“Ach, so they dedicated a group of stars to him?”
“Nae exactly,” Lucas said, chuckling under his breath. “In Ovid’s tellin’ of the myth, he was attacked by the women whose offers of marriage he turned down. He charmed them for a time with his music, but they overwhelmed him and eventually won their fight. Then, his bones were buried by the muses, and Zeus put his lyre in the sky.”
“But what happened with Eurydice?” she asked, looking between him and the stars above. “Was his lyre there as well?”
“It’s said that Apollo gave him the lyre, and Eurydice was charmed by it,” Lucas said softly. “The two were set to be married, and they were set to be married. But when the god of weddin’ ceremonies came to bless their marriage, he predicted it wouldnae come to be.”
“So they didnae get married?”
Lucas glanced at her, seeing just how enthralled she was with the story. Keeping his voice low and steady, “They dinnae get the chance, though they refused to break their engagement. They loved each other too much. But one evening, Eurydice went to the woods and danced with the Nymphs. Durin’ the revelry, she was bitten by a snake. The venom killed her.”
Flora was quiet for a beat before whispering, “That must have been devetatin’ for Orpheus.”
“It was,” Lucas said. “He decided to go to the underworld to get her back. He thought that he could charm Hades with his lyre.”
“Did he?”
“He did. But Hades wouldnae just let him leave with Eurydice,” Lucas said. “Orpheus had to lead her out of the underworld, but he couldnae look at her until they surfaced. But he couldnae helphimself. Just before they stepped out into the light, he turned around to see her.”
“So their marriage never came to be,” she murmured. “And that’s why he turned down all those women.”
“Aye,” Lucas replied, gesturing to the grouping of stars again. “Some people believe that the lyre actually represents her.”
“Is that what ye believe?”
“I think both of them are interestin’,” Lucas said. “What do ye think?”
“I prefer the version where Lyra represents Eurydice,” she said after a moment of deliberation. “I think it’s romantic.”
He hummed in acknowledgement, her answer feeling almost unexpected. A comfortable silence settled over the two of them. He wasn’t keen on breaking it, more than content to stay just like this with her.
“And there are so many constellations in the sky,” Flora said with unconcealed wonder after a few minutes. “There are stories for the others, too?”
“Aye, there are,” Lucas replied, turning to look at her once again. “I cannae say I ken all of them, but there are books of stories in the library. If ye like, I can find them for ye so ye can read them all.”
“I’d prefer if ye told me about them,” she said, meeting his gaze, her lips parted slightly. Even in the dim light, Lucas could see the way a flush spread over her cheeks. “I daenae ken where the stars are, and ye do. I daenae need to ken every single story, just the ones that ye can point out.”
She glanced back at the sky then, smiling shyly. He thought she seemed almost embarrassed at expressing a desire. That was something that he thought he’d have to fix.
She’ll learn that I’ll give her whatever she wants so long as she asks.
“Well,” he said, pointing at a group of stars near Lyra that looked a bit like a cross, “I can tell ye about Cygnus.”
Instead of verbalizing her response, she hummed. Her body shifted a little closer to his, the chill from the evening likely getting under her gown. He met her halfway, pressing his shoulder against hers.
“Cygnus is the swan,” he said, dropping his voice a bit now that they were so close. “There are several stories that have swans in them. In one, Zeus disguised himself as a swan to seduce Leda, a princess who went on to be the queen of Sparta. But the swan in the sky is said to be Orpheus.”
“Why him?”
“In the same story where the women he rejected murdered him, but Zeus turned him into a swan and put him into the sky next to his beloved lyre,” Lucas explained, speaking almost directly into her ear. “I like to think that Zeus was doin’ him a kindness.”
Flora giggled and said, “I may nae ken much about that story, but it sounds as if he cared more about the lyre than findin’ love. I’m sure he’s happy up there so near the thing he loves the most.”
“Aye,” Lucas said, feeling a shiver run through her body. Reluctantly, he sat up. “It’s startin’ to get a bit too chilly for ye to be out here. Come on, let’s get ye back in the castle.”
He stood up before her, offering her his hand. She took it without hesitation, holding tightly as he hauled her upright. When he let her go, he leaned down to gather his cloak. Instead of putting it back around his own shoulders, he draped it over hers.
“Are ye nae chilly?” she asked, tilting her head curiously.
