Chapter 37
Chapter thirty-seven
After the harvest, Lelantos was needed to burn the fields.
As the snows began to stick on the ground and November rolled by, there were more free days in his schedule, and Valeraine took him out to train.
She took Lelantos to the mountains, and practiced their climbing and diving through the air.
They were a fair distance away from their lands, and it was the perfect test of the endurance of her dragon.
She pushed Lelantos as fast as he could fly, forcing him to stretch and grow.
He loved the challenge of it. He was getting faster.
She could feel it in the powerful wing-beats below her, in the satisfaction emanating from him.
He could feel himself growing stronger, too, and was pleased with the change.
As the weather grew colder, the fields were let to rest until spring, and they spent more time together.
With each week, their bond strengthened.
More and more, she would bring Kesley along, too.
He was good with caring for Lelantos, pampering him between bouts and lifting both their spirits with his encouragement.
Lelantos would still snap at Kesley, lashing out whenever he was irritable, but Valeraine was an adept moderator, and nobody got burned or lost any fingers.
One chilly morning in December, when Valeraine came to the nest, she found not only Kesley waiting for her, but Selaide next to him.
Selaide had come prepared for the weather, dressed warmly and practically. That was the only positive thing that could be said about her sudden interest in dragon riding.
“No,” Valeraine said, and went to walk around Selaide.
Selaide stepped in her way. “But Kesley invited me.”
Kesley held up his hands in immediate surrender. “I said you would have to ask Val, but I didn’t have a problem with it.”
Selaide glared daggers at him, as if he was the unreasonable one here.
“No,” Valeraine repeated. She was not taking Selaide with them.
“Come on, Val. Why not?”
Valeraine searched for a reasonable excuse. “I only packed enough food for Kesley and I.” She patted her bag, which had sandwiches and apples gathered from the kitchen.
“I’ll grab my own food, then,” Selaide said, pleased with herself.
Now, time for the true excuse: “I don’t want you there. You’ll only get in the way, and be bored.”
“You are so unfair!” Selaide whined. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be racing or training or anything.”
“No,” Valeraine said, trying to be firm.
“It’s all pointless, anyway. You’ll never win a derby, even with all the training. You should be using your time to catch a husband, not wasting it out here. Who could ever want you, an unnatural dragon rider? You’re practically a man.” With that, Selaide stuck her chin up high and strutted away.
Selaide was so foolish and vain that she couldn’t see Valeraine was doing all this for Longbourn. Selaide wouldn’t be able to catch a dragoneer husband if Lelantos died and left Longbourn with nothing, would she? Valeraine securing an egg for their house was securing their respectability.
In a way, Valeraine was acting like a man, an older brother. She was their racer, their dragoneer, the one defending the family name. She was the one fighting for them, even if she had to do it behind a mask.
It wasn’t that unnatural, was it?
Selaide certainly thought so. And Mr. Pemberley. But others — Kesley, Alyce, Merna — understood. She was just Valeraine, as she always had been, the dragoneer of Longbourn house.
Kesley was waiting for her to enter the nest (probably not wanting to get on Lelantos’ bad side by himself).
He smiled at her, reassuring and confident.
His strong jaw wore the expression well, the carefree attitude reinforced by his tousled dark hair and light stubble.
Here was one person who did not reign in judgement against her, who didn’t tell her what she was doing was wrong.
“Never mind Selaide,” he said. “She’s just disappointed she’s missing all the fun.” He rummaged in his pockets. “I found this watch,” he said triumphantly. “So we can measure your improvements. I stole it from Mr. Longbourn’s study, but judging from the dust on it, it won’t be missed.”
Valeraine appreciated the change in subject. “That’s perfect.”
They fitted the two-person saddle onto Lelantos’ back.
Kesley threw a strap over the dragon’s back and she caught it.
She pulled a line and he gave her the slack she needed.
They worked in perfect harmony, rehearsed with long practice.
The familiarity comforted her, reassured her fears.
He would always be here, helping her secure saddles and timing her and packing sweets for their outings.
Did she dare hope they would be doing this, forever?
Papa had said she would inherit Lelantos, so she would have the dragon — as long as they both lived, at least. Valeraine would soon be getting an egg, and get to fulfill her potential by hatch-mothering it.
It would be the sweetest of futures to share that all with Kesley.
