Sharon Shinn - The SafeKeepers Secret

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret
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Front Cover
The SafeKeeper's Secret
By
Sharon Shinn
Contents
Prologue 
Chapter One 
Chapter Two 
Chapter Three 
Chapter Four 
Chapter Five 
Chapter Six 
Chapter Seven 
Chapter Eight 
Chapter Nine 
Chapter Ten 
Chapter Eleven 
Chapter Twelve 
Chapter Thirteen 
Chapter Fourteen 
Chapter Fifteen 
Chapter Sixteen 
Chapter Seventeen 
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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

Books by Sharon Shinn

The Samaria Novels

Archangel

Jovah’s Angel

The Alleluia Files

Angelica

Angel-Seeker

The Shape-Changer’s Wife

Wrapt in Crystal

Heart of Gold

Summers at Castle Auburn

Jenna Starborn

The Safe-Keeper’s Secret

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

VIKING

Published by Penguin Group Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York

10014, U.S.A.

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WG2R ORL, England

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Gamberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Ganada M4V 3B2

Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

First published in 2004 by Viking, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group

13579 10 8642

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Shinn, Sharon. The Safe-Keeper’s secret / Sharon Shinn.

p. cm.

Summary: Fiona is Safe-Keeper in the small village of Tambleham, where neighbors and strangers alike

come one by one, in secret, to tell her things they dare not share with anyone else.

ISBN 0-670-05910-2 (Hardcover)

[1. Secrets—Fiction. 2. Villages—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.S5572Saf 2004

[Fic]—dc22

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

2003023538

Manufactured in U.S.A.

Book design by Jim Hoover

Set in Caslon 224 Book

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means

(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of

both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without

the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized

electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

For Aaron

Because reading the last few chapters aloud to you is one of my most special memories.

A truth comes out when it must:

A dream comes true when it will.

Though the world turn to ash and dust,

A secret’s a secret still.

Prologue

Top

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

The solitary horse and rider clattered through the sleeping town, iron-shod hooves striking sharply

against the half-buried cobblestones of the market square. Twenty yards outside the village green, the

road turned to dirt again, and the animal’s feet made only a muted thud against the dry soil. It was still

an urgent sound, for the horse was moving fast—as fast as it could after a long night of hard running.

The rider only slowed as he passed the last houses on the road leading out of town. He bent to peer at

each lawn and roofline, clearly looking for a mark or signal. Not till he came to the small gray-brick

cottage on the very edge of Tambleham did he pull the horse to a complete halt.

A spray of roses by the gate, dark and colorless in the moonlight. A low hedge of no particular shape or

beauty. And a kirrenberry tree planted by the front door.

A Safe-Keeper’s house.

Moving awkwardly because of a bundle clutched tightly to his chest, the rider dismounted and led his

horse through the gate. There he let the exhausted animal stand unteth-ered while he hurried up the

flagged walkway and knocked on the front door. When there was no immediate answer, he pounded

even louder.

A moment later, a young woman opened the door, holding a candlestick that illuminated her face.

Despite the lateness of the hour, she looked wide awake and not at all alarmed at the appearance of this

midnight visitor. Her dark hair was pinned to the back of her head, and her yellow gown appeared to be

spattered with a variety of stains.

“Yes?” she asked.

Her visitor was not nearly so calm. “You are the Safe-Keeper of this village?” he demanded in a low

voice.

She shook her head. “No. I—”

He fell back a step, clutching his bundle even more tightly to him. “No! But you—but the kirrenberry

tree—”

“My sister is Safe-Keeper here. I am Safe-Keeper in Lowford, thirty miles over that hill.”

He stepped forward again, instantly reassured. Any Safe-Keeper was to be trusted, no matter where he or

she could be found. “Where is your sister? I must speak with her.”

She gave him the tiniest of smiles. “My sister cannot come to the door now. She is in labor and will soon

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

be delivered of a child.”

Now he backed off again, turning away as if to shield the package in his arms from anyone else’s sight.

“Is she—is there a midwife in the house? Another woman from the town to aid you?”

The young woman shook her head. “No. Just my sister and me. I have delivered plenty of babies in

Lowford. I know what to do.”

He stood there a moment longer, undecided, but it was clear from the set of his shoulders that he was

weary almost beyond imagining. “I can go no farther,” he said at last, seeming to speak to himself more

than the woman at the door. “I have ridden as long and as hard as I can. I must leave my secret with

you.”

Just then there was a wail from inside the house, the long, indignant moan of a woman who was not

enjoying her circumstances. “Quickly, then,” the woman said. “I must go to her.”

With one abrupt movement, the man thrust his bundle through the open door. “Take the baby,” he said

baldly. “The child is not safe in anyone else’s hands.”

With a soft exclamation of surprise, the woman placed her candle on a nearby table and accepted the

infant into her arms. “But whose child is this?” she murmured, looking down into the small sleeping face

and beginning to rock slowly back and forth on the balls of her feet.

“I will whisper the name into your ear,” the man said, coming near enough to do just that. “It is a secret.”

She nodded, and he brought his mouth so close to her face he might have been kissing her on the cheek.

She listened, nodded again, and looked him directly in the eyes as he straightened up and drew back.

“I will tell my sister,” she said.

“And no one else,” he said.

“And no one else,” she repeated.

“Will she keep the baby? Will you?”

“Or we will find a home that is safe,” she said gently. “Your secret is ours to keep now.”

“Then I must go back,” he said.

There was another cry from the back of the house, this one a little sharper. But the young woman

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

lingered at the doorway, her worried gaze on her visitor. “What will become of you, when you return to

the city and this one is missing?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I know what I must do next. Have no fear for me.”

A pitiful cry came from the back room. “Angeline! Where have you gone?”

