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Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

Sarah Blakley-Cartwright Biography

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“His face was glistening with cold. He was beautiful, the snow in his eyelashes like diamonds, the cool pink of his cheeks, the wet red of his lips. He was staggering toward her. "I have to leave you." His breath came in uneven bursts. "You won't be safe with me." Whatever he was, he could not be bad. An amazing and terrible thought entered Valerie's mind, clearing away all others. "Peter..." She stepped toward him, arms out. They gave in to each other, finally, their bodies fitting together. Her fingers warmed his cheek, and his arms slipped underneath her crimson cloak as her long blond hair blew around them. Enveloped in a shelter of white, standing out in black and red, were just the two of them. Nothing else anywhere. Valerie knew that she could never be apart from him, that she was what he was and that she would be his always. She didn't care if he was the Wolf or not. And if he was a Wolf, then she would be one, too. She made he choice and brought her lips to his.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“What was that about?" Henry's voice came out higher than he would have liked. "Shh." Peter's eyes shifted around the square. "I thought you cared about her," Henry said, careful to steady his voice this time. Peter rubbed his eyes and hen opened them, hoping to find that Henry had gone. He hadn't. "I do care." Peter sighed, seeing that we would have to give a genuine answer, that Henry wouldn't take anything less. "But" —Peter nodded in the direction of the tavern, where the Captain was— "I'm trying to be smart about it.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“Henry...your father was a brave man." He continued attacking the metal with a sledgehammer, brutally hacking at the anvil. She wasn't sure he had heard her. Then, he stopped short, the hammer hanging heavy in the air, the fire snapping in front of him. "I was close enough to smell it," he seethed, not turning. "But I was afraid. I hid from it." Clang! I didn't do anything. "I should have done something." Clang! "I should have saved him." Valerie saw that he was destroying all of their half-finished projects. They would remain that way forever. "I've lost someone, too, Henry—I know how it is. Please, come away from the fire." He didn't. Clang! "Henry, please." One of the fiery specks spat out of the forge an landed on Henry's arm, searing his flesh. Punishing himself, he did not stop to remove it until finally, with one quick motion, he gestured violently towards the door, shaking it off. "Valerie, leave," he snarled. "I don't want you to see me like this.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“You've been betrothed." Her hand dropped from the unruly seam at her shoulder. She stared straight ahead at his sun-touched skin. "To...Henry Lazar." It wasn't easy for him to say the name. Valerie felt something fall to the floor of her stomach like a wet rag. "No," she said, not wanting to believe him. "No, no," she told his chest. Peter stood mute, wishing he could tell her what she wanted to hear. "It's not possible," she said. "It is. I'm telling you, it's done.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“For Lucie," Peter said quietly, the flame of a gilded saint's candle fluttering in his hand." "Leave." Peter had anticipated this reaction and was prepared. He cleared his throat. "I'm paying my respects," he said, still trying to be polite. The woman was grieving for her daughter. "I can guess the reason you're here. I've just lost one daughter," she said, her hand on the door. "I won't lose another." "Wait," "She's all I have left," she said. "And you have nothing to offer her." Peter knew that she was right, that Valerie deserved better. But he could not give her up. "I have a trade. The same one as your husband." "I know what a woodcutter earns." Peter began to protest, but Suzette stopped him. "Henry Lazar is her only hope for a better life." Peter looked into Suzette's anguished eyes, her words hitting him somewhere deep. It sank in: He could not give Valerie a good life. "If you love her," Suzette said, her voice cracking, "you'll leave her alone.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“Take it easy, friend," siad Peter, regaining his balance, quickly understanding the condition Henry was in. "Friend? You left us. In the caves." Henry's muscles tensed. Peter stepped back cautiously. Henry didn't look like himself. "Seems someone can't hold his drink," Peter said. He didn't go further, sensing then that Valerie might be thinking of her father. "And now," Henry continued on his own track, stepping closer to meet him, the smell of alcohol on his breath, "my father, too is dead." Valerie moved to Henry. "Please, don't do this," she said, stepping in. "It's not worth it." Henry pushed past her, not realizing his own weight. The force knocked her back. Peter grabbed Henry's arm and twisted it. Overreacting, Henry reared back his fist and landed a punch in the hollow of Peter's eye. The crowd laughed as Peter fell hard to the ground. Henry scrambled on top him, held him by the collar, forced Peter to face him as he'd never done. He looked into the eyes of the man he wanted to blame for his parents' deaths, because it was a shelter from the terrible thought that everything could be lost to a simple slip of fate. "You filth," he spat out. This really got the villagers going. But Peter didn't laugh. He pulled a knife from his boot and leapt up, thrusting it viciously in Henry's face. "Keep your hands off her or I'll cut them off!”