Chapter One
Places of magic do exist in the world. Lady Julia Hollidge, standing onstage at a theatre carved out of a cliff in Devonshire, knew it to be true.
Before her stretched a panorama of shining blue sea and rocky bluffs.
Behind her stood a unique masterpiece, a home on top of the cliff and a stage and theatre hewn from the very bones of the earth, decorated in lush foliage and flowers.
But it was the view below that had caught her attention.
Along the rocky beach ran a boy and a girl.
Shouting with laughter, each carrying a long stick, they leapt onto the natural stone jetties that stretched unevenly into the sea.
Despite the uneven footing, they danced back and forth.
Their sticks parried and thrust in mock swordplay.
How it took her back! And nearly cracked her chest in pain.
I am a knight, stalwart and true.
Eight years old, and her mother had been reading to her—adventures of knights, dragons, princesses, and squires.
Julia had no desire to be a princess, sitting in the stands, handing out handkerchiefs as favors.
She wanted to enter the lists, ride a huge destrier to the joust, and battle her way across the field, sword swinging.
She’d been practicing her skills alone in the woods on her father’s estate, brandishing a sturdy stick just like the children below.
She’d just vanquished a vile troll intent on eating the children of the kingdom, raising her sword and her voice high, when she heard the reply.
“You can’t be a knight,” someone scoffed. “You’re a girl.”
She’d swung around, hot with shock and anger. “I can be a knight!”
“Can’t.” It was a boy standing in a patch of sun, watching her. A boy with a tousled head of tawny hair and an unconcerned look on his face—as if he hadn’t just thrown down a challenge that spiked fury in her heart. “Boys are knights,” he said simply. “Girls are princesses.”
Her chin high, Julia pointed to the forest floor. “Take up a weapon. Test your mettle. Prove your skills against me, and then we shall see who may be a knight.”
With a sigh, he searched out a suitable stick—and then…
Oh, what glorious battle! She struck him aside the head, setting his ears to ringing.
He got in a stab to her arm that ripped linen and drew blood.
They chased each other around rocks, up trees, and across the stream.
Julia was dirty, sweaty, and utterly happy, until she tripped and went down and opened a gash on her knee.
She didn’t cry. She would not. But she sank down onto the forest floor and tried not to grow queasy at the sight of so much blood.
“It should be cleaned,” the boy said, squatting beside her. “Where do you live?”
She pointed in the direction of the manor house.
Nodding, he gripped her arm to help her stand and noticed when she hissed in pain. “Come, then.” Presenting his back, he bent down. “Climb on. I’ll carry you back.”
Julia hesitated. Would a knight accept such aid? Surely it was acceptable from a worthy opponent. With a sniff, she wiped her face and maneuvered onto his back, laying her cheek against his shoulder as he set off.
They were halfway home when he stepped over a log and into a slick patch. He cried out as his ankle gave way and they both went tumbling.
“Oof.” Sitting up, she saw how white his face looked and how he winced when he probed his ankle. “Come, then,” she repeated his words as she climbed to her feet. “There’s no help for it. I’ll take a turn now.”
She staggered under his weight, but she took her time and she made it home, collapsing onto the front lawn as soon as she spotted a gardener. The man ran for help, and Julia fell backward, heaving a sigh.
The boy stretched out beside her, contrition in his bright blue eyes. “I suppose you can be a knight after all.”
Validation and euphoria filled her. “What’s your name?”
“Saxon Reed. My father just took up the living at St. Andrew’s.”
“I’m Julia. We can be knights together.”
He considered, then gave her a nod.
“Do you like iced cakes?”
His nod came quicker this time.
“Nurse will give us some with tea, since I’m injured. You can stay and have mine, if you like.”
And thus the pair became fast friends. Best friends. They played, learned, and grew together. Teased, comforted, and confided in each other. Sax was her companion, her conscience, her advisor. And eventually, he became more. Far more.
Until fate, life, and parents intervened—and they could no longer be anything to each other at all.
Even now, Julia sighed at the thought. Losing Sax had nearly broken her. She had ached for him every day. It had led to extremely poor judgment and scandalous consequences. But that was the past.
She turned to look up at the house above. Her recovery was due in large part to the fact that there were also magical people in the world—and her sister was one of them. Merritt had known Julia needed space to heal and she had searched until she found this perfect place.
Trilling laughter echoed up from the beach and Julia glanced back. She had rested here. She had kept busy and stayed productive and useful. Her sister, and the school Merritt had started, and this theatre—they had all worked their magic. She had recovered.
But watching those children, feeling the ache in her heart, she knew. She had never truly let go.
She must. There was nothing left to hold on to, in any case.
It was time to move past old hurts and bad decisions, time to move forward.
Tonight the town of Shoring celebrated the opening of the new assembly rooms. They were making progress in their plans to become a seaside destination. Julia turned away from the view and moved toward the stairs. If Shoring could start a new chapter, then so could she. It was time to begin.
*
Saxon Reed, Duke of Riverton, paused on the coastal path to watch the sun sink low over the sea.
The breeze ruffled his hair as well as the pennants gracing the bathing machines on the beach below.
He stared at the spa building on the high cliff just out of town and watched the happy, eager procession of people heading toward tonight’s grand opening.
Shoring was well on its way to becoming a coastal spa town of distinction, although it did have a way to go yet.
“Come, girls!” he called to his sisters.
They had slowed to gawk at the masquerade costumes of the people around them.
He had been hesitant to bring them to the ball, but he’d been overruled by both sisters and everyone they’d met since their arrival.
It was the event meant to put Shoring on the map.
As far as Sax was concerned, the as-yet-undiscovered status of the place was a point in its favor.
He had brought Edie and Hilde here because it was genteel, respectable, and out of the way.
Most importantly, two of the best, most trustworthy women of his acquaintance lived here.
With everything about to break over him, he could not pass up the opportunity to leave his sisters here in safe isolation, hopefully untouched by the inevitable scandal, notoriety, and gossip.
He just had to convince them all to agree.
His sisters would not be a problem. They had already fallen in love with the place.
Sax thought Merritt would agree readily enough.
She was the Duchess of Belmont now, but marrying a duke had not stopped her from pursuing her dream.
She had opened a school for girls not far from Shoring.
Not a finishing school, the gossips said, but a beginning school.
A place for young ladies to grow to know their own minds, their own preferences, their own worth, before they ventured forth to find husbands.
It sounded like exactly what he wanted for his sisters.
Only one thing gave him pause.
Julia.
Her name summoned a tidal wave of images, along with a tsunami of pain. It had been easier, all this time, to not think of her. To block every thought, memory, and longing. To pretend his heart had never existed—as it had not in the nearly two years since he’d walked away from her.
He wondered if she had done the same. He wondered if she despised him. He couldn’t imagine Merritt going against her sister’s wishes. Would Julia deny Sax’s sisters, just to punish him? Not the Julia he had known.
But then, the gossip. None of that had sounded like his Julia, either.
His Julia.
He didn’t have the right to even think of her in that way.
Not anymore. Shoving away the ache, he adjusted his own mask, his only concession to the masquerade theme.
He smiled at Edie and Hilde as they arrived outside the new assembly rooms. “Here we are. Let’s go in and enjoy the evening, shall we? ”