She was responsible, sensible. There was nothing special about her so why had she been chosen?
“Cordelia, what is wrong?” he asked with concern.
“I’m surprised, shocked, I…”
“Magic doesn’t happen to her,” Edward said. “She’s just not used to it.”
Cordelia wanted to be happy. Excited even, but everything was happening so fast. Too fast and she couldn’t form a coherent thought, especially with Damon, Lady Chandos, Miss Perkins, Ianthe and Edward all looking at her.
A goddess had chosen her for Damon. How did one make sense of that? This wasn’t some child’s fairytale. Those vines had wrapped around her.
Her chest started to tighten, and she recognized the panic that was starting to build. “I need to go.”
With that, she turned from Damon and hurried to the gate, ignoring him as he called after her. She had to leave before her chest and throat tightened so much that she’d not be able to breathe.
Once she exited the gate and ran through the clearing and was on the other side, some of her anxiety began to ease, but not completely.
Instead of going home, Cordelia knew who she must see, and took off at a run across the fields until she came to Madam Boswell’s red vardo.
There, she collapsed onto a stool, tried to catch her breath, as tears filled her eyes.
Why was she crying? What just happened should make her the happiest woman in England. Instead, it brought panic.
“Child, what is it?” Madam Boswell asked with alarm as she came out of the wagon.
Haltingly and through her tears, she told Madam Boswell everything that had happened since she first spied on the Norcott family arriving at the estate. She didn’t even hide the emotions she had experienced and by the time she had finished, Madam Boswell was patting her hand.
“Why me?”
“Why not you?”
“I’m not special. There is nothing remarkable about me.”
“Oh, Cordelia, yes there is. You have a deep gift of caring and protection and love.”
“As does everyone.”
“No, they don’t. You are also selfless.”
“No, I am not, I can assure you. There are many times I am selfish and jealous,” Cordelia promised.
At least she was beginning to feel calmer having talked to Madam Boswell, though she still wasn’t certain what to do.
“You are his gift, and he is yours,” she finally said.
“It’s so fast,” Cordelia whispered.
“Yes, it is, but I’m certain he won’t wish to rush you to the aisle. Simply knowing that it is set will give him peace of mind and it should you as well.”
“What if I can’t make him happy?”
“You would not have been chosen if that was the case. You only need time to come to the truth and be comfortable with what is to be and then you will see that the goddess does not make an error.”
She could just imagine what her family would think. The fact that she found her future husband through magic would come as no surprise to her sisters. “Adriana is going to be more determined to find her merman now,” Cordelia sighed. “I’ve tried to tell her that it was probably a man, but she has such fanciful notions and I’m not certain what to do.”
And her brother, Edward. He’d seen her kissing Damon. “Edward, what to do about him? Adam never disciplines. He’ll end up being a pirate if I’m not there.”
“Neither Adriana nor Edward are your responsibility,” Madam Boswell said.
