Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
T he anguish Kit had felt at failing to kill Caul Gilling was bad, but it paled into insignificance compared to watching Valentine fall to earth. The ground loomed up to meet her long before Kit could reach her, but she thrashed her wings, and somehow managed to right herself before impact and rose clumsily again before dropping.
He slid and caught her before she landed in a manner that would have made his upper fifth-form rugby master proud. He rolled onto his back and cradled her in his arms. Her heartbeat was a faint fluttering in the palm of his hand but it was enough to know she was alive and he gave a sob of relief. He eased the arrow from her claws. He wanted to hurl it far from her but she’d sacrificed too much for him to let the second chance go to waste.
‘What were you thinking?’ he raged, far too loudly.
Panic slammed the dove backwards, beating her wings weakly. She tried to answer but the only noise that came out was a burbling cooing. Horrified at having alarmed her, Kit gathered her into his arms, making soothing, wordless sounds.
‘You can turn back now,’ he said.
She grew still and he braced himself for the change in weight and size, but nothing happened. She squawked, her tiny bright eyes fixed on his.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said softly. ‘You’re just weak. Give it time.’
He tried to keep his voice level, not having the slightest idea whether she was doomed to remain in this guise.
‘You’re safe, my love,’ he said soothingly. He stroked the glossy feathers of her neck and she grew calm.
‘Come on. I have a job to do,’ he said.
Holding the arrow in one hand and cradling Valentine in the crook of his other arm, he walked to the castle. The fields outside the castle were full of humans and fae alike, all mingling in confusion or seeing the opportunity for freedom from Caul Gilling’s oppression. No one prevented him entering.
Silas’s followers were fighting against Caul Gilling’s soldiers. A handful of bodies lay bleeding or already dead. The spiky-haired man was clutching the body of his kimono-clad lover and keening. The scent of blood hit Kit like a punch to the face as he found himself back in the midst of a battle and the muscles in his legs tensed, ready to run. Silas and Adelaide were making their way stealthily around the inner edge of the courtyard. They appeared to be heading towards a large, grey marble statue of a woman with her head bowed and hands outstretched on a raised platform.
Caul Gilling presumably thought the same because he launched himself off the rampart with a cry. His cloak spread and belatedly Kit realised they were wings. He landed gracefully in front of the statue.
‘What do you come here for?’
‘I am Silas of the Wilde. My bride and I are here to fulfil our birthright,’ Silas shouted. His voice rang with command. A significant number of Caul Gilling’s soldiers paused their assault and looked towards their master.
Silas continued to walk towards the statue. ‘If you accept me as your lord, stand down your weapons. This bloodshed will end now.’
Fighters on both sides let their weapons fall. Even Kit felt his fingers twitch to drop the arrow but he gripped it firmly. He made a nest by the wall with his cloak and lowered Valentine into it and as he did, he felt the small bottle of mead he’d asked Enid for. He uncorked it and poured some into his cupped hand then held it to Valentine’s lips.
‘It’s mead.’
She pecked at it until his hand was empty. He stood. Her eyes followed him.
Don’t leave me.
The voice in his head was a mix of Andrew’s and hers. His stomach churned.
‘I have to. You’ll be safer here,’ he whispered.
Silas and Caul Gilling were still facing each other, though Silas had been edging around so that he was closer to the statue. He had produced a dagger with a very thin blade and was holding it out. Adelaide held his hand and was glaring at Caul Gilling.
‘My blood will speak to my ancestors,’ Silas growled.
‘Your blood will beg for death,’ Caul Gilling sneered.
‘Our blood does not fear death,’ Adelaide spat.
Kit shook his head in irritation. He had no time for theatrics of this sort. He strode up, concealing the arrow behind his back. All three of them turned towards him causing a pit of fear to open in his stomach, and he had to force himself forward. If he was going to be a hero worthy of the iron he concealed, now was the time.
‘I am here to demand you free the sleepers and the Gentle named Valentine,’ he said firmly.
Caul Gilling curled his lip in contempt. ‘You demand? A warped faced weakling who cannot shoot an arrow straight? You are nothing.’
A grey streak flew past Kit and the fae’s laughter was cut short by Valentine launching herself at his face. As Caul Gilling held his hands up in protection, Kit lunged forward and stabbed the arrow upward. He’d loathed bayonet training for war, but was grateful for it now as the motion came easily to him. The tip of the arrow pierced Caul Gilling’s chest. He uttered an unholy shriek and began to clutch at it.
