The Book of Forbidden Wisdom Read Free Page A

yet.”
    â€œI wish Trey could be here,” I said. “Father didn’t have to ban him from the wedding.”
    â€œTrey’s a boy, ” said Silky. “The bride can’t invite a boy .”
    â€œThen I wish Leth had,” I said.
    â€œRight,” said Silky.
    â€œHe could have.”
    â€œ Right .”
    We went into the house and made our way through the halls and up the staircases until we were back in my room. Silky slipped Mother’s gown over my head, did up the pearl buttons and began the lengthy process of pinning and sewing me into it.
    â€œThere,” she said. “Almost done.” Her eyes brimmed with tears.
    â€œI’m sorry about the dress,” I said. “I wish it could be yours.”
    â€œMine will be beautiful, too,” she said, but her eyes still glistened in the light. She finished with the pins in the back and turned me around.
    â€œ Wow, ” she said. Her sorrow was gone.
    â€œ ’Wow’ what?”
    â€œYou’re gorgeous .”
    â€œWe both know who the gorgeous one is,” I said. Silky just laughed and shook her head, and her white-­gold hair was a cloud around her face.
    When we reached the wedding tent, where the ceremony would take place, where I would finally be able to see Leth without a chaperone at my side, I saw that Silky must have been up very early tending to all the wedding details. The path to the tent was sprinkled with rose petals, and there were flowers everywhere—­a riot of color and scent. Nothing had been left undone.
    It was as if Silky could read my mind.
    â€œI added stuff,” she said. “So there’s nothing to complain about now .”
    â€œSilky,” I said, “you know I wouldn’t have complained.”
    â€œI wasn’t thinking about you .”
    I laughed. “I thank you, but I’m sure what Leth’s parents had was fine.”
    â€œYou’d think it would be, considering the dowry,” said Silky. “But they’re stingy, and you know it. I’m sure Leth wouldn’t have approved.”
    It was indeed a good dowry. This marriage was the biggest real estate transaction the village had ever seen. And despite Silky’s romantic enthusiasm, I was perfectly able to see the wedding as Father and the Nessons saw it—­as a good land deal. A sensible merger that would add to the power of both families.
    And I got Leth in the transaction. He was a good choice. Other Ladies even accounted Leth the most handsome man they had seen, although I preferred Trey’s dark looks to Leth’s fair coloring. To be truthful.
    Another thought came on unbidden: Leth’s not as handsome as the Bard, either .
    I laughed out loud at that. After all, the Bard was nothing more than a landless vagrant with a goodish face.
    Leth was a good man and extraordinarily generous: he had agreed that Silky would live with us until her marriage. As eldest girl, I had received my mother’s inheritance—­but now I could make sure Silky had a good dowry when her time came.
    Silky and I went to the side tent, where I would wait until Leth and Father and the Nessons and the witnesses and guests and all the nobility father could muster were in place.
    I began to fidget.
    â€œStop that,” said Silky. “You’ll ruin the pattern on your hands.”
    â€œSorry.”
    â€œAt least you’re acting like a bride.”
    â€œI suppose I am a bride.” Perhaps I was curt. Silky didn’t reply. I held my bouquet firmly in my hand while Silky put flowers in my hair. I was dark, like Trey, and for effect she wove tiny white roses into the braids coiled around my head. The scent of the roses was strong, and as I watched Silky work, I saw that she had added some wild roses to enhance the scent. And because she knew I liked them.
    Violet—­who was looking more like a lemon drop than ever—­popped her head in the