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“Peter," she began. He looked up at her, and she could see the pain in his eyes. "I love you," she said freely. With Peter, she was laid bare; he extracted her from herself. Peter didn't know what to say. HIs eyes glimmered, bright and burning. He only let her see them a moment before he turned away. He took a ragged breath. "What were you doing with Rose anyway" she demanded, asking a lot of him. Peter darkened again. He turned his back to her, took a step farther into the alley, and said in a dead voice, "I don't have to like her to get what I want." "I don't believe you," Valerie said, reaching for his face, again. Peter pulled away from her. "You're lying.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“Valerie, I love you so much. I wanted you to have a normal childhood—so I lived a double life. Hiding in plain sight. Living modestly.” He began to pace the room, the words tumbling out of him. “I tried to keep it up, but I’ve been so disrespected. Even by my own wife. I couldn’t do it anymore. I’ve settled for far less than I deserved, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I decided it was time to leave for the city....For richer hunting grounds.” Cesaire was snarling now, a scary, powerful force. Valerie felt herself being drawn to it.... She took a deep, steadying breath. It was not just fear that she felt. What she felt was so much more complex than that, something she couldn’t understand. “Then why didn’t you just go?” “Because I loved you girls, and I wanted you to come with me. To share the wealth.” “But you had to wait until the blood moon.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood Bonus Chapter
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“Dong. Dong. Dong. The third toll of the church bells hovered in the air, and everything became still. Someone in the village had died. Valerie froze. Dong. A forth toll shattered the silence. The world split open, exposing a raw inside. Valerie and Peter looked at each other first in confusion, then in awful understanding. The fourth bell meant only one thing: Wolf attack. She had never heard the fourth bell except for the time she and Peter had rung it themselves. With those bells, Valerie knew. Life would never be the same,”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“She never even told me how she felt," Valerie thought aloud, feeling the betrayal in her gut. How had she been so blind? Her sister had loved Henry silently. Did she know about the engagement? Did she overhear our parents planning? Valerie supposed it was possible, but it seemed unlikely since they were always together. Would it have broken her heart? "Don't worry, you poor child," Madame Lazar said, seeming almost disinterested in the subject of Lucie's death. "I know you're worried about your sister, but Henry always had his eye on you. You are—were always the pretty one.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“Do you want to marry him?" Peter stopped in front of her, pressing close. "You know I don't." "Do I? Do we know each other anymore? It's been a long time. I'm not the same person I was." "You are," she insisted. "I know who you are." She knew it was ridiculous, to feel so strong so fast...but she did. It just felt like they belonged together. She took his hand and held it tight. His face softened. "All right, then. There may be one way,,,." he said out to the faint silver hue of the moors on the horizon. Valerie looked at him blankly, her mind racing off on its own. "We could run away," he said, speaking her mind before she's quite reached the thought. He came even closer, almost touching his forehead to hers. "Run away with me," he repeated the words, smiling a real smile, full and dark, in that terrifying way he had, as though his actions were self-contained, as though there were no consequences. She wanted to be a part of his ripple-less world. "Where would we go?" His lips brushed her ear. "Anywhere you want," he said. "The sea, the city, the mountains..." Anywhere. With him. He pulled back to look at her. "You're afraid." "No, I'm not." "You'd leave your home? Your family? Your whole life?" "I-I think I would. Anything to be with you." She heard herself saying it and realized it was true. "Anything?" Valerie pretended to think a moment, for show, to be able to tell herself she had. Then, almost meekly, "Yes." "Yes?" "Yes.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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“Peter?” He couldn’t look at her. Instead, he stared down at his poisoned arm. “I could do terrible things to you,” he cautioned her sadly. “I have to leave you. You won’t be safe with me until I learn to control myself.” “I’ll wait for you.” Finally, when he felt the strength of his conviction, of her conviction, he turned to her, allowing her in for just a moment. “I thought you’d say that.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood Bonus Chapter
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“This is your idea of a bribe?" Solomon's brow was still lifted. The Captain laughed roundly. They let her stand there, feeling hopelessly foolish. "Don;t you want me?" she murmured, almost convincingly. "Turn around, girl," Solomon spat out. Now it was she who felt dirty. Roxanne managed to cover herself before the Captain laid his hands on her to drag her out. Wait!" she cried. The worst thing Roxanne had ever had to do was beat the body of a filthy, drunken man off her mother with Claude standing nearby, wringing his hands as he witnessed the scene. This was so much worse. This...this would haunt her forever. But she had no choice. "Wait, please. I do have one more thing." She spoke quickly enough that she could not turn back. "If you spare my brother," she began, "I'll give you the name of a witch." This got Solomon's attention. "Now that is worth something.”

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Book:Red Riding Hood
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