Valentine circled away and when she landed beside Kit, she had transformed back to a woman. She held up the arm bearing the bracelet, and struck Caul Gilling across the face.
‘I free myself,’ she shouted.
She reached forward, drove the arrow further into Caul Gilling’s chest, and twisted. He looked at her in confusion, then his milky eyes flooded with scarlet. Blood spread across his chest, and he fell forward, rust-brown tracks appearing on the back of his hands as they clutched the ground. Soldiers, sleepers and fae rushed forward, an uproar filling the air.
Valentine lifted her hand. The bracelet dulled to the faintest pink then broke into two pieces and fell to the flagstones, where it shattered into a dozen more.
‘He’s dead,’ Valentine announced, her voice half a sob. ‘I’m free.’
She flung her arms around Kit, clinging onto him and laughing wildly. He buried his face in her hair and held her close.
‘Then there’s only one matter left,’ Silas announced. He walked past the body, pulling Adelaide after him to stand before the statue.
‘Give me your hand,’ he said to Adelaide. She obeyed and he held out the dagger.
‘Stop!’ Kit yelled.
He shrugged Valentine off and barged towards them.
‘Don’t worry,’ Silas said. ‘This is the birthright I told you of. The queen needs blood.’
‘Yours, not hers,’ Kit snarled.
Silas smiled infuriatingly. ‘Ours. The blood we share.’
‘Merelda’s blood?’ Kit asked. ‘She always used to talk about how she’d had a baby.’
‘She said that it was replaced with a stone, but no one believed her,’ Adelaide confirmed. She bit her lip. ‘We all thought she was mad.’
Kit’s stomach squirmed, remembering the squat toad clinging onto her tongue. ‘She’s your mother, isn’t she?’
Silas’s eyes flashed with amusement. ‘I’ll never get tired of how humans jump to conclusions so quickly. Though I am half-human myself, my father loved and cherished my mother, and they lived here happily for a century. I’m not Merelda’s son. Though it’s true she had a baby, and it was taken from her.
‘My uncle raped Merelda then cursed her. He tongue-locked her so that she could not speak of who had charmed her.’ Silas’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘He was plotting his conquest, even then. If the child had been a boy, then he would have raised him as a successor, secure in the knowledge that he had a dynasty of his own. But it was a girl. She was brought here for a time, but then my uncle lost interest and returned her to your world. Unfortunately, by then Merelda had aged beyond that of motherhood, so the child was found a new mother.’
While Silas had been speaking, Kit had been studying Adelaide and a memory came to him – the moment he’d come across Silas sitting with Merelda in the maze and mistaken her for Adelaide.
Right mother, wrong child.
‘Addie,’ he said softly. ‘You were adopted.’
‘In Halifax.’ Silas nodded slowly. ‘You have to remember that time here can act differently. A day can be a week. Or decades.’
‘But she’s human.’
‘Half human,’ Adelaide murmured.
It made a strange sort of sense. The baby sent back to the family like a twisted version of the changeling stories. It explained Adelaide’s knack for charming people. She was probably using bewilderments she didn’t even know she possessed.
Silas took her hand and kissed it. ‘My darling, you belong here as much as you do there. Half a fae. The blood of my family runs in your veins, too. Did you think I picked you by chance to come with me here? I told you I needed your help to mend my kingdom and I meant it.’
‘What do you need me to do?’ she asked Silas.
‘For twenty generations my family have sworn an oath to rule with honour and fairness. The blood seals the compact. To claim my throne and the responsibility that goes with it I must do the same. I only need a little of yours and you will be my queen. We will rule together.’
Kit jerked his head up.
‘You don’t have to do that,’ he said. ‘We can go home now.’
‘Home?’ she asked, looking confused.
‘To Meadwell. You’re half human, too.’
He suspected he knew the choice she’d make, but once she made it, she wouldn’t be able to unmake it. He turned to Silas.
‘Does this have to be done now? You should give her time to think about the consequences.’
Silas gave him a quick look of annoyance then shrugged. ‘I suppose it doesn’t. My uncle is no longer a threat and now I think of it, performing this ritual in front of his corpse is unseemly. At noon we’ll meet here again. It will give my people time to spread the word and come from further afield.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Where are my courtiers? My loyal advisors? Come, we have work to do.’
