“You are the missing part,” she said with a frustrated shrug. “Like the last wingnut that holds the table together.” Catching her bottom lip between her teeth, she narrowed her eyes and stared at her hands against his chest. “But we are more than the sum of all our parts, all our lifetimes. There is more at stake here than what you’ve already told me. If I abandon all I have ever known, people’s lives will be affected. My friends will be affected. My horses.” She lifted her gaze to his. “And after the princess’s reaction to me today, I can only imagine how your parents will react, how your people will behave, when they see me. From what I have witnessed so far, no matter how young or old, no matter how thin or fat, the Fae are a beautiful people—a blemish-free people. Princess Faeniana said I would never be accepted, never fit in. What say you to that?” She arched a brow. “And I want the truth, no matter how hard it might be to hear.”
“I will not lie and tell ye it will be easy.” He bowed his head, squeezed her hands, and rained kisses across her knuckles, wishing he could tell her differently. “But my people will accept the fulfillment of the prophecy.”
“I see.” She shifted as she took in a deep breath, then released it as a heavy sigh. “And is that the only reason you are accepting me? Because you are afraid to go against the prophecy?”
“As I told ye, when I look upon yer scars, I ache for yer suffering, for all the pain ye have experienced, physically and emotionally. I hate myself for not being there to take it away, to prevent it from ever happening.” He slowly shook his head. “But with each passing moment, the longer I am in yer presence, it becomesmore.”
“More?”
“The ache in my heart is for ye to accept me, the realization of how lonely my life has been up until now, and the fear that ye will not stay, not forgive me for struggling to shed my shallowness. I yearn to hold ye, taste ye, completely consume ye, and make us one. A burning need to never let ye go fills me.” He reached out and touched her face, daring to trail his fingertips across the scar running down her cheek. “This is nothing compared to yer inner exquisiteness. I bask in yer warmth and kindness. Yer laughter is the purest joy. Ye are incomparable, my love, and I canna bear the thought of ye leaving.” He brushed the backs of his fingers along the curve of her jawline. “Do ye feel any of what I just described? Any of it at all?”
She shuddered with another heavy sigh and lowered her gaze. “I feel all that and my own version ofmore.Confusion. Frustration. Disbelief. Worry. Wishing my mammaw was still here so I could talk to her about all this unbelievable stuff that is so hard to wrap my mind around.”
Her answer both thrilled and stabbed him in the center of his heart. “Then what are we to do?”
“I don’t know,” she softly said, but gave him hope by squeezing his hands. “I don’t know what to do.” She looked up at him and made a face, seeming almost to cringe. “I can’t commit to anything right away. Like you asked me for time, I need time too. There is a lot on the line here—for both of us. Can you be as patient with me as you asked me to be with you?”
Hope took root in his soul and sprouted, strong and healthy. “Aye, lass. I can.” He would do whatever it took to not only keep her here, but convince her to choose him. The disfigurement on her face no longer mattered. He saw it, but didn’t see it. Whenever he looked at her, he saw the other half of his soul, the person he couldn’t live without.
ChapterNine
Rill’s long, steady strokes with the hairbrush almost mesmerized Lexi, as she stared at her reflection in the dressing table mirror. She really didn’t understand why she needed to change clothes before joining Jeros for dinner, but if that was what was done here, then so be it. She still found it amazing that an entire wardrobe that fit perfectly filled the pair of large armoires and multiple dressers. It was almost as if Mairwen had somehow sent her measurements on ahead so the household of Sevenrest could prepare. “Rill?”
“Aye, my lady?”
“How is it that I have all these clothes that fit as if they were tailored for me?”
“Because they were tailored for ye, my lady.” Rill set down the brush, dipped her fingers into the oil of a jeweled crock on the dressing table, and started massaging Lexi’s scalp.
Lexi closed her eyes and breathed in the delicate scent of lilacs and honeysuckle and found the tensed muscles of her shoulders relaxing. Back home, she only got this kind of pampering when she and Maggie scheduled a spa day. She struggled to stay focused. “What do you mean they were tailored for me?”
“The modiste examined the clothes ye arrived in and the tailor faeries measured ye for certainty while ye slept, and then yer wardrobe was created.”
“In a single night?”
“Of course, my lady.” Rill smiled at her in the mirror. “Is that not the way of things in yer world?”
“Not even close.”
The maid picked up another small jar and removed its lid. But then she stood there as if uncertain how to proceed.
“What is it?” Lexi peered at the silky white cream with interest.
Rill avoided meeting her gaze. Instead, she stared down at the jar. “Please dinna be offended, but I spoke with the apothecary about yer scars. She mixed up this special face cream if ye would like to try it. She said ye might find it soothing since it will ease any tightness and is quite good for all of yer skin.”
Lexi had tried every cream, ointment, and balm in creation to minimize her scars. Some had worked a little. Most had been a waste of money. She swallowed hard, tamping down the bitterness against the father she couldn’t remember. Bitterness and holding a grudge were like eating poison and expecting it to kill the person who had done you wrong. Leastwise, that was what Mammaw always said, and the logical part of Lexi knew her grandmother was right. But it sure was hard not to sink into resentment mode sometimes.
“Please dinna be offended,” Rill repeated. “I would never wish to upset ye.”
“I am not offended.” Lexi offered the young woman a reassuring smile. “I appreciate your taking care of me. I need a good moisturizer. My skin tends to be a little on the dry side.”
“I may apply it, then?”
Struggling to remain as positive as Mammaw had always taught her, Lexi upturned her face and closed her eyes. “You may apply it.”
The cool creaminess of the moisturizer possessed the crisp, clean scent of sliced cucumbers and was quite pleasant on her poor, parched skin that she hadn’t taken care of nearly as religiously as she should. She couldn’t resist a smile as she remembered all the times Mammaw had scolded her for forgetting to apply sunscreen.
“Ye like it, then, my lady?” Rill paused in smoothing the cream onto her face.
