Chapter 30
Kit
It was barely light out when I woke the next morning. I was too warm with Penny draped over my chest and the blanket around us both. Even with the two beds pushed together, we were crowded, feet hanging off one side and arms off the other. Not that either of us minded. We reveled in the closeness.
It would make extricating myself from him difficult, though.
But that could wait. Penny was too peaceful to disturb, especially since our arrival in Eastcliff hadn’t gone quite as he envisioned. By the time he dragged me to bed the night before, I could tell he was disappointed.
I’d been a bit more practical in my expectations. I knew Amelina would be difficult to win over, and I couldn’t blame her. But if my mind could be changed about speedy engagements, hers could be, too. I was prepared to spend the next month earning her approval, no matter what it took.
Our conversation while Penny and Sayla prepared dinner had been a good start.
I took the opportunity to gush over Penny’s progress in the forge and his skill with leatherworking.
There were several pieces at hand to show off, between the belt he’d gifted me and his satchel.
She was suitably impressed and remarked that he might take a look at the popped stitches on the plow horse’s harness.
She was even more interested when I mentioned his baking lessons and how he created delicious things from whatever we happened to have in the pantry.
He was as masterful in the kitchen as he was at his workbench.
And she couldn’t hide her smile when I lamented that I was bound to be ten pounds heavier by winter if he kept up with the parade of desserts every day, but at least there were kittens to chase around to work it all off again.
The smell of breakfast wafted through the crack under the door, and my stomach rumbled. Penny shifted and rolled, giving me space to ease out from under him and escape the stifling heat of the blankets and bed.
Gooseflesh prickled across my arms when the chill of the room hit my skin, so I dressed quickly to fend it off. Once assured Penny was still tucked under the covers, I feathered a kiss across his forehead, then quietly left the room.
I hadn’t spent much time paying attention to the house the last time we’d been here; I never intended to come back.
Now, though, it seemed likely this would become my home once things with the Bone Men were over.
It was cozy—admittedly much too small for two grown men to hope for privacy with a third person in such close proximity—but that could be solved with the addition of a separate living space.
There was room enough behind the house that wasn’t used for planting, and we’d find a way to make it work.
Farming wasn’t my first choice of profession, but it was familiar. I was good at it. And I could be happy here with Penny if that was what he wanted. Anywhere could be home so long as he was there.
When I rounded the corner into the kitchen, I expected to find Sayla and Amelina preparing the morning meal, but Sayla was nowhere in sight.
Amelina stirred a large pot of porridge while eggs sizzled in the pan to her left.
Aside from her, the only other person in the room was a man.
His sandy blond hair was windblown and slightly damp, and he sat at the table facing away from me.
I tried to remember Sayla’s suitor’s name, certain it must be him, but before I could dredge it from the depths of my memory, Amelina noticed me in the doorway.
“Oh, good morning,” she said.
The man at the table turned to face me, and for a moment I was sure I was still asleep and this was a particularly bad dream.
But no, I was awake and relieved I hadn’t roused Penny.
This house was only big enough to contain one of the Oliver sons, and yet here Merrick was, reposed at the table with mud on his boots and a smirk on his face.
The Shroud Warden’s smug humor stirred anger in my gut that was more for Penny’s sake than my own. I wanted to return to the bedroom and warn Penny that our shared bane was now under the same roof, but Amelina spoke again, and I was as good as trapped.
“Kit, this is my eldest, Merrick.” She gestured first to him, and then back to me. “Merrick, this is Kit, Penwell’s intended.” Her shoulders squared a little, and I thought she looked proud as she met Merrick’s surprised gaze. “He’s teaching your brother blacksmithing and leatherwork.”
“Intended?” Merrick asked, turning his attention on me. “Must be a recent development seeing as this is our first time meeting and I’ve not been away long.”
So, he was going to play it that way. He’d kept his affiliation with the Bone Men secret for years, after all, so it made sense he didn’t want it spoiled now. It might have been the singular thing on which we could agree.
Merrick rose from his seat and approached me, offering his hand as that wry smile continued to tease his lips. I fought a sneer as I clasped his hand and shook. It was an effort to hide the surge of fury burning up my insides as I plastered on a believably pleasant smile.
“You were indisposed when I was last here,” I said.
