Page 47 of The Noldrin Witch

Elise smiled. “I’m starting tomorrow morning.”

He seemed slightly relieved as he stared at her face.

Elise lowered her head again and, seeing no further words come from the duke’s shapely mouth, decided to continue on her way.

“Would you like to share the ride into town?” he asked with a composed politeness that sounded to Elise almost like a command.

She could not tell whether the gesture was made out of obligation. Not wishing to impose, and feeling strangely comfortable for the first time since she had met him, she shook her head softly.

“It’s better I get used to the walk, since I’ll be making it every day,” she said.

But the duke quickly interjected. “I insist.”

Bruno croaked as though startled awake, pressing his beak against Elise’s shoulder in visible protest. Rain had already begun speckling the rocks around them, and Elise’s dress was growing damp beneath the drizzle.

“Is it proper to travel with just the two of us?”

A trace of heat rose through her as she caught a flicker of discomfort disturb Kurt’s otherwise serious expression.

“The crow would be with us, I’m assuming,” he said.

Elise took a moment before letting out a soft laugh. She had not known humor could inhabit a man such as Kurt.

A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, disarming Elise completely.

“Then I see no reason against it.”

They walked to the coach, and he offered his hand somewhat awkwardly. Elise took it anyway, and an electric jolt ran through her body. The effect seemed to reach Bruno as well, for the crow suddenly croaked himself into an energetic stupor.

They rode toward town in silence, Kurt shifting slightly along the way and stealing glances here and there. Elise was relieved that at least this time she was wearing a proper dress. The heat inside the cabriolet rose to an almost unreasonable degree, and she could not help but break the silence.

Out of sheer nervousness, she retold the entire affair with the fairies. Even Fabian’s red leggings found their way into the tale. Elise tried to keep her account as proper as possible, but with the rocky motion of the confined interior and the occasional brush of knees between her and the stunning man seated before her, the honesty of her delivery slowly took on the quality of a confession before a priest.

Kurt listened with the attention reserved for military strategy before a battle. He inquired further into the details of Elise’s assembly. His face went through the most remarkable series of changes, from fear to contentment, all of them fueling Elise to continue her detailed narration.

By the time they reached the center of the city, Elise felt she had already spent days in Kurt’s acquaintance. It did not hurt, of course, that he had moved to her side of the carriage, where they sat close in the noble spirit of protection against further jolting.

Elise’s chaperone, however, had spent the entire trip in the peace of deep slumber upon her shoulder, and not even when one of the wheels struck a deep puddle did the bird utter a single complaint.

“Thank you for the conveyance. The road would be most merciful from here,” Elise said, stretching her body in front of Kurt to open the door by herself, and as she did, she couldn’t help but notice the breadth of his torso. Until then she had concentrated on telling her story and successfully ignoring his magnificence. The man was at least twice her width, and under the brief assessment, Elise’s imagination wandered into improper thoughts that made her cheeks grow warm at once.

To her surprise, Kurt did not do much to stop the cabriolet but instead took her hand in his own and for the first time during the trip he uttered more than five words.

“I couldn’t let myself make you walk to your house under this weather,” he said, his breath warming her as they remained face to face. “Allow me to take you...all the way.”

Those last words ignited the very entrails of Elise. A scorching sensation invaded parts of her body she preferred not to acknowledge. Had he been a man of the lower sort, she might have panicked, but being a man as proper as the duke, she feared less for her safety than for the growing heat between them driving her toward impropriety. She could do little more than nod and sit back down beside him.

The rest of the trip felt longer than a crusade across the continent. Elise’s heart pulsed so violently she thought she might perish on the spot. Her legs rested only a few inches from his, yet the energy between them was so charged they might as well have been undressed.

Elise recited a few prayers in hopes of preserving her composure. Kurt appeared to be doing much the same, for his constant mumbling and the beads of sweat gathering at his temples revealed a discomfort much like her own.

An occasional cough began to afflict Kurt as they drove closer to Morgaine’s home. The small torment seemed only to worsen with every turn of the wheels. In addition to his discomfort, Elise noticed that every time she looked out the window, an impulse seemed to compel the duke to do the same. She didn’t know if these were signs of a grave condition or what tribulation had taken possession of him.

But as with all questions that trouble the mind, the answer to Elise’s curiosity would soon present itself so plainly that even a soul half-blind to life’s understandings could have taken the hint.

*****

The wind was blowing so furiously when they arrived at Morgaine’s house that Elise thought a gate of Hell had opened on Earth, and perhaps she was not imagining too far from reality.