Cousin Bradford’s brows furrowed. “I’ll fetch a butler for you. We need to make sure Luna made it back to the stables. The horses are going to be panicking.”
“I work with horses a lot. I can come help you,” Henry offered and followed Bradford out the door.
Darcy watched the two of them leave the sitting room. “Who is that guy, Georgiana? I know he drove you here, but you seem to know him from somewhere else.”
“His name is Henry Cyprus. We went to College de Synthese in Paris together. You've met him before because his parents attended a lot of Mom's and Dad's soirees. But I don’t know why he’s here. I thought he lived in upstate New York or something.” I tried to make sense of things, but my head ached so badly I could hardly think. “We were friends at school and took some of the same classes.”
Lizzy leaned forward, cupping her chin in her palms. “He looks familiar. Maybe I saw the car he drove here earlier today when I came with my aunt and uncle. He might be touring and wanted to see the art as well?” She asked, but there was something else on her mind, and she gazed absently at Darcy.
I wasn't persuaded. “Of coursethat’s possible.”
Darcy weighed Henry in his mind, like every other guy I associated with. "Well, I'm glad our parents knew his family, at least."
Henry wasn’t fae, but he always seemed to glow just a little. In school, he won every athletic and academic competition held. All the girls at College de Synthese adored him, including me. But I’d always seen Henry more like a celebrity than an actual person. He was out of reach and belonged to the stars.
Plus, I was too in love with Wickham during most of those years to think much of anyone else.I'd given all of my heart to him and still hadn't recovered. Part of me crumbled when Wickham left, and I doubted it could ever be whole again.
“Now, hold still.” Annie took a pair of scissors to my riding trousers. “I’m sorry, but these pants are done for… unless you want to turn them into shorts.”
“Shorts?” I watched her cut away all the fabric below the knee. Then she pressed a warm, wet cloth to my bloodied shin, and I winced even with the healing waves of fae energy.
“Maybe you never cut your jeans into shorts when they got a hole in the knee?” she asked with a slight lift at thecorner of her mouth. “I healed your fractured ankle, but this is still going to hurt. It might help if you don’t look.”
The searing pain shooting up my leg took my focus away from my headache. I grimaced. “Nope. Looking away makes no difference. Ahh.”
“As soon as the wound’s clean, I can spray some lidocaine on it and focus on the healing. But I promise, you don’t want to heal a dirty wound.” She turned to my brother. “There’s ibuprofen in my bag on the side there. Go ahead and give her 600 milligrams.”
After the wounds were clean, Annie wrapped them and used her power to heal as much as she could. “You should be okay. But give yourself a few days for your ankle to fully heal.”
“A few days…” I nodded, wriggling my toes.
“Miss Georgiana, let’s try not to go falling off horses anymore. I can’t heal you if you die.” She gave me a playful look, but I knew she was serious.
I considered the events of the last hour. “Sorry, Annie. I’ll be more careful. I wonder what happened out there. Whatever it wasstartled Luna."
“Riding by the embankment is risky, Georgiana. If Mom and Dad were still alive, they’d take away your riding privileges altogether.” Darcy gave me a firm stare.
“I know.” Though I doubted Mom would’ve tried to stop me. She was bolder than Dad or Darcy ever knew.
Sylvia, my personal housekeeper, arrived with a fresh outfit for me, and we shooed Darcy out of the room so I could change into clean clothes.
“You can stay and help, please,” Sylvia said to Lizzy.
“Of course.” Lizzy nodded and helped me with my zippers and buttons. We wiped the blood and dirt from my skin, and I slid into a pair of loose plum yoga pants with a cream-colored camisole and cardigan.
With just us girls in the room, Lizzy sat and brushed the tangles out of my hair. Since Darcy was banished to the hallway, I had the bright idea to play matchmaker. “Thank you so much. My brother will kill me for saying this, but he’s pretty crazy about you.”
“Oh, he may have been… probably not anymore.” Lizzy sounded regretful, and I wanted to ask her why she said that, but it would’ve been rude.
I kept trying. “I don’t know. He’s very loyal. If he cares about you, you would have to do something pretty terrible to get on his bad side.”
“Is that so?” Lizzy seemed confused. “But once you’re on his bad side, that’s it, right?”
“No. I can only think of one person he’s unwilling to speak to, and it's to protect me.” My experience with Wickham a while ago was regrettable, and partly my own fault. I doubted Darcy was really even angry so much as concerned, but it was over now.
I might have imagined a slight gasp from Lizzy. “Really?”
“Yes, he’s very protective,” I said as Lizzy set the hairbrush down and sat next to me. “Especially since our parents passed.”
