“It is not that. I am grateful, truly. For I’ve had more suitors than I can expect as the daughter of a baker, and there have been several that were kind and young and charming …” Her brows drew together faintly.
Waiting for her to continue, I took another sip, letting the alcohol warm my belly and lighten my mind.
“I have been hoping,”—she sighed—“waiting, forone. But he has not come for me, and I do not think he will.”
There it was. I offered her a look of encouragement. “I will see what I can do. But you must be brave as well. Between your shyness and his aloofness, there is only so much that I can do.”
The corners of her lips quirked down, but Farren spoke no further on her feelings for Aureus. It was something she never fully admitted to, yet between friends, it was often not necessary for something to be voiced aloud to be understood.
“What of you, Evera? What of the guard?”
Heat warmed my cheeks as my thoughts turned to Neirin and to thekisseshe’d given me. “He is a dangerous temptation,” I said, swirling my wine. “One I believe I am falling quite heavily for.”
The curtain to the back door swept open, and I tilted my head, expecting to find Aureus. When I sighed deeply, Farren turned in her seat to see who approached us.
“What are you doing here, Ruairc?” I asked, sobering.
Aureus came through the curtain next, his eyes briefly scanning the study chairs where Farren and I lounged, undoubtedly questioning the effects I had on her propriety.
“I wish to speak with you,” Ruairc stated, shuffling his feet, a look of hesitancy entering his expression.
I withheld my retort and softened my response. “There is another, Ruairc—”
“I am not here to court you.”
I raised a brow and exchanged a glance with Aureus. The pinch of my brother’s lips suggested he was not aware of this change in intentions, though he was not outwardly displeased, either. After our talk, Aureus had taken a step back on the topic of marriage. Being raised with Leighis, we’d learned of the lore and the magic of the bonds; we held a certain level of respect for such things. Though I was certain that in his eyes, Ruairc was still the better match. And I could not, in all fairness, blame him for that. The cobbler was a safe choice.
“Then why have you come for me?”
“There is something I must say. It is important.” Scaling the few short steps up to the study, Ruairc nodded a greeting to Farren and held his hand out to me. “Please, Evera, walk with me.”
Though my first reaction was to deny him, the longing in his eyes made me uneasy—his intrusion presented the perfect opportunity to give Farren and Aureus a moment alone.
Leaning in, I spoke against Farren’s ear. “Feign that you are intoxicated.”
She faced me with a confused draw of her brows, but when I subtly raised a brow toward Aureus at the bottom of the steps, she flushed and nodded.
Sighing, I took Ruairc’s hand and allowed him to help me stand. It was the kind of thing a gentleman would do,yet it itched at my skin. Everything Ruairc did spoke to my inadequacies as a person, my need to depend on a man for every action.
“Farren is drunk,” I told Aureus as I straightened my skirts. “Stay with her until I return?”
“The shop—”
“It is slow, and I will lock the door on my way out.”
Frustration creased Aureus’s brows, but he was, like Ruairc, a man of chivalrous intent. “Very well.”
Farren flushed a deep crimson. Addressing her glass and the half-empty bottle of wine from which I’d poured only once for myself, I questioned how much of an act she would truly have to put on.
I followed Ruairc down the steps, calling for Calix over my shoulder, wanting to give Farren and my brother time alone. In truth, the boy was barely noticeable, tucked against the bookshelves, deep in his own world. He’d become increasingly interested in Leighis’s books, and scrolls, and journals, and I often found him reading even when I woke in the night to relieve myself. I’d asked him on several occasions what he was so interested in, but he always brushed the question aside. It was Leighis he took his thoughts to.
Abandoning his book, Calix stood and hurried to catch up to us. As Neirin had claimed, the boy was extremely well-poised. Never did he complain or act with reluctance. A part of me was grateful for this, as he had more or less been placed in my care. But this discipline came from ill treatment in his past, and that was a sobering thought.
We left the shop, and I locked the front door behind us.
“Did you only accept my invitation to leave the two of them together?” Ruairc asked.
I turned my gaze to him and narrowed my eyes. “How—”
