“If we find your lady and she assures me of her health, I will leave her be.”
Nephele worried her bottom lip, not certain what to do.
“If she is alone, she may get lost, even though she helped you.”
“She would not get lost,” Nephele answered with confidence.
“How do you know?”
“Because she lives in the grove. It is her home.”
Orion frowned. If there were a pretty lady living in the grove, he would have known.
Or would he? He hadn’t been back to Nightshade Manor in some time and had only just returned for Damon’s wedding. “Are you certain she lives in the grove?”
Nephele nodded.
“As our family owns the grove, I should find out who she is and meet her.”
“But I promised not to tell.”
“I promise to hold her secret.” Unless he made such a pledge, Nephele wouldn’t take him to the pretty lady, who had him growing more intrigued. Why would someone be living in the grove?
Nephele took in a deep breath then let out a heavy sigh, her slight shoulders rising and falling, then took his hand. “I will take you to her.”
Orion knew the grove as well as he knew all of Nightshade Manor having played here with his siblings and cousins when they were children, which is why he knew there was no folly. And the deeper they walked, the more he became convinced that Nephele had let her imagination take control.
Just as it had been when he was a boy, the path ended at a row of tall boxwoods, wild and without shape having never been trimmed. Nightshade Manor land did not end at the boxwoods. There was more beyond, but this was as far as he, his siblings and cousins had been allowed to go, or could go because of the tall hedges. Orion assumed Damon had the same rules for his nieces.
From here they could either follow the path left, which ended at the cliffs overlooking the sea, or to the right which led to the back of the house and to the orchard.
“Which way?” he asked.
“Forward,” Nephele answered.
Orion stared at the tall boxwoods blocking their path. “How do you propose we do that?” he asked with humor.
Nephele frowned at him. “Through the break and down the path.”
There was no break in the line of bushes, or he would have found it by now.
“It is right here, Orion.” Her tone was heavy with annoyance more suited for an adult as she gestured to her left.
“I see nothing and if I attempt to go through, we will both be scratched, and your dress and my suitcoat will be ruined.”
Nephele shook her head. “The lady was right. Humans are blind.”
“Humans?” he asked.
“Yes. Humans,” Nephele answered definitively before she turned left, walked two paces, then turned again and walked forward, only to disappear.
“Nephele?”
“Just follow me, Orion.” He was certain she blew out another sigh along with her impatient tone.
As she had done, Orion took a few steps to the left, then forward where the line of boxwoods dipped back and glanced about. To his right was a very narrow opening—so tight that he could barely squeeze through, and then took another path to his left.
How had they not discovered this when they were children?