“Called away by the militia, I believe. Perhaps if you’d been home with your family while they were mourning, you wouldn’t have missed it.
” Before Merrick could snap back with a response, I added on, “But I imagine a man in a position as important as yours has more pressing duties to attend to.”
Merrick dropped my hand, leaving me to cross to where Amelina was tending the eggs. “I’m surprised not to see Sayla here helping.” A natural enough change of topic, though the elder Oliver brother seemed none too pleased to have lost his chance at a cutting retort.
“She’s gone to fetch Warren, her suitor.” Amelina glanced over with a faint smile. “He offered to help with planting, and we’re in no position to refuse. So, we’ll have breakfast together before you all get started.”
I reached for the wooden spoon she’d been using to stir the porridge. She eyed my outstretched fingers for a moment, then hesitantly passed the utensil to me.
“I’ll be glad to meet him.” I slid in closer and took up stirring in her stead. “Penny’s told me a lot about him. He’s a silversmith, yes?”
Amelina nodded. “He does fine work. Not as delicate as his father’s, but he has time yet to learn.”
“At least he can learn,” Merrick quipped.
We glanced back at him in unison. He had returned to his chair where he leaned back with his arms crossed over his chest.
“For having helped plant and tend and harvest these fields for nearly twenty years, Penwell still hasn’t learned to rise on time.” He gestured vaguely around the room. “He is now, as he has always been, the last up. Some things never change.”
Indignation prickled up my back, and the urge to upend the entire pot of porridge in Merrick’s lap came and went between several measured breaths.
There was so much I wanted to say, but Penny’s mother’s presence stayed my tongue.
As good as it would feel to call Merrick out for lounging around like he owned the place and leaving Amelina to cook for everyone, or to ask him whose palms he had to grease to get out of Ashpoint when Levitt knew he wasn’t welcome here, it wasn’t worth burning out whatever goodwill I’d built with their mother.
That was of more value to me than getting in a few good verbal blows on the elder Oliver brother.
“That’s unnecessary.” Amelina wagged the spatula at her son. “He’s doubtless tired from his journey here.”
Merrick snorted. “Doubtless.”
“He was up late talking with Sayla. I’ll go wake him,” I offered.
“Don’t bother,” Merrick said. “He’s more hindrance than help most days. Chasing bugs, climbing trees, drawing everything…” His eyes rolled skyward, and he sighed. “We’re better off starting without him.”
“Merrick,” Amelina snapped, and he had the sense to at least feign feeling chastised.
My eyes wandered to the world outside the window over the sink, and a pit opened in my stomach. The clouds were low and dark, the wind chasing rain across the earth and lashing at the branches of the trees in the distance. I could feel the damp chill seeping in through the cracks in the casing.
For once, Merrick may have been right. This sort of weather played havoc on Penny’s damaged lungs, and there was no way I could put him out in the fields in it. The last thing we needed was for him to wake up ill the next morning and really give Merrick something to complain about.
I set the wooden spoon aside. “I really should go get him up. Excuse me.” I didn’t wait for further commentary from Merrick or Amelina before making my way to Penny’s bedroom.
A peek inside found him still dozing, so I eased the door closed behind me and padded over to sit on the edge of the bed. He looked so serene that I hated to disturb him, especially with the news I had to deliver, but putting it off wouldn’t help either of us.
I pushed the hair back from his face and leaned in to rub my nose against his. “Time to get up, sweetheart.”
He groaned and flung out an arm to pull me in. I let him draw me close, and he sighed in contentment when I brushed a kiss across his lips.
“Come back to bed,” he murmured.
“You know I can’t,” I said and tugged on a lock of his hair.
He cracked one eye open. “Sure you can.”
I chuckled and pulled back. “Everyone else is already up, and we have work to do.”
He groaned again, longer this time, and draped his arms over his face. “Right,” he grumbled. “Plowing. Planting. Chores.”
Rather than tree climbing, bug chasing, and daydreaming.
But what Merrick had meant as scorn made me smile.
Penny was a young man, younger still when Merrick had been spending more time at home.
It was endearing to think of him roaming the farmland, finding beauty and reveling in it.
He excelled at that even now, seeing the best in places and people.
