“You could have done that here,” she said.
“Not fully. So much I would have to watch from the outside, like looking through a window and spying on those I love the most, never a part of the most important moments in their lives.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“No. It was unfair to ask Orion to be tied to Nightshade Manor. He would never travel anywhere. He would take no holidays. He wouldn’t fully live. I also wished to be free for Cassian. He would never leave so long as I was here. He deserves a full life, happiness and love as well.” Nina looked out over the lake. “I suppose I wished to be free for all three of us.”
“Nina, you always had the power to free yourself. All you needed to do was decide it was what you wanted.”
She stared at Basilia. “How is that even possible?”
“When a woman is not born a dryad, but becomes one, it is her choice, and made with full understanding. Your becoming part of the cypress was a decision made for you. When you were older and had a better understanding then it was to be your decision of whether you wished to remain as you were, fully embrace being a dryad, or leave the grove.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Nina cried.
“We were going to, but you seemed content.”
“You still could have at least provided me with this knowledge.”
“We were going to do just that because of your conversations with the child and your interest in the wedding. Then Orion came to the grove. Had he not returned day after day, we may have told you, as we had planned.”
“I do not understand. If I ever needed to know the possibilities open to me, it was then.”
“We feared that you would be too blinded by infatuation, passion, or desire to make a rational decision and be sorry for it later. You had not encountered a gentleman before and we feared the novelty, the newness, would cloud your mind and prevent you from making a rational decision.”
She could simply stare at Basilia, anger rising. It had been agony wanting Orion but having to reject him time and time again.
“Despite his claims of love, we did not think it possible to have grown so quickly. At least not enough to alter a fate. We wished to wait until the romance was more settled and to see if it lasted and was not fleeting.”
Nina struggled to accept that she could have left any time she wished. All she needed to do was but decide and nobody had bothered to tell her.
“It was also the reason we cautioned you not to become fully dryad. It would have been a decision that also could not be undone.”
“Did the ladies at Nightshade Manor know that I could leave?”
“No. We kept that information to ourselves.”
“I wish you would have told me. It would have saved so much heartache.”
“We could not be certain that it was right.”
Perhaps one day she would understand, but right now, she was so angry that something so vital had been withheld from her.
“Do you love him so much?” Basilia asked.
Tears filled her eyes. “Yes, and I had to keep rejecting him because I didn’t want him forced into my world. I struggled to keep him as a friend and nothing more, and not only lied to myself about the depth of my feelings but to him as well.”
“You are free to love him now.”
Yes, she was.
She could have everything that she was afraid to ever hope for.
It would take getting used to, and maybe she would finally be truly happy and not merely content.
Twenty-Seven
He had waited to hear Nina admit her love and she finally had. Not to him, but to the dryads.
