Foretold Read Free Page B

you supposed to be a phantom?” asked Thane.
    Pippin’s heart lurched. Not Matty too. Was it a game all the boys played, to chase girls to their beds? No. Never Matty.
    “If you are, you’re a poor one, Blackgrace,” said Colin. “Here, have some flour.” And he chucked the sack at Matty, hard, but Matty sidestepped it so it hit the bell post and burst in a white cloud.
    Thane added, “Anyway you’re too late. We got here first.”
    “Why aren’t you at the Landing?” Colin asked. “It’s no secret Scylla Grey has a candle out for
you
tonight. Lucky dog.”
    Scylla Grey?
If it had lurched before, now Pippin’s heart clenched tight as a fist. Scylla Grey was a ship captain’s daughter down at Mosey Landing. She was the prettiest girl Pippin had ever seen, with the whitest skin and the nicest frocks. Her father brought her fantastical things from all over the seas, like fans made of dragon fins, and a lace mantle knit of sea foam. She carried herself like a princess, and led a blinking Manx cat with her everywhere on a pink velvet leash. She wasn’t even horrible, which was the worst thing about her. Scylla always had a nice word ready, and sometimes bought cakes for the tots—the good kind, even, with icing.
    Did
she
want Matty too? Pippin felt her hopes slipping away. What chance could an apple seed have next to ScyllaGrey? Or next to Ava, for that matter, or even Elsie. They didn’t look like tots playing dress-up, and none of them needed chest tonic, that was sure.
    Matty was glowering. “What are you waiting for?” Colin asked him. “Go get your own girl and leave us be.”
    Matty said, “That’s not the way it works. You don’t barge into a girl’s house with your sweaty hands. Anyone who tried that on my sisters would get a gun barrel tucked in his ear.”
    “Well, Ava Gentry’s not your sister, so arse off,” said Thane. “Take Pippin. We didn’t really want her anyway.”
    Matty glanced at Pippin, and she couldn’t read his face, but sure he wasn’t jumping at the chance. “No one’s
having
me,” she cut in quick, before he had time to say no thanks. “Or Ava or Elsie either.” And she marched over to the bell and gripped the rope. “You better go on, all of you, or I’ll pull.”
    When she said
all of you
, Matty looked that surprised, and wounded too.
    Like how it feels?
she thought with a pinch of satisfaction. “Good night, lads,” she said, all low and final, with that glimmer Nasty Mary had taught her that made her eyes go silver as a night cat’s. The Breeds got spooked but tried not to show it. They cursed plenty, going off, but Matty lingered.
    “Do I have to go too, Cathy?” he asked. He was the only one who called her that.
    “That depends. What are you doing here?”
    “I could ask you the same.” He came closer, studying her breeze-spun hair, and she got a pang, worrying suddenly that it made her look not like a fairy but only a girl too young for marrying. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?
    He asked, “Shouldn’t you be at home waiting for your phantom?”
    Should I?
she wondered, still stung by the Breeds’ words,the only way she’d see a phantom was if she caught it on its way someplace else. Well, she didn’t want any stupid boy who didn’t want her, not even Matty. Sidestepping his question, she said, “I saw the Breeds and I didn’t know what they were going to do.”
    “Louts,” said Matty with a frown. “Sure they’re not the only ones. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear a fair few of our mams met not phantoms on St. Faith’s Day but our fathers out for a prowl.”
    “Do you think it isn’t true, then? About phantoms?”
    His eyes were deep in shadow, so Pippin couldn’t see the green she knew was there, nor even the usual sparkle. “Oh, I know it’s true,” he said.
    “You do?”
    “Sure, for haven’t I sent my own phantom down to the house I want it to go to?”
    Pippin’s heart missed a beat. “You … you