“Who are you?” she asked. “I will tell no one. Just so I know.”

For the first time since she had opened the door to him, he smiled, a rather grim expression. “I am the

Safe-Keeper to the king,” he said.

“Angeline!”

“Safe passage home,” she said.

“My deepest thanks,” he replied. Finally relieved of his burden, he lost some of his desperation and

acquired a certain courtly air. He gave her a deep, flourishing bow, and kissed his fingers to her as he

swept upright.

“When should the secret be told?” she asked.

“You will know,” he said. “But it will not be soon.”

“Angeline! I need you!“

“Good-bye, then,” she said.

“Good-bye,” he said. Turning with a swirl of his cloak, he headed back to his horse. By the time he had

led the tired animal through the gate and climbed back into the saddle, the door to the cottage was

already closed. There was no sign of either woman or baby.

In the morning, Elminstra was the first one to come knocking on the Safe-Keeper’s door. She had a loaf

of fresh-baked bread in one hand and a bucket of milk in the other, for she was sure Angeline had had no

time to be thinking of food, and Damiana was in no condition.

“Hello?” she called, pushing the door open when no one responded to her knock. She was the nearest

neighbor, living a mere quarter mile down the road, and she and Damiana quite freely walked into each

other’s houses. “Angeline? Damiana? Has the baby come?”

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

Just as Elminstra stepped into the big main room, Angeline came in from the kitchen, cradling a child in

each arm. “In fact, two babies have come,” Angeline said, smiling.

With a little shriek, Elminstra dropped both her loaf and her bucket to the floor. “Twins! I would swear

she was not big enough to be carrying two—are they early? Are they healthy? Let me see them, the

precious little ones—”

“Not twins,” Angeline said, handing one of the children to the neighbor. Elminstra was a grandmother

herself, though she looked more of an age to be a mother, and she had handled more babies in her time

than Angeline and her sister put together. “This little girl was born around three in the morning. But this

young man”—and she glanced down into the face of the baby she had kept in her arms—“he arrived a

few hours earlier when a strange rider brought him to our door.”

Elminstra, who had begun cooing into the blankets she held, looked up sharply at this statement. “So I

didn’t dream it!” she exclaimed. “I thought I heard a horse go by late last night, very fast. It was

someone coming here?”

Angeline nodded. “And leaving a package behind.”

The baby girl made a sound halfway between a whimper and a cough, and Elminstra began to jiggle her

absently. “But—who was he? And whose child did he bring to you?”

Angeline merely smiled, and Elminstra nodded. Being neighbor to a Safe-Keeper for so long had taught

her not to expect answers to all her questions. Not that many of those answers would surprise her. She

was a healer and herbalist—some called her a witch—and people often came to her for medicines and

remedies that some other woman might find shocking.

“Will she keep this baby, then? Or will you?” Elminstra asked.

“I was willing to take him back to Lowford, but Damiana is determined to keep him,” Angeline said.

“She says it’s easier for one person to raise two babies than for two people to raise one apiece, though

I’m not so sure that’s true. But she thinks these two will be company for each other as they grow older.”

“Company for each other, and enemies with each other, and mischief-makers who incite each other to

even greater mischief,” Elminstra said with feeling. “She could be right! But on the other hand, it is not

such an easy thing to raise a child all by yourself—and to raise two children”—

Elminstra shook her head. “I don’t suppose,” she added delicately, “this makes her any more interested

in contacting her daughter’s father and seeing if he would be willing to help her out?”

Angeline grinned. “No, nor has it made her any more interested in divulging the identity of her

daughter’s father.”

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Shinn, Sharon - The SafeKeepers Secret

Elminstra sighed and continued bouncing the baby in her arms. “There is some talk about Damiana

already, you know, choosing to have a child all on her own and telling no one who the father is. Oh,

everyone loves her, of course—”

“Everyone loves their Safe-Keeper,” Angeline interrupted. “She knows too many secrets for them not to

love her.”

“But now with two children in the house—well, it will cause even more talk.”

Angeline shrugged and patted the child’s back. “Such things don’t bother Damiana. I think she’ll raise

both children and she’ll be happy and they’ll be happy, and there won’t be any more talk.”

“Until the secret about the child’s parentage comes out,” Elminstra said.

Angeline laughed. “Which one?”

Elminstra was still in the Safe-Keeper’s house when the next visitor came calling, and the next, and the

next. To each of them, Angeline told the same story, of the boy delivered to the house at midnight and

the girl delivered to the bed three hours later. Everyone was agog with curiosity— but, like Elminstra,

they knew the futility of questioning a Safe-Keeper. Angeline would reveal no secrets now, and

Damiana would reveal no secrets later. In fact, Damiana appeared likely to stay in her bed sleeping the

entire day through, waking up only enough to nurse both infants whenever they started to wail.

“You’ll need milk,” Elminstra said briskly. “She won’t have enough for both of them. I’ll bring you a

bucket every morning.”

“How long are you staying?” Lacey asked Angeline. She was seamstress in Tambleham and friendly

with everybody. “I imagine they’ll be wanting you back in Lowford very soon. I can come once a day to

help with dinner.”

Other women chimed in with similar offers, and Angeline accepted them all on behalf of her sister.

Damiana was the kind who could manage entirely on her own; but Damiana also had the ability to

accept aid with great grace and sweetness. It was one of the reasons everyone in Tambleham liked her so

much. That and her ready smile and her sweet face and her gift for silence. She was just the sort of

person you would want to have for your friend, no matter what you needed a friend for.

It was past lunch time, and Elminstra had taken over the kitchen to prepare a meal for everyone, when

running footsteps could be heard coming up the walk. All the women glanced at each other—there were

eight of them by now, enjoying the chance to gossip and in no mood to go back to their own

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