House of Salt and Sorrows - Erin A. Craig Page 0,12

Lenore protested. “I want them.”

“We should all get a pair,” Ligeia said. She joined Morella on the chaise, touching the ribbons. “We only turn sixteen once.”

Camille looked up from the sketches. “Can they be made in other colors? I’d love a pair in rose gold, to match my gown.”

Gerver nodded. “I have samples of all my leather here.” He pulled a book out from under the discarded yellow fabric. He paused, eyeing Morella. “Because these slippers are so unique…they can run quite dear.”

“Quite dear?” Papa’s voice boomed from the doorway. “I leave my girls alone for an hour and you’ve spent me out of house and home, have you?”

Rosalie held up the shimmering slipper. “Papa! Look at this! These shoes would be perfect for our ball! May we get them? Please?”

He looked at each of my sisters’ hopeful faces. “I suppose you all want a pair?”

“Us too?” Honor asked, standing on tiptoe to peer over a stack of hatboxes.

He kept his face as a neutral mask. “I’ll need to see them. One of the most important lessons of trade: never shake on an agreement until you’ve inspected the cargo.”

Rosalie gave the slipper back to Verity and nudged her. She stepped forward, holding it out with reverent, chubby fingers.

“They’re fairy shoes, Papa.”

He turned it over and over again with theatrical interest. “Fairy shoes, you say?” Her round eyes, the same green as mine, beamed. “They seem awfully delicate. Very insubstantial.”

The cobbler stepped forward. “Not at all. I assure you, they will last a whole season’s worth of balls. I make my soles from the finest leather in the kingdom. Flexible but tough.”

Papa looked unconvinced. “How much for eight pairs?” From the chaise, Morella sniffed. “Nine pairs,” Papa corrected. “Nine pairs, delivered before the end of the month. My daughters are having a ball. We’ll need them ready by then.”

Gerver whistled through his teeth. “That’s not much time. I’ll have to bring in extra hands….”

“How much?”

Gerver counted on the tips of his fingers, then adjusted the gold spectacles hanging from the end of his nose. “Each pair is one hundred and seventy-five gold florettes. But to have nine pairs made up, in only three weeks…I couldn’t charge less than three thousand.”

The room’s playful mood died away. There was no chance Papa would agree to such extravagance. I couldn’t begin to calculate what the new dresses and underpinnings were already costing him.

“Surely nine pairs of shoes won’t send us to the poorhouse, Ortun,” Morella prompted with a winsome smile.

Verity stood on her toes, watching his expression with rapt attention. He knelt beside her. “Do you really think these slippers are worth all that, child?” She looked back to us, then nodded. His face broke into an unexpected grin. “Go on, then, and pick yours out. Fairy shoes for everyone!”

With a final tug of the oars, I pulled my dinghy into the marina at Selkirk, slipping alongside the sun-bleached dock as the sun rose over the horizon. At Eulalie’s wake, Morella had mentioned she’d been about to tell Papa about the baby but had been interrupted by the fishermen bringing Eulalie’s body home. Perhaps they had seen something, some small detail they might have forgotten to tell Papa because they believed the fall was an accident.

I threaded my rope through the eye of an open cleat and tied off the excess line, then pulled myself out.

I needed to find those fishermen.

* * *

The five islands of Salann spread across the Kaleic Sea like jeweled clusters of a necklace.

Selkirk was the farthest to the northeast, home to fishmongers, captains, and sailors. A bustling wharf handled the seafood arriving daily on the boats.

Astrea was next in the chain, and the most populated. Shops, markets, and taverns sprang from its rocky shores, a glittering city of commerce and wealth. The triplets had been there nearly every day since their ball was announced, scouring the stores for little treasures. An extra pair of stockings, a new shade of lip stain. Somehow Morella convinced Papa they were all absolute necessities for young ladies about to make their societal debut.

We lived directly in the middle of the chain, on Salten.

Vasa stretched out like a long, skinny eel, with ports on the north and south sides. Papa oversaw the massive shipyard that took up the whole island. Most of the King’s naval fleet had been built on Vasa. Someone at court once heard him boast the Salann ships were the swiftest in his navy, and Papa had beamed