CHAPTER 4
LEANNA
She didn’t stop running, couldn’t. Thorn loyally at her side, growling at the dangers around them.
You’re fucked.
It wasn’t an assumption. It was a certainty as the trees became snarled and dark, trunks as black as the night, the rising sun nowhere visible over the darkened sky above, strange noises coming from strange places.
Gasping, she stumbled over a root, narrowly avoiding a pre-rigged axe that came down and nearly took her ankle clean off.
Hunters? In the dark wood?
Fantastic.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, Leanna examined her surroundings.
Weird noises from animals she didn’t recognize echoed behind the twisted bushes and discarded branches.
Plants of all varieties cropped up in every direction, ones with sharp-looking leaves and thorns that made the roses in her basket look tame.
Brushing off her deep green skirts, she stood, her sapphire cloak torn at the ends, as she pulled its edges together to stave off the cold. “It’s OK, Thorn. It’s not so bad, is it? The rumors must have been exaggerated.”
She swore her dog just sighed. “We’ll wait here for a few moments just until they give up on coming after us and then we’re gone!
Perhaps we’ll get on a boat and go somewhere far away from Marigold Lane.
Somewhere with lots of people and lots of noises, sounds, smells.
No more quiet homes in the country. In a big city, we’d never be lonely, would we Thorn?
” She knelt down, pressed her face to the dog’s fur, and began to cry.
Tears had not been permitted in Leanna’s home. They were meant for private moments where no one could hear her, where no one could see.
“Go cry in your room. I can’t stand the sight of you when you do that.”
Or rather, where her father couldn’t see.
So, it was just as well the first time she had allowed herself tears was here, alone amongst the dark foreboding surroundings she’d stumbled into.
“Leanna? What’s happened? Are you hurt?” The frantic voice shocked her enough to turn around, her tear-stained face illuminated in the sliver of light coming from above, the sight of it spurring Edward into movement, faster, right toward—
A tripwire.
A second axe.
“No!” Leanna cried, diving for him just as he hit the twine, the axe swinging, just skimming her back as she knocked them both to the ground. Her head landed in the crook of his neck, his hands coming up to grip her hips on instinct.
For a moment they lay there, breathing in tandem, rapidly.
Her shock wearing off and her awareness returning to feel the sensations of his hard chest against her softness, desire so overwhelming the force of it pulled her into a daze.
Pushing up on to her palms, her eyes found his, their noses nearly touching.
“You followed me in here?” Leanna whispered, brushing hair out of his eyes. “The roses mean that much to you?”
The dark look in his eyes as his nostrils flared sent goosebumps down her spine in a near-pleasant shock. “No.”
His hands flexed on her hips and the heat collecting deep within her burnt too hot. “You idiot!” She pounded a fist against his chest, sitting up. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed!”
He glared up at her, scoffing. “And what were you doing? Going for a morning walk? Looking for last-minute coin hidden beneath the poisonous leaves?”
“I didn’t ask you to follow me.” She huffed, immaturely, childishly if she were honest. Something about this man brought that out in her, that girlish part of her she thought she’d let go of.
The part that wasn’t all darkness and cynicism.
“You’re the one who needed saving.” She waved a hand and they both became achingly aware of the fact that she was straddling him, her skirt ridden up to her knees, only a few layers of fabric keeping them from being far too intimate.
She shifted off him and he sucked in a breath as if in pain. Sitting up slowly, he lazily looked over at her. “And what a lovely savior you are.”
“Oh pray, don’t waste your flattery on me.
Those charms may work on the women you keep company with, but I can assure you I am immune.
” She picked up her discarded basket and checked for the roses, sighing in relief.
He couldn’t take them back… she eyed an escape route, deeper into the wood as Thorn whined at her side.
“Don’t even think about it,” Edward rasped, following her line of vision. “I’ll just run after you.”
“Why would you risk it when you have an entire garden left? Are you so greedy you can’t spare me the indignity of asking you for them?
Can’t you allow me to steal them with my own two hands?
” Her eyes widened when he stepped closer, licking her lips, watching him track the action with a hungry look in his eyes.
“I would give you anything. All you need do is ask.”
It was said so earnestly Leanna had such difficulty reminding herself who she was talking to. Proper boy next door, charming to everyone he meets, used to getting every thing he wants.
But then she remembered other things.
Teases you, hit a boy in town for trying to lift your skirts, made you smile on days you never thought you would again, left without a word.
It hurt worse than anything her parents could’ve done; she’d expected them to leave her. She’d never thought he would. She had their bickering and then she had nothing. The nothing was so much worse.
“I asked you not to leave,” Leanna whispered. “I asked you to stay and you said that you would.”
Edward flinched, a hand going to his chest like her words shot straight for his heart. “You did. I never intended to leave like that.”
“Why did you?” she asked, hating that she still cared about the answer.
“Because I found out the truth, they told me, and because of it my father sent me away.” Edward shook his head, like he couldn’t believe he was telling her this.
“Told you… what?” Leanna had a terrible feeling, the kind that starts as a boulder in your chest and ends in the pit of your stomach.
“The roses on our estate, the one that has kept my family afloat for generations.” His anger nearly made him spit the final words. “They’re all fakes.”