He swept off towards the double doors, waving his hand. They creaked open as he approached. Kit looked at Adelaide, then at Valentine, who was standing alone. She looked slightly pale after her exposure to the iron but she was looking at her wrist, which was now free of any shackle, and her expression was radiant. Both women called to him for different reasons. He knew which one he wanted to see, and which he should speak to. But who first?
As he dithered, Valentine looked at him, nodded slightly, then extended her arms and rose into the sky. Not a dove now, but something with dark feathers above and pale below. It might be a merlin but Kit wasn’t sure. She soared up until her silhouette was swallowed by the sun and vanished. He began to weep with the sheer joy of seeing her so free, and hastily wiped his arm across his eyes to hide the evidence.
‘We have things to discuss. Will you come with me for a walk?’ Kit asked Adelaide.
She looped her arm through his and together they strolled through the courtyard. They climbed the tower with its staircase spiralling around the outside and stood on the battlements where Caul Gilling had been. The failed arrows would be somewhere nearby, and he’d need to find them to return the iron safely back to his own world. He’d seen the effect it had on Silas’s people – on Valentine, in particular – and had no desire to see it used again.
Only when Kit was certain they would not be overheard did he start to speak.
‘Are you all right?’
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ Adelaide frowned in confusion.
‘You’ve just seen your father murdered. Isn’t that a shock?’
She leaned on the parapet, linking her hands together, the mannerism startlingly similar to Caul Gilling’s.
‘He fathered me, but I’d hardly count him as a father! He stole me and cursed my mother, then left me when I was of no use. I’ve spent the last two years witnessing the devastation caused by him. The world is better off without him.’
She had an edge of steel to her voice. She would make a strong leader, probably stronger than Silas would be, and the faedemesne would be better off for it. ‘No, if anything it’s Merelda I’ll miss. I like her a lot. That’s why I feel so content here, I suppose.’
He was right. She wasn’t planning to come home. He could make it hard or easy for her. He took a deep breath. ‘I do love you, Addie, just not in the way I’d need to for us to marry. You’re beautiful and I find you absolutely beguiling, but I’m not in love with you. And, I know you’re not in love with me, either.’
She reached for his hand and squeezed it.
‘I love you too Kit, but like a brother.’
‘Our engagement wasn’t for us, it was for the families. It would be a terrible mistake if we go through with it.’ He touched her shoulder gently. ‘I came here to rescue you and take you home, but that choice isn’t mine to make for you. You should stay here with Silas and your son if that’s what you want.’
‘I do. I am in love with Silas. I feel like I belong here. I know I do.’
‘Then I formally release you from our engagement.’ It felt like the rightful end of something that should never have happened. He pressed his lips together.
‘Thank you, Kit, darling.’ Adelaide pressed her hand to his cheek, her eyes growing moist. ‘You don’t know how happy this makes me.’
The relief in his heart told him that he probably did. She hugged him tightly then pulled back and looked at him anxiously.
‘I’m not really here, though, am I? You said you saw me at Meadwell.’
‘That’s right. You need to wake up, then you can come through. I’m sure it can be done and your body and spirit can join together again. Silas will explain how, and I’ll help as much as you need me to.’
She embraced him. ‘Thank you, and then we can come back together. Oh Kit, we’ll have a lovely life!’
‘I’m not coming back with you. I can’t. I have too many responsibilities and there will be too much to explain.’ Kit grimaced at the thought of how he was going to finance the upkeep of the estate without Adelaide’s money.
‘You’ll need money. I shall leave you everything,’ she said. ‘I won’t be needing it. As far as I’m concerned you can sell my jewellery, and I’ll even write you a bank draft for as much of my capital as I can access.’
‘Your parents won’t be happy about that,’ Kit cautioned.
She laughed recklessly. ‘I don’t care, they’ll be even less happy thinking I’ve eloped with a Hungarian nobleman.’
‘Hungarian?’
‘I just picked a country. One where they’re unlikely to start checking birth records and identities. I’ll pack my things, leave a note for Sarah and be back here before an hour is up.’
‘You call her Sarah. I noticed that before. You’d already made your mind up to leave.’
‘I can’t stay at home just for my parents. No child should, and I don’t think she’d want me to.’
She kissed his cheek and Kit knew just how much he’d miss her.
‘Kit, I hope you find happiness. With someone. Whoever she – or he – might be.’
Her blessing, with all the acceptance that it involved, meant more than he could articulate. He hugged her tightly. A shriek came from above and he looked up to see the silhouette of the merlin. He waved but Valentine spiralled off again, black against the clouds, and he wasn’t sure she’d even seen him.
