“You’re the only person I’ve told. Not even Aureus knows,” she confessed. “I would pretend it was my home. A place of my own. Though Leighis gave us a home, I’ve always known it would be temporary, that when I grew up, I’d be—” She left her future unsaid. “It was a place I could imagine a life for myself that was my own.
“And there’s a study,” she added, a youthful longing in her tone. “With full-length windows that let such beautiful light in, I used to sit in that room with charcoal and paper for hours just sketching out where I would put bookshelves, where I would hang plants to dry, place a table to work at …”
My heart hitched, but before I could ask more, she raised her head and gestured to a side road ahead. “Here, this is the first delivery.”
For a moment, I held her closer, wishing I could give her the life she’d dreamed of as a girl.If things were different.
“Neirin?” Evera said, drawing me from my thoughts.
“Yes, sorry.” I steered Sorrel to a section of homes on the corner where the main road intersected a smaller one and dismounted.The buildings here were constructed of stone at their base, with thick wooden pillars supporting an upper level that jutted out slightly. The second stories, hatched with crisscrossing beams, were a chalky beige.
Fishing in her sack, Evera withdrew a paper package sealed with wax and stamped with the shop’s mark. Swirling penmanship labeled a tag secured by a tie.
“You can just hand it over,” she said. “Aureus has already spoken with them about the dosage.”
By midday,Maerel’s inevitable complaintsat my longer-than-expected absence whispered in the back of my mind. Evera’s stomach, however, spoke louder. And her company was preferable. So, breaking one of my silvers, I bought two small tarts filled with meat and a bottle of inexpensive wine.
“Where are we going?”Evera asked, sitting atop the mare with our wrapped tarts in her satchel and a bottle of wine hugged to her chest. We weren’t traveling far, so I walked alongside them.
“Not much farther,” I promised and veered off the path. Sorrel pinned her ears as I coaxed her into the undergrowth, but she didn’t halt or spook, and when we were out of view of the road, I tied her to a tree. “Here.” I offered Evera my hand to help her down.
Studying me, she narrowed her eyes, drew her satchel over her head, and held it out.
“What’s in this?”I asked, taking it from her. It was bulky and weighed much more than I suspected it would.
Evera scoffed. Hiding my amusement, I complied with her stubbornness. She threw her leg over Sorrel’s back and slid off, her back to me; I was close enough that her backside brushed me. Whatever her intention, I doubted it had been to grind against me.
Feeling bold, I wrapped an arm at her waist and drew her to my chest. She squealed, and I nuzzled her ear, breathing on her neck. She melted into me, pressing her ass against me. Her body betrayed her, as did the warmth that coursed through the bond.
Remembering herself, Evera wiggled out of my grasp and turned back, shooting me a pointed glare. I laughed, and she huffed her frustration.
“You’re insufferable,” she said.
I shrugged.“Is this the place?”I asked, nodding to the backside of the abandoned home behind her.
Confusion pinched her brows, and when Evera looked back, she gasped.“Neirin, what are we doing here?”
I brushed past her, the overstuffed satchel a notable weight on my shoulder.
“Where is the window you used to climb through?”I asked, examining the building. It truly was in a state of disarray. “There isn’t broken glass, is there?”
Evera ran to catch up with me.“I’m not a child anymore, Neirin. I can’t just climb up walls and through windows of abandoned houses. I know better now.” She stopped at my side and looked toward the old manor with wistful longing. “It would not be respectable.”
“Then let us not get caught,” I said, ignoring her hapless attempts at talking me out of what may have been the only romantic idea I’d had in my entire life. I stepped up to acrumbled well, resting my hand on the cold stone surface. Like the manor, it was a faded earth tone.
“Why is this house abandoned?”I asked, raising my eyes to the ruins. Ivy grew up the bricks of the manor, beautiful but unkept. “Do you know?”
Evera frowned.“House Tellius owns it. Farren told me that at one time they had a use for it, but it’s been for sale for as long as I’ve lived here. The price is outrageous.”
I left the well with a faint, thoughtful noise and made my way toward a low window, its panes long gone. Examining the opening for shards of glass, rusted nails, or anything else that may put Evera in harm’s way, I didn’t notice her standing beside me. When she nudged me, I stepped back—I’d come to learn it seemed to displease her when I didn’t move out of her way when she pushed me.
With a grunt of determination, she braced her arms on the windowsill and heaved herself up, scraping and scrambling at the stone with her boots. I unabashedly watched her futile attempts.
“Have we moved past worrying over things that are respectable, then?” I asked, humor lacing my tone.
Her skirts bunched up to her knees as she dug the toe of her boot into a crack in the stone, but it slipped.With a defeated huff, Evera stopped her struggle and lay half in the building and half outside it.
“Are you stuck?”I bit back a laugh.
