Bloodforged Read Free Page A

when we make formal calls,’ she continued. ‘But when you are at your leisure, you may dress as you like.’
    Ulrika bowed. ‘Thank you, I…’ She looked up suddenly at Gabriella, her eyes lighting up. ‘May I come with you, now? Will you wait while I change?’
    Gabriella pursed her lips. ‘As I said before, it will not be to your taste. I am meeting with the procuress and the kitchen staff, and I am late already.’
    ‘Then may I go out?’ Ulrika asked. ‘On my own? Just a walk around the neighbourhood? To the park in the Aldig?’
    Gabriella’s lips became a hard flat line. ‘Don’t be silly, my dear. It is too dangerous. You know we must be invisible now. The city has quieted somewhat, but the vampire mania has not subsided entirely. All that is required is one spark and we are back to where we were before.’
    ‘But no one will know what I am,’ protested Ulrika. ‘Do you think I’m fool enough to reveal my claws and fangs? I learned that lesson.’
    ‘They will know you are unusual,’ said Gabriella. ‘A woman in male attire. The unusual attracts attention, and we cannot afford attention, do you not see?’
    Ulrika stared at her, rage beginning to simmer within her again. ‘Then precisely when am I allowed to wear these clothes? You say I may not wear them when we go calling, and I may not wear them in public, but only at my leisure. Do you expect me to stay at home and march from room to room in them?’ She snatched up the boots and held them up. ‘These are for riding, mistress. When may I ride?’
    Gabriella drew herself up. ‘Do not take that tone with me, child. I am merely thinking of your–’
    Ulrika cut her off. ‘Do not call me child! I am a grown woman. I have travelled the world from Kislev to Middenheim to the Worlds Edge Mountains. I have fought the hordes of Chaos. I have led men in battle. And you will not let me leave the house?’ Her rage was at full boil now, and the world turned red around her, as if she saw through crimson lenses. Her arm twitched with the desire to hurl the boots at a statue of a noble lady with a knight kneeling at her feet that sat on a table across the room, but she held back, and forced herself to speak in an even tone when she would rather have spit the words in Gabriella’s face. ‘You think of me as some kind of doll, to be dressed up first as a girl, then as a boy, then left under the bed when you have tired of playing. Well, I am not a doll, and I am not a child. I will go where I wish to go, and I will speak to whom I wish to speak.’
    ‘Ulrika–’ said Gabriella.
    Ulrika did not slow, and despite her attempt at control, her voice began to rise. ‘I owe you fealty for saving my life and teaching me the ways of your sisterhood, and I will serve you faithfully because of it, but I am not your slave. I am not your dog.’ She laughed bitterly. ‘Ha! You said I was your friend. Does a friend say “sit and stay”, and expect one to be happy with a bone and a bowl of water?’
    ‘Enough!’ snapped Gabriella, then softened her tone. ‘It is because I am your friend that I do this. I know you feel confined, and I know it is cruelty to offer you clothes and no opportunity to wear them, but as I said before, these things will come.’
    ‘When?’ cried Ulrika.
    ‘Soon,’ said Gabriella. ‘We live a long time, beloved, and eventually all things happen. When we are established, when we have the measure of the authorities, then we may allow ourselves more leeway. If you have patience, friends will come, freedom will come, you will ride where you wish to ride, and come and go as you please, but not now. Not for a while yet. I am sorry.’
    Ulrika trembled with frustration, crushing the velvet of the doublet in her fists, but then she slumped. ‘I am sorry too, mistress,’ she said. ‘I know we must be cautious. I know I must be patient. It is only that…’
    ‘It is only that you are not bred to this confinement,’ said Gabriella,