‘She’s the one you love, isn’t she. Or he is? I’m not sure I understand that.’
‘Yes,’ Kit whispered, ‘but I don’t think they know I do, and I don’t know how they feel in return.’
‘Then go and tell her and find out, idiot.’ Adelaide prodded him in his chest and just for a moment they were children again, teasing one another. He hurried down the stairs as fast as he could, cursing whoever built a staircase on the outside of the keep without a railing. One wrong move could send him plummeting hundreds of feet to his death.
Silas emerged from inside the castle, looking every inch the king. He’d changed into a dark purple cloak and had the circlet of black stones around his head.
‘Adelaide is yours. I’ve formally ended our engagement,’ Kit told him. ‘I’ll be returning to England alone.’
‘That wasn’t necessary for our union to proceed. She has declared herself my wife,’ Silas said. He dipped his head. ‘But I appreciate the gesture.’
‘You didn’t need me at all did you. It was Adelaide all along,’ Kit asked.
‘It was Adelaide I needed because of whose blood she bears. It’s fortunate for me that I also love her. As her fiancé I needed your permission to court her in the first place. I saw your skill with the bow, and I wanted your friendship and your courage.’ Silas leaned over and kissed Kit beside the lips, leaving a trace of heat and the scent of pipe tobacco on an autumn night. ‘And on that subject, are you sure you want to go back? There will always be a place for you at my court as an adviser, and a friend.’
Kit bit his lip. The world here seemed brighter already. Whether it was just his damaged vision, or his imagination, or whether the pall cast on the land by Caul Gilling was beginning to lift, the sky looked a paler grey, with hints of blue breaking through. Why shouldn’t he give up the miserable existence of Meadwell and let Alfred take over as he so clearly wanted to? He sighed with longing.
‘You’re tempted, I can tell. Though I caution you to decide quickly,’ Silas said. He put his hands behind his back and began to walk. Kit fell in beside him.
‘I spent two years caught in a snicklegate, with time to think and plan. My uncle was right that, in some ways, my land is affecting yours, and as we’ve seen, yours affects us. I think the borders need to be closed permanently. No more crossing between. No more half-human children.’ He blinked. ‘No more iron seeping through the firmament.’
‘That’s very drastic. We use iron a great deal now but might not always,’ Kit pointed out. ‘Steel and other metals will be used.’
‘That might harm us more rather than less,’ Silas said. ‘Who knows what else might be created; more destructive, deadlier. No, to keep safe my people – and yours – we need to close ourselves in.’
‘What about progress?’ Kit said. ‘New ideas? You can’t hope to pickle the world as it is.’
‘That’s true.’ Silas smiled at him. ‘Perhaps once a decade, a handful of brave souls may be permitted to pass across and gather or impart ideas. To keep the folktales stocked with characters. But no more than that. Are you not tempted to stay now?’
Kit ran his hands through his hair and grinned.
‘Yes, and you know it, but I have to go back. Responsibilities, you know. A kingdom of my own to rule,’ he said, trying to sound enthusiastic. ‘Ask me again in a decade.’
‘Then I shall grant you a bedazzlement. I would see your face be as handsome on both sides so that the world knows your goodness.’
There was a little tug at Kit’s heart. It was tempting, though not too tempting. Because this was how the fae made bargains. There would be an obligation on him if he did that. Besides…
He shook his head. ‘Thank you, but I earned my scars. I’ll let them serve me as a reminder of what I did.’
‘You’re an odd man. Shouldn’t the outward man resemble the inner man?’
‘I behaved without honour in the field, as you know damn well. My heart bears the greatest scars, and I would not have you erase a single one of those.’
He bit his lip. Since he had bared his heart to the unicorn, it hurt a little less than he’d grown used to. Perhaps the pain and guilt Kit felt over Andrew’s death and his abandonment of him was beginning to heal.
There was an expression of benign amusement on the fae’s face.
‘I talk not only of the valour in your own world but in mine. You are a braver man than you permit yourself to believe, and I would have you know your worth. Very well, keep your badge of disgrace if it makes you happy, but it is my wish that you see the world with clarity.’
He reached out and rested his hand upon Kit’s forehead and began to speak in a high, rapid voice. Kit’s head filled with a wriggling, as if a thousand worms of steel were burrowing into his brain. It wasn’t painful as much as uncomfortable as the power surged into him and he became aware on a level that he had somehow previously not been that Silas was an extremely powerful being.
