Midnight in Everwood(71)

His hands was strong and calloused. Little bites of steel had nicked the flesh here and there, telling a story of the soldier who wielded a sword for the king. Yet that was not the whole tale. She tightened her fingers around his. ‘The storyteller you mentioned held the truth. My time here has been transformative, but I cannot dismiss that which I have spent a lifetime wishing for. I know I am strong enough to fight for my dreams now. I am ready to carve a path into a future of my own creation.’

‘I admire you for your strength,’ the captain said, caressing her hand, tracing the lines bisecting her palm with his thumb. ‘I feared this place might break you.’

She shivered at his touch. ‘I am not strong, I am a selfish creature that has been spoiled with a life of privilege and every physical comfort I desired. But perhaps I can be brave. And when I do return, for I will return, I shall make a change.’

‘And you dare say you are not strong? Change requires a deeper strength than most people shall ever know.’

It began to snow.

‘Oh—’ Marietta looked up in wonder ‘—this place is a devilish oxymoron.’

The captain’s brow furrowed. ‘Whatever do you mean?’

‘Each time I consider how much I regret the choices I made that led me here, how I despise being imprisoned, I find something that steals my breath away.’ She laughed and lifted her face to the snow, holding her tongue out to catch the tiny snowflakes. They melted in sweet bursts of sugared vanilla.

‘I can understand that,’ the captain said after a pause.

Marietta smiled at him, feeling snowflakes whispering onto her hair, nestling on her bared shoulders. ‘The last time we convened in your study, you were on the brink of telling me something,’ she said, a spark of courage liberating her tongue. ‘I have often since wondered what it might have been.’

He studied her for a moment. Reached out to brush a snowflake from her cheek. ‘It was nothing. Some triviality I can no longer recall.’ He offered the snowflake to her, its edges clear-cut as crystal. ‘Make a wish. In Everwood, we say that when it melts, your wish shall be granted.’

Marietta accepted it, her fingers grazing his. Their other hands were still linked, his fingers strong around her hand, anchoring her to his golden warmth. She closed her eyes. ‘I wish—’

‘If you say it aloud, it shall not come true,’ the captain whispered. She could hear his smile.

Sometimes it felt as if wishes and dreams coursed through her veins rather than blood. But there remained things that took a greater precedent over her dreams and so she wished for the safety and good health of Pirlipata and Dellara, come what may. On opening her eyes, she tucked the snowflake away in a velvet pocket.

‘Fin shall return you to your suite. Those are supposed to be new dancing shoes.’ Captain Legat nodded at the bundle beside Marietta. ‘Do not let anyone see what it contains and the minute you are alone, hide them. There are spies everywhere.’ He extended a hand and pulled Marietta to her feet. She broke their enlaced hands to pick up the bundle. It was chilled and she yearned afresh for his touch. He walked over to the door, incongruous in the lush garden, beneath the flurries of snow. When his fingers touched the handle, he hesitated. ‘I do not know when or how you are intending to leave, and it would be better if I were not to learn, but promise me you will be careful?’

‘Always.’ Marietta moved towards the door, to him. ‘And I cannot thank you enough.’

‘It was the very least I could do.’ Still he lingered, each second the door remained closed another moment that belonged to them. Another moment in which they might pretend that they were but brief acquaintances, stars that brushed against each other in the night.

Marietta held the package tighter. ‘I shall be attending the Grand Confectioner’s Ball.’

The captain’s expression relaxed. ‘Then we have a handful of days yet. Though I should inform you; if you were to pick a day to leave the palace, it is in the stars that something shall happen the night of the Grand Confectioner’s Ball. It would prove ample … distraction.’

‘I shall take note of that,’ Marietta said softly. ‘Thank you, captain.’

Legat stepped closer and she felt as if the collision of their stars would set flame to the world. It crackled between them and she wondered why she had denied it for so long. His eyes rested on her scarlet lips in fascination, her eyes falling to his, his white shirt pressed against her red velvet, her face tilted towards his. The winter garden melted away, leaving the two of them in their own world as Marietta felt herself drawn towards the captain, craving the delicious moment where any second his lips would meet hers.

Voices permeated the door.

Legat moved away and yanked it open.

Marietta sighed at the moment that had nearly been.

Fin materialised in the doorway. ‘Ah, there you are, captain. The king requests an audience at once to discuss an urgent matter.’

‘Of course, I shall attend him now. Fin, do escort the dancer back to her suite,’ Legat instructed as they both made their way to the stairs.

Where three faceless guards were awaiting them.





Chapter Thirty-Five


The faceless guards turned as one to consider them, all blank masks and rigid statures. They never failed to coax trepidation from Marietta.