Page 1 of A Balm of Healing
Chapter One
All of Emeric Dalena’s forty-three years’ worth of pride withered away in a single moment as a knock sounded on the front door of his new home.
The nurse had arrived.
His hands clenched over the wheels of his wooden wheelchair as he gazed out the window of a somber winter morning. Thick snow rested on every inch of his yard from the trees around his property to the waist-high black metal gates acting as yet another prison in his life to the expansive grounds that had boasted a variety of plants and flowers before the most recent snowstorm had struck.
His late wife had inherited the home just before her death, and by some miracle, the deed was now his.
But the house was too big and too quiet and too lonely.
He hated his previous prison he called Attleglade. But he loathed this prison nearly as much as the last.
A despondent sigh left his lips as his gaze lowered to his maimed legs. The Attleglade council had shattered his bones as punishment for trying to visit his daughter, Nyana, in the Sun Fae city of Heulwen. That was years ago. But he had never been the same since.
“Bastien…” He murmured his son’s name, the very person who had weathered all his storms with him, who had been there when he couldn’t traverse the tough terrain in his chair or reach something up high. But he’d married an Ember Fae, the queen herself. And now Emeric was alone in this blasted house that felt far too unfamiliar for him to consider it a home.
The nurse knocked on the door again, shattering his melancholy thoughts into his lap. If he opened the door, there would be no pride left to save. This was it. He was waving the white flag. His life and independence were over.
Not wanting to be a burden on either his son or daughter, he heaved another sigh as he turned his chair around and maneuvered over lush carpet and past ornately carved furniture. He grumbled when the foot of his chair smacked against the small table resting against the wall, struggling to straighten himself out before he wheeled himself into the entry room and in front of the too-large mahogany door.
The first of another round of rapping sounded on the door, and he pulled it open quickly.
And frowned.
A woman stood on the other side of the threshold, hair tucked into a fur hat and spectacles over her eyes. Snowflakes gathered on her long wool coat, and a scarf hid the other half of her face to show only her eyes.
Those eyes stared back at him, nearly as wide as her spectacles as she took him in. But then the corners of her eyes crinkled with a smile.
She held out a gloved hand to him. “Sir, my name is Gweneth Caddell. I’m so pleased to meet your acquaintance!”
“Who are you?” he grumbled, taking in her smooth skin free of wrinkles and her straight posture. “Surely, you are not the nurse I recently hired.”
Slowly, she lowered her hand, but the smile never left her eyes. “That’s me. Nurse Caddell.”
Emeric gaped at her and dug into his pocket, unfolding a piece of parchment and waving it in the air. “Your application said you were fifty-three.”
She snatched the paper from him and winced. “I have a hard time with letters and numbers, sir.”
“You are illiterate?”
She shook her head. “I often write them backward or out of order by accident. It was not my intention to deceive you about my age. I am thirty-five.”
“Nearly twenty years younger than I anticipated,” he breathed. Louder, he said, “I have no choice but to reject your application. I hope you can find employment elsewhere—”
But as he tried to close the door in her face, she planted her foot in the doorway to prevent it from closing.
“Please, sir.” Her smile melted, her eyes pleading with him. “I need this job.”
“I can’t have a younger woman staying in this house with me.”
“I won’t stay,” she stammered. “I have a place in the city. I can cook and clean and mend.” She glanced at his legs and smacked herself in the forehead. “And I have healing magic!”
After a moment, he opened the door wider and scrutinized her. Most of her was hidden beneath wool and fur and spectacles. Of course, he already knew she was a nurse. But healing magic? Only one type of fae was capable of such a feat…
“Take off your hat.”
She quickly did as he asked, and his heart caught at the beautiful brown waves cascading over her shoulders and down her back. His gaze lingered a little longer on her flat, pointed ears that marked her as a Sun Fae.
