Page 47 of Charmless
“Then you simply ran off and disappeared. Something you make a habit of doing.”
His face flushed. “I am sorry, but I was ashamed. I never wanted you to know about this.”
He held up his right hand, the gesture stiff and awkward. His long leather gauntlet concealed the fact that his hand was carved of wood strapped to his lower arm. He had lost his limb during a battle with a dragon, a painful fact that had been revealed to me at the ball when Florian and Ryland had gotten into a scuffle. Florian had done no more than ask me to dance, but Ryland had astonished me by flying into a rage. When I had known him in his guise as Harper, Ryland had been the gentlest of men. But he had set upon his brother, trying to shove Florian away from me. During the ensuing struggle, his wooden appendage had been torn off, exposing the stump where his real hand had been.
Ryland lowered his arm, tucking his false hand out of sight beneath his cloak. “When you saw what had happened to me, you looked so horrified, I couldn’t bear it and I fled. I have always been something of a coward in my dealings with you.”
“Yes, you have,” I began, but he looked so wretched that I stopped and gave a wearied sigh. “Just say whatever it is that you came to tell me, and then go.”
He tried to answer me but was distracted by the ponies who were still objecting to his presence by stomping and whinnying. Pippa reared up as though trying to scale the fence while Pookie whirled, kicking at the boards with his hind legs. The ponies would never settle while Ryland remained in the barn.
He raised his voice. “Is there no private place that we might go?”
There was and he knew it as well as I did. There was a woodland behind the barn where we had held our midnight trysts so long ago, but it was the last place I wished to revisit with him. But to refuse might make it seem like I still cared. Which I did not.
I turned without a word, shoving my way out of the double doors that led out of the back of the barn. I did not even look back to see if he was following me as I crossed the grassy verge where Amy exercised the ponies.
At one time, this had been a carriage track winding behind our stable and others in the neighborhood. But the king’s taxes had made owning a coach something only the wealthy people in the Heights could afford. Consequently, the track had become overgrown. The path wound through a modest woodland and over a footbridge suspended above a burbling brook.
It was a secluded area, a popular place for young lovers to hold a moonlit tryst. I had met Ryland there often during that long-ago summer. I questioned my sanity in returning there with him now.
The sound of the water flowing beneath the bridge brought back a host of bittersweet, painful memories. Perhaps it was the same for Ryland because by the time I reached the bridge, he was lagging.
Turning back to look for him, I noticed he was limping.
“Did you hurt your foot?” I asked, trying to sound cool and indifferent.
As he closed the distance between us, he grimaced. “It’s nothing. Just a bit of a sprain. I tripped and fell over a shoe this morning.”
“A shoe?”
He nodded. “Priscilla Vanderwix hurled one of her shoes at me. All the girls from the Heights seem to be afflicted with madness lately. I can scarcely take a walk about the palace grounds without having to dodge footwear flying over the fence.”
I bit down hard on my lip to restrain my smile, but I could not manage it.
Ryland eyed me suspiciously. “Now why do I suspect that you might somehow be behind this hail of lady’s slippers?”
I made no effort to deny it. I just laughed.
Ryland smiled. “That is one of the things I have missed most about you, Ella. The sound of your laughter.”
I sobered at once, scowling at him. “If that is the sort of nonsense you have come to spout, I am leaving.”
I tried to brush past him, but he caught hold of my arm.
“No, I am sorry! I realize there is no longer any hope for you and me. But being near you again, I just couldn’t help myself. But I promise I won’t?—”
I yanked my arm free of his grasp, preparing to stride back to the house, but Ryland begged, “Please, Ella. Don’t go. I have something of great importance to tell you. Please?”
I emitted a heavy sigh as I relented. “Very well. Just make it quick. I have more pressing chores awaiting me.”
I stalked to the center of the bridge and peered over the side at the water eddying over the rocks. The rill looked sluggish and choked with leaves more than I remembered from all those nights when the moonlight had rendered the waters dark and mysterious.
Ryland joined me on the bridge and positioned himself, his shoulder within inches of brushing up against mine. Once upon a time long ago, we would have already been in each other’s arms, exchanging kisses fervently with all the longing of a first love. Now we stood as stiffly next to each other as two strangers.
“What is it you need to tell me that is so infernally important?” I demanded.
“I have come to warn you about my brother, Florian.”