I hoped clearing my throat would take some of my trepidation with it, but I felt no less cagey when I spoke again. “We have an extra set of hands.” If Penny noticed the strain in my voice, he didn’t let on.
“I know,” he said as he dropped his arms and gave a full body stretch that had me aching to run my hands over every arched inch of him. “Warren’s a good man. I think you’ll like him.”
I sighed and redirected my thoughts to the much less pleasant present. “No, Pen, in addition to Warren.”
When I met his gaze, he was squinting at me like he was trying to read between my words. Drawing it out wasn’t helping, but I needed to steel myself for what I knew would be an explosive reaction.
Penny caught on to my discomfort and propped himself up on an elbow. “Who else is there?” Concern creased his brow.
“Merrick,” I replied before I could talk myself into putting it off long enough to kiss the smile back onto his face.
Penny sat bolt upright, scrunching the blanket in his tense fists as he searched my face for some sign I was teasing. When he found none, his lips peeled back in a snarl.
“How can he be here? He was on house arrest!”
“It ended the day we left,” I reminded him. “So, he had plenty of time to follow us.”
“Well, he’s not wanted here,” Penny growled, throwing back the blankets and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. “I told him he wasn’t needed and not to come back, and I’ll tell him again.”
He shot to his feet and made for the door but didn’t get far before I caught his elbow and hauled him back.
“Kit—”
“Your mother is out there, Pen.” I slid my hands up to curl around his biceps and hold him in place.
“I don’t care,” he said, pulling against my grip. “She can hear me say it, too.”
As much as I might have enjoyed watching Penny tell Merrick off in front of the rest of his family, now wasn’t the time. We were in a precarious position whether Penny realized that or not.
Merrick knew enough to get the two of us arrested, or at the very least to destroy Penny’s relationship with his mother.
It would break her heart to find out where we’d been for the last six months and to find out what we’d done.
I never wanted Penny to have to go through that, and Merrick was too big of a threat to confront here.
“As far as your mother knows, Merrick and I just met for the first time.” I dipped my head to meet his narrowed eyes. “Unless you’re prepared to tell her about our time in Ashpoint, and the Bone Men, and everything else, it needs to stay that way.”
“So, I’m just supposed to tolerate him?” Penny seethed. “Act like he hasn’t tried to kill us more than once? Like this is all normal? For how long, Kit?”
I loosened my grip on his biceps and ran my hands up and down his arms in a vain attempt to ease some of the tension that bound him up like a spring-loaded trap poised to snap. He didn’t relax, but he didn’t pull away, either. I took the small concession.
“We just need to get through planting. Making sure your family is in good shape is more important than fighting with your brother.” Penny opened his mouth to protest, but I corrected myself before he could do it for me. “Half-brother.”
His shoulders loosened and he expelled a heavy breath. I pulled him in and slid my arms around his back. He settled heavily against me and pressed his face into my shoulder.
“You sound like Sayla, you know.” His words were muffled against my shirt. “Everyone asking me to keep secrets. I thought we left that in Ashpoint.”
I pressed my nose into his hair and let my eyes slide closed. “I know, and I’m sorry.” A tiny smile crept across my lips. “But your mother introduced me to Merrick as your intended, so that’s one thing we don’t need to hide anymore.”
“Good,” Penny groused, but I heard the hint of a smile in his voice. “Rub it in his stupid face.”
“That you’re free to do as much as you want.” To be honest, I would enjoy it as much as Penny would.
The wind shrieked past the window, and I frowned. With the Merrick situation mostly under control, the weather demanded my attention.
“Weather’s foul today.” I leaned back, and Penny reluctantly took back his own weight and looked up at me.
“I want you to take it easy and stay out of the cold and the rain as much as you can. We can’t have you getting sick, and it’s best if Merrick doesn’t realize you have lasting effects from the hemlock. He doesn’t need that satisfaction.”
And he especially didn’t need to know Penny’s weakness. That was too easily exploited, and I wasn’t about to let that happen. After Wendwood, I wasn’t ready to see him that sick again, either. I’d be useless around the farm if I was fretting over him.
“I’ll manage,” Penny said. He took a deep breath and shook his head before turning to pull clean clothes out of our pack. “I’ll be fine.”
One way or another, I would make sure of that.