Chapter 34
Aoife
Fair Folk and mortals filled the patch of land that we’d coated in soil, everyone digging, planting, watering, chatter filling the air around us. On the other side of the patch, Lor knelt by a water faerie, who held out her hand, water pouring from it to nourish newly planted seeds.
He met my gaze briefly, lips quirking before he turned his gaze back to the garden.
“So this is a Fair Folk thing?” Marsten asked from beside me. He wrinkled his nose at the dirt coating his red-painted nails.
“Oh, I’m covered in dirt,” Morton bemoaned as he inched past us.
“You do know you’re a worm, right?” I asked the pink bookwyrm as he shook the dirt from his wings.
“A w-y-r-m,” he corrected. “Not a worm. I do books. Not dirt.” His glassy black eyes met mine. “Which reminds me, we have a reading lesson later.”
“I’m aware, Morton. And if you don’t want to help us with the garden, you don’t have to.”
Niamh approached, and Morton spread his wings and lifted to her shoulder. “He’s a little prickly today,” she said.
“He’s a little prickly every day,” Marsten muttered under his breath, continuing to dig another small hole that we could drop a lettuce seed into.
Niamh and Morton continued past us, Niamh’s belly rounder and more pronounced than just a week ago as she waddled away from the garden and toward the castle in the distance.
“And to answer your question,” I said to Marsten, “yes this is a Fair Folk thing.”
Fairwitch Isle had the castle gardens, which were maintained by gardeners and farmers.
Anyone was welcome to use it, but that didn’t create a sense of community.
I’d remembered how the Fair Folk had created our own secret gardens in defiance of the godwitches, who wouldn’t let us use theirs.
We had to tend to theirs, grow their food for them, but weren’t allowed to eat it.
Those gardens we created didn’t just feed our bodies; they fed our souls. They brought us together and connected us with nature. I wanted to implement a community garden like that in Fairwitch Isle, one that would bring mortals and Fair Folk together in yet another way.
“I love the idea,” Ceri said from the other side of Marsten, nodding to her elderly father, who sat in the ground behind us, using his hands to coax a small plant into the dirt. “It’s good for him. Keeps his hands busy and his mind less busy.”
“Why does His Majesty keep looking at you like that?” Marsten asked, and I looked up to see Lor staring at me again, gaze so dark and intense.
I directed my attention to my hands in the soil. “I haven’t the faintest clue.”
“That’s a lie,” Meera mumbled, sprawled out on the dirt.
“Are you actually planning to help with any of this?” I asked. “Or are you just here to make commentary?”
“Just here to make commentary,” my advisor confirmed as she licked her paw.
Marsten leaned forward, green eyes gleaming. “Okay, you’re going to have to spill. Why is that a lie?”
Meera paused her grooming. “Margaret told me His Majesty hasn’t slept in his bed chamber for an entire week. Not since those two got back from their little escapade.”
My jaw tightened. I was going to have a strong word with Margaret when I saw her again.
The day Lor and I had returned, we’d immediately been pulled in different directions, the town in chaos as they welcomed back their missing leaders.
We’d only been gone a day, but everyone had been worried.
Then we’d been swept away into a council meeting, and after that, Lor had gone to see his family.
And that was that. Or so I’d thought. Until that night, when a knock had sounded on my door, and there had stood Lor. He didn’t say a word. Just raised his brow in question. I’d given a wordless answer in return, nodding and gesturing toward my bed pallet.
That had happened every night for the past week. Lor appearing, sleeping next to me with his big arm curled around my waist, tugging me in toward him, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t like it. Love it. Crave it.
I’d missed the warmth of other bodies sleeping next to me, but I’d never actually cuddled with anyone, never felt the protectiveness of someone’s arm around me.
I didn’t know what to make of it, and Lor and I hadn’t spoken about it. He arrived, slept next to me all night, and was usually gone by morning time.
“So whose bed has His Majesty been in if not his own?” Marsten asked.
Ceri elbowed him, but her curious gaze swung toward me.
I shot a look at Lor, who was standing next to his mother and father as they pulled weeds from the garden bed.
“That is none of your business,” I snapped. “And I suggest you stop asking.”
“What happened between you two on that trip?” Marsten asked. “You two disappear for a day, the return and suddenly you’re sleeping together?”
“We’re just sleeping,” I said, exasperated.
“I knew it.” Marsten squealed, and Meera winced.
“You sound like a hyena,” the cat said. “You don’t have to be so loud.”
“It’s okay if you’re not just sleeping,” Ceri pointed out. “You two are married, you know.”
I rolled my eyes and sat back on my heels, wiping at my damp brow with my arm. “We’re not married in the traditional sense. We haven’t even kissed.”
“What?” Marsten yelled, making everyone in the gardening area stop and stare at us.
Ceri gave an embarrassed laugh and waved a hand. “He just broke a nail. Nothing to see here.”
Activity resumed, and I glared at Marsten. “How does that surprise you? You know that Lor and I have never gotten along.”
“I figured you’d at least sampled the goods.
” Marsten gestured toward Lor, a sheen of sweat glistening on his pale skin, his shoulder-length hair tied back in a knot, tendrils escaping and lining his face.
His biceps bulged as he used a shovel to dig out a weed that they were having trouble extracting from the ground.
“I mean look at him. Go have some hate sex with that man.”
Ceri choked, and I sighed, regretting this entire conversation.
“He doesn’t see me like that,” I said. “He never wanted to get married. Neither did I. Now we’re stuck together and making the best of it. That’s it. It’s an arrangement, nothing more.”
Ceri pushed the golden curls from her eyes. “Then why is he sleeping next to you every night?”
“I—” I paused. “It’s complicated. I don’t like to sleep alone, and he discovered that, and now he’s doing something nice. Because that’s what he does. He does the right thing.”
Ceri looked down her button nose at me, clearly not buying what I was saying.
“You know, things have shifted between you two these last few weeks. I don’t know what caused the change, but I would bet my dress shop that Lor is not sleeping next to you because it’s the right thing to do.
And I would also bet my dress shop that you like him sleeping next to you. ”
I swallowed, heat flushing my body as I shifted to my bottom and tucked my legs underneath me. “Neither of us wants more, and I refuse to be chained to anyone.”
Marsten rearranged the long green skirt he wore. “So don’t be chained to him. Have fun with him. Use him. Please use him,” Marsten said, gaze devouring Lor as he lifted a heavy piece of stone. “That man deserves to be used.”
“He doesn’t want that from me,” I said, thinking of how he hadn’t made a single move. Hadn’t tried to kiss me, hadn’t tried to do anything other than just sleep next to me.
“So find out,” Ceri said. “Do something with him, something romantic . . . something where just the two of you can have time together to talk.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing all of this was ridiculous.
I was thousands of years old. Lor was a forty-two-year-old man.
We were married. Neither of us were inexperienced.
And we had been getting along. The thought of kissing Lor, of him rolling on top of me and burying himself inside of me sent a thrill through my body.
Maybe it was finally time to do more than just sleep next to my husband. The only problem was I didn’t know how to bridge the gap that still lay between us.