Silas pronounced two final syllables and withdrew his hand. Kit opened his eyes and gasped. The sight in both was clearer than it had ever been.
‘What did you do?’
‘I took the damage from your eye. You will always bear your outer scars but there is no reason why your sight should be obscured. And no, before you ask, this places you under no obligation to me. It is a reward freely offered in commemoration of the great services you have performed here.’
Kit’s newly healed eyes filled with tears. He raised his eyes to the sky, blinking rapidly and caught a glimpse of Valentine circling on the air currents, her spread wings now the silhouette of a red kite. He sighed with longing.
Silas cocked his head and raised an exquisitely arched brow.
‘I can call her if you like. No obligation. Regard it as a final favour.’
Kit didn’t hesitate.
‘Yes, please.’
* * *
High on the air currents, Valentine watched Adelaide and Kit speaking. Saw them embrace. Pain shot through her chest that she could no longer deny. She shrieked in alarm, at first not understanding the sensation, and then in despair and grief.
A beating heart now lay inside her, and the tragedy was that it was tied to the man now standing with his future bride.
She wheeled away, not wanting to see any more and flew towards the mountains. She intended not to return but heard a call that sounded like a bird of prey. Silas. She grew tense. Now that she was free, she would bend to no man’s will. It was right and proper that no man had a claim on her. But when she saw that he was not alone, she felt the beat of that heart again and knew that she was only lying to herself. She circled about, then plummeted at speed, deciding as she dropped which aspect to be, before spreading her wings, and landing on the ground a bird, standing up a woman.
‘You called me, my lord?’ she asked bowing to Silas and contriving to face away from Kit.
‘I did. You and Kit need to speak.’
He walked off in the direction of the tower where Adelaide waited.
‘Ithought the dove was your only form,’ Kit remarked.
She flexed her fingers. ‘For a long time it was. It is how my master preferred me. In my mildest and most submissive state.’
Kit grinned at her, his eyes crinkling with amusement. ‘I don’t think I would ever call you submissive. You’re fierce and argumentative and downright rude at times.’ He reached for her hand and ran his thumb over the palm. The little shocks of sensitivity that danced up and down her arm were torture.
‘I think I shall miss your argumentative nature most of all when I leave,’ he said. ‘I’ll be going without Adelaide. I’ve released her from our engagement.’
‘But I saw you embracing. I felt the love radiating from you both,’ she said quietly.
Kit smiled, a touch of sadness edging it. ‘It is the love of a brother and sister for each other. Two hearts glad that our engagement is at an end. I’ll return and she’ll stay here.’
‘You aren’t coming back?’
Valentine’s chest tightened in agony. Oh, her newly hatched heart would be unendurable if it could cause such poundings. How Silas must have suffered when his grew.
The sadness in Kit’s face deepened, his eyes growing more sorrowful than she’d imagined possible. ‘I can’t. I have too many responsibilities at home, never mind the fact that I’ll have to deal with the repercussions of Adelaide leaving. You could come with me if you’d like. Now I’m not going to marry Adelaide I’m free to look elsewhere and there’s nowhere else I’d rather look than to you.’
She shivered remembering the oppressive weight of the iron bars crushing her in the room he had locked her in, and the pain and disorientation she’d felt when the tip of the arrow had screamed as she had carried it. She wasn’t brave enough to go with him to that world.
‘I can’t. I’m so sorry Kit. There’s too much iron now and it’s only going to get worse. I could come and visit you, perhaps somewhere far from any towns, but I can never stay.’
‘I understand. Silas said as much. He says he’s going to close all the gates. For our safety as well as yours.’
‘Forever?’
No more travelling through between worlds. Kit forever or Kit never.
Throwing caution to the wind she began to speak, to ask him to stay, but of course no words emerged. Even Silas Wilde couldn’t break that magic and ask his love to stay. It had to be volunteered or requested and given entirely freely by the human. All that emerged from her mouth was a strangled sob and Kit, misinterpreting it, showed the compassion and tenderness she’d come to love. He enfolded her in his arms, burrowing his face into her hair.
‘I shall miss you so very much, my love,’ he said. His voice was thick with misery but not enough for him to ask to stay.
He bit his lip, and looked a little worried. ‘I have something for you. I’ve been waiting for the right time to give it to you…’
He produced a small pouch from his trouser pocket and gave it to her. She tipped the contents into her hand and immediately recognised the flower beads as the bracelet from the stall in the market they’d walked through.
