Chapter 2

My father had me kneel in the ancestral hall as punishment.

My half-sister came to see me.

She ordered the servants to bring a brocade quilt, knee cushions, and salve for my wounds.

The servants throughout the manor all said she treated me wonderfully.

In front of a crowd of ladies and young misses, she comforted me.

"Don't be sad, sister. Once Father's temper cools, he'll let you out on his own. I'll plead for you before Father too."

"But you never, ever should have snuck out behind Father's back. Even that could be forgiven, but how could you go and lie about it?"

"Sister, so many ladies and young misses saw you that day."

The next day, the good name of the second young miss of the House of Coleman had spread beyond the manor's walls.

Everyone praised her for being kind and generous, while saying I was devious and a habitual liar.

Teresa said as well, "The one Rosalind loves best is her older sister. The two of them have always been so close."

Faced with his colleagues' compliments, my father smiled and praised Rosalind too.

"It's mainly that Rosalind is sensible and good-natured."

"As for my legitimate daughter—well, the less said the better."

But the moment all the guests were gone, Rosalind's face changed at once.

She threw all my clothes into the pond and made me put on the wet ones she'd just fished back out.

"I've worn these rags right along with you for over a month. I suffered plenty to ruin your reputation, and you're going to pay me back double."

The servants forced me down to kneel on a path covered in gravel.

She kicked me again and again.

I was covered in wounds, but I clenched my teeth and said nothing.

She spoke with disgust.

"Why do you just lie there like a dead thing, no reaction at all? So boring."

To get a rise out of me, she smashed the jade bracelet my mother had left me right in front of my eyes.

I had always kept the bracelet at the bottom of my trunk, and every day I took it out just to look at it.

Now it lay on the ground, broken into several pieces.

She stepped on the jade bracelet and ground it hard under her foot.

"Are you planning to gather up all the pieces after I leave and figure out some way to fit the bracelet back together?"

Her smile was vicious.

"Keep dreaming."

I stared and stared at the bracelet on the ground, and couldn't stop myself from reaching out.

She stomped on my hand at once, grinding down hard.

She laughed, thoroughly pleased.

"I knew you'd come to pick it up."

"Go on, beg me. As long as you admit your mother was a whore who stole the rightful wife's position that should have been my concubine mother's, I'll give the bracelet back."

I looked at her coldly, my whole body shaking, but I refused to speak.

She kicked the bracelet into the lake beside us.

"It's fine. Everything your mother left behind, I'll destroy it piece by piece—including you."

"The place of legitimate daughter of the House of Coleman should have been mine to begin with."

That night I came down with a chill.

I lay in bed, aching all over, tears falling without stop.

Outside the door the servants sneered.

"How can she be so blind as to offend the Second Miss again? Is the Second Miss someone she can afford to offend? She's got it coming."

"We really are unlucky, getting assigned to this jinx's courtyard to look after her. I just want to be in the Second Miss's courtyard."

My father cursed me for a bad omen too.

"Sick every single day, exactly like that jinx of a mother of hers. She's drained all the good fortune out of my manor with her sickness."

I held back my tears and curled up in bed.

Desperately, I thought of the words my mother had said to me when she was gravely ill.

"Gretchen, you have to be all right. You have to live, and live well."

"You mustn't let anything happen to you. Things will always get better."

And I believed it too—that sooner or later, things would get better.