Page 32 of Enchanted Heir
“Are you all right?” Krew asked without taking his eyes off the orchestra, probably for fear of drawing unwanted attention to us.
“I’m fine,” I bit out and continued looking forward.
I yearned for the laughter and the smell of the smoke in Nerede that normally accompanied this tune. While the rest of the songs had quieted my soul, this one? It had lit it on fire.
CHAPTER8
“Jorah.”
I pretended to be asleep. I didn’t want to converse any more than I already had for the day. After the concert, we were finally dismissed and I immediately changed and turned in for the night.
“Jorah, I know you aren’t asleep.”
“How could you possibly know that?” I snapped.
I could feel him move on the bed next to me. “Your breathing. Sometimes when you sleep, your breathing slows so much, it makes me think you’re dead. So if I can see and hear your breathing, you aren’t really asleep yet.”
Why did he have to be so damn logical about it? “Oh.”
“Look,” he offered.
I spun toward him to glare at His Royal Arseness, but I found him looking at me intently. So intently my anger momentarily stalled. The fire still crackling in the fireplace gave just enough light to note how closely he was watching me.
“I know you are still frustrated with me. I get it. But what happened down there, love? You were fine one moment. Then not the next. There are going to be numerous plays and concerts in the future. I need to know how to help you through them.”
Again, why did he have to be so logical about everything? I let out a sigh.
“Do you not trust me enough to tell me?” He tucked his hand under his chin as he turned toward me.
I laid on my back and looked up at the ceiling. “I don’t honestly know.”
He was quiet a moment. “Well can you tell me a part of it you do feel comfortable enough saying? Just so I know how I can help.”
I immediately thought of the last harvest celebration, the delicious pork we had, the children all running around and playing hide and seek in the dark, while the adults kept yelling at them to keep away from the fire with all their running. How did I explain to this person how though I had a very small family, my heart ached for my father who had been gone for years and for my extended Nerede family. And that I wasn’t even sure I had ever recognized them as my family until I came here. Until I realized how Nerede took care of their own in a way that Savaryn would probably falsely assume was a weakness. “It was my father’s favorite song.”
He was quiet, not moving his eyes from me while offering me the space to say more.
“I know he has been gone five years so it is silly to be hit by stuff like that. I can just remember him humming it while we walked places, or while he helped my mother with dishes, that sort of thing.”
Krew was looking at me curiously, his head tilting slightly to the side.
“I know, after five years, Ishouldbe used to such things.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not it. I was surprised that he helped your mother with the dishes is all.”
Now I was the one looking at him curiously. “If he helped us with the dishes, we all got to spend more time together.”
One side of his lips turned up. “A noble cause. I just never saw my father lift a finger to help my mother with anything. Let alone dishes.”
I laughed. “Well, my father wasn’t a king. And your mother probably didn’t do many dishes.”
“True, but your father sounds like he was a far more just man,” Krew provided.
I swallowed hard and turned toward him, laying the same way he was. “So it was just that specific song that got to me. The rest had been beautiful and relaxed me. My father always loved music for that very reason. Knowing he would have loved it, and then hearing his favorite song, one we always play in Nerede for the Harvest Festival, it just made me miss him.” I swallowed again. “And trust me, there’s really nothing you can do to help me with that. It’s been five years, and the hole in my heart hasn’t closed even a little.”
He gave me a smile. The kind of smile that came from someone who knew what staring down a grief like that felt like. “I understand. For as much of a prick my father is, my mother was nothing like him. I miss her still and it’s been ten years.”
“How dare they leave us to live life without them,” I whispered.
