Chapter 386 A Life to Build

Emilia’s POV

Chuck shut the window so quickly that the frame rattled. Mindy reached me first and wrapped her arms around me.

“A baby! Oh, Emilia, I knew that smile meant something.” She pulled back, already looking at my stomach. “I’ll need wool. Soft wool. Sweaters, little socks, a blanket…”

“The child won’t need an entire shop,” Chuck said.

“You mind your business. I’ve been waiting years to knit something that doesn’t have sleeves long enough for you.”

He grinned and hugged me next, more carefully than Mindy had. When he stepped back, his eyes were wet.

“I’ll teach the little one everything I know.”

Grandmother took my hands. For a moment, neither of us spoke. She had helped me reach this day, and I couldn’t thank her without crying again.

“The doctor said it’s early,” I told them. “I need regular checkups, and I can’t overdo things.”

Mindy immediately pulled out a chair. “Then sit down. You can supervise us being useful.”

“I can still walk around the kitchen.”

“Excellent. You can walk to the table.”

I sat, laughing, while she fetched me water. Chuck started listing chores I was no longer allowed to do until Grandmother told him pregnancy wasn’t a reason to confiscate my shoes.

Then she sat across from me. “Have you told Sebastian?”

I shook my head. “I want to wait until the pregnancy is further along. And I don’t want Abigail finding out.”

Chuck’s smile disappeared. “She won’t hear it from us.”

“This is your news to share,” Grandmother said. “We’ll respect that.”

Relief eased the worry I’d carried home. No one demanded that I call him or told me how I should feel. For once, I could be happy without immediately defending a decision.

By dinner, Mindy had started a list of baby clothes, and Chuck was debating where to put a cradle. I reminded them that we had months to prepare. They ignored me with the confidence of people who intended to enjoy every one of them.

Later, after they went to bed, I found Grandmother beside the hearth. I took the stool next to her and stretched my feet toward the warmth.

“There’s something else I wanted to discuss.”

She glanced at my stomach. “Please tell me you haven’t discovered another baby.”

“Not unless the doctor is saving that for my next appointment.”

She chuckled, and I smiled before continuing. “I want to build better relationships with the witches here. Real ones. Not just people greeting me because I’m your granddaughter.”

Since learning who I was, many townspeople had become kinder. Beatrice had brought me lavender honey cakes, and Hazel had shared blackberry tarts so good I’d eaten three before remembering I was supposed to leave some for everyone else.

But kindness wasn’t the same as trust. If I was going to stay here and eventually help lead these people, I needed to understand them.

“Is this about Carina?” Grandmother asked.

“Not just her.”

Carina still glared whenever we crossed paths. She had stopped calling me a half-breed or a mongrel, but only because she knew I wouldn’t tolerate it. Her friends usually followed her lead.

Melissa was different. She would smile and sometimes start a conversation, right up until Carina caught her arm and dragged her away. Apparently, speaking to me required permission.

“Most of them like you,” Grandmother said.

“They respect you. That helps me, but I don’t want it to be the only reason they listen.”

She considered that, watching the fire. I waited rather than filling the silence. Grandmother usually had something useful to say once she’d decided how much of it I was ready to hear.

“I’ve always been set in my ways,” she said eventually. “Perhaps more than I should have been. The younger girls have spent their lives here with us. They’ve never attended schools outside Hollowthorn. Most have hardly seen anything beyond these woods.”

I turned toward her. “They’ve never gone to school? You mean they can’t read?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Our grimoires are written in a language your fancy city schools have never dreamed of. We are many things, but illiterate is not one of them.”

My face warmed. “I’m sorry. That was thoughtless.”

“Yes,” she said, patting my knee. “But you apologized quickly. There’s hope for you.”

I laughed, then thought about what she’d told me. These girls could study complicated spells, yet the world outside their town remained unfamiliar. Perhaps what they needed wasn’t another lecture about behaving better. Perhaps they needed more choices.

If Hollowthorn was going to stand alongside the Ashvein covens, we couldn’t keep shutting out everything unfamiliar. We could preserve what mattered without refusing to learn anything new.

“What about lessons?” I asked. “Not instead of their magical studies. Alongside them. Practical things about the outside world, and whatever else they want to learn.”

“And who would teach them?”

“I could start. But I’d ask what they’re interested in first.”

Grandmother smiled. “A better approach than assuming they can’t read.”

“I deserved that.”

“You did.”

“Clever girl,” Eve said. “Eventually.”

I rested a hand over my belly. I had a child to protect, but I also had a life here to build. For the first time, both seemed possible.

Then Grandmother leaned back in her chair. “You understand that Carina will probably come to your first lesson just to challenge you.”

I smiled. “At least she’ll come.”