She wasn’t going to leave, she realized. She didn’t need more time to think. It didn’t matter that Nicholas suspected she was a witch. Sadie was going to live in this present and enjoy it as much as possible. She knew the exact shape of the cage she had to return to in the future, and it was time to have a little pleasure before locking herself back inside.
Helen clasped her hands together in front of her chest. “Then, yes, please. Thank you, Sadie.”
“Of course.” Sadie opened the door to the kitchen. “Now let’s get you that mug of tea.”
???
Nicholas didn’t needa reminder to leave his workroom on time the next day. He was waiting in the lavender sitting room before the clock struck the hour, ready for his walk with Sadie. She entered the room exactly on time, dressed in a pale yellow walking dress that looked vaguely familiar.
“Yesterday didn’t scare you off?” she greeted him.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?” He offered her his arm, then led the way outside.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” She tugged as they stepped outside, leading him toward the western side of the manor. Toward the Gloaming Forest. “But if that bat was part of your master plan, you have succeeded with at least one-sixth of your goal.”
“Lenora is packing her bags?” He didn’t try to hide how hopeful he sounded.
“No, though she might be considering it. But she isn’t the one I am talking about.”
“Abigail, then. Please tell me Abigail disappeared in the night.”
Sadie scoffed. “You’d need far more than a bat to scare her off. She would put up with marrying a bear if it got her a title.”
“Then she should go find herself a noble bear. I’m certainly not going to propose to her.”
“Nor will you propose to Helen.”
He blinked. He wouldn’t, but Sadie’s statement was oddly certain. Helen wasn’t truly objectionable like Abigail—though her stance on magic bothered him. “You are correct, but why are you so sure?”
“Because I’ve been tasked with telling you that she does not want you to propose. If you did, she’d have to say yes, and thenshe’d be miserable living in Marstede. Helen is terrified of the forest.”
The forest Sadie had deliberately steered them toward. Nicholas allowed her to take them onto the nearest path that led under the trees. The sunlight filtered through green leaves, the shadows shifting in the breeze. “Is this your opinion?”
“No. We discussed it yesterday after everything. As I said, I was tasked with passing on this information.”
“Then please reassure Helen that I will not propose to her. Preferably with my mother close enough to overhear her relief at hearing it.”
“Do you really want your mother to know that one lady is out of the running? Won’t that just incentivize her to throw you at the others even harder?”
Sadie made a valid point. “True, but at the end of the month it might help my cause if Mother admits that the women she invited have as little desire to marry me as I do them.”
“That’s quite the generalization. All I said was that Helen doesn’t want to marry you.”
“You’ve previously stated that you have no intention of staying beyond the allotted month. And I think it is safe to say Lenora has changed her mind.”
Sadie glared at him. “You are making assumptions. Lenora was overwrought yesterday, but that doesn’t mean she is planning to run away. It is dismissive of you to decide she can’t recover.”
Nicholas winced. She was right. Again. “It isn’t so much an assumption as a hope,” he explained. “Not that I want Lenora to be traumatized, but since the event already occurred, is it really so terrible for me to wish it would make a difference in her views on marrying me?”
Sadie didn’t absolve him, but she didn’t expressly tell him his hopes were indeed terrible—though the look she gave him waseloquent enough. “Even if you got your wish and Lenora wanted out, that is still only two of six women, hardly enough to prove your mother wrong.”
“And you. That brings the score to an even half. Or have you changed your mind?” Given that Nicholas didn’t want to marry, he wasn’t sure why he held his breath waiting for her answer.
“I said I had no expectation of staying beyond the month. No expectation is different from no desire.”
Just the word desire from her lips was enough to set Nicholas on edge. A new fantasy joined his repertoire, this time of him pressing her against the trunk of one of the massive sycamores, caging her in with his arms as he kissed her until neither of them could breathe. He’d never be able to walk through the forest without picturing it again.
Sadie’s cheeks grew rosy. “A desire to stay at Marstede, I mean. Not to, uh, marry.”
