The sun was beginning to set when we pulled off at a small village. The carriage slowed and finally came to a full stop on a wide road with rows of small houses and shops on either side.
“Why are we stopping so soon?” I asked as Iiro exited the carriage with Inessa following just behind him.
The duke shot his brother a pointed glance, and Theo sighed before looking at me. “Traveling at night is dangerous with the Unclanned roaming about.”
“The Unclanned?”
“Those cast out of their own clans,” he explained.
“So if you cut off a hand for stealing and a head for smuggling, what rates being cast out of your clans? Something in the middle?”
“No,” he said darkly. “Those who are put to death are given an honorable burial, and their families are safe. The Unclanned bring dishonor to their family. It is much worse.” He cut off my next question by stepping out of the carriage and extending a reluctant hand to help me down.
A part of me didn’t want to take it, just to spite him, but Iiro’s words from before had been clear. I needed to fall into whatever feminine Socairan line they expected of me if I wanted to protect my cousin and have a chance at winning the Summit over.
Placing my hand in Theo’s, I stepped out of the carriage and onto the road. He surprised me by not letting me go when I attempted to pull away. Instead, he wrapped my hand inside of his arm to escort me down the street.
The tension emanating off of him made it clear this was not his choice, but instead of being irritated by that fact, I leaned into him, wrapping my other hand around his wide bicep as I saw a few of the other ladies doing with the gentlemen next to them.
“I can see that you take your training seriously, Lord Theodore.” I gave his muscle a little squeeze.
Red crept up into his cheeks, and I found myself grinning wildly in response. A blush was more reaction than I could have hoped for.
“And here I thought that I was supposed to be the one turning into the blushing Socairan Lady,” I said quietly, leaning into him.
“Storms save me,” he muttered under his breath, but the corner of his lip tugged up.
“A blush and a smirk,” I murmured. “Be still my beating heart.”
Before I could think of something else to irritate him with, I was barraged with gasps on all sides from the villagers.
I sighed as they looked back and forth between me and Theo, giving us, or my hair, as I highly suspected, a wide berth while uttering the same Socairan phrases I’d heard Venla and other women at the castle say whenever I was near.
This is getting very old.
Theo ushered us forward toward the shop that Iiro and Inessa had entered.
As annoying as their reactions to my hair were, I couldn’t help but look closely at those same villagers as we walked. They were a far cry from the people I’d seen at Theo’s estate.
Many of them had dirt residue on their weathered hands and clothes. All of them were gaunt, with sunken eyes and sharp, jutting cheekbones.
My stomach twisted in pity.
The only place I had witnessed such malnutrition in Lochlann was in Hagail. It was rarely because they didn’t have access to proper food, and mostly because they spent their money and time at the local taverns, trying to survive on ale or whiskey alone.
But here…here, all of them seemed to suffer, young and old alike.
“It would help if you didn’t stare,” Theo muttered under his breath, and I snapped my gaze to his.
With a slight tilt of his head, he nodded toward a crowd of onlookers. Their faces were coated in furious expressions as they glared at me. Not at my hair this time, but me.
I averted my gaze and looked at the shops and houses instead. Understandably, they were in a similar state as the people who lived here.
The buildings in the village appeared to have been well built. It was easy to see that at one point they were even attractive, but time had not been kind to them. Many of the signs hung crooked on a single hook. The stone edifices were coated in grime, and many were missing bricks or had broken beams sticking out of the roofs.
This village was poor, and the people were suffering.
“What happened here?” As soon as I asked the question, the answer formed in the back of my mind.
“Our country depended on trade,” was all Theo said in response before he opened the door to the shop and ushered me inside.
Of course they had.
All I could see was the angry expressions of the group of villagers, who clearly hated me for more than whatever superstitions they clung to. I was a walking reminder of my people who had cut off their food supplies, their trade routes, and livelihoods.
Stars, I would hate me in their situation, too.
