu was the legendry phoenix of the East. Angelina was stunned.