Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
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The ride to Lamsdel was tense. Pippa was still mad, and Sadie already missed Nicholas. She should have woken him for one last kiss, but she had thought saying goodbye would be even harder than just leaving.
The carriage pulled to a stop in front of the building where Sadie and Pippa shared rooms, and a groom carried their bags upstairs.
After he dropped them off and left, Sadie moved to the chest at the foot of her bed.
She threw it open and began pulling her few possessions out.
She was wearing one of her two good dresses; the other was in the bag the groom had brought up.
“What are you doing?”
Sadie looked over at Pippa. “Packing. I’ll be out of your way by this evening.”
She might have to spend the night in Valway. She wasn’t sure she could make it farther since she still needed to visit Ferman’s to get her final pay packet and the general store to get a few other items for the journey. But better to spend the night in Valway than remain longer in Lamsdel.
“Out of my way? You’re leaving?” Pippa pulled Sadie away from her small pile of clothes. “Do you mean you are going back to Marstede after you pack?”
Sadie shook her head. “No. I’m leaving the area entirely. You won’t have to worry about me or my power.”
“Is that what you think I’ve been doing?”
Sadie stopped and sat down on the foot of the bed. “Isn’t it?”
“No! I told you, Sadie, I was hurt that you hadn’t trusted me.
The only reason I’ve been avoiding you is because I knew if I wasn’t careful I’d say something unforgivable about it.
I needed time to get over the hurt. I haven’t been avoiding you because you are a telepath.
I’m not going to tell anyone you are a telepath, and I don’t actually care that you are a telepath.
” Pippa propped her hands on her hips. “I mean, really, as if it weren’t obvious that you don’t go rummaging through my thoughts before, it certainly is now, since you are so entirely wrong about what I’ve been thinking. ”
“But—”
“No buts. Sadie, I don’t want you to leave.
You’re still you. Still my best friend. Spirits, if it weren’t for the fact that you are terrified of admitting you are a witch, I’d be begging you to open a potion shop with me.
Lady Marstede gave me a bonus for the month, and I can finally afford to start my own shop—if I had any idea what I’d sell. ”
Their own potion shop. The thought sent a pang of wistfulness through Sadie.
But in such a small village, there would be no way of hiding that she was the one making the potions, and then the inevitable questions would come.
Surely by now, Sadie had used up all her luck with finding people willing to either not ask about her power or accept it.
“I wish I could, Pip.”
Pippa sat on the bed next to her. “Hear me out. I haven’t just been brooding this whole time.
I’ve been thinking about this. I’d run the shop.
You’d just make the potions. You wouldn’t even have to be in Lamsdel, since Marstede Manor has a brewing room.
And maybe people would start to ask what your power is, but you don’t have to tell them.
And if you aren’t living in Lamsdel, people won’t be able to pester you. ”
Sadie frowned. “You do want me to leave.”
“No! But it’s not like you’ll stay here once you are the Baroness of Marstede.”
“Pip, I’m not marrying Nicholas.”
Pippa crossed her arms. “Why not?”
“Because he doesn’t want to marry. That was the whole point behind this past month. He’d let his mother play her games, and in exchange she’d stop pestering him to marry for two years.”
“No, the point was for him to fall in love and realize he does want to marry. Which is exactly what he did.”
“He did not.”
“He did so.”
“He did not. But even if he did, I’m not the type of wife his mother intended him to find.”
“Lady Marstede adores you.”
“She liked me as a guest, not as a daughter-in-law.”
Pippa threw up her hands. “I swear, Sadie, you have got the most mixed-up ideas of what people are thinking. Are you sure you can read minds?”
“I’d hardly claim the power and all the trouble that comes with it if I weren’t.”
“You know what?”
Sadie eyed her friend nervously, not liking the smug edge to her voice. “What?”
“I’m changing our earlier bet. When you become a baroness, instead of just helping me open a shop, you have to open a potion shop with me.”
“That’s not a bet, Pippa.”
“It doesn’t matter what the other half of the bet is, because I’m going to win. Just you wait. The baron will be down here begging you to come back before the week is out.”
“Fine, if he asks me to marry him before the week is out, I will open a potion shop with you. But when he doesn’t, you won’t mention him again.”
Just staying in Lamsdel, especially if she continued to work at Ferman’s Exotic Goods, would be full of enough reminders of Nicholas.
Sadie wasn’t sure remaining was the right choice, even if Pippa really was as comfortable with her power as she claimed.
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Nicholas reached the edges of Lamsdel before realizing he had no idea where to look for Sadie in the village. But he knew how to find Pippa.
He rode directly to the tavern and tied up his horse. This early in the day, the place was nearly empty.
