The Glittering Court (The Glittering Court, #1)(101)

I wanted to make a joke to hide my true feelings. I didn’t want him to know how afraid I’d been these last few days, that I’d imagined terrible things happening to him, that I’d feared all these dreams we’d built would be lost. But as Cedric looked me over and his smile faded, I knew he could see it all in my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly.

“Cedric, where have you been?” I tightened my hold on him and could see now that he was as dirty and worn as I was. “I’ve been so worried.”

“I know, I know. I should’ve sent word, but there’s been so much to do. More than I expected. You’ll see soon enough.”

“We just finished breakfast, but you’re welcome to some porridge,” Mistress Marshall said from behind me. I’d forgotten she was there. Her tone was friendly, but there was an edge to it Cedric and I both understood. We quickly sprang apart.

The aforementioned porridge had been one of the blandest things I’d ever had. Cedric had always been picky at Blue Spring Manor and Wisteria Hollow, insisting his eggs be poached and his pastries warmed. I figured he’d turn down such a mundane meal, but to my surprise, he accepted and ate two bowls. When he finished, he asked the Marshalls if he could bring me to his claim.

“I know she must have all sorts of things to do here, but I’d like to show her the land,” he said. “I’ll return her by dinnertime.”

“Certainly,” said Mistress Marshall. “And then you can stay and eat with us.”

Cedric looked immensely pleased by that.

Another rainstorm had made for a cool morning, and I donned my suede pants and coat, along with the wide-brimmed hat. It was as much for practicality as to put on something clean. I tended to wear the same work dress each day, and the Marshalls took baths only on weekends.

“Don’t you look like a proper frontier woman, ready to ride off and tame the wild,” Cedric said.

“Makes sense, since I’m a better rider than you.” I walked up to Lizzie. “Are you sure she can carry two of us?”

“You tell me, horsemistress.”

I patted the old mare’s neck. “Sure she can. Just no hard gallops.”

We’d been too fresh out of Cape Triumph to even think about riding a horse together on our initial journey. Here, on the edge of civilization, the rules were more relaxed. Customs were dictated by expediency, and if we’d travel faster by horseback, so be it. He helped me up to the front of Lizzie and then jumped up behind me, much more gracefully than other times I’d observed him while traveling.

We followed a narrow, nearly overgrown trail through a wood of mixed trees. The morning soon warmed up, and I shrugged out of the coat. Our relationship might not be exactly forbidden anymore, but that didn’t change the electric connection between us. My body still buzzed with awareness of his, and as we made the two-hour journey, I realized I’d never had his arms around me for so long—aside from our nighttime getaways on the road to Hadisen.

The land sloped upward rapidly, but Lizzie plodded on. The claim was perched on a foothill that had been given the fanciful name of Silver Dove Mountain. A wide river flowed through it, and the view was breathtaking, revealing other mountains as well as the fertile lands we’d just ridden out of. I was so transfixed by it that took me a moment to really take in the rest of the claim.

“Wasn’t there supposed to be a house here?” I asked.

“There,” he said, gesturing to a small rise of land.

I followed him over and made out what I’d mistaken for a storage shed. It had a significant slant to it, and it was unclear to me if that was intentional or not. The outer planks were a mix of woods—some old and weathered, some new and yellow. The roof looked aged but sturdy, except for one corner that was covered by a tarp.

Cedric followed my gaze to it. “I still have to work on that.”

“Have you . . . have you been working on the rest of it?” I asked delicately. I didn’t want to offend him, but it was really hard to tell.

“It’s why I was so late. When I got here, this thing was barely standing. I spent that first rainy night on the ground, huddled under the tarp. I’ve made trips into town for supplies and did a lot of the repairs myself. The prospector on the next claim over helped me with some too.” Cedric looked over the shack. “I didn’t want you to see it—or even this whole place—in such a state. There’s so much work to do. But I knew I couldn’t stay away any longer.”

I found his hand and laced my fingers with his. “I’m glad you didn’t. And you can’t be ashamed of any of this, not if we’re going to share a life together.”

He lifted my hand and studied it. The skin was cracked and raw from the lye. Dirt was everywhere, especially under my nails. There was a long cut I didn’t even remember getting. Releasing the hand, he sighed.

“Hey, now. Don’t so sound so dejected,” I told him. “It’s nothing some moisturizer and a little soap—real soap, not that cursed stuff Mistress Marshall made—won’t fix. I’ll be back to my same old beautiful self in no time.”

He turned me to face him. The afternoon sun lit him up, turning his dark auburn hair to fire. “You’re already your same old beautiful self. Maybe even more so than when I first met you. I think about that day a lot, you know. I remember every detail. I remember that dress you wore—blue satin with rosebuds on the sleeves. And every curl perfectly arranged. I’d never seen anything like you. Lady Witmore, Countess of Rothford.” He sighed again. “And now look what I’ve brought you to. If I hadn’t darkened your doorway that day, where would you be now? Certainly not in the middle of nowhere, scrubbing some farmwife’s house while desperately hoping your heretic husband can scrape together enough money to buy us both out of suffocating contracts. You’d have been married in silk, on the arm of someone whose bloodline matched yours. You’re still like nothing I’ve ever seen, and you’re the first thing I think of when I wake up each morning . . . but sometimes, well, I’m just not sure if I’ve improved your life or made it worse.”