He would make an excellent master of Longbourn nest, already long familiar with it.
He would make an excellent husband, never holding her back.
It was exactly the kind of future she had always wanted: Longbourn strong, and someone to share it with.
She thought of Pemberley, who had the power to ruin it all.
She needed to see him again, so she could deliver her ultimatum.
It felt too secret to trust to a letter.
This needed to be done in person. Perhaps she would visit his estate after the solstice.
Would she be welcomed as a guest, or turned away as an enemy?
She went there to attack him, to the home of the man who had ruined it all, and yet she was confident she would be welcomed into his home.
He didn’t seem the type to turn someone away to the cold and lose the opportunity to lavish a guest with his superior hospitality.
She couldn’t imagine him not wanting to see her, after their heated moment at Rosings manor. He would at least want to hear what she had to say.
If Pemberley told the world she was the masked rider, would Kesley still want to be with her?
Did Kesley even want that, now? He spent time with her, and they had joked of their future together, but he had never made a serious offer for her hand.
It was probably out of respect to her feelings, or because he was waiting for Papa’s approval.
They were spending more and more time alone together.
If this was widely known, it would be gossiped about.
Because they were out of doors for their time together, it was barely acceptable under the rules of propriety.
But all of these days, flying out to remote locations together, it had to mean something, didn’t it? It was a kind of courting, certainly.
Valeraine and Kesley climbed aboard Lelantos in sync, with her in the front saddle as always, as Lelantos would follow her directions more readily.
Kesley put his arms around her. “Where will we go now?” he whispered into her ear.
She turned her head so that a kiss was but a breath, a small lean away.
“Wherever we want,” she whispered. Then, losing her nerve, she turned back to face the front.
“I was considering to the east today. There’s some fine hills in that quarter, and we could use them as destinations for our time-trials. ”
“A sensible idea, as always.”
Lelantos took to the air.
Valeraine felt she had missed an opportunity — that she was always missing opportunities with Kesley. If she pressed him, would he kiss her?
She thought she wanted him to. But she was cautious of making the first step.
It wasn’t that Valeraine was afraid, but she knew this was an act that couldn’t be taken back.
How would Kesley react? What if he didn’t want her and he would never consider a marriage between them?
What if he did want to marry her, and they were engaged within the month?
Either way, their relationship would be forever changed.
And what would Kesley think of her, if she initiated a kiss?
Would he think her craven, overeager? Would he think her foolish, jumping to naive conclusions about what these training sessions meant?
Lelantos reached a sparsely wooded hill, and she directed him to land. The north side had snow on it, but on the south side the snow had melted in the sun enough for a comfortable space to walk around on the dried grasses.
Valeraine dismounted, and grabbed the flying leathers out of her pack. She wanted to practice with them as much as she could, to get used to the feel of the armor and the tethers, but didn’t want to wear them around Longbourn house and send the servants gossiping to Mamma.
Sliding on the leathers was routine by now, but her cold-numb fingers were struggling with the buckles.
“Allow me,” Kesley said. He tightened the harness just right, and helped her straighten the contraption.
Again, now they were so close. Body to body, closer than a respectable couple would be (except during a dance). Valeraine leaned in a little closer, resting her head on his shoulder. His arms came around her in a gentle embrace, warm and sturdy.
“What are we, to each other?” Valeraine whispered.
“I suppose we are whatever we make of it,” he said just as softly.
“What do you want to make of us?”
Kesley stepped back, half a step. Valeraine’s hopes plummeted in that moment, the rejection slamming into her.
But then, Kesley brought his hand up to caress her cheek and cup her chin, and he leaned back in.
He brought his lips to hers, slowly and temptingly.
The kiss was slow, and lasted but a chaste second, and she would have called it soft if not for the curious sensation of his stubble prickling her cheek.
Valeraine’s soul sang at the contact. Kesley wanted her back. They would have a future together, and it would be happy and glorious.
Kesley leaned back that half step again, and his gaze was so open. He was worried about her reaction, questioning if that had been all right. His daring had taken him farther than he had ever gone before with Valeraine, and he was unsure of the ground before him.
“That’s what I want to make of us, too,” Valeraine said.
Kesley gave a relieved little laugh. He pulled her back into the hug. “Good.”
The hug was warm, but it couldn’t last forever. They had an impatient dragon on the hill next to them, after all. It was time to sprint.