Mrs. Leander, the spitting image of Pippa with two decades tacked on in the form of a few fine silver hairs, stood behind her bar, wiping down mugs. She spotted him and stopped what she was doing immediately. “My lord, what can I do for you today?”
Her confusion was clear. Nicholas rarely visited the tavern, and never at ten in the morning.
“I’m looking for—” He paused. Why ask for Pippa and then have to ask her about Sadie?
The tavern keeper would know where he could find her daughter’s friend.
“—for Miss Winsel. Could you tell me where she lives?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Is something wrong, my lord?”
Mrs. Leander wasn’t about to tell him where to find Sadie, lord or no, without knowing why. She’d have heard that Sadie and Pippa were both working as maids at the manor while it was full of guests. There probably wasn’t a good reason for Nicholas to chase down temporary help.
He couldn’t think of a good excuse, at least.
He fumbled for any excuse and was saved when the back door of the common room opened.
“I’m back, Ma.” Pippa stepped into the room, saw him, and grinned. “I knew it! Sadie didn’t believe me, but I knew it!”
Sadie didn’t believe her? What, exactly, did Pippa know? “Where is she?”
Pippa ignored her mother’s incredulous gaze and grabbed Nicholas by the wrist, pulling him out into the alley behind the tavern.
“Since I just had a mind-boggling conversation with Sadie, who has adopted the oddest opinions as fact, I’m going to save you a little time.
She thinks you still don’t want to marry, she doesn’t know you are in love with her, and she’s convinced your mother will disapprove. ”
After finding her gone and the conversation with his mother, that was exactly what Nicholas feared. “Where is she, Pippa?”
Pippa turned him to the left and shoved him in the small of the back. “Blue building three down, second story.”
Nicholas started moving, forgetting to even thank Pippa. He found the building, climbed the stairs in the back, and knocked on the door at the second-story landing.
He didn’t breathe as he waited for it to open, then exhaled in a rush of relief when he saw Sadie.
Her confusion at seeing him at her door gutted him.
He knew he needed to talk, to explain, but first he had to wipe away that confusion.
He slid a hand to the nape of her neck, rested the other on her waist, and kissed her.
Right in the doorway, where anyone walking by could see.
For once, he didn’t erect an instinctive ward around them. He didn’t want to be interrupted, but he wanted to be seen. He wanted everyone—Sadie most of all—to know that he was head over heels for her.
She froze for only a split second before returning his kiss, going up on tiptoe to push closer.
Eventually they had to break apart—or move inside. Nicholas rested his forehead against hers and enfolded her in his arms. “You left.”
“The month was up.”
“You weren’t supposed to go with everyone else. Sadie, you weren’t just my mother’s guest.”
“No, I was the liar hiding among all the ladies.”
“You were—are—exactly the woman I wanted. The one I assumed didn’t exist. The one I plan to spend the rest of my life with.
” He lifted his head, needing to look directly into her eyes as he spoke.
Needing to see that she believed him. “Sadie, you are everything. When I woke this morning and realized you weren’t there, the day grew dimmer.
When I discovered you had left entirely, it turned black.
I would rather face down a thousand demons than go a day without you.
I want to wake with you in my arms, listen to you tease me over toast and marmalade, find a way to beat you at chess while you use your power.
I want to make love to you every night, and plenty of mornings and afternoons, wander through the forest at your side, and watch you brew amazing potions. ”
She had frozen, and he knew that his words were a complete shock to her, though he couldn’t understand why. Hadn’t he made himself clear over the past few weeks? His mother’s advice echoed in his mind. What he thought was clear wasn’t enough.
He ran his hands down her arms and took her hands in his. “I love you. I love you so much and think about how much I love you so much, I honestly don’t understand how I haven’t inundated you with that thought. I want to marry you and know that you are my wife, not my baroness, just mine.”
Sadie’s lips parted, but no words came out.
Nicholas decided to fill the silence. If Sadie needed to hear the words, he’d give her all the words.
“As much as it pains me to admit it, my mother was absolutely correct. The only reason I didn’t want to marry was that I hadn’t met the right person yet.
You are that person. Mother recognized it as soon as she saw us arguing that first night.
It took me a little longer, but I’ve known for weeks now that I want to marry you. I love you, Sadie. Will you marry me?”
She still didn’t seem to be able to talk.
Nicholas kissed her softly, and pushed a question to the surface of his thoughts in the way he had learned made it most likely Sadie would pick it up. Do you want to marry me, Sadie?
Yes. She moved then, no longer frozen in shock, or whatever it had been, and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss.
I want to marry you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
I want to wake in your arms every morning and tease you over tea.
I want to demolish you at chess and act out every fantasy you’ve never dared to share yet.
I want to watch you carve charms, go swimming with you, and have a life with you. I love you, Nick.
“Will you marry me, Sadie?” he asked again, their lips still touching.
“Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”