“Nah. I hear the Marshall family has a cabin. You won’t ever want to leave that palace to come see me.”
“I’ll see you as much as I can,” I insisted. “Though Mistress Marshall told me that nothing ‘untoward’ had better happen.”
He leaned back against an iron-hinged chest, hands in his pockets. “Well, she doesn’t need to worry about me. I’ll be on best behavior.”
I stepped toward him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Who said you’re the one she has to worry about?”
I leaned in, not for a true kiss, but just for the barest brush of my lips against his. I lingered for a few tantalizing moments, holding back despite his obvious interest in more. His hands gripped my waist when I pulled away, his fingers curling into me.
“I should probably get going,” I said lightly. “I have things to do.”
“I could give you a few suggestions.”
“Important frontier things to do,” I amended. I trailed my fingers along the side of his neck. “Sorry if I led you on.”
“You are not. You’ve been leading me on since the day I met you, and I’ve been dutifully following. One day . . . one day I’ll catch you. And then . . .”
His mouth found mine, and I wrapped myself against him. I wanted more than kisses, more than embraces. I wanted to banish all the space between us until it was impossible to know where I ended and he began. When we finally broke away, I could hardly stand, and wondered who was really leading whom.
“And then,” I echoed with a sigh. “And then . . .”
I did have other things to do, and as we parted ways, I reminded myself that Cedric and I would have more time on our hands on the journey to Hadisen than we’d had together so far.
As he’d suggested, Aiana was the one to take me into town to shop. I’d spent little time with the Balanquan woman and was still fascinated by her. I came down Wisteria Hollow’s main staircase and was surprised to see Mira waiting with her by the door.
“What this?” I asked, not that I was unhappy to have Mira there. Although she wasn’t the busiest of the Glittering Court’s girls, she’d still been caught up in the routine of it all while I simply cooled my heels.
Mira looked far happier than she ever did about going out to a party. “Who knows when we’ll see you again, once you leave? We wanted to come along and get a little more Adelaide time in.”
“We?”
“Tamsin should be down any minute. She was finishing a letter.”
“She’s still writing them?” I asked. Tamsin had been in my thoughts constantly since the storm, but her obsessive letter writing had slipped my mind.
“She had a whole bundle of them that she brought back from Grashond. I guess she was still writing them there. And I heard her making inquiries about courier services back to Osfrid.”
Tamsin came down the stairs just then, radiant in a gown of deep emerald taffeta that bared her shoulders. “You know we’re going to buy wilderness supplies, right?” I asked. “There’s no formal luncheon planned.”
Tamsin lifted her chin. “It doesn’t matter where we’re going. I won’t look anything less than perfect—you never know who’ll be watching. Besides, I have a dinner engagement afterward. Warren’s mother has invited me over.”
“Well, I’m sure that’ll be very interesting,” I said, in as neutral a tone as I could manage. Tamsin had immediately honed in on him, and thus far he’d seemed to return her interest.
Aiana said almost nothing as a carriage took us into the heart of Cape Triumph. She strode comfortably through the streets in her trousers and a long tunic, uncaring who gave her curious looks. It was hard to say if it was her attire or ethnicity that attracted attention. But in the diverse culture of Cape Triumph, I didn’t think she stood out that much. Tamsin certainly stood out as well, but those who looked her over said nothing impolite. I think the sight of fierce Aiana at her side kept them at bay.
This was the first time I’d really been out in the crowds, rather than just viewing them from a carriage. It was hard not to stop and stare at everything. The shops and restaurants offered nearly as much as I might find in a busy district of Osfro. Like everything else in the New World, though, there was a tentative feel to it—none of that old, established solidity. Some of the businesses had made good attempts at respectability, with glass windows and well-fortified buildings. Others could have been thrown together that day, with hastily written signs and a fragility that suggested they might fall over at any moment. It was all fascinating and overwhelming at the same time, and despite her show of confidence, I could tell Tamsin was daunted too. Mira moved effortlessly, as though she walked the streets all the time. For all I knew, she did.
We passed fishermen and lumberjacks doggedly going to their jobs. Adoria’s aristocrats strode haughtily through, flanked by servants. One young man, with a long wig and flamboyant purple coat, stopped to bow and take his plumed hat off before us in a gallant gesture. Aiana rolled her eyes when we moved past him. “One of the ‘idle elite,’ as we call them. The sons of wealthy settlers with nothing to do, so they dress like that and think they’re pirates or some such nonsense. Except pirates do more work than they do. They need to spend a day with Tom Shortsleeves or one of the others.”
“Are all those pirate stories real?” I asked. “The heroic ones and the cruel ones?”
“Embellished, but real. All stories have a seed of truth.”