Adelaide lost all matter of her joking demeanor. “Has anyone else come down with it?”
“Thankfully no,” he answered.
The whinny of a horse grabbed Amaris’s attention. Neither of them seemed to notice, but her eyes darted over her shoulder and scanned the grounds. The wall engulfed the manor, only slowly receding until it stopped at the beach.
She squinted, and along the edge of the wall she could make out what looked to be a barn or some stables. Her heart lifted, a plan forming. She’d only pondered how to slip away from her guards, not what she would do once she did. Would Theodoric help her now?
“Amaris?” Adelaide’s voice beckoned her back to the conversation. “I said, tell me about Derek. I find it hard to believe that a woman as fierce as you would settle for any ordinary man.”
Amaris raised her brows and passed a glance to Theodoric, who had previously been busy nudging the toe of his boot at a rock. Now his awareness was keenly set on her. She wished she hadn’t heard Adelaide and Theodoric hadn’t either. Adelaide was either baiting her or wasn’t one tokeep secrets.
Amaris sat up, brushing the dirt wedged between the lines of her palms. “We’ve been friends for so long it’s hard to pick a few things to describe him.”
“What’s the worst part of relationships?”
“Adelaide,” Theodoric snipped.
She waved him off, furrowing her brow as she implored for Amaris to go on.
What was the worst part? For Amaris and Derek, it was the fighting, and for what?Most of their fights were stupid bickering matches. A few weeks ago, they’d fought over who’d left the toaster unplugged. She hated it—the person she’d become and what his job had turned him into. Before his promotion, he’d never raised his voice at her.
Amaris found her hand trailing across her cheek, her nails caressing where the bruise once sat, but she instantly dropped her hand, hoping neither of them noticed. She’d studied it every morning during her bath to assess the discoloration.
“Sharing food.” She nibbled at the corner of her lip, and a subtle shift of her gaze caught Theodoric’s eyes trained on her. “Derek loves to swipe food off my plate.”
“How rude.” Adelaide gawked. “If a man ever tries to grab from my plate, I’ll pin his hand to the table.”
“With what daggers?” Theodoric asked, his eyes growing wide.
Adelaide sent him a narrowed gaze. It was probably a sibling thing. “With a fork. It’ll hurt more.”
Amaris went back to the pesky roots within the garden box, but Theodoric’s eyes were like magnets. She refused to meet his eye contact but knew it was there, burning through her skin. He couldn’t have pieced it together. She could’ve been scratching an itch for all he knew.
Chapter 19
Theo
After procuring thenecessary herbs, Amaris had set to making the tonic. It’d taken hours of measuring, boiling, and her frustrated grunts, but she’d finished the first couple of doses late last night. Theo hadn’t been able to sleep until he’d known they had a tonic in hand for Esaias in the morning.
Gris had been the only person during the war who’d survived the disease, and she’d been delirious for most of the time. Cornelius had healed her, but it’d taken weeks for her to fully recover. Even with the tonic, it’d been a miracle that she’d survived, but it had worked once and would do the same for Esaias.
After the discussion with his father, he relinquished his investigation into Freville’s death and the other disappearances to Gris. As she’d taken it upon herself to examine the body in the first place, she was best suited for the task.
That left Theo to spend what time he could helping Amaris with the tonic. Unfortunately, bufomom hadn’t been on Pricilla’s list of herbs for Sephardi to track down on her supply run. Cornelius had once told Theoof a shop he frequented to procure rare herbs and other curious items.
He lifted his hand to knock on the washroom door to check on Amaris, but it swung open, and she wore a navy-blue dress hugging her every curve and flowing barely past her knees. It left her legs bare with nothing to be imagined. She’d even parted with her strange boots, exchanging them for a pair of silk slippers.
“Impatient, are we?” she huffed, inclining a brow.
Theo felt like he was sixteen again and about to fumble over his words at the slightest glance of a woman.
“Laundry day,” she added, noticing Theo’s eyes lingering on her dress.
She stepped past him and headed for the main staircase. Theo shook the unnatural feeling of seeing her in anything other than her usual blouse and trousers. Her hand slid down the banister as a hop overtook her steps. She was lighter on her feet, bouncing instead of dragging her jingling boots behind her. Perhaps she was hopeful the tonic would work, and she had a sparkle in her eye. Theo had seen it last night as she stood scribbling in the journal and counting and weighing the herbs. Cornelius had had a similar look about him when he dove into his work. Maybe she was no different.
If she could remain sure in the face of the frightening disease, then maybe Theo could too. He forced Esaias’s pale and sweaty face from his mind. Amaris had given Esaias the first dose of the tonic that morning, but Theo had been forced to hold his mouth shut after he’d attempted to spit it out.
“What’s this shop called?” Amaris asked.
