Chapter 19. Three Brothers and a Window

Josie's POV

"My name is Josie," I said.

It came out harder than I meant it to. Or maybe exactly as hard as I meant it.

My mother, the woman with my face, didn't flinch. She looked at me across that small warm room as if she were memorizing me, as if I might be taken away again before she'd finished.

"Josie," she said, carefully. "All right. Josie."

"You knew I was alive." I hadn't moved from the door. "You tied that knot. Agnes said a binding dies with the one who made it. So you knew. Every day for twenty-three years, you knew exactly where I was."

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you come?"

She didn't answer right away. She took the pot off the fire, slowly, and set it on the hearthstone