“I was already there,” Orion offered.
“Did you see anyone?”
It was a direct question that he could not answer honestly and still keep Nephele’s confidence. Instead, he turned to his mother. “I did not know that there was a way to get to the other side of the boxwoods. It is brilliantly hidden.”
“You are not to be on that side,” his mother reminded him.
“Why? Is it not our land?”
“It is, but it is sacred.”
That took him by surprise. “Sacred? Is that why there is a Greek Temple?”
“Yes.”
“Is there a lady?” Cassian nearly demanded. He seemed overly concerned about the prospect of someone being there.
Orion shrugged, careful with his words. “When I stood in the temple and looked around, I didn’t see anyone but Nephele.”
Cassian’s shoulders dropped with what Orion assumed was disappointment, though Orion couldn’t understand why. If his friend wished to meet a lady, several available ones had attended the wedding and were still milling about.
“Do not go there again,” his mother ordered.
“I am hardly a child any longer,” he argued. “Then you worried about us getting lost. I can assure you that I am old enough to take care of myself.”
She took a step toward him. “It is a place where my sisters-in-law and I go. No male is allowed, as it has been since our family came to own this land.”
If it was only for his mother and aunts, then it was only for witches. Another archaic rule that had stood for much longer than was necessary. Was it simply another place where witches could hide? If so, no male in his family would ever reveal it to anyone.
Did that mean the lady in the grove was also a witch. If so, why did she hide when she’d be welcomed at Nightshade Manor?
None of this was making sense to him.
“Why can only you, Aunt Cassandra and Aunt Eugenia go to the grove and not my female cousins or sister?”
The question gave her pause. “We have been remiss. We should have taken them there before now.”
That did not answer his question or why it was only for females. “Why a Grecian Temple?” he asked.
“To honor the Goddess Gaia.”
Of course! He should have realized before he even asked the questions. Orion then shook his head. He’d realized at a young age that his mother and aunts, and the women who came before them, often did things for reasons he would never understand—such as keep a grove a secret. Yet even though he had been forbidden from going there again, the pull to return was still within.
Did he defy his mother, or did he fight the urge to see the lady in the grove once again?
“You were seen!” Cassian nearly yelled as he entered the cottage.
Nina feared that her brother would learn and would be angry when he did. But who had told him? Nephele or the beautiful man. “I am sorry.”
“You were to hide, yet a little girl claims to have seen a lady in the grove.”
“She came upon me unawares.”
“Luckily she is a child, so others were not certain whether to believe her or not.” He pushed his fingers through his dark hair, which was in dire need of a trim. “At least you had the good sense to hide, or perhaps you were not even about when Nephele brought Orion to the grove.”
Orion! That was the name of the beautiful man. Orion Drakos, second son to Lord and Lady Wharton.
Oh, she knew all the names of the three families that visited and sometimes lived in the grand house, but she did not know the faces to which the names belonged. Further, she couldn’t ask Cassian because then he would know that she had spied on them and be angry with her.
