“So what do you say?” I dared a grin, and lo and behold, Fern smiled along with me. “We could go down to the docks, grab some cockles or?—”
“Go to the library.” I blinked as she said that with a sharp nod. “That’s where I’m headed. Auren and I came back to the keep for information, so if you want?—”
“I want.” Didn’t mean to get this close. Didn’t intend to take a deep breath, the scent of the roses and her fusing into something so sweet, it had my mouth watering. Didn’t plan to tip her chin up so she was forced to stare into my eyes. “If trawling through old books is what you need?” Gods, what the hell was I saying? Books were my nemesis, one I’d fought hard to conquer with the help of Kael’s mother, but no one would ever accuse me of being any kind of scholar. “Consider me your research assistant.”
I held out my arm, not letting out a full breath until her hand came to rest on it.
“So what’re we looking up?” I asked as we walked back into the keep.
“Information about an ancient dragons,” she said. With a blink, I steered us up the stairs, barely suppressing my glee. “We need to discover why queen dragons changed. They had the power to decimate whole cities in one swoop.” A glance up at me revealed a small frown. “Before queens were feared, and now they’re squabbled over like chickens might grain.”
“Ancient dragons, hmm…?” We reached the landing the library was on and I plucked a mug of coffee from a passing server, earning me a disapproving look from the woman. “I might know a bit about them. There’s a tomb of a great dragon right near where I was born.”
“Really?”
I’d do anything to keep Fern gazing up at me like that, anything at all.
“Really, but let’s see what we can find in the stacks, shall we?”
Chapter 33
Fern
“Oh my goodness…”
When I walked into the library, my dishevelled state, the fact I desperately needed a bath, was ignored. Those thoughts couldn’t coexist, not with the sight of so many books in one place. Father maintained a decent library, but that was mainly because it was seen to be a gentlemanly thing to do. The nature of that collection was left mostly up to me as I was the only one who cared.
But this…
My hands shook as I stepped forward, walking blindly towards the first stack, which meant the roses fell from my grip.
“Bloody hell…” Lorien was there picking up each bloom, then holding them tightly as he looked at me, then the stacks and back again. “If you ever looked at me like you do these books.”
My cheeks burned hot as I forced my eyes down. Bluestocking, that was what my mother called me. Nothing more repellent than a woman who reads incessantly, she’d told us over breakfast, then looked my way pointedly. Nothing good came from filling your head with ideas from books.
“Got you flowers because my sisters always said that was the way to a woman’s heart, but if this is what you want?” His face transformed as he grinned at me. “I’ll fill your room with books. Every topic, every kind. Big ones, old ones…” He ran a finger along the spines and I resisted the urge to stop him. Books were precious and needed to be treated as such. “Ones with pretty gilt covers.” He plucked one out, consulted the cover before slotting it back. “Enough books to fill your room ten times over. You’ll have to replace all your furniture with piles of books. Sit on a stack to sip your tea in the morning. Sleep on a big pile like a book dragon.”
“A book dragon…”
My giggle couldn’t be held back because in my mind another dragon existed. Not gold and beautiful like Auren, but a small thing, a dusty blue or perhaps a green. It flitted through the shelves, glorying in quite a different hoard than the dragons of legend.
“I’ll beg, borrow, steal.” He winked as he took my arm and steered me towards the stacks. “Whatever kinds of books you want.”
Having a man regale me with stories about my own library was an unexpected pleasure, one that seemed to summon the librarian himself. Christian appeared from around the corner, then stopped and blinked as he took in the sight of the two of us.
“Lady Rochester!” He came to stand before us. “We missed you in class this morning.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry—” I started to babble out, but he stopped me with a smile.
“Don’t be. You’ve been off having adventures, I hear. Wasn’t sure if you’d return to the keep.” His head tilted my way. “I think many people are wondering about that.”
The oblique reference to Auren’s dramatic exit had my cheeks flushing.
Let them wonder, Auren told me.A queen does not bother herself with the twitterings of the masses.
Well, you are a queen, whereas I am?—
“Is there anything I can help you with here?” Christian asked.
