“You aren’t going out in a bullcart alone with an injury. You know the rules,” his father said.
“So maybe one of us should go,” Aevrin said. “You shouldn’t be sending Cassia off unprotected.” His voice sounded even sharper than normal.
“Hey, I can protect her,” Sorven protested, no longer complaining about needing an escort.
“She only hitched the cart once,” Aevrin added. Cassia frowned at him. He was bristling like he planned to escort her everywhere from now on.
“I can help with the cart too,” Sorven said.
“Miss Clarek, if you’ve got reason to believe someone in Dawn Ridge might be a problem…” Boone started.
“It’s fine,” Cassia said, a little too quickly and too loudly. “I can take Sorven. Of course. It’s no problem.”
“But…” Aevrin started. She shook her head at him, a quick, small, motion. He pressed his lips shut. It was sweet of Aevrin to want to protect her, but she wasn’t about to humor him, especially not if it would encourage Boone to pry harder into her past.
“What’s on the schedule tomorrow?” Gramma Prisca wanted to know.
“Some of the cattle are lookin’ a bit on the slender side,” Mavek explained. “We’re gonna round them up so we can supplement, get a little bit more flesh on them before the cold.”
After dinner Sheriff Boone shared a cup of drudd on the porch with Sath Riveker and Gramma Prisca. Mavek and Sorven washed the dishes. They let Cassia help clear the table, thenchased her off. Not wanting to socialize with the sheriff, she made her way upstairs.
Aevrin was off to the coop to do as his father had asked. He left right away, making Cassia hopeful he might make it back in time for them to talk. But it was late already when Cassia, tucked into bed with one of Ashelle’s books and wearing a nightshirt, heard his footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Yes?” she said, when a light knock sounded at her door. It swung in, Aevrin still holding the handle and leaning into the room. He looked exhausted and in need of a shower.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize I was gonna be gone…” he said, trailing off.
“It’s fine,” she said, closing the book with her finger holding the page. “Sorry you had to work so late.”
“Naw. It was a good trade, for the afternoon… well, do you still…?”
She’d stayed up expecting them to chat; looking forward to it, in fact. But for the last half hour or so her eyelids had been increasingly heavy. She’d waited it out only because she’d already decided she was staying up for him. Now, taking stock of herself, Cassia found the idea of an important conversation—even one she was nervously looking forward to—was a bit overwhelming. She wasn’t sure she could do much more than blink at him. She was pretty certain she’d read the last paragraph of her book at least three times.
“I do,” she said. “But I’m fairly tired.”
“Me too,” he admitted. There was a moment of silence, them both looking at each other. He glanced over his shoulder in the hall, then turned back to her and lowered his voice. “You look pretty inviting, curled up in bed.”
Her eyes popped open as she held a finger to her lips. He’d been quiet, sure, but she knew for a fact Sorven was already inhis room on the same floor, whether or not Mavek and Sathuel Riveker were. Aevrin had the decency to look a little abashed, and gave her a quick nod.
“...See you tomorrow, then, Cassia. Sleep soundly,” the rancher said, and quietly closed the door.
It was hard not to wonder if she’d made the wrong choice, Cassia thought after she blew the lantern out. She considered getting up and knocking onhisdoor, but the thought had no more crossed her mind than she was fast asleep.
He was the first down to breakfast that morning, a hand around her waist and a kiss on her neck that made her shiver with pleasure as she stood at the stove, but he quickly backed off as footsteps announced Gramma Prisca’s arrival. And then all she had was the feeling of his eyes on her now and then, and a beltknife he pressed quietly into her palm before he left the house, which terrified her mildly. Surely he didn’t think she’d need touseit on her trip into town.
The healer saw emergencies at all hours, but didn’t properly open until nine. She cleaned the house until it was time to go, then slowly walked out to the cart as Sorven hobbled at her side, insisting he didn’t need his crutch. Mavek had fetched Stal, the same stubborn bull as before, and left him in the holding pen. Cassia tried to put the rig together as correctly as she could while Sorven hobbled around the bull and excitedly corrected her work.
She let Sorven drive, gladly, even though they’d sent her to do it. The whole while he talked her ear off about Dariek and his expositions, showing off bulls that Aevrin had trained and the family’s berzerker cows to sell for a high price to the ever-purchasing army, and how one day Dariek was going to win trick-riding titles and become a household name throughout Zhavek.
“Do you want to do that too?” Cassia asked as he parked in front of the healer’s. Her mind couldn’t help but flash back to her first day in the town, when she’d walked out of the very door she was now staring at and found Aevrin waiting for her, mask covering half his face.
“Naw,” he said, in a tone she didn’t quite believe. “I mean, itwouldbe pretty wonderful, but… I dunno. I’m not like Dariek.”
“Didn’t you say Cobrid was meant to be a star?” she said, as she jumped off the driver’s bench and held a hand up to help Sorven get down. She immediately regretted the words. Maybe she shouldn’t be encouraging an injured eighteen year old to head east with a herd of war-bulls and enter his dragon in dangerous races. “Bet she’s happier out here though,” she added awkwardly.
It was only a short wait inside for the healer. Dawn Ridge wasn’t a very busy kind of place.
Sorven had been with one of the other healers for ten minutes when Evelya came in. The short woman wore a pink dress, forearms bound tight. She juggled a cannister of grallo, a pastry wrapped up in a cloth napkin, and a jangling ring with twice as many charms and decorative figures as it had keys. Cassia looked up from the spot on the floor she’d been staring at.
