Page 27 of A Balm of Healing
Gweneth’s hand rested over her heart, and she appeared both murderous and sick.
Emeric rolled his eyes. Yes, he still worried over his son, but he’d seen Bastien fall from greater heights and make it out without a single scratch. Besides, that fall had looked intentional. “Remember what I said about showing his true colors immediately?” He gestured to Bastien. “Imagine living with this terror all your life.”
“You were right,” she gasped, clutching tighter to him as if she might topple over. “It took less than ten minutes for him to scare my heart out of my chest.”
“Oh, come now, Gwen.” Bastien wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “If we’re to be family, you have to learn to have a bit of fun.”
She and Emeric shared an exasperated look, almost as if she only just realized what she got herself into by agreeing to marry him.
“I always say you’re going to be the death of me, Bastien.” He shook his finger at his son. “I still mean it.”
Bastien waved away his words with a flippant hand. “Twenty-two years and still going strong.”
Emeric laughed and shook his head, and he reckoned he must not have laughed often because the sound seemed to startle Bastien. He dropped his arm from Gweneth’s shoulders, giving him a shocked stare. At least until a grin pulled up on his lips and he laughed in tandem.
“Well, I’m off to bed. Ser and I raced through the night, and we’re tired.”
With one final wave, Bastien returned to the house. It never ceased to amaze him how much endurance his son had built up over the years as a patrol guard for Attleglade. Surely, he was giving his new wife a run for her money.
“Change of plans, I suppose?” Gweneth turned her face into his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.
It felt good to hold her properly. Rather than a wheelchair or walking sticks between them, he held her within the protection of his arms, where their bodies fit perfectly together as if they were meant to find each other all along.
He kissed the top of her head and smiled into her hair. “With Bastien in your life, you have to learn to be flexible. Let’s find out if Nyana and the family can make it to Heulwen on short notice.”
“For you, I’m sure they can make the journey.”
“Forus,” he rectified, brushing a strand of hair out of her face that the wind had worked out of her updo. “You’re family now, too.”
She tipped her head up and kissed him. “I like the sound of that.”
Chapter Eleven
“Just a few more steps,” Emeric murmured in her ear.
A blindfold lay across Gweneth’s eyes, and she walked blindly forward as he led her from behind. Nerves rolled in her stomach, not just because this was the start of her new life with her new husband, but because she knew how important it was to Emeric for her to love their home.
But quite honestly, she had no idea what to expect.
A chilly exhale escaped her when they stopped, and the gentle tugging at the back of her head indicated Emeric was untying the knot in the blindfold. A moment later, it dropped from her eyes.
And her lips parted as her breath caught.
She stood in front of an enormous tree with boughs stretching endlessly toward the sky. It was at least a hundred times larger than any tree she’d seen in her lifetime. Impossibly large. Impossibly beautiful.
Small strands of blue crystals decorated the branches, emitting a soft glow in the semi-darkness of evening, revealing the closed window shutters at different levels in the tree. Even more amazing, the tree was alive. The amount of skill to create a house inside a living tree was incredible.
“I’m speechless,” she breathed.
For a moment, he studied her as he bit his lip. “A good speechless or bad?”
“Definitely good.”
He released an audible breath and took her hand. “I’ll show you the inside.”
In a sudden swoop, he picked her up into his arms, and she held tightly onto his neck. Carrying his own weight was one thing. Carrying someone else was another matter entirely. But Emeric seemed determined to cross the threshold of their new home with Gweneth in his arms no matter if he stumbled a couple of times.
She giggled as he glanced from the door handle, to her, and back to the door handle. Just as she started to offer to open it herself, a vine whipped out from the boughs, pulled on the handle, and pushed the sturdy wooden door open for them.
