On the large expanse of lawn stood my new family. Jasmine, Vaughn, Jethro, and Tex. They all stood around a mountainous pile of branches, interspersed with the Ducking Stool and Iron Chair and other items I never wanted to see again.
Ducking my head into the breeze, I patrolled over the grass. My hood whipped back, and I caught the eye of Jasmine.
She gave me a smile, holding out her hand.
I took it.
Her fingers were popsicles, but she squeezed mine as I bent over and kissed her cheek. We didn’t need to talk. We understood. She’d lost her brothers and father. I’d lost my mother. Together, we would stand and not buckle beneath the tears.
In the distance, the south gardens glittered with rapidly forming dew-frost, glittering like nature’s diamonds on leaves and blades of grass.
Jethro skirted the large tinderbox of firewood, pausing beside his sister with a large log in his hands. His eyes glowed in the darkness, his lips hiding white teeth. “I won’t ask what happened. And I won’t pry unless you want to share. But I built this for them. For you. For what lives in that room.”
He dropped his gaze, awkwardly stroking the log. “I don’t know if you’ll want to say goodbye this way, but I just thought—” He shrugged. “I thought I’d make a fire, just in case.”
I didn’t say a word.
I let go of Jasmine, flew around her chair, and slammed into his arms.
He dropped the wood and embraced me tightly. I didn’t care my brother and father watched. All I cared about was thanking this man. This Hawk. Because now he’d let himself be the person I always knew he could be, I couldn’t stop falling more and more in love with him.
His lips warmed my frozen ear, kissing me sweetly. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, nuzzling closer, inhaling the pine sap and earthy tones from collecting firewood. “I’m better.” I gathered my thoughts before whispering, “When you left me in there, I couldn’t move. I truly didn’t like you very much. But you were right. Thank you for giving me that time. For knowing what I needed, even when I didn’t.”
He hugged me harder. “Anything for you, you know that.”
I shivered as another howl swept over the treetops. The night would be bitterly cold, but soon there would be something to warm us.
Pulling away, I smiled at my twin standing with his arms crossed and a bitter look on his face. Eventually, I would have to talk to him and tell him Jethro would be his brother-in-law. He would have to accept him. Tex, too.
I asked far more than they could offer—to love the son of the man who’d stolen Tex’s wife and our mother—but that was life.
The heart had the incredible capacity to heal wrongs. And I wouldn’t apologise for betraying my family name with Jethro. I’d chosen him. And if they couldn’t accept that...well, I didn’t want to think about it. Not tonight.
Jethro tucked flying hair behind my ears and pulled up my hood. “Are you ready?”
I rested my face in his palm, reaching on tiptoes to kiss his wind-bitten lips. “I’m ready.”
Taking my hand, he kissed my knuckles. “In that case, let’s put the past behind us.”
* * * * *
It took us an hour and a half to lug the boxes from upstairs to the bonfire outside.
We formed an assembly line, a never-ending factory of willing hands to transport.
Jethro joined me in the room, respectfully gathering files and packing them into boxes. I’d left the space in a mess, but together, we created neat piles so Vaughn and Tex could carry them downstairs.
Jasmine stayed on the lawn, willingly accepting the items on her lap and wheeling them across the grass to the unlit bonfire.
The last box to go down was full of my mother’s time at the Hall. I blinked back tears as I handed it awkwardly to my father.
He knew with one look what the paperwork entailed. His face echoed with heartbreak as he cradled the heavy package and took it downstairs himself. He didn’t transfer it to Vaughn. He didn’t let go. Hugging his wife’s spirit one last time.
Once he’d gone, and the room stood empty, Jethro popped into the corridor and spoke to V.
“Can you give us a minute?”
