Read Online The Brothers by Katie French - Free Book Online

girls being sold.
    Bell grabs my wrist and tugs me upright so fast my head snaps back. “Stop it,” she whispers harshly. “Stop giving in to this. You are alive. I won’t let you wallow in self-pity like a baby.”
    My hurt turns to anger. I glare at her. “What do you know? You don’t have to worry. You can live your life, eat dinner with your friends, and go up and rock your babies. You won’t ever be sold or bought as someone’s wife!” I realize I’m screaming. Pressing my hands to my face, I shake my head. I shouldn’t have yelled. I shouldn’t have raised my voice to Nanny.
    When she draws my hands away, Bell is kneeling before me. “What do you mean—bought as someone’s wife?”
    I lick my lips and whisper. “Dr. Houghtson says he’s going to buy me. I’m going to be his wife. I have no choice now.”
    Bell leans back on her heels as the words settle in. Sabrina turns to me with big eyes. “That’s why he never lets any other doctor see you.”
    Bell grips my arm. “You only see Houghtson?”
    I look between two faces. “Isn’t that how it is for everyone?”
    Sabrina shakes her head. “I see all the doctors. Whoever’s on duty. All the girls are like that. Except you. I thought you needed some treatment only he was trained in. But…”
    Waves and waves of chills rack my body. Dr. Houghtson has been my doctor for four years. I think of his hands on me. How he washes and washes after he’s touched me.
    I look up at Bell, the woman who raised me, who taught me everything I know about the world. “What do I do?” I whisper.
    Her face hardens into a look of determination I’ve only seen a few other times. “Leave it to me.” She’s gone before I can say another word.
    Sabrina and I stare at the empty doorway. She lets go of my hand and holds the ribbon up to the light. Its satin finish shines. “Where’d you get it?” she asks, tying it around her head.
    I help her straighten the ends and fluff the bow. “Robbie. He already had it for me. Didn’t even have to ask.”
    “That’s who you should marry,” she says softly, getting up to look at herself in the window’s reflection.
    “Who? Robbie?” I walk over beside her and see what a mess my hair has become. I take out my braid and untangle the knots.
    “He’s sweet on you,” she says, watching me. “Always bringing you things.” She helps me smooth a lump of hair at the top of my head and watches me braid. “You know, for a long time, I was jealous of you. You’re so beautiful with your dark hair and oh-so-perfect lips.” She turns and looks at her face in the window’s reflection. “But maybe it’s better to be ugly.”
    I snort as I secure the end of my braid with a rubber band. “You’re not ugly.”
    When she turns to face me, she’s pulled her nose up like a pig and oinks.
    “It’ll stay that way,” I say, mimicking Nanny Hannah.
    She drops the pig face and makes another by pulling her eyes to tiny slits and sticking out her buck teeth. “That’s what I’m saying. Ugly is better.”
    Trying to play along, I stick my fingers in the corners of my mouth and loll out my tongue. It’s a forced happiness, but it makes Sabrina smile.
    “There, see. Dr. Houghtson won’t want you now.” She tugs my arm. “Come on. The moo cows will eat all the breakfast.”
    I dread the cafeteria, but I let her tug me there anyway. We push through the doors into a bustling room, lined with tables crammed shoulder to shoulder with girls. I peek at the trays as we make our way up the aisles to the serving line. Baked white fish, soupy carrots, and bread. Boring is better than experimental. Like the time they got a shipment of canned beans and one of the nannies tried out an ancient chili recipe. Forty girls got food poisoning and the bathrooms were wrecked for a week.
    We grab plastic trays and slide them down the line. They plop down carrots in a sauce that looks like snot, but at least I’m here instead of being violated in