‘Kit, what did you buy this with?’ she asked.
‘A truth. That I wanted to be the source of gladdening your heart. But now I’m not sure. You might not want to wear anything on your wrist now.’
She didn’t wait for his answer, but wrapped the strands around her wrist in place of the shackle. The imprint caused by the magic binding was still visible, but the beads partly obscured it. For the second time in their conversation, she couldn’t summon the words.
‘You don’t have to wear it like that,’ Kit said. ‘You’re not bound to me.’
‘I know I’m not and I shall never be bound against my will again, but I’ll wear it there all the same, to remind me of what I’ve been and what you did for me. My champion.’
‘You freed yourself,’ he pointed out.
‘With the means – and the courage – you helped me find.’
Kit gathered her in his arms again and kissed her. The wildness flared inside her. She could transform into an eagle with the power coursing through her veins. She kissed him back passionately, letting her desire flood out through her and into him, feeling his surging back into her. In her mind she could almost see it, a golden thread running through both their bodies. However long she lived she’d never forget this moment.
The bronze bell at the top of the castle tower chimed. Valentine looked up. The sun was overhead. Time for Silas and Adelaide to complete the birth-rite. She took Kit by the hand and led him back to the castle courtyard. It was already filled with people dressed in clothing of all kinds: rags, tags, velvet gowns, chiffon and silks, leathers and feathers. She hesitated at the back until it occurred to her that she was no longer a bound chattel, at which point she led him through the crowds until they were directly in front of the statue, along with the more grandly dressed fae. She smiled pointedly at a couple of horned men, daring them to tell her to move, but they must have recognised who she was because they fell back with sweeping bows.
‘We deserve our place here,’ she said firmly to Kit. ‘I’m a Keeper of the Order of Thorns and I intend to make up for the time I’ve lost.’
Silas and Adelaide appeared, both clad in green robes that swept to the ground. They stopped in front of the statue and Silas began to speak, though Valentine let the words wash over her without really listening. Finally, Silas stopped talking and lifted his knife. He ran the long, curved blade over the mound beneath his thumb on his left hand and a drop welled up. Adelaide held out her right hand, sucking her breath in when the blade cut. Silas put his hand on the statue’s right and gestured for Adelaide to do the same on the left.
Valentine held her breath. For forty years, since Caul Gilling had usurped the throne, the Elder Quene had bowed her head in grief, but as the couple touched her hands the statue’s head lifted slowly until the face became visible. The smooth marble woman shared Silas’s fine features and, Valentine realised, Adelaide’s.
Adelaide beckoned and a young skorrig, short and hairy with a pronounced, catlike snout, stepped forward, holding the wrapped baby. The skorrig looked odd, but they made the best nursemaids or masters. Valentine looked at Kit from the corner of her eye and saw no surprise on his face. He’d learned well.
Adelaide pricked her son’s finger, producing the tiniest drop of crimson blood and touched it to the statue’s hand. A subtle sighing filled the air and a soft, cocoa-scented breeze caressed Valentine’s cheek. It felt like a kiss, and when she put her hand to touch it, she realised she was crying. Tears were streaming down Kit’s face, too, and she wondered at what point he would realise that his scars had faded almost completely to nothing.
After the ceremony, there was a feast. Valentine didn’t manage to speak to Silas privately until the late evening when he had finished walking amongst his subjects and speaking with delegations from different communities who had gathered outside the castle grounds. They found a spot by the river that ran behind the castle and sat together.
‘Silas, I know you have dazzled away some of my painful memories in the past. Don’t bother denying it. I can always tell,’ she added quickly, seeing his face taking on the expression it always did when he tried to deny something.
‘I thought you didn’t know. I did it with the best intentions,’ he said. ‘The indignities you endured at my uncle’s hand were reprehensible.’
‘I know. It’s a kindness that I’ve never thanked you for properly.’ She twisted her fingers together and her eyes fell on the daisy bracelet. ‘If I did want something to heal my heart and make me forget someone completely, what would it cost me?’
‘For you, absolutely nothing. There is nothing you can ask for that will ever repay the debt I owe you.’ He lifted her chin. ‘Is that what you really want?’
She blinked away the tears. ‘The one thing I really want I’m not allowed to ask for. You know that.’
He put his arm round her and kissed her softly on the temple. ‘I know. I won’t grant your request now. Ask me again in a month, and if you still desire to forget Kit, then I will do as you ask.’